SLFP at 65: The crisis of Lanka's political party system

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s 65th anniversary hit news headlines this time mainly due to the party’s current internal power struggle. Since January 2015, the SLFP has been embroiled in a bitter internal power struggle between its current leader Maithripala Sirisena and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.

After losing the Presidential election and having handed over the SLFP leadership, Rajapaksa started a new battle to regain power. His first priority seems to be to capture power within the party, despite the hullaballoo about a new party under his leadership. To counter the Rajapaksa-threat, Sirisena has not only had to secure his leadership within the party but also work to prevent the party’s ground level leadership joining Rajapaksa in his endeavor to form a new party. So, undoubtedly, the SLFP is experiencing an unprecedented internal crisis at the time it celebrates its 65th anniversary.

Among political circles, there is a great deal of curiosity as to whether Rajapaksa will/can form a new political party that would deal a fatal blow to the SLFP and effectively end the six decades old two-party hegemony in the country’s electoral politics. I do not think Rajapaksa and his clique can form a new party that could decimate the SLFP and alter the current two-party system. For me, such a new party would end up being another ephemeral party – a party that will last until its leaders find a permanent party.

The current crisis in the SLFP is more to do with the peculiar nature in the functioning of the country’s political party system than a power struggle between two leaders. The post-independent electoral politics, during the past six decades, has produced a particular kind of party system in the country. Especially, the two main parties -- the UNP and the SLFP -- have become institutionally weak and ideologically ambiguous entities that are more or less hostages of their leaders. Therefore, internal crisis is almost unavoidable at times when a party -- especially one of these two main parties -is experiencing a transition of its leadership. For me, the SLFP’s crisis alludes to the true nature of the functioning of political parties and electoral efficacy in Sri Lanka.

From parties of ideas to parties for material benefits