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President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's message for the 53rd anniversary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party was born on September 2, 1951. Today we are commemorating the 53rd anniversary of our party. It is no exaggeration to state that the history of the SLFP, which dates back to a little more than half a century, is inseparably intertwined with the life of a vast majority of the people of this country.

The SLFP today is a more mature and experienced party which has savoured both victory and defeat. Our party had its birth and development with the expansion of the social revolution, which occurred, in this country since independence. In other words the birth and expansion of the SLFP and the birth and expansion of Sri Lanka's social, economic and Cultural Revolution constituted a parallel process rather than two different things.

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Before 1948 our prime national need was to regain our lost national independence. It was to achieve this aim that the Sinhala Maha Sabha led by late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the Lanka Jathika Sangamaya joined and formed the United National Party.

Although this party was able to fulfil an important responsibility in winning national independence the people's hopes and aspirations were not fulfilled by the UNP government born after independence. The moment Mr. Bandaranaike understood this situation he resigned from the UNP Government.

The social, cultural, religious and national forces essential for building a political force which would fulfil these national hopes and aspirations were developing by this time. This national force was represented by the birth of the SLFP.

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The historic victory achieved at the 1956 general election by this force which rapidly developed since 1951 was the initial victory of this country's national revolution.

In this social revolution the administrative power of this country devolved into the hands of a new social class. What emerged victorious here was indigenousness. To say it in simple terms, it was the victory of ourness. The cultural awakening which took place with this indigenousness was part and parcel of the victory of this national revolution.

The '56 victory was the outcome of the unity of the contemporary, national, religious and cultural forces in the country. Although the LSSP and the CP were not constituent parties of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna led by Mr. Bandaranaike he was able to enter into a no-contest pact with them as two friendly parties.

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Looked from this angle, the '56 victory was a victory of all national progressive and leftist forces. Broadly speaking, this was the first stage of the victory of the national revolution according to the social and political situation existing at that time.

A national revolution means a struggle to regain lost or forcibly denied fundamental national aspirations and heritage. This was an essential struggle for a country subjugated to the colonial yoke for over 400 years.

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However, by now various interpretations have been put forward about the 1956 revolution. While sophisticated social classes subservient to foreigners and certain communal forces tried to give a communal interpretation to this victory they have still not given up that attempt. It is wrong to look at the attempts made by Mr. Bandaranaike to make Sinhala the official language and give due place to indigenousness in the national, religious and cultural fields from a mere communal angle. Making of Sinhala the official language was not a communal act (process) as some see it.

This was a democratic step taken to restore the lost language rights of the Sinhalese people who were the root majority of this country. The fact that it was not a communal act is evident when we recall the steps taken to give Tamil a rightful place short on the heels of making Sinhala the official language and the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact signed in 1958 with the aim of devolving power. This shows that Mr. Bandaranaike was not a communalist but a true democrat and humanist who looked at the rights of all communities with fairness.

But almost similar to the machinations of extremist forces today communal forces opposed Mr. Bandaranaike then. The march to Kandy staged by not only Sinhala communalists but also the UNP to oppose the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact cannot be erased from the history of this country.

What we are experiencing todate are the results of the shortsighted activities followed by extremist forces then. I think in this background it is the duty and responsibility of young researchers and historians today to analyse what happened in 1956 from a completely new angle (view point).

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This recounting from a new angle becomes all the more necessary when we consider the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike in collusion by extremist forces and the rightist facist forces which became a catspaw of the Imperialists. These forces have not been silenced to-date. They are trying to create a crisis situation in the country by coming forward in various guises.

They are trying to interpret the 1956 victory to suit their own agendas. Their endeavour through these wrong interpretations is to distort the sincere and flexible attempt made by the SLFP to end the war and find a democratic political solution within a united state to the ethnic problem.

Although the SLFP had to suffer a temporary setback at the general election held in 1960 after the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike it was able to achieve a historic victory in July 1960 under the chairmanship of late Ms. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. At this election too the LSSP and the CPSL, which were left parties entered into a no-contest pact with the SLFP.

This Government was able to fulfil most of the tasks which remained unfulfilled after the '56 victory. Mrs. Bandaranaike's Government pioneered the effort to proceed along a non capitalist developmental path while strengthening the State sector. The international climate at this time which included the strength of the socialist camp and the victory of national liberation struggles was a great impetus for this forward march.

