Is it the end of the road for SLFP?

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – which has ruled Sri Lanka for the most part during its post-independent history – is experiencing a debilitating internal strife that could threaten its very existence. Ever since former President Maithripala Sirisena became the leader of the SLFP, its political stock has been on a grave decline. 

The formation of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) caused a tremendous setback to the SLFP, as the members of the old political party joined the former en masse.

Although SLFP old-timers like Nimal Siripala De Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera hold Cabinet portfolios and passionately support President Ranil Wickremesinghe, another faction of the party sit in the opposition. Meanwhile, the Sirisena faction appointed Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe as the Acting Chairman of the Party. However, last week, the Colombo District Court issued an injunction against the Justice Minister, preventing him from functioning as the SLFP Chairman. Another group of SLFPers, backed by ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga, are rallying behind the Minister of Ports and Aviation.

Neither Siripala nor Wijeyadasa can be considered as inspiring choices for the leadership. The former will become an octogenarian later this year while the latter is a reputed political pole vaulter who always pursues his personal interest without committing himself to a common program of actions. Wijeyadasa is perceived as a Sinhalese Buddhist hardliner and few years ago he was severely condemned for threatening to take legal action against the well-known human rights lawyer, Lakshan Dias, apart from vowing to remove him from the legal profession if the latter did not apologise for making comments over attacks on Christian places of worship during a television talk show.

The SLFP – which was established in 1951 – has been accused of family bandism and its leadership for more than 50 years since its inception was confined to the Bandaranaike family while it more or less became a property of the Rajapaksa family when Mahinda Rajapaksa became its leader in 2006. Initially, the SLFP was considered as a Social Democratic or Centre-Left political party. 

Ironically, although Social Democratic parties in the West are sympathetic towards minority communities, the SLFP in its formative years had a majoritarian outlook and represented Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. In terms of economic policy, during the tenures of S.W.R.D. and Sirimavo, the party was pursuing programs that expanded the dominance of the State within the economic activities of the country. The island’s bus companies were nationalised by S.W.R.D and later the Government led by his wife nationalised banks and plantations in addition to expropriating all foreign-owned oil firms. 

It was Chandrika Kumaratunga who transformed the orientation of the SLFP when she came into power in 1994. She did to the SLFP what Bill Clinton and Tony Blair did for the Democratic Party in the US and Labour Party in the UK respectively. Under Kumaratunga, the SLFP-led People’s Alliance administration very boldly moved ahead with privatising a number of State-owned enterprises in continuation of the market-friendly economic policies introduced by her predecessors. She was also advocating federalism as a solution to the grievances of the Tamil community, signalling a departure from the SLFP’s majoritarian legacy.

Nevertheless, at the insistence of some opportunists within her rank, in 2004, she entered into an alliance with the Marxist JVP, which resulted in the formation of the UPFA coalition. In forming the coalition, despite the SLFP having a much larger vote base than the JVP, the former reversed its hitherto pro-market views purely to join hands with the latter.

The SLFP’s virtual extinction coincides with the substantial erosion of the SLPP’s vote base subsequent to the economic crisis. The tremendous dilution of both these political forces creates interesting permutations within the political spectrum of the country. The party/movement which captures the lion share of voters who have abandoned the SLPP/SLFP would emerge victorious at the next national election cycle.