1977 victory of the UNP and plight of the Leftists

by W.T.A. Leslie FERNANDO

Although the 1970-77 SLFP-LSSP-CP Coalition Government turned out to be a despair and disappointment to the masses, it cannot be denied that it brought out many changes beneficial to people.

The Land Reform Act No. 1 of 1972 imposed a ceiling of 50 acres for an individual resulting in the acquisition of about 5600 acres by the Government. Act No. 25 of 1975 nationalised foreign owned estates. It implemented a new Rent Control Act and Ceiling of House Ownership Act. It also enacted the Land Utilisation Law and a Higher Education Law.

The Administration of Justice Law simplified antiquated and cumbersome Legal system and for the first time Lower Courts upto the High Courts began to function in Sinhala and in Tamil. The Coalition Government took steps to increase the food production, promoted non-traditional exports and encouraged imports substituting products. The postal Savings Bank system was expanded as the National Savings Bank to encourage savings among people and today it has became a leading Bank in Sri Lanka.

J. R. Jayewardene	Sirimavo Bandaranaike	Colvin R. de Silva	Dr. N. M. Perera

During this period some corporations beneficial to people too were set up. The State Building Materials Corporation provided building materials to people at a reasonable price. The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation provided drugs at cheaper price.

The State Engineering Corporation was meant to construct Government buildings. The State Gem Corporation broke the monopoly in the gem trade and enabled the miners to get the real worth for the gems. The State Distilleries Corporation and the National Development Bank too were set up during the 1970-77 regime.

In 1972 the five year plan was formulated to develop the country on the socialist lines. Dr. N. M. Perera, the Finance Minister expressed that people should undergo hardships and be prepared to make sacrifices for a better future. He insisted that people should lead simple and austere lives. The people however had to suffer because of the policies of the Government.

The commoners had to wait for hours in queues to get bread and milk food. There was reduced industry and trade because of the stringent restrictions and industrialists and traders had to go after officials to get their licences. People were finding it difficult to go abroad for foreign earnings because of the restrictions on passports. The MP's became all powerful to impose their will on Government institutions and take revenge from their opponents. Political stooges were appointed to manage the nationalised estates taken by the Land Reform Law and the Lands were ruined.

J. R. Jayewardene was astute politician and as the leader of the UNP, he realised that people at large were not worried about socialism or capitalism and what they wanted was only a trouble free life. He formulated the UNP party manifesto for the 1977 general election to suit such a life. He accordingly promised to do away with the scarcity of goods and also to bring down the cost of living. He pledged to provide 08 pounds of nutritious grain to each individual. He wanted to set up a righteous society which he termed as the 'Dharmishta Samajaya'. He assured that he would call an all party conference to solve the ethnic issue.

In the 1977 general election, the UNP which contested 150 seats, won 140 and achieved an overwhelming victory. The SLFP which contested 147 seats could win only 08 seats and suffered a humiliating defeats. TULF contested 23 seats and won 18. A. Amirthalingam, the leader of the TULF that won the largest number of seats in the opposition became the leader of the Opposition.

In 1977, the LSSP, CP and the Mahajana Prayithanthravadi party formed by the dissidents of the SLFP contested under the ULF banner. Prajathanthravadi Jathika Peramuna led by D.I.G. Dharmasekera and Mahajana Vimukthi Party led by Mahinda Wijesekera, both former JVP'ers too joined the ULF. But the ULF could not win a single seat.

The MEP led by Dinesh Gunawardena contested about 10 seats but failed to win a single. However Dinesh Gunawardena who contested Avissawella came second polling 17,897 votes pushing the SLFP candidate who got only 4762 votes to the third place. He lost to the UNP candidate by 5,915 votes. All the other MEP candidates too lost all forfeiting their deposits.

The debacle of the Leftists at the 1977 election was the worst they suffered since 1947. Vasudeva Nanayakkara analysing the defeat said that it was limited only to the surface and the power of workers and other radicals remained like spark inside ash. He interpreted that it was only a defeat to the leftist leadership who engaged in coalition politics for 15 years.

After the 1977 election there was a split in the LSSP and there was a conflict as to the role of the LSSP in the 1970-77 Coalition. A young crowd led by Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Wickremabahu Karunaratne were expelled from the LSSP. They formed the Nava Lanka Samasamaja Party and the GCSU a powerful trade union of the LSSP too joined them.

Later there was a split in the NLSSP too and Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Wickremabahu Karunaratne formed separate parties.

The UNP Government led by J. R. Jayewardene in 1977 got funds from the IMF and World Bank. The aid were given subject to some conditions. They were to introduce the open economy, remove restrictions on imports and allow foreigners to invest in Sri Lanka. When the UNP Government agreed to those conditions, it also got aid to set up hydro power projects and other development schemes.