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However there was no shortage of conspiracies even at that time. We were able to defeat the rightist facist army coup d'etat launched in 1962. The SLFP which understood the importance of working in co-operation with left parties at this time entered into a coalition government with the LSSP in June 1962. But conspirators continued their work and the coalition government was defeated through a parliamentary conspiracy on December 3, 1964.

The SLFP which had to sit in the opposition after the 1965 general election faced temporary setbacks till 1970. It is during this period that the need for the unity of left and progressive forces came to the fore once again.

The formation of the United Front by the SLFP with left parties on June 5, 1968 was the outcome of this need. This formed the basis of the great victory achieved at the 1970 general election. The United Front common agreement was intended to carry forward the progressive march started in 1956 and enhanced in 1960.

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The most outstanding among the great and varied amount of work accomplished by the United Front Government set up in 1970 was the 1972 Republican Constitution which strengthened the independence of the country. However, the United Front Government had to face a severe crisis due to the rebellious situations which occurred locally and the economic crisis which occurred internationally. The end result was our party's defeat in 1977.

It is after this that not only the SLFP but all left and progressive forces had to face the most disastrous crisis in history. The greatest challenge posed to our party was the deprivation of Mrs. Bandaranaike's civic rights. The internal crisis of the party aggravated. The crises faced by the country were more grave due to the sudden introduction of the open economic system.

Without any planning the gulf between the haves and the have-nots started widening. With the birth of a social class which measured everything in monetary terms the country's moral values started to degenerate. There was a grave cultural degeneration throughout the country. Social values came to be underestimated.

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Murder and crime increased. Terror and State terrorism proliferated. In the North and South youth took up arms.

Thousands of youth had to pay with their lives because the then government shelved a political solution and took steps to retaliate to arms by arms.

A large number of people killed in the South were members of the SLFP. The constitution with the executive presidential system approved in 1978 and the implementation of an electoral system which did not reflect public opinion properly paved the way for a one party dictatorship.

It is in this background that I had to give leadership to the SLFP to resurrect it from the grave abyss to which it had fallen. The greatest challenges before us were to restore humanism, re-establish human freedom which had been trampled and end the period if indiscipline where State terrorism reigned supreme. It was to overcome these challenges that the People's Alliance (PA) was born before the 1994 general election. This alliance was again a broad political party constituting the left and progressive forces led by the SLFP.

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With the victory of the PA at the 1994 general and presidential elections, we were able to end the period of terror, which existed till then. But our main challenge was to end the war and find a peaceful solution to the ethnic problem. We laid our hands on this responsible task within a few days of coming to power.

The main tasks we had to face during this period were the Ceasefire Agreement, beginning of talks with the LTTE and the violation of ceasefire by the LTTE within a few years and the advent of war. Even after the violation of the ceasefire by the LTTE we did not stop our efforts to reach a solution through dialogue. The formulation of the 1996-97 Draft Constitution Bill aimed at wider devolution of power by a Select Committee happened during this period.

Although I made repeated requests to the UNP to provide the support of 16 opposition MPs to get this new draft constitution approved I did not receive a favourable response from it. In the end, it was with the prime motive of obtaining a clear people's mandate to solve this problem that I decided to hold a presidential election in December 1999 almost 15 months before the due date.

You will remember that during this presidential election campaign an attempt was made by the LTTE to assassinate me and I lost one eye in the process. Even after winning the presidential election for the second time I called upon the UNP and the LTTE to assist in resolving the ethnic problem. But a fruitful response was never received.

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Without giving up hope even at this stage I started a dialogue with all political parties during the first half of 2000. Discussions with the UNP alone took four months. At their request we even had to delete the most far reaching draft constitution we had formulated.

Even though the UNP said that it was prepared to accept this deleted draft constitution I need not remind again the manner in which the UNP responded when it was tabled in Parliament on August 3, 2000. The UNP burnt copies of this draft constitution in Parliament. While attempts to resolve the ethnic problem were again unsuccessful we emerged victorious once again at the general election held in October 2000.

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Our main target this time was also to find a solution to the ethnic problem. We sought the help of Norway for this. While the LTTE had agreed to a memorandum of understanding including a ceasefire, documents relating to it were being formulated. But conspirators did not remain silent.

