By

Rasika Jayakody

What President Maithripala Sirisena faces right now is nothing short of a conundrum. The President has come under serious pressure not only from the party rank and file, but also from the senior office bearers of the party to give nominations to former President Rajapaksa to contest the election under the SLFP ticket. It is still not entirely clear whether President Sirisena will be able to withstand this pressure for two more weeks, at least until the end of the nomination period.

The pro-Rajapaksa camp, which is keen on getting nomination from the UPFA, has already made alternate plans to contest separately fearing that President Sirisena may reject nomination at the last moment. Even the senior-most parliamentarians representing the party are confused over the present state of affairs in the SLFP.

There were various negotiations over the weekend to get President Sirisena’s consent to give nomination to the former President. The committee appointed by President Sirisena to promote cooperation in the party also held several rounds of discussion to recommend necessary measures to strengthen unity in the party. They met President Sirisena and former President Rajapaksa separately and obtained their viewpoints on the matter.

The committee has recommended that the former President should be ‘actively involved’ in the political campaign of the party at the forthcoming election. According to a member of the committee, the term ‘active involvement’ amounts to accommodating him at least as a mere candidate in the SLFP list.

Sources close to Presidents Sirisena told the Daily News on Monday night that the President had still not digressed from his position over granting nomination to Rajapaksa. He had expressed willingness to offer him a ‘distinguished position’ in the party and to give him a prominent post in the government. The prominent post however, is not the position of the Prime Minister. This is somewhat similar to the position held by former Singaporean President Lee Kuan Yew and former US President Bill Clinton after their retirement from office. But, many political observers, including several senior politicians, told the Daily News that President Sirisena was being pushed to the wall.

When President Sirisena said he was willing to accommodate Rajpaksa as the Singaporean government accommodated Lee Kuan Yew the ruling party after his retirement, the President gave the indication that he was even willing to offer a national list slot for the former President.

After Lee Kuan Yew stepped down from his position as the longest serving head of state of the country, he still remained in the Cabinet with a non-executive position of Senior Minister and played a role he described as advisory. In December 2004, Lee step down to another level, becoming a minister mentor and launched several new projects on the social development front including a project to attract younger generation to learn and speak Mandarin.

However, Rajapaksa was reluctant to accept a national list slot from President Sirisena. He expressed fears that his name would be removed from the list at the last moment, without allowing him to be a member of the legislature. “If I contest, at least I will have a Parliamentary seat. If I fall into this national list trap, I will not get anything,” the former President told SLFP seniors, expressing his position on the matter. As a result, the matter was arriving at a deadlock by the end of last week.

Meanwhile, President Sirisena appointed another committee to discuss with other political parties of the UPFA coalition. The committee was headed by Minister S.B. Dissanayake and four others, namely Rajitha Senaratne, Mahinda Amaraweera, Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Thilanga Sumathipala served as its members. All of them were staunch supporters of President Maithripala Sirisena. By appointing this committee, President Sirisena sent a signal to some constituent parties of the UPFA supportive of Rajapaksa’s bid to come to power.

The five member committee held their discussions at the President’s residence at Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07. On Monday, they held discussions with a number of leftist political parties and minority parties including the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the Communist Party, the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party and A.L.M. Athaullah’s party. The discussions were held separately and were mainly based on contesting under a common front at the Parliamentary election.

At the meeting with the LSSP representatives, its leader Prof. Tissa Vitarana asked the committee members on their position on former President Rajapaksa. The Committee told the LSSP that Rajapaksa would be given a “suitable position” to serve the country. It appeared as if the LSSP was satisfied with the answer.

President’s remark to left activists on MR’s nominations

While the five member committee held negotiations with leftist political parties, the President too held another discussion with leftist activists and trade union leaders at the Presidential secretariat on Monday afternoon. Although the meeting was scheduled to start at 2 pm, the representatives were asked to wait till about 2.45 as President Sirisena had some other engagements. The meeting was attended by some prominent leftist activists and union leaders including Lal Wijenaike, Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Chameera Perera, Poojitha de Mel and M.B. Abeyrathne. They were supportive of Maithripala Sirisena at the last presidential election.

At the meeting, the President informed the leftist activists that he was not inclined to give nomination to the former President. However, he indicated that the SLFP MPs supporting Rajapaksa might get nomination from the party to avoid a split in the SLFP. This remark came just hours ahead of a meeting he held with party seniors including Nimal Siripala de Silva, Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.

Talk between President Sirisena and SLFP seniors on Monday night were lengthy and ‘torturous.’ While the President clung to his position on nominations for Rajapaksa, the SLFP seniors made every possible attempt to change the party leader’s mind. UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha and SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa had insisted that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa should be nominated as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the UPFA. It was quite evident that Premajayantha and Yapa had already aligned themselves with the campaign supporting Rajapaksa. However, Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva showed that he was willing to “sway with the winds.”

