Sunday Politics with Rasika Jayakody

Sirisena’s blitz against rebel bloc:

SLFP braces for post-election inner party purge

At the time when UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha and SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa exerted pressure on President Maithripala Sirisena to give nomination to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, many political observers raised questions as to why the President did not take measures to remove the two General Secretaries from their positions.

According to powers vested in him by the party constitution, President Sirisena, who is also the Chairman of the SLFP, was in a position to replace the two General Secretaries at his sole discretion. Even former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, a staunch supporter of Maithripala Sirisena during the Presidential election, was livid at the fact that the President resorted to a lenient approach towards the ‘dissidents’.

However, President Sirisena, who was at one point the longest serving General Secretary of the SLFP, had other plans. He let Rajapaksa contest the Parliamentary election on the UPFA ticket and announced that he would maintain a ‘neutral’ stance in the electoral political contest.

The UPFA seniors were allowed to appoint Rajapaksa as the head of the Elections Steering Committee of the coalition and that allowed some to even dub him as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party. They made such remarks all the while knowing that President Sirisena was not inclined to appoint his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the Prime Minister of the new government, even if the UPFA secured a majority.

President Maithripala Sirisena silently observed all such dynamics. He never interfered with the election campaign of the party and gave full authority to the Elections Steering Committee of the UPFA. He only made a brief appearance at a rally organized by UPFA Anuradhapura District candidate Duminda Dissanayake, a strong supporter of President Maithripala Sirisena over the past nine months. Even at Duminda Dissnayake’s meeting, the President only appeared on stage and greeted the crowd, without making any public speech expressing his support to the UPFA Anuradhapura District candidate.

However, just four days prior to the Parliamentary election, the President sent a five page letter to his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, reiterating that he would not appoint Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister in the event of a UPFA victory. He also accused Rajapaksa of employing communalism to ensure his political survival. The strongly worded letter, which came as a total surprise on Thursday, sent shock waves across the country’s political firmament.

As the letter came just a day ahead of the final day of election campaigning, it was difficult for the pro-Rajapaksa camp to formulate a quick response. MR camp strategists weighed several options to counter the Sirisena statement.

One group suggested that all party leaders of the UPFA should hold a press conference in Colombo denouncing the President while the other group said all seven senior members of the UPFA, who had been named by the President as potential candidates for the post of Prime Minister, should hold a full-scale press conference in Colombo. But, that too was not a practical option as most of the party seniors were out of Colombo due to election-related activities.

Finally, Susil Premajayantha and John Seneviratne were entrusted with the task of speaking to the media on behalf of all seven party seniors nominated by the President. In addition to that, the party seniors also decided to write a letter to the President requesting him to appoint Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister in the event of a UPFA parliamentary victory.

Meanwhile, a minor buzz occurred in SLFP circles when it was learnt that veteran A.H.M. Fowzie had refused to sign the party seniors’ letter on the grounds that appointing a Prime Minister was the prerogative of the President. Fowzie, a national list candidate of the UPFA, had remained supportive of party Chairman President Maithripala Sirisena after the last Presidential election.

In the letter however, the party seniors did not explicitly state that none of them would accept the Prime Minister’s office. They merely asked the President to appoint Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister in the event of a UPFA victory, while urging the Party Chairman to respect the people’s mandate. Similar sentiments were expressed in the letter sent to President Sirisena by former President Rajapaksa on Friday, in response to Sirisena’s letter.

Rajapaksa said he himself had respected the people’s mandate when he relinquished his position on January 9 and handed over the party leadership to Sirisena.

Inner party drama

In a dramatic turn of events on Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena suddenly moved to sack Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha from their General Secretary positions positions in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and United People’s Freedom Alliance respectively from August 13.

