Finally, the whip has been cracked and the purge is on. After just over two years of prevaricating, negotiating and observing with watchful expectation, President Maithripala Sirisena dispensed of three key electoral organisers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) last week, signalling a sea change in his policy of accommodating and appeasing the Joint Opposition (JO) faction of the party led by his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Dismissed from their posts as electoral organisers were Kumara Welgama, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Piyankara Jayaratne and Sarana Gunawardena for the electorates of Mathugama, Nawalapitiya, Anamaduwa and Attanagalla respectively. They have been replaced by former MP Sumitha Priyangani Abeyweera, H.A. Ranasinghe, Ananda Sarath Kumara and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
It is noteworthy that both Aluthgamage and Gunawardena had corruption charges levelled against them. On the other hand, Welgama is a die-hard SLFPer, having joined the party when Sirima Bandaranaike was its leader. That he was removed from his post indicates a strong resolve by President Sirisena to act decisively against the dissident faction.
Piyankara Jayaratne too is a loyal SLFPer with strong family ties to the party: his father, S.D. R. Jayaratne was Minister of Fisheries in the government of Sirima Bandaranaike. Piyankara Jayaratne himself held the office Deputy Speaker in the previous Parliament when Rajapaksa was President and was also Minister of Civil Aviation. He too had been charged with bribery earlier this year.
The reaction to the President’s decision has been muted, at least from the mainstream SLFP. The only minister to speak out was Labour and Trade Union Relations Minister John Seneviratne. Seneviratne stated that it was sad that some party organisers who had served the party for a long time had been expelled without even giving them reasons for their dismissal.
Party hierarchy
Minister Seneviratne claimed these organisers had been removed because they had allegedly neglected to work for the party in their electorates. However, he said the party cadres were overwhelmingly against the current state of affairs, and therefore the organisers had no way of working in the interests of the party. “If they have been dismissed because they did not work in their electorates then they should be given the chance to explain their stance,” he has argued. The party hierarchy has not responded so far to these comments.
It was known that Seneviratne was among the Old Guard in the SLFP who had, time and again, tried to broker a peace deal between the two factions of the party. Last week’s decision meant that any such agreement was now highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.
If the sacking of these organisers came as a surprise, the appointment of Chandrika Kumaratunga as SLFP organiser for Attanagalla raised even more eyebrows. Kumaratunga had, for all intents and purposes, retired from active politics after serving for eleven years as Sri Lanka’s fourth Executive President. She still serves the party in the capacity of patron.
It is common knowledge that Kumaratunga was instrumental in convincing Maithripala Sirisena, then serving as Minister of Health and General Secretary of the SLFP, to quit the government headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa and run for President against him. Kumaratunga, along with Mangala Samaraweera, also played a key role in enlisting the support of her erstwhile political rival Ranil Wickremesinghe and the United National Party (UNP) for the Sirisena campaign.
Since then, the former President has been content to take a back seat, although she has made her opinions known from time to time in her characteristically candid manner, particularly with reference to Rajapaksa’s style of governance. When rapprochement with the Rajapaksa faction of SLFP has been discussed, Kumaratunga has vehemently made it clear that she is against the concept, stating it will lead to handing back the party to the Rajapaksa family.
Therefore, Kumaratunga’s re-entry to active politics is the final nail in the coffin for any plans to reunite the party’s two warring factions. While the appointment as organiser for Attanagalla sends a powerful signal to the Rajapaksa faction, there was also speculation about the former President’s own intentions in accepting this position.
Attanagalla has always been a pocket-borough of the Bandaranaike family and remains very much so despite the swinging of political fortunes elsewhere in the country. Kumaratunga did not have to dabble in electoral politics too much because she had a mercurial rise to power when she returned to the country in 1991 after a self-imposed exile in London following the assassination of her husband, film star turned politician Vijaya Kumaratunga.
Local Government elections
She very quickly graduated from being Chief Minister of the Western Province to Prime Minister and then President within a period of less than two years. Who represented Attanagalla for the party has not been a major issue since then because parliamentarians have been elected on the proportional representation (PR) system where candidates are not elected to constituencies.
Now however, that is about to change. For the upcoming Local Government elections, the system of elections will be a mix of the first past the post Westminster system as well as the PR system and there will be members representing specific areas. If proposed constitutional reforms are successful, the same hybrid system of elections- with suitable modifications- will apply to Provincial Council and Parliamentary elections as well.
The next parliamentary elections are not due until 2020 at which time Kumaratunga will be 75 years of age. It is unlikely- but not impossible- that Kumaratunga will run for a mere seat in Parliament at that time, having been Head of State for nearly a dozen years. Hence the speculation that Kumaratunga is ‘holding’ the seat until the current storm in the SLFP subsides.
Even if Kumaratunga does decide to make a comeback to Parliament in three years, that wouldn’t be unprecedented: her successor, Mahinda Rajapaksa did much the same, returning to Parliament from the Kurunegala District. He is now content to sit in the legislature as a backbencher.
Belatedly though it was, President Sirisena’s decision to crack down on SLFP dissidents comes at a significant time. It is now highly likely that Local Government elections will be held in January 2018 and January 20 is being discussed as a possible date for the polls. By sacking party organisers with only a few months to go before an election, the President is indicating that he is willing to take on the Rajapaksa faction of the party.
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)
Already, the sabre-rattling has begun in earnest. Basil Rajapaksa, former Minister and the de-facto head of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the party which will officially be linked with the JO faction, has stated that the SLPP will sweep the local polls winning over 200 local councils. SLFP stalwarts are also making similar claims.
SLFPers loyal to the party are witnessing the current blood-letting within its ranks with dismay. However, most agree that the Rajapaksa faction has also painted itself into a corner, attacking the President personally, thereby leaving little room for compromise and forcing him to act. In fact, some question as to why President Sirisena did not act sooner to discipline the dissidents.
The coming weeks will likely see several other organisers being replaced by Sirisena loyalists, so the purge is set to continue. It is make or break time for the SLFP, but at least now, a decision has been taken by the party leadership and it is being followed through. As to whether this calculated gamble is the correct decision, that verdict can be reached only after the conclusion of the Local Government elections early next year.
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