1956 - 2006, a new SLFP

Karu Paranavithana

SLFP CONVENTION: If there is to be a healthy democracy in a country there should be a developed party system. Although there are over 50 political parties operating in the electoral political system in Sri Lanka what is seen today is not a multi party democracy but a two party democracy as in the USA and the UK.

The main reason for this is that in all General, Presidential and local Government elections held so far since 1947 political power has changed hands between coalitions centred round the UNP or the SLFP. Therefore all election victories, setbacks and policy and leadership changes occurring in these two main parties directly influence people's lives.

The Sri Lanka parliamentary election system will complete 60 years in 2007. Although the UNP has governed the country for the major part of these six decades, the SLFP will establish a record surpassing the UNP. Accordingly the SLFP which was born 15 years after the UNP will become the party which has ruled for the largest period in independent Sri Lanka.

Since the SLFP has now become the major force in national politics it is pertinent to examine the future of the SLFP when it is holding another national convention today.

The SLFP convention held today to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of the 1956 victory is of major historical significance. At this moment when the party is holding its convention it has captured legislative, executive as well as local government powers.

Accordingly what is being held today is the convention of the most powerful political party in Sri Lanka.

A General Convention of a political party is not just another meeting. A Convention of a party based on Central democracy means a very important meeting which examines the country's current political objectives, current socio-political challenges and international political tendencies and takes decisions about the manner they should be faced through correct political management.

Political parties in developed countries pay attention to three main aspects during their Conventions.

They are the future theoretical vision on which the party should be directed; leadership party's organisational models including hierarchical pattern; and activities for winning over people's forces.

The SLFP too will have to re-examine these three aspects and identify several re-organisations and re-constructions.

The SLFP was a four-year-old nascent party when it obtained a great people's victory at the 1956 General Elections. Such a party could obtain that massive victory because the political intuition of leaders who rallied round the SLFP could bring about a change which the then UNP and left parties could not bring about.

That was the "introduction of a political system which empowered the ordinary masses". It was this political finding which had formed the basis of the SLFP's political power ever since.

Social democracy which was the party's theoretical vision generally known as the middle path nicely matched the political project of empowering the ordinary masses.

Social democracy means a political vision understood by people in different ways. Finding the middle position in politics without succumbing to rightist or leftist extremism is a difficult task. The position of these extremisms and the middle point changes from time to time.

Therefore the SLFP will have to explore the type of social democracy relevant to the era constantly. This is the theoretical challenge faced by the SLFP after 50 years.

As far as the hierarchical pattern and the model of the SLFP is concerned, it did not have to confront many challenges faced by other parties. This phenomenon was mainly contributory to the feudalistic backwardness of the organizational form of the party.

When the UNP is considered, its tendency to change leadership from time to time was manifest throughout. Its organizational form remains steadfast even today, in spite of assassination of its front line as well as second row leaders during the times of riots, terror and war.

The JVP, which is a party which suffered complete annihilation of the Central Executive Committee and the Political Bureau, to the exception of a single member, it was resilient enough to revive as a strong party irrespective of its bloody repression.

Other than the Bandaranaike Assassination and the repression under the J.R. Jayewardene regime, Sri Lanka Freedom Party did not confront major animosity in the political arena so much. Yet it suffered the permanent impairment of inadequacy to select a leader from the ordinary masses though the party gathered momentum out of the support of the ordinary people.

The cause for this was feudalistic nepotism that overshadowed the hierarchical pattern and organizational form of the party from its very outset.

As far as Mahinda Rajapaksa is concerned he is only a supplement. Mahinda Rajapaksa loomed large in the party not because of any party blessings but because of his strategy of tactfully facing the leadership prejudices while winning the confidence of the ordinary activists. Emergence of Mahinda Rajapaksa within the party is a clear manifestation of the urgency of shattering the feudalistic model.

If Mahinda Rajapaksa did not come forward to contest the last Presidential Election as a result of fracturing the party elephant leg of family nepotism, SLFP would have suffered an unparalleled defeat.

Under the circumstances it is time for the SLFP to produce a new organizational model and an hierarchical pattern that will pave the way for members of all levels to become leaders instead of a situation where the prospective future leaders are repressed. The party leadership should devolve on persons who appreciate free and democratic ideology.