The President, in a letter to the Executive Committee of the party on Thursday, had announced that the two had been removed from their positions. The letter was also copied to the Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya. Apart from the General Secretary’s post of the UPFA, Premajayantha also lost his position as the National Organizer of the SLFP, a position he received after President Sirisena became the party chairman.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha were also removed from the Central Committee Membership and Executive Committee membership of the party. In addition to that, their party membership was suspended with immediate effect.

The President, in his letter, said that he had taken the decision in accordance with the powers vested in him as the Chairman of both the SLFP and UPFA. The President removed the two on the basis that they repeatedly acted against the decisions of the party leadership, while criticizing the party Chairman’s conduct in public.

The letter said this amounted to conspiratorial behaviour and violation of the party constitution.

Chandrika loyalist Duminda Dissanayake was appointed Acting General Secretary of the SLFP while Prof. W. A. Wishwa Warnapala, also a Chandrika confidante, was appointed Acting General Secretary of the UPFA, replacing Yapa and Premajayantha respectively.

Swift legal move

Sirisena’s team moved swiftly and comprehensively in affecting these changes with legal steps taken to ensure their actions would remain firm. The new appointments were revealed on Friday at the District Court of Colombo when two petitions were filed by Duminda Dissanayake and Wiswa Warnapala, seeking to act in their respective positions without interference.

They informed court that they had been appointed to the respective positions by the President and that they sought to assume the duties of their positions without interference.District Court Judge Harsha Setunga issued two interim injunctions following the petitions. One injunction prevents Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha from continuing in their previous positions, and the other injunction prevents anybody from interfering in the duties of the newly appointed.

The orders will be in effect until August 28.

President’s Counsel K. Kanag Iswaran, Chandika Jayasundara, Charaka Jayaratne, Pulasthi Rupasinghe and Mehran Careem appeared for the plaintiffs. The parties who filed the petition, in an affidavit, said they had to seek the intervention of the judiciary as there was inadequate time to seek the assistance of the law enforcement authorities.

UPFA campaign office evicted

Just hours after this development, the UPFA’s elections operations office was removed from the SLFP headquarters following an order from ‘higher authorities’. The elections steering committee of the UPFA was headed by former President Rajapaksa and it was the body which steered the coalition’s election campaign.

The General Secretary of the party will play a key role when appointing Members of Parliament from the national list. In acting just before election day, President Sirisena has clearly asserted his control over the party’s national list by replacing the General Secretaries. As the move was made at the last moment, there is insufficient time for his ‘opponents’ to take counter-action.

However, responding to the decision made by the party chairman, former UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha claimed his removal was ‘invalid’, indicating he was ready to challenge the legality of the move.

Speaking to media on Friday, Premajayantha said the General Secretary could not be removed from his position without the consent of the party Central Committee. According to the SLFP constitution, the Central Committee is the supreme decision making body of the party.

The Central Committee cannot be convened until August 24 due to an enjoining order issued by the Colombo District Court.

General Secretary jinx

In fact, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa is the ninth General Secretary of the SLFP who has had to relinquish his office abruptly. Almost all his predecessors, over the past 60 years, faced serious issues while holding office and the large majority of them eventually defected from the party.

Anura Yapa was appointed as the General Secretary of the party after Maithripala Sirisena, the longest serving General Secretary of the SLFP, defected from the party to become the Common Candidate of the opposition before the last Presidential election. However, Sirisena later became the Chairman of the party after he took oaths as the sixth Executive President of the country, in January, this year.

After Sirisena announced his candidacy in November, last year, he too was summarily dismissed from his position as the party General Secretary. Sirisena, at the time of his defection, had held the general secretary position for nearly 13 years.

Sirisena, when he became the General Secretary of the SLFP, replaced S.B. Dissanayake, who was an influential figure during the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga administration. Dissanayake too defected from the party and joined the UNP along with ten other MPs , in 2001.

Dissanyake’s crossover led to the downfall of the Kumaratunga government which was elected in 2000. Another General Secretary who grappled with serious issues while serving as the General Secretary of the SLFP was former Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake who held the position during the early 80s. He had to hold the SLFP’s all-important position while the party was in utter disarray due to internecine power struggles.

