{"id":60677,"date":"2016-11-12T22:03:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T04:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=60677"},"modified":"2016-11-12T14:50:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-12T21:50:58","slug":"maithripala-sirisena-desecrated-slfp-of-swrd-bandaranaike-it-ceased-to-exist-on-16-january2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/11\/12\/maithripala-sirisena-desecrated-slfp-of-swrd-bandaranaike-it-ceased-to-exist-on-16-january2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Maithripala Sirisena desecrated SLFP of SWRD Bandaranaike-It ceased to exist on 16 January,2015."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

When Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse the President of Sri Lanka Freedom Party handed over the Presidency of the party to President Maithripala Sirisena \u00a0on the \u00a016th<\/sup> January, 2015, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party founded by late S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike ceased to exist.<\/p>\n

Since then the Sri Lanka Freedom Party( SLFP ) of which President Maithripala is the President is altogether different from the political party\u00a0 late Mr. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaaike founded,\u00a0 to give to Sri Lanka and its people a different political system, different from the pro-western capitalist political system of the UNP lead by D.S.Senanayake. It can now be called Maithripala Sirisena Sri Lanka Freedom Party , nothing to do with the original SLFP.<\/p>\n

Maithripala Sirisena in breaking rank to join UNP and the common opposition confiscated his right to his membership in SLFP. Mahinda Rajapakse asking him to take over the Presidency of SLFP does not give him any moral right to have accepted to be the President of the SLFP which was founded by SWRD.<\/p>\n

Those members of SLFP Sarath Amunugama,Mahainda Samarasinghe,S.B.Dissanayake , Rajitha Senaratne et al, \u00a0left SLFP along with \u00a0Maithripala Sirisena when he became the President had also given up their right to the membership of the SLFP founded by\u00a0 SWRD. The reason is SLFP of SWRD was organised to counter the pro-western \u00a0capitalist system of UNP. The SLFP organised by SWRD Bandaranaike is anti UNP in all its aspect, and cannot for any reason \u00a0join with the \u00a0UNP at any time to form a joint government now or the future.<\/p>\n

To understand this fundamental thinking of SWRD that led him to form the SLFP, as a political party symbolising his political thinking, one has to examine the personality of S.W.R.D.Bandranaike and understand the reasons which made him set up SLFP.<\/p>\n

SWRD was born to a rich Sinhala family. His family had accepted western values. SWRD was born as \u00a0an Anglican Christian. He was tutored at home as it was with \u00a0rich English families . But to qualify to enter a University in United Kingdom he had to have attended an English School. Hence he was admitted to St.Thomas\u2019 College for a short while before he left the Island to enter the Oxford University. He completed his studies at the Oxford, distinguishing himself by being the Secretary of the Oxford Union.<\/p>\n

He later qualified as a Barrister in England. He was being prepared\u00a0 to be a politician to shape the destinies of the then British Colony-Ceylon. He was certainly nursing the ideas of what he expected\u00a0 his native land\u00a0 to be once it is left on its own as an Independent Sovereign State.<\/p>\n

He understood that being born to a rich family rubbing shoulders with the colonial administrators, will not make him a successful politician unless he brings to the surface the cultural values that would identify the future Independent Sovereign State differently from its British Colonial values.<\/p>\n

He began disassociating himself from the Ceylon National Congress by forming\u00a0 the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1936. However understanding that a broader \u00a0political base would be required to break away from the traditional political thinking which wanted to keep within the inculcated colonial values, he supported the UNP in 1946. After Independence, \u00a0seeing that UNP was unable to make any positive changes to make Independence more realistic, he led his\u00a0 Sinhala Maha Sabha out of the UNP and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1951.<\/p>\n

He was a young\u00a0 intelligent man with new ideas\u00a0 for a political resurgence of\u00a0 his country and to bring back its inane cultural values. For this his interlocutors called him a Nationalist, in order to discredit him.<\/p>\n

He saw that Nations are made of\u00a0 people in a country getting together as one binding them to basic values that are directly connected to symbols that separates the country and the people from hitherto accepted Colonial Western Values .<\/p>\n

Hence \u00a0he called for the union of five forces of power- sanga, guru, weda, govi, kamakaru. Sri Lanka suffered under its colonisation by the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British. The first victim of colonisation was Buddhism, then the Sinhala language, and finally the Sinhala Buddhists.<\/p>\n

