Maithripala Sirisena should be removed from Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

 

C.W.W.Kannangara the father of the Free Education

President Maithripala Sirisena- the tourist and collector of handshakes is schedule to take his next flight to USA to shake President Barack Obama’s hands.  He is soundly placed as the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which he left in the night like a thief fearing to be caught in his midnight  meeting with destiny.

But question which remains unanswered is under what provisions of the Constitution of the SLFP Maithripala Sirisena  the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party for thirteen years from 2001 to 2014,  who walked away from the Party on the 21 November, 2014 to joint the UNP led opposition could be made the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ?

 

Maithripala Sirisena to his shame did in 2014 exactly the opposite of what S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake did in 1951.

On the night of the 20 November,2014  when Maithripala Sirisena  left President Mahinda Rajapakse the then President of the SLFP after  sharing a meal of hoppers with him, Maithripala Sirisena forfeited all his rights as a member of the SLFP.  Therefore it was not Constitutionally correct for the SLFP Central Committee to have confirmed him as the President of SLFP after his election as the President.

Is it therefore  right that Maithripala Sirisena who betrayed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party is nevertheless the President of Sri Lanka Freedom Party today ?

A biased Central Committee of the SLFP expecting benefits by way of Ministerial posts had abused their power in confirming Maithripala Sirisena as the President of SLFP without conducting a proper disciplinary inquiry.

S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike left the UNP in 1951 because he recognised that the policies followed by the UNP  after the end of a long period of colonization  was not suitable for the revival  of the  national identity such as the Buddhist culture, the language, religion, even the national dress, and  a mixed agricultural economy which suffered  grievously under foreign rule. 

Therefore, SWRD wanted alternative political policies  to empower the five great forces of the country (pancha maha balavegaya) the Buddhist Monks, Teachers, physicians, farmers and workers, to develop the country bringing together the three main communities with their  different cultural identities under one flag and a language as any other Nation of the world.

He also understood that Sri Lanka being a developing country of the then called third world, had to have a government related to a socialist system, rather than  following the colonial rulers adopting their  capitalist system.

S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was not wrong, because he rejected the capitalist system and adopted a more acceptable socialist system and accepted to work with the progressive left forces.  The UNP system did not work as it does not fit into the make up of the people, their culture and belief systems. The rich English educated Colombians and their aristocratic relatives, rich Muslims and vellala Tamils elsewhere though few wanted to control the economy, and caused a social imbalance.

This tendency changed  with the coming into politics of respectfully remembered , CWW Kannanagara  a lawyer  with modest beginnings in Balapitiya as the  Minister of Education in the State Council.  He  introduced in 1945 the free education system which enabled young people from outside Colombo access to higher education increasing the number of the educated people in the country.

SWRD Bandaranaike’s SLFP  greatly benefitted from this educated class outside Colombo, the UNP pandering to the  English Educated failed to make a political impact on the  educated rural class.  Yet the Sri Lanka UNP Capitalism survived and survives  resorting to various undemocratic means  cultivating village thugs, build  dependent groups of people capable of getting votes to UNP  not necessarily with convincing arguments but through force, fear and intimidation.

While SLFP of SWRD Bandaranaike was to depend on a strengthened  and fortified pancha maha balawegaya, UNP suppresses, controls, and dominates the pancha maha bala vegaya. 

We see  how Ranil Wickramasinghe the UNP Prime Minister uses his office to control the Sangha, treat with contempt the Doctors (veda)on the ETCA issue, the teachers(guru)  are  denied their due rights, farmers(govi) are not allowed free fertiliser,  the workers(kamkaru) are threatened with unemployment. The Pancha Maha Balavegaya suffer, is weakened, and looked down upon  by Ranil Wickramasinghe. Maithripala Sirisena the President is reduced to a helpless spectator.

Hence the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the UNP are  two systems diametrically opposed to each other. Under such circumstances Maithripala Sirisena the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party cannot be pardoned for his betrayal of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party by offering  himself as the Common Opposition Candidate for the Presidential election of 2015. 

Sirisena Sacrificed nearly 25 years of his political life for a handful of dollars so to say.

Under the circumstances the Sri Lanka Freedom Party cannot continue to exist today as nothing has happened.  The Central Committee of the SLFP cannot be excused for having not expelled Maithripala Sirisena.  It is irregular that no disciplinary action had been instigated against Maithripala Sirisena to expel him from the Party. If it had been done the public is not aware of it.