Frustrated over never-ending power struggles and internal divisions, Wickremanayake, at one point, distanced himself from the party in the mid-80s and maintained a low profile.

J.R.P. Sooriyapperuma, who was a national list Parliamentarian of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) under the Rajapaksa administration, was the General Secretary of the party during a tumultuous time. He crossed over to the SLFP from the UNP and later distanced himself from active politics as the party entangled itself with internal issues.

Rathna Deshapriya Senanayake, who started his political career from the Communist Party, is another General Secretary of the SLFP who left the party. His brother, Dharmasiri Senanayake too, became the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and he was the only General Secretary of the SLFP to remain in the post without leaving the party.

However, it was widely rumoured Senanayake had various differences of opinion with former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Senanayake’s term too ended abruptly as he passed away while serving as the General Secretary and Minister of Tourism of the Kumaratunga government.

Bernard Aluvihare, founding General Secretary of the SLFP, also crossed over to the UNP in 1956, just months before the general election, leaving the party in a state of shock. However, Aluvihare, ended up in the losing party and failed to secure his seat in Parliament. He lost to Nimal Karunathilake, a journalist attached to the Lankadeepa newspaper, who was fielded by Bandaranaike at the last moment.

Nimal Karunathilake too crossed over to the UNP along with C.P. de Silva in 1964. Their crossover, engineered by Esmond Wickremesinghe in 1964, resulted in the downfall of the SLFP led government, headed by the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Therefore, holding the General Secretary post of the SLFP is certainly a challenge and Anura Priayadarshana Yapa is the latest ‘victim’ in this connection.

The removal of Premajayantha and Yapa is a strong indication that there will be ‘purge’ inside the SLFP after the election and that the party, in all probability, will move away from the UPFA coalition. At the same time, President Maithripala Sirisena will consolidate his power in the SLFP camp. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who aligned herself with key civil society organizations during the Presidential election campaign, is expected to play a key role in this process.

Thajudeen’s family

Wasim Thajudeen’s death was an important topic among political circles over the past few weeks and the CID is now in the process of carrying out fresh investigations into the death. In a major development, President Maithripala Sirisena met members of Thajudeen’s family at his office for a special discussion on Monday. A prominent politician in the Colombo District facilitated the meeting between the two parties.

The President, during the meeting, undertook to provide security for Thajudeen’s family until the end of the investigations. Given the murky implications of this bizarre ‘murder’, the family feared that elements seeking to avoid prosecution may attempt to harass them or even harm them.

He had also told Thajudeen’s family that the investigations into the death of the former Havelock’s SC rugby captain would be carried out after the election, irrespective of its outcome.

Meanwhile, inquiries into Thajudeen’s death reached a crucial point last week when the CID established that no motor accident had taken place at the site where the rugby player’s body was recovered, top police sources told the Sunday Observer.

“Thajudeen’s body was not even in the driving seat of the vehicle. At the time the charred body was recovered it was in the other front seat,” a highly placed Police source said.

Fabricated

Although the initial Police report said the vehicle caught fire within seconds of the accident, the fuel tank of the vehicle was half full, he added.

“There is no way that a vehicle can burn up in that manner while the fuel tank is half full,” the officer explained.

“When investigating the vehicle, we found out that there were no signs of an accident. There is evidence to suggest that an ‘accident-event’ had been fabricated to cover up a crime,” he added.

The Sunday Observer also learns that medical experts are in the process of examining Thajudeen’s body which was exhumed on Monday. The authenticity of the body has already been established.

Inquiries are presently underway to ascertain whether the fractures in his body are in line with the CID’s findings which have already been presented to the Magistrate’s Court.

A comprehensive report in this regard is expected to be presented at the next hearing of the case, scheduled for September 10.