{"id":49020,"date":"2015-11-01T23:50:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T05:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=49020"},"modified":"2015-10-31T02:25:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T09:25:17","slug":"is-mahinda-courageous-enough-to-leave-the-dead-slfp-and-form-a-new-political-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/11\/01\/is-mahinda-courageous-enough-to-leave-the-dead-slfp-and-form-a-new-political-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Mahinda Courageous Enough to Leave the Dead SLFP and Form a New Political Party?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The SLFP is dying, if not already dead. The nation is in dire need of a progressive political party unburdened by dynasties and their handpicked appointees. In another four (4) years, this time, the presidential election campaign will be in full swing. Unless a new political force is formed, the next president will be either Ranil or Vimukthi Kumaratunga (if Sirisena doesn\u2019t contest). There is absolutely no way Mahinda or any other progressive politician can get nominations from a SLFP-led coalition. With all senior SLFPers opposed to Mahinda and other nationalists, they will not allow them in. Last general election saw Sirisena allowing Mahinda to contest from the UPFA to garner maximum political clout for the election. Once the required momentum was achieved, Mahinda was kicked out. SLFP lost not just the election but also the opposition leader post. Had Mahinda contested from a new party, that party would have secured the opposition leader post and posed a credible opposition to the circus that is underway today. A Mahinda supporter cannot win the next presidential election by parachuting into the race then. The momentum and party infrastructure must be put in place now onwards.<\/p>\n

Despite these facts, Mahinda was very reluctant to join the Nugegoda Campaign\u201d. He avoided it and made only a cameo appearance towards the end. He has a lesson or two to learn from SWRD Bandaranaike in 1951. Within just five (5) years, Bandaranaike had won a landslide. He took the hard way, formed his own party and won power. To an extent even Sirisena did so (with the backing of the established UNP)! Unless Mahinda is as courageous, his political dynasty will be history. That\u2019s not all; those who trusted Mahinda and stood by him will also be in the political rubbish bin.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Mahinda has started to act similar in the run up to local government elections. Despite a few MPs trying to form a party, Mahinda has not put himself into it. Inability to learn from past mistakes will condemn the whole lot into political oblivious sooner than they expect.<\/p>\n

The right strategy is to form a new party and contest every district the SLFP contests. This will give UNP a tremendous advantage in the short run, however, the strong bargaining position in creates will be useful in getting things done from the SLFP and its leader. At a future date members of the mainstream SLFP will realise the futility of remaining under Sirisena and join forces with the new party. That will help it capture power in grassroots level and launch its national campaign. The defeat of the SLFP to UNP will also force SLFP seniors to challenge its lousy leadership. If Mahinda worries he cannot get back to the SLFP if he leaves, he has little to worry. He will be anyway sidelined by the SLFP whatever he does.<\/p>\n

Short term difficulties for long term gain. Has Mahinda the required courage to leave the dead SLFP and form a live new party? Only time will tell. If he doesn\u2019t, voters will not stand by him as voters demand a courageous leader not a follower of Sirisena and Ranil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara The SLFP is dying, if not already dead. The nation is in dire need of a progressive political party unburdened by dynasties and their handpicked appointees. In another four (4) years, this time, the presidential election campaign will be in full swing. Unless a new political force is formed, the next president will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}