Several civil society leaders and senior members of the vanquished United National Party (UNP) and dominant Opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) have recently called upon former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to come forward and unite the Opposition to the Government both inside and outside of Parliament, party sources said. 

High on their minds is the symbolic role played by the former Speaker in introducing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and Right to Information Act, and his defence of democratic rights and parliamentary privileges during the October 2018 constitutional crisis, when Jayasuriya came under physical attack behind a phalanx of Police officers in the Parliament chamber as he presided over a vote of no-confidence against the illegally appointed Government. 

“When it comes to defending democracy against dictatorial impulses, there is no stronger symbol in Sri Lanka today than Karu Jayasuriya,” a prominent civil society activist told Daily FT. “He is uniquely positioned to help rally the opposition parties in Parliament behind Sajith Premadasa, and galvanise civil society movements to defend the rights the people won through the 19th Amendment.”

UNP and SJB strategists agree that the SLPP enjoys a strong and charismatic icon of strongman leadership in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and believe that Jayasuriya is the only similarly placed leader to represent democratic values and strengthening public institutions.

Opposition leaders are calling for a cohesive platform that can be supported by all 75 members of the opposition in unison as well as a wide variety of non-political organisations and civic groups, to elevate the national dialogue against what they term as the Government’s agenda of eating away at democratic safeguards.

The move, in the aftermath of a historic landslide victory by the governing Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), seeks to rekindle the united front led by the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera prior to the 2015 Presidential Election.

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