SLFP-‘JO’ talks falt go it alone, face th
What prompted President to back out of talks? Some SLPPers also blame Basil for breakdown Sirisena meets Ranil; PM w against anyone attacking the check polls leaflets to avoid m
Talks between rival factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have collapsed despite efforts for the first time by President Maithripala Sirisena and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa to reunite for the local polls.
The duo appointed their respective committees to take forward the talks. This even saw a meeting between President Sirisena and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. There was mutual endorsement of the two teams then. The former Defence Secretary, who had identified the pros and cons of uniting to his leadership, was in favour of giving it a chance.
Whilst the teams were at work, Minister Susil Premjayantha, who had Sirisena’s blessings at an earlier stage to broker a parntership, was the harbinger of bad news. His latest message said that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the political party formed by Mahinda Rajapaksa, was only a faction of the SLFP. Thus, he declared, the SLFP leadership could not engage in talks for unity. Thereafter, Premjayantha left Sri Lanka on a foreign trip. Like the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back, the talks collapsed.
The SLFP rivals are still unable to fathom what prompted President Sirisena to suddenly back out and call an immediate halt to the patching up talks. Was it local or foreign pressure or both?
On the other hand, many in the SLPP blamed it on Basil Rajapaksa, widely regarded as the strategist for the new political party, the SLPP. In fact, the reconciliation efforts began with an influential non-active SLFP member approaching him. It was Basil who told him that utmost secrecy should be maintained. He had said that he would obtain the concurrence of Mahinda Rajapaksa whilst he urged the unnamed intermediary to do so with President Sirisena. This was around the time Minister Premajayantha had made his first soundings. When his verbal briefing to the ‘Joint Opposition’ parliamentary group was rejected, a written request from the SLFP, as reported earlier, was handed over to Mahinda Rajapaksa by Premjayantha. It has then been given to Basil Rajapaksa for ‘safe keeping.’
With the talks collapsing, President Sirisena appeared to have embarked once again on a new course of action. He had a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He explained to him that like his (the Premier’s) task was to strengthen the UNP, it was his (the President’s) task to strengthen the SLFP. Other than this, he insisted that he had nothing in his mind about appointing a new Prime Minister or paving the way for a new Leader of the Opposition. Earlier, Wickremesinghe had sought clarification over speculation in political circles about former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa being made the Premier under an SLFP dispensation. In fact, when talks were under way, Chamal told leaders of the rival group he was not in favour of such a dialogue. He argued that most party supporters disliked it. Broad indications had been given by Sirisena about the non-fruition of unity talks but Wickremesinghe seemed already aware that reunification talks within the SLFP had not materialised.
During his discussion with the PM, the President had made clear, somewhat assertively, that Wickremesinghe should rein in his parliamentarians from publicly criticising him (Sirisena). He made particular reference to the outburst by State Minister for Strategic Development and International Trade Sujeeva Senasinghe. The State Minister had severely criticised Sirisena using strong words after it came to light at the Central Bank Bond Commission that Senasinghe was in cahoots with the main suspect in the bond scam, Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. (PTL), by exchanging dozens of calls between them. That company is the subject of a probe by a Commission of Inquiry for allegedly profiteering to the tune of billions of rupees through irregular bond transactions at the Central Bank. Senasinghe had served in the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and defended the role of PTL. He had even authored a book. In defending himself after the evidence transpired, he had said that all the calls were to get information for the book he was writing on the bond allegations, but in defending himself he took a swipe at Sirisena asking if the country was run by him or a businessman close to him. In fact, Senasinghe himself was an erstwhile associate of the businessman.
Just a day after his meeting, Wickremesinghe told the UNP parliamentary group last Monday that MPs should refrain from criticising the President or face disciplinary action. That the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe meeting has one more time renewed the prospect of the present Yahapalanaya (or good governance) coalition remaining in office until the end of term is one thing. Another is the move to revive the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the remaining tenure of the Government. SLFPers in particular want the inclusion of several new clauses including urging their counterparts to give them equal consideration when evolving policy issues. A ministerial re-shuffle and a prorogation of Parliament to pave the way for a policy statement for the remaining years is also under active consideration. Yet, how the two sides will resolve some of the outstanding matters, like action on high profile cases of bribery and corruption, remains to be seen. Any new MoU will only be a precursor to the next presidential and parliamentary elections.
On the other side of the divide, Basil Rajapaksa admitted that he opposed the talks at reunification at the beginning. “It was on the basis that it was against the people of this country. There were both pro-Government and those opposed to it. There would be no force left for those who oppose if the ‘Joint Opposition’ were to change,” he told the Sunday Times this week. However, he said the Rajapaksas were at the butt-end of severe Government harassment. Therefore, Mahinda, Gotabaya, Namal and he met to discuss the situation in detail. It was noted that if the SLFP changed its present policies, the SLPP would have to take that into account. This is whether the SLFP is in the Government or not. This is notwithstanding the personal issues they face. Hence, there was general consensus to examine offers for re-unity and thus obviate blame for any outright rejection. They had noted that they should seek to stop the sale of national assets; halt Government moves to cut down subsidies; check the rising cost of living; mounting unemployment and -- help to fight bribery and corruption. Particular mention was made of the Central Bank bond scam.
“When we were moving forward with talks between the committees on either side, I knew I would be blamed if anything went wrong. I remained neutral. I thought if they decide successfully, I would do my best to get the rest of the party to fall in line,” said Basil Rajapaksa. Saying that “all Rajapaksas looked at it positively,” he added, “there were people who were trying to deliberately scuttle the process.”
Basil Rajapaksa added, “Both President Sirisena and our leader Mahinda Rajapaksa gave their genuine blessings to the respective committees.” Sirisena had named SLFP senior deputy leader and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Dilan Perera. Also included were Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premjayantha. The team from the rival faction comprised C.B. Ratnayake, Pavithra Wanniaratchchi and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene.
One of the pre-conditions of the rival (Mahinda) group was what it called a “safety net.” Should talks not succeed there should not be any reprisals on their members. There had been many examples in the past, it was pointed out.
During the talks, the rival faction had placed three demands: They were: A proposed ‘No Contest Pact’ to contest the 337 local bodies (later increased to 341 with the creation of new ones). Of this number, 37 local bodies would be contested by smaller parties now associated with the ‘Joint Opposition.’ Of the remaining 300 number, 150 to be contested by the SLFP. The remaining 150 to be contested by candidates of the rival group under the