Premajayantha and Yapa pointed out that the large majority of SLFP Parliamentarians were of the strong belief that Rajapaksa should be given nomination from the party to contest the election. They said the party would suffer a disgraceful defeat at the election if it failed to accommodate the former President. “The only way,” they said “to avoid a split in the party is to give nomination to the former President.”

Meanwhile, several ‘interim arrangements’ have also been discussed between the two parties to draw Rajapaksa’s support to the party’s election campaign, without giving him nominations to contest. Among them is appointing former President Rajapaksa as the Chairman of the UPFA instead of giving him nomination to contest the election. Possibility of allowing Namal Rajapaksa to contest under the party without giving nomination to former President Rajapaksa was also discussed at SLFP internal meetings yesterday on Monday night.

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Furious

However, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, a Patron of the SLFP, had strongly opposed the move to allow Rajapaksa to contest the election under the SLFP ticket. She said the Rajapaksas, over the past ten years, did an “irreparable damage” not only to the country, but also to the SLFP. She said it was the Rajapaksas who gave nomination to drug peddlers and ethanol smugglers to contest elections under the SLFP ticket. From a strategic point of view, the former President pointed out that accommodating Rajapaksa would drive ethnic and religious minorities away from the party at the Parliamentary election. It was one major reason for Rajapaksa’s defeat at the Presidential election in January.

Kumaratunga had insisted that none of the close supporters of the Rajapaksa family should be given nomination to contest from the SLFP as they faced serious bribery and corruption charges. Kumaratunga, on several occasions, stressed the need of ‘cleaning up’ the party from grassroots level, through drastic reforms.

However, President Sirisena was reluctant to introduce drastic reforms after he assumed office as the party leader. Perhaps President Sirisena thought that such a move would cause erosion in the party and ultimately play into the hands of the Rajapaksas. But, at this point, it is quite clear that the absence of drastic reforms has benefitted the pro-Rajapaksa campaign – to a great extent.

The large majority of SLFP MPs who backed President Sirisena at the last Presidential election also support Kumaratunga’s stance. In an interview with the BBC Sandeshaya on Monday, Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, SLFP organizer for Attanagalla, said the President should think about the country, before thinking about the party.

Minister Duminda Dissanayake, another stalwart of President Sirisena’s campaign in January, is of the view that Rajapaksa should not be accommodated as a candidate at any cost. Interestingly, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, another MP who supports the Common Candidate’s campaign, is now moving towards the pro-Rajapaksa campaign. However, Wijesinha, a national list MP appointed in 2010, has no real base in the SLFP as far as votes are concerned.

Informed SLFP sources told the Daily News on Tuesday that 36 MPs and prominent provincial councilors would step out of the party, if President Sirisena agreed to give nomination to the former President.

Among them are some prominent figures who backed President Sirisena’s election campaign in January. It is widely speculated that former President Kumaratunga too will distance herself from the party in the face of such a development. The SLFP is now heading towards an inevitable split, irrespective of its decision to give nomination to the former President.

In an interesting turn of events, some MPs who were not supportive of the Rajapaksa campaign a few weeks ago are now moving towards a more moderate path. They include key members such as S.B. Dissanayake, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon and Thilanga Sumathipala. Dissanayake, addressing a media briefing at the party headquarters two weeks ago, said that the party would certainly lose at the Parliamentary election if Rajapaksa became a candidate. He was also the author of the booklet which the former President referred to as a “Kele Paththare.” Dissanayake now says that there should be unity between the incumbent President and the former President while indicating Rajapaksa should be given nomination, if that is the last resort.

Former Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon has also written a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga pleading them to iron out differences before the Parliamentary election. Tennakoon predicted that they would end up with a disastrous defeat at the election, if there was no unity among the incumbent President and the former Presidents. Tennakoon was among the first group of Central Committee members of the party who held a meeting at President Sirisena’s residence, claiming he should be appointed as the party’s new Chairman.

Premajayantha factor

After the discussions with the President, the SLFP seniors were scheduled to meet former President Rajapaksa to explore possibilities of arriving at a final settlement. As discussions with the President dragged late into the night, they could not meet the former President on Monday itself. De Silva, Yapa and Premajayantha were expected to meet the former President on Tuesday, to inform him about negotiations with President Sirisena.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha is a key stakeholder in the party’s recent developments. Premajayantha, in his capacity as the General Secretary of the UPFA, holds the key to party name and its symbol. Stalwarts of the pro-Rajapaksa campaign are confident they have the UPFA General Secretary’s “unconditional support” to contest the election. With his support, they have already made plans to contest the election from the UPFA, with its symbol betel leaf.

Speaking to the Daily News, former Parliamentarian Vasudeva Nanayakkara gave a strong indication in this regard. He said it was certain that the former President would contest from the UPFA, like he did in all the recent elections. “All of us, including the SLFP MPs who supported him after January, will contest from the UPFA under the symbol betel leaf. That’s all I can say for the moment,” Nanayakkara told the Daily News on Monday.