The implementation of the first stage of the conspiracy began in April-May 2001. A group of enemies holding top posts in the party started secret dealings with UNP. After disrupting the program of work formulated to enter into a ceasefire with the LTTE, they resigned from the PA Government and sat in the opposition with the UNP.

This parliamentary conspiracy was similar to the one implemented against the coalition government in 1964. With these setbacks we faced the general elections December 5, 2001.

At this election all forms of reactionary forces joined hands to defeat the PA Government. Capitalist forces led by the UNP on the one hand and the extremist groups bent on dividing the nation and local and foreign racketeers who aided and abetted them on the other did everything possible to prevent the PA Government from being returned to power.

With the victory of the UNF Government at this election, SLFP supporters had to face political violence. Sixty of them were killed and another 3000 ended up with broken limbs and sicknesses.

A large number lost their jobs. Political victimization we had ended in 1994 raised its ugly head once again. The proposals I made to the Cabinet to pay compensation to these people did not gain any response.

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A constant effort was made to act in a manner that would threaten the security of the President on the one hand and to prune the President's power on the other. Along with this, the UNF Government took steps to suppress all opposition parties including the SLFP. The 1977-1994 period of terror seemed to raise its head once again.

While the opposition was being suppressed from one side certain clauses in the MoU signed with the LTTE caused a serious threat to national security. Even though I, as the President and the leader of the SLFP brought this to the constant attention of the Government, they did not pay heed to it. They tried to brand it as an attempt to disrupt the so-called peace process. If a genuine effort was made towards achieving peace we did not attempt to disrupt it.

When I saw that the UNP effort was a threat to national security I never hesitated to use my presidential powers and to take over the Ministry of Defence. Despite these UNP betrayers and various difficulties the SLFP did not abandoned the attempts towards finding a peaceful solution to the ethnic problem.

We made an effort to set up a National Government constituting all parties or if not at least reach a common agreement for solving the ethnic problem. But the UNP did not pay heed to our request. They had no need to come to an understanding to solve the ethnic problem.

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By this time we were highlighting the need for a broad national alliance to save the country from the crisis it faced. It is in this background that the alliance between the SLFP and the JVP was built.

It was an alliance after a year of talks and reaching an agreement on matters that could be agreed upon. An alliance of this nature was necessary to rebuild the nation, which had been destroyed by the UNP.

Actually politically united front coalitions and alliances are nothing new to the SLFP. Mr. Bandaranaike's Sinhala Maha Sabha joined hands with the Lanka Jathika Sangamaya before gaining Independence. In 1956, 1960, 1970 and 1994 our party entered into alliances with left and progressive forces. The alliance formed with the JVP was another step forward in this. This alliance was restricted to the JVP only. And we were able to bring together all parties in the PA as well.

Therefore, the UPFA is a broader, democratic and progressive alliance born in our country. The JVP agreed for talks with the LTTE to resolve the ethnic problem and to accept a final agreement approved by the people when it joined the Alliance. Unlike the UNP which knelt before the LTTE and agreed to each and every condition laid down by it we are dedicated to proceed with peace talks with the required flexibility for reaching a final resolution.

The SLFP is dedicated and committed to a political solution, which would give pride of place to the unity and national security of Sri Lanka and ensure broad devolution of power, which would provide solutions to the legal and constitutional problems of the Tamil people.

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In this we are prepared to look at solutions that other countries of the world have given to these problems in a mature perspective. Similarly the party approves of a new constitution, which would abolish the executive presidential system and amend the distorted system of elections.

We are committed to an economic policy that would give pride of place to indigenousness, encourage foreign investment and provide incentives to the private sector while strengthening the public sector. Fundamental policy of the SLFP is to create a society which would ensure a fair and just public administration, uphold law and order and follow a national education policy.

Policies giving pride of place to indigenousness including the uplift of local agricultural and industry and protection of national heritage included in the Alliance manifesto are nothing new to us. These are principles, which had developed from the initial principles of the SLFP. The period the SLFP had passed since its inception can be divided into five eras. The 1950-decade in which the party was born and captured State power is the first era.