The irregularity had happened because of the personal greed of the members of the SLFP to retain ministerial power. As it is, the Central Committee of the SLFP Conniving with Maithripala Sirisena now the elected President of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party  fathered by S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike betrayed by Maithripala Sirisena has ceased to exist. What exists to day as SLFP under Maithripala Sirisena is not what SWRD wanted SLFP to be.

Therefore, it is ridiculous that the General Secretary of the SLFP Duminda Dissanayaka makes a statement that he will take up with the SLFP Central Committee about  disciplinary action to be taken against the SLFP parliamentarians  who attended the joint opposition rally in support of the former President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Duminda Dissanayake should instead look into why a proper disciplinary investigation was not carried over Maithripala Sirisena’s leaving the SLFP to join the UNP led opposition to present himself as the Common Opposition Presidential Candidate.  The Constitution of the SLFP does not differentiate between a President or an ordinary member.  That is democracy.  If fear keeps the General Secretary and the CC of SLFP carrying out their duties under the party Constitution , it becomes  a dictatorship under the SLFP

The SLFP CC should not be a rubber stamp to exonerate a member who violates the Constitution. If a disciplinary action in terms of the SLFP Constitution has not been taken against Maithripala Sirisena it is time that such an inquiry is instigated now, without allowing the President Sirisena to make inept statements against other SLFP Members like Mahinda Rajapakse.

The General Secretary of SLFP Duminda Dissanayake had said that SLFP Central Committee will meet shortly to decide on the action to be taken against SLFP parliamentarians who participated in Thursday’s joint opposition rally at Hyde Park.  Duminda Dissanayake as the GS of SLFP should include in the Agenda for the CC meeting  the question of disciplinary action against Maithripala Sirisena as a member of the SLFP.

Maithripala Sirisena’s situation vis a vis the SLFP should be satisfactorily solved in transparency for the public to be aware of the correct procedure followed by the CC of the SLFP in taking disciplinary action against the  members of the SLFP.

When it comes to taking action for or against party members, President Maithripala  Sirisena (if he is  cleared by the CC and accepted as   member of SLFP) is not acting as the President of Sri Lanka, but as the President of SLFP.  These are two different roles.  In this respect Maithripala Sirisena has taken actions outside his authority both as the President of Sri Lanka and as the President of SLFP. These should be thoroughly investigated by the CC of the SLFP.

The actions taken by Maithripala Sirisena just before the general election of the 17 August, 2015, both as the President of the SLFP and as the President of Sri Lanka  are strongly condemned by a large majority of  the people.  As the President of Sri Lanka he should have been neutral, as once elected President he becomes the President of every one, and he cannot take sides to support any one or condemn another.

As the President of the SLFP he was taking arbitrary decisions  writing strong letters to an opposition candidate criticising him and refusing to make him the President if he wins the election.  He did not respect democratic  norms that should be followed.  He sacked the new General Secretaries of  the SLFP and UPFA  and appointed new Secretaries a just a few days before the election. He took these actions without consulting the Central Committee of the SLFP. By these acts he showed his unsuitability to be the President of a Sovereign State, dictatorial, without simple human respect to others.

A President should not be arrogant , and disrespectful to others even if they are his enemeies.

But unfortunately, all actions that he is taking now such as distributing land in the north, reducing the security forcers in the north, delaying the Local Government Elections, promising  devolving of power to provinces are made without thoughtful considerations of whether such actions are suitable to the country and what effect they will have in the future.

The SLFP Central Committee should have a disciplinary investigation against Chandrika Kumaratunga as well.  One member has no right to criticise or condemn another member of the Party. If she has any thing against a member of the party she should bring the matter before the CC.  Chandrika Kumaratunga is no credit to Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

A majority of  the supporters of Sri Lanka Freedom Party today is around Mahinda Rajapakse and under his leadership, but not around and under the leadership of Maithripala Sirisena even if the present Central Committee of the SLFP has endorsed Maithripala Sirisena as the President of the SLFP.

Even out of office Mahinda Rajapakse still remains the “ President”  of the ordinary Sinhala Buddhist people of Sri Lanka and those living in foreign countries.