When asked about Nanayakkara’s statement, another former Parliamentarian supporting the Rajapaksa camp said they were not ready to put all their eggs in one basket.

“It is correct to say that we are planning to contest under the UPFA with same symbol. In all probability we will be allowed to do so. But, even if we don’t get an opportunity to contest under the UPFA, it will not make any impact on our campaign. Irrespective of President Sirisena’s stance, we will contest under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership. It is an additional advantage that we have the support of the UPFA General Secretary,” the parliamentarian explained.

Although Premajayantha has now become a staunch supporter of Rajapaksa, he faced immense difficulties over the last five years, due to the growing influence of the Rajapaksa family members in the SLFP. He could not function freely as the UPFA General Secretary as Basil Rajapaksa always interfered with his work. At the last Cabinet reshuffle done by former President Rajapaksa, Premajayantha was given a ‘demotion’ of some sort as the Minister of Environment.

Before that, he functioned as the Minister of Petroleum and Petroleum Resources, overlooking a key sector concerning the country’s economy. It was widely known in the political circles that Premajayantha was dissatisfied with the way he was treated by the Rajapaksas.

Jathika Hela Urumaya’s Plight

Dissolution of Parliament on Friday plunged the JHU into a serious crisis as the party was not prepared to go for an election at this juncture. That was exactly why the party was buying time pushing for the passage of the 20th Amendment on which there was no real agreement among political parties.

By advocating the 20th Amendment, Champika Ranawaka planned to emerge as a prominent figure who changed the political landscape of Sri Lanka. Such a move, he thought, would consolidate his position in the ruling coalition and position himself as a ‘potential candidate’ for Presidency by 2020. President Sirisena has already stated that he will not run for Presidency in 2020. At the same time, the JHU stalwart thought the 20th Amendment would lead to a very strong government in 2020, with an overwhelming majority in Parliament.

On the other hand, the JHU was not certain as to how it should contest the forthcoming Parliamentary election. It was clear that the JHU was not willing to align itself with the UNP as the two parties were at loggerheads over many issues. However, they tried to arrive at an agreement of some sort with President Maithripala Sirisena to contest under the UPFA at the election.

Ranawaka tried to consolidate his position in a ‘Rajapaksa-free’ SLFP as he had immense potential to position his head as a future leader in a political front of that nature. At one point, the JHU looked like the sole rescuer of President Sirisena when the latter was struggling hard to prevent divisions in the UPFA. The JHU knew that its strongman will only have meager opportunities in a UPFA led by Rajapaksa. Therefore, the JHU wanted more time to consolidate its position in a Rajapaksa-free UPFA. Various differences of opinion over the 20th Amendment to the constitution provided perfect platform for that time-buying exercise.

With the dissolution of Parliament on Friday, the JHU is now in a dilemma on how it should contest the forthcoming Parliamentary election. It was in the grapevine among political sources that the party was unaware of Parliament’s dissolution until the last moment. This development came in a context where the JHU was dubbed by many as the party closest to the President. When SLMS Rauff Hakeem talked about a “kitchen cabinet” in Parliament last week, he actually alluded to Ranawaka and the JHU.

At this point, the JHU is indecisive as to how it should contest at the election. The last thing party wants, at the moment, is to contest alone. A party like the JHU will not be able to get more than three seats under the present electoral system. To secure a satisfactory Parliamentary share for the party, it needs to enter into an electoral agreement with a mainstream party, some way or the other. With the warring factions within the UPFA trying feverishly to resolve its own problems, the JHU has been left out of the equation.

As a way out of the present crisis, the JHU has decided to issue a policy document that comes as an extension of President Sirisena’s election manifesto at the January election. The JHU, at the Parliamentary election, will extend its support to any political party that is willing to accept its policy document for the country.

The policy document, according to Ranawaka, will also decide the party’s future course of action with regards to the upcoming general elections. Ranawaka said that the party was yet to decide on how it will contest the upcoming polls, within a coalition or as a single party.

However, the former Minister stressed that the JHU would not support any decision or programme of action which distorts the mandate of the public, which ensured victory for President Maithripala Sirisena at January 8, polls. That was an indication that the party was not ready to support any political front led by former President Rajapaksa.

When queried by the Daily News on the the JHU’s stance on giving nominations to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest the upcoming polls under the UPFA banner, Ranawaka said that it was a decision for the SLFP to make.

When asked whether the JHU will remain within the UPFA fold if such a decision is taken, Ranawaka said that it was too early to comment as such a decision has not been arrived at by the SLFP.” The JHU is currently in the process of making an assessment of the political situation in the country and would make the correct decision with regards to its future course of action soon,” he said adding that any decision taken by the party would be in line with the expectations of the people and the mandate given by the public on January 8.

Courtesy:Daily News