When the open economy was introduced the local industries were adversely affected. Some local industrial projects had to be closed. Since then the governments had to depend on foreign aid and you find every government boasting about the amount of credit they managed to get.

In the latter half of 1977, J. R. Jayewardene Government set free the JVP leaders found guilty by the Criminal Justice Commission. Perhaps the UNP would have expected that when the JVP entered the mainstream of politics they would pose a challenge both to the SLFP and the leftists.

In 1978 the J. R. Jayewardene Government introduced a new constitution. An executive President came in to being under it and J. R. Jayewardene took his oaths as the first executive President on February 04, 1978. The office of the Executive President was very powerful. He was the head of the Government and commander-in-chief of the forces. It is he who appointed the Prime Minister and other Ministers. His position was aptly described by J. R. Jayewardene when he said "What the president could not do was to make a man a women and a woman a man."

The UNP as a political party has polled the majority of votes in all the general elections in Sri Lanka except in 1956. Perhaps to keep the UNP perpetually in power, J. R. Jayewardene introduced the proportional system of representation instead of the earlier Westminster system. J.R. Jayewardene also set up a commission to inquire into abuse of power against his main opponent Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and deprived her civic rights for seven years, so that she could not contest the next Presidential election.

By 1980 although consumer goods became freely available under the open economy, wage earners had to face severe hardships because of the inflation. Accordingly the leftist parties organised a general strike for July 18, 1980, demanding an increase of Rs. 300 for a month. The SLFP trade unions too joined the strike but CMU of Bala Tampoe the most powerful mercantile trade union and the JVP trade unions did not join the strike.

The Government declared emergency and took repressive measures to suppress the strike. The Government dismissed workers who participated in the general strike. The strike was a failure and thereafter the leftists lost all their position to negotiate threatening with strike action.

Although J. R. Jayewardene could stay as the President until 1984, he decided to have the Presidential election in 1982 as things were favourable to him. As a result of open economy there were no scarcity of goods and no more queues. There were also many development projects with foreign aid. Besides there was a split in the SLFP in to two camps, one led by Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the other led by Maitripala Senanayake and Anura Bandaranaike faction. Accordingly by an amendment to the constitution, the Presidential election was held on October 1982.

By this time the JVP had entered the democratic process. It contested the local Government elections in 1979 as Independents and it contested the 1981 District Council elections as well. JVP had got recognition from the Election Commissioner as a political party. The JVP tried to negotiate for a common independent Presidential candidate from the opposition but failed.

J. R. Jayewardene from the UNP, Hector Kobbekaduwa of the SLFP, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva in the LSSP, Vasudeva Nanayakkara NLSSP, G. G. Ponnambalam from the Tamil Congress and Rohana Wijeweera of the JVP contested the Presidential stakes in 1982. But the main contest was between J. R. Jayewardene of the UNP and Hector Kobbekaduwa from the SLFP. The MEP and the CP supported Hector Kobbekaduwa.The UNP emphasised on the accelerated Mahaweli Development, Free Trade Zones, Housing Schemes and the open economy to attract voters in its election campaign. On the other hand there was a conspiracy among some big wigs of the SLFP itself to defeat Hector Kobbekaduwa. Besides, a legal issue raised by Dr. Colvin R. de Silva too went against Hector Kobbekaduwa.

Dr. Colvin R. de Silva expressed that as Hector Kobbekaduwa has been named as the Presidential candidate by Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike who had lost her civic rights even if he was elected, he would be disqualified to be the President. Bernard Soyza, the secretary of the LSSP issued a statement interpreting that even if Hector Kobbekaduwa was elected, he would be eliminated according to the election law and J. R. Jayewardene would be declared the President.Besides the Workers' Congress led by S. Thondaman supported J. R. Jayewardene and he got the majority of votes in the plantation sector. The national newspapers too backed J. R. Jayewardene.

At the end J. R. Jayewardene of the UNP who polled 3,450,811 (52.91%) of the votes was elected the President.

Hector Kobbekaduwa (SLFP) came second with 2,458,438 (39-07%) votes. The third was Rohana Wijeweera (JVP) polled 273,428 (4.19%) votes G. G. Ponnambalam (Tamil Congress) was the fourth with 173,934 (2.67%) votes. Dr. Colvin R. de Silva of the LSSP came down to the 5th position with 57,532 (0.88%) votes. Vasudeva Nanayakkara (NLSSP) was the last with 17,005 (0.26%) votes.

In this Presidential election though the JVP did not poll the higher volume of votes they aimed at, it proved that it was capable of coming to the forefront pushing back the conventional Leftist parties.