Darley Road drama

Wednesday 8th May, 2024

The Court of Appeal yesterday rejected Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s petition, which sought the suspension of an interim injunction issued by the Colombo District Court preventing him from functioning as the Acting Chairman of the SLFP. The Sirisena faction of the SLFP has suffered another setback on the legal front. The SLFP’s current predicament is similar, in some respects, to that of the UNP during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime (2005-2015).

There seems to be no end in sight to the SLFP’s internecine internal conflict, which has taken a turn for the worse. The Sirisena faction has declared Justice Minister Rajapakshe as the SLFP’s presidential candidate, but its rivals led by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, who is a proxy for former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK), have raised objections; they have entered the SLFP headquarters at Darley Road, Colombo 10. Dr. Rajapakshe’s dream of becoming President with the help of the SLFP has become even more distant.

Former President Maithripala Sirisena has been prevented by a Colombo District Court interim injunction from functioning as the SLFP Chairman, and Minister de Silva, appointed by the anti-Sirisena faction as the Acting Chairman of the SLFP, has wrested control of the party headquarters, which the police did not allow the supporters of Sirisena to enter a few weeks ago; CBK, who has Minister de Silva and others on a string, was seen at the party office recently, according to media reports.

The Sirisena faction has accused its rivals of being at the beck and call of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and planning to make the SLFP coalesce with the UNP and back Wickremesinghe in the upcoming presidential race. It insists that the police are partial to those who are loyal to CBK and supportive of Minister de Silva, who has sought to pooh-pooh the allegation that he and his supporters are trying to hitch their wagon to the UNP. However, the general consensus is that the sympathies of the anti-Sirisena faction are with President Wickremesinghe. Otherwise, the police, who declared the SLFP headquarters out of bounds for the members of the Sirisena faction, would not have allowed their rivals to enter it.

Ironically, Sirisena is now accusing his rivals of trying to do to the SLFP exactly what he did to it after being elected President in 2015. He was the SLFP General Secretary when he defected to run for President with the help of the UNP. He even visited the UNP headquarters, Sirikotha, and made a speech there. After his victory, he grabbed the leadership of the SLFP, and ruined the SLFP-led UPFA’s prospects of winning the 2015 general election; he wanted UNP leader Wickremesinghe to be the Prime Minister. Today, he is inveighing against the SLFP MPs who have sided with Wickremesinghe! He has had to undertake the Sisyphean task of rebuilding the SLFP, which he ruined to compass his political ends.

When Mahinda was the President, he was accused of doing everything in his power to safeguard the interests of UNP leader Wickremesinghe, who was not considered a threat to the Rajapaksa rule. Whenever irate UNPers sought to oust Wickremesinghe as the party leader and organised protests to achieve that end, opposite Sirikotha, the Rajapaksa administration would thwart their efforts by having the roads in the area closed on the pretext of re-tarring. We argued in this column that at the rate the UNPers were protesting and the Road Development Authority was reblacktopping near Sirikotha at the behest of the Rajapaksa government, the surfaces of roads near the Pita Kotte junction would be elevated above the roof of the UNP headquarters!

The UNP would have backed Sirisena and helped him hold his rivals at bay if he had not fallen out with President Wickremesinghe. It is now supporting his rivals who are eating out of the palm of the President’s hand. In half-baked democracies, the law lends itself to political manipulations, and Sri Lanka is no exception. So, the anti-Sirisena faction is likely to prevail––at least in the short run.