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| Sunday, 29 August 2004 |
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On a forward march
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party was born on September 2, 1951. Soon, we will be commemorating the 53rd anniversary of our party. It is no exaggeration to state that the birth and expansion of the SLFP and the birth and expansion of Sri Lanka's social, economic and cultural revolution constituted a parallel process rather than two different things. Before 1948, our prime national need was to regain our lost national independence. It was to achieve this aim that the Sinhala Maha Sabha led by late Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and the Lanka Jathika Sangamaya joined and formed the United National Party. Although this party was able to fulfil an important responsibility in winning national independence, the people's hopes and aspirations were not fulfilled by the UNP government born after independence. The moment Mr. Bandaranaike understood this situation, he resigned from the UNP Government. The social, cultural, religious and national forces essential for building a political force which would fulfil these national hopes and aspirations were developing by this time. This national force was represented by the birth of the SLFP. The historic victory achieved at the 1956 general election by this force which rapidly developed since 1951 was the initial victory of this country's national revolution. Although the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party were not constituent parties of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna led by Mr. Bandaranaike, he was able to enter a no-contest pact with them as two friendly parties. Extremist forces Looked from this angle, the '56 victory was a victory of all national, progressive and leftist forces. But almost similar to the machinations of extremist forces today, communal forces opposed Mr. Bandaranaike then. I think in this background, it is the duty and responsibility of young researchers and historians today to analyse what happened in 1956 from a completely new angle or view point. This recounting from a new angle becomes all the more necessary when we consider the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike by the collusion of extremist forces and the rightist fascist forces which became a catspaw of the Imperialists. These forces have not been silenced to-date. Although the SLFP had to suffer a temporary setback at the General Election held in March 1960 after the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike, it was able to achieve a historic victory in July 1960 under the Chairmanship of late Ms. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. At this election too the LSSP and the SPCL, which were left parties formed a no-contest pact with the SLFP. Conspiracies This government was able to fulfil most of the tasks which remained unfulfilled after the '56 victory. However, there was no shortage of conspiracies even at that time. We were able to defeat the rightist fascist army coup d'etat launched in 1962. The SLFP which understood the importance of working in co-operation with left parties at this time entered into a coalition government with the LSSP. But conspirators continued their work and the coalition government was defeated through a Parliamentary conspiracy on December 3, 1964. The SLFP, which had to sit in the opposition after the 1965 General Election, faced temporary setbacks till 1970. It is during this period that the need for the unity of left and progressive forces came to the fore once again. The most outstanding among the great and varied amount of work accomplished by the United Front government set up in 1970 was the 1972 Republican constitution which strengthened the independence of the country. However, the United Front government had to face severe crises due to the rebellious situations which occurred locally and the economic crisis which occurred internationally. The end result was our party's defeat in 1977. It is after this that not only the SLFP but all left and progressive forces had to face the most disastrous crisis in history. The greatest challenge posed to our party was the deprivation of Mrs. Bandaranaike's civic rights. The internal crisis of the party aggravated. Greatest challenges It is in this background that I had to give leadership to the SLFP to resurrect it from the grave abyss to which it had fallen. The greatest challenges before us were to restore humanism, re-establish human freedom which had been trampled and end the period of indiscipline where state terrorism reigned supreme. It was to overcome these challenges that the People's Alliance (PA) was born before the 1994 General Election. With the victory of the PA at the 1994 General and Presidential Elections, we were able to end the period of terror, which existed till then. But our main challenge was to end the war and find a peaceful solution to the ethnic problem. We laid our hands on this responsible task within a few days of coming to power. The main tasks we had to face during this period were the Ceasefire Agreement, beginning of talks with the LTTE and the violation of ceasefire by the LTTE within a few months and the advent of war. Even after the violation of the ceasefire by the LTTE, we did not stop our efforts to reach a solution through dialogue. Although I made repeated requests from the UNP to provide the support of 16 opposition MPs to get this new Draft Constitution approved, I did not receive a favourable response from it. In the end, it was with the prime motive of obtaining a clear people's mandate to solve this problem that I decided to hold a Presidential Election in December 1999 almost 15 months before the due date. You will remember that during this Presidential Election Campaign, an attempt was made by the LTTE to assassinate me and I lost one eye in the process. Even after winning the Presidential Election for the second time, I called upon the UNP and the LTTE to assist in resolving the ethnic problem. But a fruitful response was never received. Secret dealings A group of enemies holding top posts in the party started secret dealings with UNP. After disrupting the program of work formulated to enter into a ceasefire with the LTTE, they resigned from the PA Government and sat in the Opposition with the UNP. This parliamentary conspiracy was similar to the one implemented against the coalition Government in 1964. With these setbacks, we faced the General Elections on December 5, 2001. With the victory of the UNF Government at this election, SLFP supporters had to face political violence. Sixty of them were killed and another 3000 ended up with broken limbs and ailments. A large number lost their jobs. Political victimization which we ended in 1994 raised its ugly head once again. The 1977-1994 period of terror seemed to raise its head once again. Even though I as the President of the country and the SLFP brought this to the constant attention of the Government, they did not pay heed to it. They tried to brand it as an attempt to disrupt the so-called peace process. It is in this background that the alliance, between the SLFP and the JVP was built. This Alliance the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is not restricted to the JVP only. We were able to bring together all parties in the PA as well. The SLFP is dedicated and committed to a political solution, which would give pride of place to the unity and national security of Sri Lanka and ensure broad devolution of power, which would provide solutions to the legal and constitutional problems of the Tamil people. Similarly the party approves of a new constitution, which would abolish the Executive Presidential system and amend the distorted system of elections. The period the SLFP has passed since its inception can be divided into five eras. The 1950-decade, in which the party was born and captured State power, is the first era. The period from 1960 to 1977, which brought the national revolution to fruition, is the second era. The third era is the destructive era from 1977 to 1994, which plunged the party from crisis to crisis where terror and state terrorism reigned supreme. The period from 1994 to 2000, which created a re-awakening in the party, can be described as the fourth era. The period from September 2, 2001 including the two-year period of setbacks and the future after the April 2004 election, which brought the UPFA to power, is the fifth era. The party's new role in the context of globalisation and its new policies have to be formulated to suit this era. Priorities in the globalisation age are education, science, technology, communication and information society. The first, second and third priority of a new social democratic party is education. Education means knowledge. That is why the SLFP is giving the first priority for education and educational reforms. Our economy and social policy is a social system which has an equal mixture of democratic human freedoms, social justice and equality. But this is not a challenge which can be easily overcome. A new vision is needed for the SLFP to overcome this challenge. That vision should be formulated on the basis of ending the war which is our biggest problem and finding a peaceful political solution to the ethnic problem. As a social democratic party, our vision here should be equality and democracy. The ethnic problem is a problem concerning democracy. In this we should guarantee to all sections of the community a right to safeguard their cultural identity, profess religions according to one's own conscience and beliefs, nurture one's own language and transact business with the Government in one's own language. For this, a program which would grant wide devolution of power is needed. This could be done only through a change in the state structure. New Constitution It is to bring about these structural changes that we need a new constitution. These structural changes alone would be insufficient. Wide people participation would be essential for a rural development program in keeping with these changes. It is for this purpose that a massive program 'Anniversary Effort War' or 'Sanwathsara Sangramaya' is being launched on a concept put forward by me on this 53rd anniversary of our party. I expect the support of the entire membership of our party towards this effort. This article has been extracted from an address of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga |
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