Time for SLFP to take firm action: Duminda

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party has a few hard decisions to make in the coming weeks, says party stalwart and Coalition Government Minister Duminda Dissanayake speaking to Daily FT about the current state of affairs in his party. A staunch SLFP member, he was one of the first five members to walk out the SLFP with Maithripala Sirisena in 2014. Three years later, Dissanayake takes stock of the past three years and speaks of the party’s future plans. Following are excerpts of the interview:

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Q: What did you think of the recently concluded Janabalaya rally?

A: It was a complete flop; we had already said it was not going to be a success and that it would not hurt the Government in any way. If you take the Constitution of the country, it is clearly states how the Parliament is formed, how the term comes to an end, how to fill a vacancy if the need arises. It is the same with the presidency, the procedure is outlined. When this exists, to mislead the people, telling them they will surround Colombo and take over the Government, has not worked. The people have now realised the frauds their leaders are, they came from home, wandered aimlessly and then had to watch a 'thoila' and by 12 midnight it was all over. This was an unsuccessful effort, and even if they do it in future it will be the same. We are very happy as a Government that this was done when there was still about one-and-a-half years for the presidential elections. Because they did it so early, now what are they going to do next?

When they came from Kandy to Colombo, they claimed that they would take over the Government, they claimed this in their political meetings as well, then they said they would take over the Government after the Local Government elections, then Mahinda Rajapaksa said he would take over before a certain Vesak Poya. Now those who came from home claiming to take over the Government went home without anything; the next two years will be easy for the Government. 

Q: The organisers of Janabalaya, although claiming to be supporters of Sri Lanka Podu Peramuna, are actually all members of Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and they were demonstrating against the Government which the SLFP is a part of. In light of this, what action will the SLFP take against them?

A: I have always strongly maintained that given the Constitution of our party, supporting another party or aiding or working for the betterment of another party is against regulations; those engaging in such activities can be expelled from the party. I think at least now the party has to take a decision to remove them from the party. Earlier we have refrained from taking strong action against this as we wanted to reunite this party, but we can't reunite them.

Q: You have always spoken of this disciplinary action but the party has never really followed through; will it happen at least this time? 

A: I will definitely propose this at the next Central Committee meeting; we have to now know who our strong and loyal members are and we can't work with groups which we think are for the party but are not actually loyal to us. So we really have to take the decision this time. 

Q: We saw during the SLPP rally that there were party supporters who hooted and booed at the Party Headquarters as they walked past the building; at this rate will you be able to get your party membership back on track?

A: I am confident that our supporter base has not moved away from us. They have been misguided and they are now confused. Sri Lanka Freedom Party supporters have been misguided. You have to admit Mahinda Rajapaksa is a popular politician, we can't deny that. But what we should look at now is ‘can Mahinda Rajapaksa manage it now?’ This is what the people and SLFP membership are not able to understand. Why are we focused on Rajapaksa, why do people think that they cannot go forward without a Rajapaksa? 

With time, when people grow old, your capabilities become limited, then generally you step down. What is the highest place you can go in this country? It is the presidency. So if you have been the President twice, now what Mahinda Rajapaksa should do is hold the advisory post and help the second generation to come forward. But some Sri Lanka Freedom Party members cannot understand this. This party was earlier formed not based on principles and policies but based on single individuals, especially during the Mahinda Rajapaksa era, there was no reference to Sri Lanka Freedom Party, it was based on Mahinda Chinthana and Mahinda Rajapaksa, so all thought everything was done by one man. But Mahinda Rajapaksa was only one man; we have to rally around the party. 

I think now their supporters may also be speaking of a party without Mahinda Rajapaksa; it is evident now as even their supporter Kumara Welgama said ‘although I am loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa I am not willing to back any other Rajapaksa blindly’. The party membership will not drop, they will understand these facts slowly and return to the party as they understand that they should support the party, not just one individual. 

Q: The Sri Lanka Freedom Party has been engaged in this tug-of-war with Mahinda Rajapaksa for over three years now, but has failed to give the party membership the strong leadership required and get their support to the party. Is this not your weakness? How will you go forward?

A: Yes, there is clearly a shortcoming here. Especially the group of 15 always said SLFP is ‘against the UNP’ and ‘UNP means against SLFP,’ that was how the parties have functioned from the start. That was how it was when politics in the country was at its primary level, but now the supporters are not focused on the party alone, they focus on the policies of the party. 

Maithripala Sirisena would not have been able to win if everyone was focused on parties; he won clearly because the youth, the intellectuals, all decided to look beyond the party and decided to work together and they decided that the country should not be passed down in one family. Therefore, as the SLFP, very clearly we have to accept this if we are to work with the UNP in the Government. 

