Anniversaries are special events because these are the days on which an event of significance occurred. They return every year but, every once in a while, they come with a taste of irony.
Last week saw the 60th anniversary of the assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, fourth Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and, more importantly, the founder of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on September 26. Ironically, on the same day, Sajith Premadasa, himself the son of an assassinated leader, was formally declared as the presidential candidate of the rival United National Party (UNP).
Bandaranaike’s birth is commemorated on January 8. That date has also become synonymous with the birth of the ‘yahapalanaya’ government and the ascension of President Maithripala Sirisena to power. What is ironic about this is that Bandaranaike’s birthday coincides with the day the death warrant of the party he founded, the SLFP, was signed.
Perhaps it was not designed to happen that way, but political forces work in mysterious ways. When Maithripala Sirisena was offered the candidacy at the 2015 presidential election as the so-called ‘common’ candidate, it was on a platform of abolishing the Executive Presidency and not running again for office. It was spearheaded by civil society organisations and inspired by the leadership of the late Maduluwave Sobhitha thero.
Few people would have expected candidate Sirisena to succeed. In fact, it was reported the candidacy was first offered to Nimal Siripala de Silva who baulked at the prospect of evoking the wrath of the Rajapaksas and contesting against the SLFP in which he had served all his political life. However, candidate Sirisena had no such qualms, perhaps because he knew that he had reached the end of the road in the SLFP as its general secretary and would never go further than that.
From a UNP perspective, it wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that it too didn’t expect the common candidate to win. Its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is an expert on watchful expectation and masterly inactivity. That is why he handed the presidential candidacy in 2010 to Sarath Fonseka, knowing very well that Fonseka wouldn’t win. Fonseka went to jail for his efforts; Wickremesinghe, without the ignominy of an election defeat, stayed on as UNP leader. It is very likely that he expected a similar outcome when he agreed to Maithripala Sirisena’s candidacy.
The election outcome surprised the nation and must have surely surprised President Sirisena himself who had taken refuge in an estate belonging to a friend on election night for fear of being abducted. More surprises were in store for the nation, however, because in the next four years President Sirisena demonstrated that he was no lame duck President willing to clip the wings of the Executive Presidency and walk away from power- and therein lies the story of the beginning of the end of the SLFP.
President Sirisena was supposed to leave the running of the government to his Prime Minister and mind his own business, attending to ceremonial functions such as accepting the credentials of foreign envoys and travelling on the odd state visit or two. Instead he plunged into party politics, assuming the leadership of the SLFP.
There was irony there too. Mahinda Rajapaksa was instrumental in amending the SLFP Constitution to state that if the leader of the country was from the SLFP, he or she would automatically lead the party too. That was a move he initiated to thwart Chandrika Kumaratunga holding on to the reins of power within the SLFP. In the end, that came back to bite him and he had to cede the leadership to Maithripala Sirisena. However, there was a point which Rajapaksa could have raised: Sirisena became leader of the country not as a SLFP-sponsored candidate, but rather by running against the SLFP-sponsored candidate.
This is precisely what President Sirisena also did not comprehend. Although he was SLFP leader, he was not elected as such. He was elected with UNP votes. The majority of SLFP MPs in Parliament were still very much loyal to Rajapaksa who, despite his shortcomings, was a popular, charismatic and fatherly figure to most of his parliamentarians.
Thus began the debacle of the SLFP. Instead of trying to heal the wounds of the SLFP, President Sirisena was interested in marginalising Rajapaksa, hoping that dangling the carrot of cabinet portfolios will lure MPs towards him. He then did the unthinkable: addressing the nation just before the 2015 general election and declaring that he would never appoint Rajapaksa as his Prime Minister, even if the party won the poll.
Spare a thought for SLFP MPs. They were torn between their loyalty to Rajapaksa and their need to be obedient to a serving President. Most chose the former. A few opted for the latter. Some, like Thilanga Sumathipala, S.B. Dissanayake and Dayasiri Jayasekara demonstrated that they have no scruples. After mercilessly vilifying candidate Sirisena during the presidential election, they then joined his camp.
As a result, the SLFP was a party in disarray. Disgruntled and always ambitious for more power, Rajapaksa went his own way and formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) which was in fact the brainchild of younger brother Basil Rajapaksa. The day the SLPP was born, the death of the SLFP became inevitable.
Had the UNP-SLFP ‘yahapalanaya’ coalition governed wisely, the SLFP could have still survived, but that didn’t happen. President Sirisena was at constant loggerheads with the UNP. The UNP had its own agenda and was embroiled in corruption scandals of its own. As the government’s popularity dwindled, the SLPP’s stocks rose.
The local government elections in February 2018 confirmed what most already knew: the SLFP was dying. If a final nail in the coffin was needed, it came on April 21, 2019 when the Easter Sunday attacks took place. The Rajapaksas, laying claim for saving the country from terrorism, cashed in: Gotabaya Rajapaksa offered himself as a presidential candidate in the aftermath of the attacks.
The rest is now a formality. The SLFP’s death will be confirmed when results of the presidential election filter in on the morning of November 17, regardless of who the winner is.
If an epitaph is needed, it could well say: “Founded by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, September 2, 1951; Destroyed by Maithripala Sirisena, November 16, 2019”.