SLFP should help the President fulfil his promises

Iread with great interest K.U. Pushpakumara’s letter published under the headline “Mr. President, focus on pledges, not party politics.” The people voted on January 8 for common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena for three reasons: (1) Change; (2) creating the necessary conditions for clean politics; and (3) taking action against the corrupt politicians.

In his manifesto, a 100-day programme was spelt out to be implemented in two stages. In the first stage, the focus was to be on urgent issues - to enact constitutional reforms, creating conditions for clean politics and punishing the corrupt, after forming a national government with Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister.

The manifesto also stated that Mr. Sirisena as President would require the assistance of parliament to fulfil the promises, foremost among which were the abolition of the Executive Presidency or pruning its powers, and the introduction of electoral reforms based on the first-past-the-post and the proportional representation systems.

Though the SLFP opposed Mr. Sirisena during the run-up to the election, it later pledged its support for his 100-day programme. The Cabinet was expanded to include the SLFP ministers.

The people who voted for Mr. Sirisena have not forgotten the purpose of electing him. They have also taken note of the pledge of support extended by the SLFP for the 100-day programme, and expect that the party would stand by its pledge.

The wish of 6.2 million people who voted for Mr. Sirisena is to make 2016 a “Make or Break Year” for a prosperous Sri Lanka, especially for its youth and the “yet to be born generation”. On that score, Mr. Sirisena must remain focused on the three main pledges, which the majority of Sri Lankans voted for. Therefore, the President must manage time and energy to fulfil the pledges.

A similar plea goes to the senior leaders of the SLFP. They should further resolve to stand-by their pledge of support, and must persuade those who are disruptive -- a minority who are seemingly acting on narrow party politics -- to work collectively, without distracting the focus of the President to issues which of little relevance to the general public.

Seemingly, it is also the time to test the strength of the leadership of the SLFP, and demonstrate to the public as to who call the shots, whether it is some of the constituent UPFA members or the core SLFP. My plea for senior leaders of the SLFP, a party that produced the world’s first woman Prime Minister, is to bring back the party to its former glory without allowing some of its members to resort to ugly behaviour in the media. P. Fernando

Moratuwa