A serious soul-searching is a must for the Opposition

The Samagi Jana Sandanaya was formed as a coalition of Tamil and Muslim political parties ahead of the previous Presidential Election. File photo

Now, the SJB is heading towards another disaster as the Muslim parties and the parties representing the Malaiyaga Tamils have decided to break away the coalition with it 

Despite the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) and the three main Opposition parties – Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) currently facing dilemmas, they are not same in nature and scale. The issue faced by the NPP is not anything concerning its survival, but the Opposition parties’ dilemma is. 
The NPP government is unprecedentedly strong with over two thirds of majority Parliamentary power in hand and its survival is not even remotely threatened. However, the party that claimed moral high ground over all political parties in the country while in the Opposition, is struggling to reply some of the questions posed by the Opposition parties over its own promises made during recent elections.
In fact, NPP is not responsible primarily for the problems faced by the people at the moment as they were not caused by them. Rice shortage is an outcome of failure on the part of the previous government to maintain a buffer stock of paddy or rice. Electricity tariff is tied to the programme sponsored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the conditions of which is “aligning energy pricing with costs.”  If the government is to reduce the prices of electricity or/and fuel, it has to show the IMF the alternative income avenues to offset the revenue loss caused by such reduction.  

It is not the weakness in governance on the part of the NPP but its chest-thumping over pressing issues prior to the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections that is embarrassing them now. It is the way they gave their promises that has boomeranged on them. They are clueless now how to counter the Opposition when the latter reminds some of their promises. 
In fact, it is too early to judge the NPP’s capacity to run the government based on the current situation in the country, as it naturally needs time to resolve them, despite NPP leaders’ pre-election promises and chest-thumping have challenged their moral high ground. They were indeed handed in a country bankrupted by decades-long mismanagement. Handling these issues with the help of a bureaucracy that is corrupt to the core is another matter that tests the NPP’s moral high ground.
The issue surrounding the Opposition parties is far more serious than this, in the light of their humiliating defeat at the recent national level elections and the disunity within them, at a time two important elections are around the corner. The Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission (EC) last year to hold the local government elections that were postponed by the previous government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, on an earliest possible date. Also, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has given an undertaking to the Tamil parties several times to hold the provincial council election that were also made to meet a stalemate seven years ago by the Yahapalana Government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

The main Opposition, the SJB after its humiliating defeat at the September 21 Presidential election has been on a slippery slope. With the Tamil parties that supported the SJB at the Presidential election deciding to leave the coalition to contest the November 14 Parliamentary election on their own, the party’s vote bank reduced from 4.3 million to 1.9 million within two months. It managed to bag only 40 seats in a 225-member Parliament. Now, the SJB is heading towards another disaster as the Muslim parties and the parties representing the up-country Tamils or the Malaiyaga Tamils, as they prefer to be called since lately have decided to break away the coalition with it. 
The SJB leaders were boasting about over 30 political parties, many of them being miniature groupings that joined hands with it during the Presidential election. We, in our columns then pointed out that SJB would not be able to fulfil the demands of these small parties before and after the general election since they coalesce with major parties just to share the fruits of the election such as candidacies and national list slots. It happened in such a way that some of the parties representing minority communities that have long been coalesced with the SJB have even sought judicial intervention to get national list slots.  Some Malaiyaga Tamil leader have called on Sajith Premadasa, the leaders of the SJB and the Samagi Jana Sandhanaya, the coalition formed by the SJB to inculcate leadership qualities, subsequent to the row over the sharing of national list seats allocated to the SJB.  
The United National Party (UNP) which is sometimes called the Grand Old Party of Sri Lanka has encountered a similar crash after the Presidential election. The party that was headed by the political giants of the past such as D.S.Senanayake who is called the father of the nation, Dudley Senanayake, J.R.Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa has reduced to a spent force under Ranil Wickremesinghe. The party under the leadership of Wickremesinghe even did not prefer to contest under its symbol, Elephant at major elections since 2010, except for 2019 and 2024 Parliamentary elections. 
The UNP obtained only 66,000 votes at the last Parliamentary election, but the New Democratic Front also led by Wickremesinghe managed to get 500,000 votes with the support of a large number of MPs who crossed over to support him from the SLPP. However, the move by those former SLPP MPs to contest under the People’s Alliance (PA), a coalition once they were in and ruled the country from 1994 to 2004 is a disaster waiting to happen. 
The absence of any indication of any groups or parties – at least the defectors approaching the SLPP to team up with it, in view of forthcoming LG and PC elections is an indication in turn that the party is going to face the same fate it faced at the two major elections last year. And lack of serious politicians such as Dr. Harsha De Silva is another disaster these three parties have encountered with.