It was this concept of free democratic ideology that President Mahinda Rajapaksa advocated when he said that a climate should be created under which even a candidate contesting a seat in the Pradeshiya Sabha could aspire for the Presidency in due course.

A political party may have various aims. Political parties come in to existence to achieve various objectives on various principles. But all these parties have one common objective. That is the objective of gaining power. There cannot exist a party in the political arena which does not aim to gain power or participate in power sharing in some other form or which aims to lose the right of exerting pressure on rulers.

The base of a political party in democratic politics is the ability to win people's forces. In 1956, the SLFP was successful to attract a large number of social forces which were basically Sinhalese. They were the five fold forces traditionally called "Sanga","Veda","Guru", "Govi", "Kamkaru".

As we come to the year 2006, we cannot confine ourselves to the traditional five forces. The history of 50 years is not a short span of time. The very world, its economy as well as world politics are changing rapidly.

Under the conditions of digital technology, Capital Globalization and Societal Interaction, new social forces are emerging. The SLFP has to identify the new forces and adopt new strategies to enfold the new forces. We cannot forget the fact that those who attacked the SLFP led Alliance Government in 1971 were the same forces who awakened the SLFP in 1956.

The insurrection of 1971, the reign of terror of 1989 and the fattening of JVP poll strength in the recent elections are eye-openers to the SLFP that it did not have a successful programme to win the confidence of the rural and urban oppressed youth who clamour for social justice.

If a political party in a multi religious country confines itself to a concept of single national identity that party's power base is doomed to dissolve. That is why the SLFP should not confine itself to a party of Sinhala only. What the late Prime Minister

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike founded was not a common Sinhala only party. When he accepted the position of SLFP Leader and its Chairman, S.Thangarajah and Baduideen Mohammed representing the two communities, Tamil and Muslim, were chosen as the General Secretaries.

That was to represent in the leadership a cross section of the entire society. The inaugural meeting of the party was held on September 02, 1951. The press notice that announced the meeting contained the signatures of Bernard Aluvihare, Baduideen Mohammed, C.R. Beligammana, A.T. Careem, George R. de Silva, C.P. de Silva, J.M. de Silva, P de S. Kularatne, Stanley de Zoysa, P.B. Dissanayake, P. Dolapihilla, C.M. Fernando, Panditha Gunawardena, D.B.S. Godamune, R.S.S. Gunawardena, Vernon Gunasekera, D.S. Gunasekera, Daya Hewavitharana, Thamara Kumari Ilangaratne, W.A.D. Ramanayake, C.A. Samarasinghe, M. Swaminadan, F.R. Jayasooriyas, L.B. Kolugalle, Jayaweera Kuruppu, Marken Marker, C.S. Marikkar, J.C.W. Munasinghe, H.C. Nissanka, A.C. Natarajah, Albert Perera, W.S.B. Perera, Walter Perera, Darrel Peiris, Barns Ratwatte, D.A. Rajapakse, H.P.W. Rambukwella, C.V. Ranawaka, K. Sirisena, S. Thangarajah and T. B.Tennekone. This shows that though it was possible to gain power by the formation of only Sinhala people, the founder members included people to represent various other communities. Under these circumstances, it augurs well for the SLFP to identify the new unifying forces of Sri Lanka without any communal or religious differentiation. The SLFP has to adopt a new approach that can win not only the Kaduwela electorate which has a Sinhala majority but also the people's forces of Colombo Central, Colombo North, Batticaloa and Jaffna where other communities command a majority.

The journey through the middle path is difficult. The short lived three year regime of Bandaranaike was battered by both the rightists and the leftist extremists. Therefore, during his days, the middle path was criticised as a moss path and the leadership was equalled to a stick in the mud. But it is crystal clear that today's climate is different.

Countries like India, Germany, and United Kingdom, who grasped the middle path in the proper perspective are moving forward today with the cooperation of social democratic forces. The Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa as it works today shows the same condition.

It is evident today that the political centre he chose is not assailable from the two extremes but capable of enlisting the cooperation of both extremes. This stand could be upheld only through the SLFP's adherence to a modernized march forward in the three realms of Theory, Model and Activity.