The Tamils and the Muslims were not victimised as much as the Sinhala Buddhist by the different colonialists, and the British following their policy of divide and rule, even then wanted to displace the Sinhala from their privileged state of the Majority Community, and pandered to the interests of the\u00a0 Tamils and Muslims.<\/p>\n

It was therefore necessary when Sri Lanka became independent, \u00a0to give back to the Sinhala Buddhists what they had lost during more than 400 years of Colonialism.<\/p>\n

This was how the young Bandaranayaike wanted to build the new Independent Nation of Sri Lankans.\u00a0 The Tamils in the UNP Government like the racist G.G.Ponnambalam were jealous of the young political star\u201d of the time \u2013SWRD Bandaranaike. They called him a Nationalists, but SWRD Bandaranaike wanted Sri Lanka to be an Independent Nation like any other in the world. He wanted one flag, one national Anthem and one language under which to unify all \u00a0the people \u00a0without discriminating against them for their religion , and their culture as a one Nation.<\/p>\n

That was why\u00a0 SWRD Bandaranaike at the\u00a0 age of 51 years wanted to break away from the UNP with it western outlook and the capitalist political system to take Sri Lanka towards its\u00a0 natural development untimely stopped by colonialism.<\/p>\n

SWRD\u2019s new political party Sri Lanka Freedom Party was to have a socialist outlook markedly different from the UNP. Buddhism as a philosophy has also a benevolent socialist outlook. There were therefore a large number of Buddhist clergy who supported Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike and his SLFP.<\/p>\n

SWRD did not want to look back , and he may not have wanted who ever would later lead the SLFP to look back towards the UNP with its even then decadent political philosophy.<\/p>\n

In 1956 Mr.SWRD Bandaranayake took his SLFP to a landslide victory and formed a government with Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. Mr.SWRD Banadaranaike was preparing his fondly organised SLFP to following a socialist, non-western political system which profoundly changed the course of Sri Lankan politics.<\/p>\n

Hence, it is not now a man ignorant of modern socialist political thinking \u00a0from Polonnaruwa (without any disrespect to people in Polonnaruwa), \u00a0without any \u00a0political vision of an astute politician, lead a party that resulted from the political ideas conceived in the mind of an\u00a0 Oxonian intellectual \u00a0who had learnt of different\u00a0 political systems; and planned a political system to Sri Lanka a country with a rich cultural background, with a great historical foundation.<\/p>\n

Maithripala Sirisena is a complete misfit, a square peg in a round hole, \u00a0to lead the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of SWRD Bandaranaike founded in 1951.<\/p>\n

Now for all intents and purposes the old SLFP is dead. The only way to revive it would be to take it away from Maithripala Sirisena and give it back to some one who has the will, and the ability to carry forward the vision of late S.W.R.D Bandaranaike.<\/p>\n

SWRD\u2019s \u00a0daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga had been an utter failure as the President of Sri Lanka , the then President of SLFP. She failed the people who expected her to carry out the policies of SWRD Bandaranaike, after\u00a0 Sri Lanka\u2019s political set back under R.Premadasa.<\/p>\n

The only person representative of SWRD Bandaranaike\u2019s vision\u00a0 and who successfully carried out \u00a0much of SWRD\u2019s political vision was the former President Mahinda Rajapakse. He is now the appropriate person to resurrect the Sri Lanka Freedom Party\u00a0 which was organised by S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The old SLFP is now dirtied and mutilated with its association with Maithripala Sirisena and the UNP led by an unscrupulous, dishonest man with an inglorious past with shadows of Batalanda Torture Camps falling over him.<\/p>\n

Alternative would be to let the dead SLFP lay dead and organise a new party giving credence to visions of SWRD, and make it lead by a man appropriate to incarnate SWRD. There is none in the nearest horizon to come up to that standard except of course Mahinda Rajapakse the former President of Sri Lanka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0We wish all the success for \u00a0any political party aligned to\u00a0 the policies of SWRD\u2019s original SLFP, with what ever name\u00a0 lead by\u00a0 an appropriate leader acclaimed by the people\u00a0 comprising of the Sanga, Guru, veda, govi, kamkaru to replace the present Yahapalanaya, before it could damage further this Great Country-Sri Lanka. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera When Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse the President of Sri Lanka Freedom Party handed over the Presidency of the party to President Maithripala Sirisena \u00a0on the \u00a016th January, 2015, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party founded by late S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike ceased to exist. Since then the Sri Lanka Freedom Party( SLFP ) of which President Maithripala is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60677","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=60677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}