Emergence Of The SJB As A Change Agent

By Ananda Jayawickrama –  MAY 28, 2021

Prof. Ananda Jayawickrama

In recent times, many people who wrote to Colombo Telegraph expressed contrasting views on the emergence of Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) as a political party which demonstrates the potential to govern the country in near future. I accept that any person, resided inside or outside the country, may question or support the course of the SJB in the present political environment of the country. This article is not only an attempt to justify the formation of the SJB but also an attempt to start a fruitful discussion on whether the SJB and its economic, political, social, cultural and international contexts can make a path breaking change in the political landscape of Sri Lanka.

Rise and Fall of Parties

In democratic societies, political parties reflect an important role of representative democracy and are known as gatekeepers of democracy. In a dynamic democratic political system, some parties emerge newly and some parties become defunct gradually. The sole reason for the emergence of a new party or obsolescence of an existing party is the validity of its role as a representative democratic institution and a gatekeeper of democracy. A party will become obsolete or defunct when its membership, at least a sizable group, thinks that the party has failed to protect and promote their rights, expectations, interests and wills and therefore to stand as a gatekeeper of democracy. A new party emerges when at least a sizable number of citizens agreed to work in a common policy framework and action plan in order to protect their democratic institutions and stand together for the delivery of agreed upon rights, expectations, interests and wills. In educated and informed democratic societies, one may expect political parties to adjust regularly to the ground conditions for their long-term survival and existence. Political parties which consistently fail to deliver rights, expectations, interests and wills of its members, to stand as a gatekeeper of democracy and adjust to the socio-economic-political-cultural ground conditions are more prone to be defunct and obsolete.

As some people think, the emergence of the SJB is not a hasty mistake but a well-crafted timely feat in response to prolong requests of people of this country.  It is not a political error but a political triumph for people those who seek an alternative not only to the UNP, but also to Podujana Peramuna, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, leftist parties and some minority-driven parties. In this discussion, my focus is not to argue for a course that instates Sajith Premadasa (SP) as a better leader than Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) or the vice versa. In my view, it was the UNPers who left the party during a period of near three decades from the point where RW took-over the leadership was instrumental in forming the SJB. 

RW took over the leadership of the party after the death of its charismatic leaders JR Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa and high caliber leadership candidates Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake. The UNP under the leadership of RW fails to stand as a gatekeeper of democracy since the democratic practices are not maintained within the party.  The UNP under the leadership of RW fails to protect and promote the rights, expectations, interests and wills of its general supporters. Conspiracy led by the party leader against potential leadership candidates, Karu Jayasuriya, SP, etc., promotion of his cronies to the party hierarchies and the manipulation of the working committee for his own benefits discouraged the membership as they felt that the UNP has been surrendered to a group of crony-capitalists who consistently ignored the community and village level grass root supporters, simply the vote machine of the party. 

The departure of party policies from people centered social democratic one to more liberal policy orientation and actions against general consumers, farmers, working class, poor, etc. in favour of crony capitalists has derailed the UNP from its founding principles and therefore experienced a massive drain of membership. Non-consultative and ill-informed policies and actions taken to win the hearts of minority groups in an attempt to solve ethnic conflict hurt the Sinhalese majority voters and as a result the Sinhalese vote base of the party drained down continuously. The loss of support from the Sinhalese community made it fairly impossible for the party to win a presidential election and a general election. Continuous and numerous election defeats branded RW and the UNP as “ever losers” and the loser mindset further reduced the vote base. After the Presidential election 2019, the mass supporters of the UNP expected the transfer of leadership to SP as he has proven his leadership capacity in reviving the membership at grass-root level. The UNP leadership, nevertheless, was not ready to transfer the power and in fact tried to devise a mechanism to cement his leadership until the death. 

The gracious acceptance of the new party by the masses has proven its legitimacy and relevance in the political course of this country. It is of course essential for the SJB and the UNP to come to an agreement to work together, however, such a coalition should neither affect the novelty of the SJB nor it should bear the sings of RW and his clang. What UNP is waiting at the moment is to build up its muscles to make a deal with the SJB, but the UNP should realize the fact that its muscles have been drained down to the extent of never recovery.

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