(Excerpts from the “Sunday Times” Political Column of October 1st 2017)
With local government polls now ahead, President Maithripala Sirisena has embarked on an ambitious project to consolidate his position as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Last Thursday evening, he took the unusual step of conducting one-on-one meetings with SLFP ministers, parliamentarians and chief ministers. The venue for the special event was the Cinnamon Hilltop at Kaluwella in Galle.
There were no ‘note takers,’ secretaries or other officials. Seated in a ground floor room of what was once the abode of Col. Henry Steel Olcott, a former US military officer, journalist and lawyer well known for the Buddhist revivalist movement in Sri Lanka, the President made notes of the discussions personally.
The SLFP stalwarts had been summoned to this new hotel on Thursday for an overnight session. They were accommodated at this new boutique hotel as well as those nearby. They had finished an early dinner. Sirisena arrived shortly after 7 p.m. With a short break at his upstairs suite, he walked into the room with a notebook in hand to invite those present, one by one, for separate meetings. He jotted down the varied issues they raised. They ranged from electoral problems, difficulties in servicing their electorates to the future of their party. One message Sirisena gave all of them was that he planned to hold such meetings regularly, if possible every week. The bilateral sessions went on till 11 p.m. that night.
After a raucous night with some fun and frolic, the participants were up again at 6 a.m. on Friday. Sirisena had another one-on-one session that went on till 10 a.m. It was then time for him to board an Air Force VIP helicopter for a flight to Polonnaruwa. There, he laid the foundation stone for a new tri-lingual ‘national school’ in Kaduruwela together with Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu. India is funding this project.
Other participants continued with a workshop until lunch time. They discussed upcoming local government elections and how to gear the party machinery. The opening of more SLFP offices in different electorates and a membership drive were also discussed. That was a challenging task no doubt. The SLFP is not only opposing its partner in governance, the United National Party (UNP), but also has to face the Sri Lanka Podujana Pakshaya (SLPP), made up of pro-Mahinda Rajapaksa loyalists who were SLFPers. Coinciding with the President’s visit to his former constituency of Polonnaruwa was the disturbing news for him that 13 UPFA members of the North Central Provincial Council (which includes Polonnaruwa) resigned and joined the Rajapaksa-led SLPP on Friday.
The task before those who met Sirisena in Galle would be to win the majority of local bodies and cede less to the UNP and even lesser to the SLPP. A reversal of that order would not only constitute a defeat for the party but also for Sirisena as their leader. This was one of the reasons why Sirisena chose to delay three Provincial Council elections. One – the North Central Province encompassed his own bastion in Polonnaruwa. Had it not been for the controversial passage of the Provincial Council (Elections) Bill in Parliament, polls would have been called by now for three PCs. They are Sabaragamuwa (term ended on September 26), North Central (term ended on September 30) and Eastern (whose term ends today).
President Sirisena did come under strong criticism from within his own ranks in the past many months. A handful of ministers and even MPs were critical for they perceived that he was leaning heavily on the UNP. They claimed that allowing the UNP to take several controversial economic and social measures caused problems for them in their electorates. On such critic, Minister Susil Premajayantha was away from Sri Lanka and so could not take part in the Galle meeting. Two among a group of MPs who were described as being unhappy – Duleep Wijesekera and Susantha Punchinilame – however, were present at the event.
Among others absent were Deputy SLFP leader Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and SLFP spokesperson Dilan Perera. Ministers who were present but did not engage in one-on-one meetings saying they regularly meet Sirisena included Sarath Amunugama, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Duminda Dissanayake and Mahinda Amaraweera.
In fact, ahead of the vote on the Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Bill, some MPs absented themselves. Others were assured that their grievances would be addressed. It is in that aftermath that the one-on-one meetings came about and it underscores Sirisena’s efforts to patch up differences and take more assertive control of the party. There was speculation then that a group was on the verge of switching over to Opposition benches and to remain as ‘Independents.’ That was averted.
Even if Sirisena’s Galle dialogue, coming as it does before the Sri Lanka Navy’s annual Galle Dialogue on Indian Ocean security, did not discuss it, other plans are also on the drawing boards. He wants to replace dissidents in the party with new SLFP electoral organisers. In doing so, he wants to draw more youth into the party. A more important move is to expel from membership MPs who are now not with the party. Even video cameras are now being arranged to gather evidence to prove that such persons violated party discipline.
On arriving at the Hotel on Thursday night, Sirisena made a brief speech. He said that when he was returning from attending the 72nd sessions of the UN General Assembly, he had read an Indian newspaper. There was a report with different charts about a downturn of India’s economy. Noting that Sri Lanka was better in this respect, he said, those present should work hard to ensure that the economy improves even further.
President Sirisena’s strategy to consolidate his position as the SLFP leader, places his party on a new footing to weed out detractors, but it, no doubt, will be time consuming. UNP leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as said before, had delivered Sirisena’s wishes with a legal coup to delay the PC polls. The UNP now waits for its quid pro quo and for a nation it is quo vadis or where the nation is headed?
Courtesy:Sunday Times