SLFP on May Day:

Torn apart by rival rallies

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The May Day rallies and parades that political parties in this country traditionally use as a show of strength threaten to further divide an already deeply factionalised SLFP.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera	CM Shan Wijayalal	CM Isura Devapriya	Dilum Amunugama MP

The Joint Opposition allied to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa will hold its May Day rally at Kirulapone - it is expected that a number of SLFP MPs will attend, despite the fact that the SLFPs own May Day rally will be held in Galle.

Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya went on record saying that any SLFP parliamentarian joining the Joint Opposition rally at Kirulapone would be viewed as a traitor to the party.

“If any SLFPer attends the Joint Opposition May Day rally at Kirulapone such a person cannot be recognised as an SLFP member but one who betrays the SLFP and guarantees the UNP’s victory at the Local Government polls,” said Devapriya.

Citing former President Rajapaksa’s claim that he had not been invited to the SLFP rally in Galle, a ‘drama’ Devapriya said, “As a patron of the SLFP, the former President has no moral right to attend another May Day rally. He has deliberately created an unnecessary issue saying that he has not been invited to the SLFP”

Lead role

In the face of these divisions, UPFA General Secretary and Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has taken a lead role ensuring party unity.

“If a section of SLFP parliamentarians attend the Kirulapone rally, the SLFP Central Committee may resort to disciplinary action against them later.

But the SLFP MPs in the Joint Opposition have not officially informed the party that they would be attending the Kirulapone rally,” said Amaraweera.

While some SLFP stalwarts have been holding out hope of a last minute compromise, with party MPs and seniors uniting for a major show of force in Galle, UPFA Kandy District parliamentarian, Dilum Amunugama, told the Sunday Observer that all the SLFP MPs in the Joint Opposition would proceed to Kirulapone.

“A May Day is held to win the rights of the working class. At present, a part of the SLFP is in the government when the entire UNP is in the government but the government has failed,” he said.

“The government has increased VAT and curtailed the compensation given to soldiers while farmers are struggling. It is an absolute joke being in the government and organising a parade to ask the government to give the people their rights,” he said. Chief Minister of the Southern Province, Shan Wijayalal de Silva dismissed the notion of a Joint Opposition show of force in Kirulapone. “Here are a few minor political parties which are limited only to party nameboards, all such parties are politically destitute.

They have no party cadres of their own. As such, they try to divide our party and celebrate May Day with our people. We will defeat all subversive schemes of conspirators against the party.

All faithful SLFP cadres are with the party and will rally round President Maithripala Sirisena.”

[Devapriya on Rajapaksa ]

“Merely because a person is popular among the people, he should not use his personal popularity for political gain. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the last Presidential election as he misused his personal popularity to grab power.

Even today he is misusing his popularity for his political survival. At present some of our partymen have been left in the lurch and they are wondering which May Day rally they should attend, Galle or Kirulapone. All SLFP party seniors have been officially invited to the SLFP May Day rally.

The ‘drama’ being enacted by former President Rajapaksa is our biggest worry at the moment. He was voted to Presidency by our votes and lost at the last Presidential election though we voted for him. He is a leader whom we all love, but we cannot endorse what he is doing right now.

The SLFP was defeated at the 2015 General Election because of former President Rajapaksa. If the former President allowed President Maithripala Sirisena to lead the UPFA election campaign with a new team, the SLFP would have won the election.

Therefore, the former President should be held responsible for the UPFA’s defeat at the last General Election.

The former President has held all the portfolios that could be held by a politician in this country so he should retire from politics and commit to strengthen the SLFP and secure its victory by 2020.

We cannot understand the ‘drama’ enacted by the former President. Actually, this is the political art of the former President, but that is not applicable for present day needs.”