When you are governing together, you cannot just take the good; both will have to accept the good and the bad together. This is not seen in the current Coalition Government. Us in different parties are trying to blame the other group when something goes wrong and take credit for whatever good that is being done. This has to be communicated to our party supporters. 

We have to tell our supporters that going forward, we will run as a single party in upcoming elections, but right now we will work in the Coalition Government. When we don’t communicate this properly, sometimes this issue of confusion comes up; even SLFP supporters cannot decide if the SLFP is in the Coalition Government with the UNP or whether it is in the Opposition. I think it has to be discussed openly with the public, we cannot play the Opposition role when sitting in the Government. If we work in the Government, then we cannot just accept the good things and when the negatives come up we cannot behave as if we are in the Opposition. 

Q: We see that Namal Rajapaksa is being featured as the next leader; as a young politician yourself, how do see the recent development where it is considered that the Janabalaya, which was his first major political undertaking, was a flop?

A: I am glad young politicians are coming up, it is a different thing that the rally was a failure. But I am happy to see young blood entering politics. I always say, I am not against the Rajapaksa name, what I am against is people saying that Basil or Gotabaya or Chamal Rajapaksa has to be the next President. I am not against Namal Rajapaksa coming up and gaining experience and when the age is right. I am not against Namal coming up through experience and work, if I can I will even help. As a young politician, I think young people should come into politics. What I am against it the trend that the leadership has to remain in the family. 

Q: You say that the Janabalaya organisers gave such high hopes to their followers about taking over the Government and let them down with their failure to deliver and that the people were misled. Don’t you think it is a shortcoming on your side that as a party you haven’t been able communicate effectively to your supporters at the grassroots which enabled the JO to ‘mislead the people’ as you say?

A: We do speak to the grassroots, but the problem is, no matter how much we communicate as the SLFP, the connection the supporters have with Rajapaksa and the fact that they have rallied around one person and his vision – Mahinda Chinthana – has made it difficult for the people to distance themselves and see the policies of the party clearly. People will severe their connection from this only with experience, now they understand better. They tried making Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister in August 2015, but they couldn’t; then they tried staging protests and holding rallies through the JO and the new ‘Pohottuwa Party’. Then in the last election – the Local Government elections – they said they would make Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister again. That too was a failure. Now the Janabalaya was a failure. Now the SLFPers practically understand what the JO and Pohottuwa are saying is not possible. They can now think ‘why are we going behind one man? The leader of our party is the President, we are in the Government’. They only understand this now, so they will slowly return to the party. 

Q: How are you going to work with the Mahinda Rajapaksa group in future after the Janabalaya rally as well? Earlier there were indications that a reunion was possible, but now can this work out?

A: The portrayal here is wrong; it is not that we are going to work with the Mahinda Rajapaksa camp, we will work around the SLFP. We rally around the SLFP and not around one man to make him king. We say that we rally around the SLFP, not around the Mahinda Rajapaksa vision, it is the SLFP under Maithripala Sirisena’s leadership. What we say is that we rally around the SLFP with its democratic principles, anti-corruption policies and good governance. But we are not going to re-join saying we have to bring a particular person to power. 

Q: Mahinda Rajapaksa is still an Advisor to the SLFP, but if he is setting up a new camp, is it politically viable for the SLFP to let him continue as an Advisor to the party?

A: Yes, there is no sense in doing so. 

Q: Isn’t this the dilemma your party supporters have as well – he is still an Advisor, but he is also forming a different camp?

A: That is why I said that it is time to take a strong decision.

Q: Who takes this decision?

A: The Central Committee of the party. 

Q: Why have you delayed taking this decision for so long?

A: As I said earlier, we were trying to reunite, to address it in a way to bring positive results. There are a few places where we have gone wrong. One is we should not have allowed Mahinda Rajapaksa to run for Parliamentary elections, because on one side he is returning to Parliament after holding the executive presidency for two terms from Kurunegala. So he is denying the chance for another person to come from Kurunegala. After deciding to be a part of the Coalition Government as the SLFP, it was wrong for us to allow them to stay in the Opposition in Parliament. We were wrong to do those as a party, but we did all of that in an attempt to reunite party, to keep them in the party. But what happened ultimately is that a ‘Pohottuwa Party’ was created. The Central Committee now needs analyse this whole thing and take direct decisions. 

Q: Do you think your leader, President Maithripala Sirisena, has the strength to take the decisions needed?

A: Yes, indeed. We have removed several of the Group of 15 from organiser positions also. As a party we will work towards what needs to be done.