The period from 1960 decade to 1977, which brought the national revolution to fruition, is the second era. The third era is the destructive era from 1977 to 1994 which plunged the party from crisis to crisis where terror and State terrorism reigned supreme. The period from 1994 to 2000 which created a re-awakening in the party can be described as the 4th era.

The period from September 2, 2001 including the two year period of setbacks and the future after April 2004 which brought the UPFA to power is the 5th era. The party's new role in the context of globalisation and its new policies have to be formulated to suit this era.

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The SLFP is not an orthodox party. The late Mr. Bandaranaike resigned from the UNP and formed the SLFP then because he rejected orthodoxy. What he wanted to do at that time was to establish a social democratic party. Before naming it the SLFP the first name proposed was "Sri Lanka Social Democratic Party".

The meaning of this was that the influences of the contemporary social democratic tendencies in the world had been felt by Mr. Bandaranaike. There were not many difference between social democratic parties and socialist parties at that time. Both these parties took a special interest in strengthening the public sector and ensuring social justice and welfare.

But over the past decade also there had been changing political tendencies in the world. After the downfall of the socialist camp new social democratic parties are emerging throughout the world. Most of the communist parties and socialist parties which existed in Eastern and Western Europe earlier have been transformed into new social democratic parties.

New social democratic States born amid the globalised society connected to the technological and communication revolution have become active institutions in the current civil society. The families are protected by it.

The economy is a mixed economy. The new social democrats are talking about the need for social investment in the State to build a fruitful welfare society. The gap between the haves and the have nots should be bridged and a system of fair distribution of resources is essential.

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Priorities in the globalisation age are education, science, technology, communication and information. The first, second and third priority of a new social democratic party is education. Education means knowledge. That is why the SLFP is giving the first priority to education and educational reforms.

The SLFP which is transforming itself into a new social democratic party in the globalised society believes in a market economy with a human face. But let us not forget the public sector. We do not condone privatization of leading industries and vital economic enterprises with central importance.

We reject the so-called Regaining Sri Lanka programme introduced by the UNF Government. It was an economic plan which displayed the UNF's subjugation and foreign subservience. We give pride of place to indigenousness. The good things we have inherited from our customs and traditions are deep rooted in our policies. Even in a globalised society we will not reject indigenousness and traditions. We are prepared to adopt good and mature features of globalisation. What we want is globalisation linked with indigenousness.

This does not mean that we only accept customs and traditions. Our theme is modernity linked with tradition and indigenousness. We should include the favourable features like modern technology, efficient management and a strong financial foundation into our policy. In short, our economy and social policy is a social system which has an equal mixture of democratic human freedoms, social justice and equality.

But this is not a challenge which can be easily overcome. A new vision is needed for the SLFP to overcome this challenge. It need not be the same vision we used to find solutions to problems we faced in 1956, or the 1960 and 1970 decades. What we need today is a logical expansion of our past vision.

That vision should be formulated on the basis of ending the war which is our biggest problem and finding a peaceful political solution to the ethnic problem. As a social democratic party our vision here should be equality and democracy.

The ethnic problem is a problem concerning democracy. In this we should guarantee to all sections of the community a right to safeguard their cultural identity, profess religions according to one's own conscience and beliefs, nurture one's own language and transact business with the Government in one's own language. For this a program which would grant wide devolution of power is needed. This could be done only through a change in the State structure.

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It is to bring about these structural changes that we need a new constitution. These structural changes alone would be insufficient. Wide peoples participation would be essential for a rural development programme in keeping with these changes. It is for this purpose a massive programme "Anniversary Effort (War)" or "Sanwathsara Sangramaya" is being launched on a concept put forward by me on this 53rd anniversary of our party. I expect the support of the entire membership of our party towards this effort.

A basic reorganisation of our party activities is essential to carry forward the party's new policies formulated to suit the globalisation age and its anniversary effort (war).

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It is a re-organisation which will make optimum use of information and communication technology. The new party headquarters at Battaramulla for which the foundation stone is laid will be of great assistance towards this. I seek the support of the party membership and its well-wishers to make this project a success.

During the past 53 years we have faced many victories as well as setbacks. But our party has never been weakened in any such situation. Neither did we run away from problems. We have given proper answers to those who tried to create divisions within the party and who betrayed it.

I wish the SLFP the courage and strength to march forward during the years, beginning today, by identifying the needs of the era properly.

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