Background and Nature of the Crisis within the SLFP

The SLFP was formed in 1951 and came to power in 1956 by a landslide.  Political scientifically, it was correct branding the SLFP as a political party of the middle path, when its economic and foreign policies were taken into account, but Marxists of the time more correctly branded it as the party of the national bourgeoisie, while the UNP was labelled as the party of the comprador capitalist class.

by Asela Jayanath De Mel

( September 8, 2016, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) became the two main competitive parties in post-Independence Sri Lanka.  The UNP-led governments have ruled the country only 30 years but the SLFP has extended its control over 34 years since the formation of the first independent government of local people in 1947.  The country was under the control of both the parties during 2001-2004 and after January 2015.  The SLFP lost two consecutive elections in 2015, following a long stay in power, and the party faced an internal crisis after the defeat.  This article examines the background and nature of this crisis.     The United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) became the two main competitive parties in post-Independence Sri Lanka.  The UNP-led governments have ruled the country only 30 years but the SLFP has extended its control over 34 years since the formation of the first independent government of local people in 1947.  The country was under the control of both the parties during 2001-2004 and after January 2015.  The SLFP lost two consecutive elections in 2015, following a long stay in power, and the party faced an internal crisis after the defeat.  This article examines the background and nature of this crisis.    

The SLFP was formed in 1951 and came to power in 1956 by a landslide.  Political scientifically, it was correct branding the SLFP as a political party of the middle path, when its economic and foreign policies were taken into account, but Marxists of the time more correctly branded it as the party of the national bourgeoisie, while the UNP was labelled as the party of the comprador capitalist class. 

From the perspective of a socialist, the SLFP-led governments took many progressive steps to change the ownership of the means of production and challenged the monopoly of foreign capitalists, who had invested in various sectors on the island.  Nationalization-program and protectionist policies of this party paved the way for a national capitalist class, while the governments led by the SLFP simultaneously established the norm that the SLFP was the party of the ordinary man and the UNP was the party of the rich man belonging to the privileged class. 

In the wake of the neoliberal globalization, the economic policies and strategies of the SLFP came to be invalid and outdated by the end of the 1970s.  After the devastating defeat in 1977, party was in search for an alternative economic policy and a strategy to counter very popular neoliberal economic policies and strategies of the UNP regime, but they failed to find none of them until Chandrika introduced the policy called “open economy with a human face” in 1994.  Within a brief period, Chandrika learned the lesson that not only socialism but also liberalism is not possible in a single country particularly at a time of spreading neoliberalism as the dominant economic ideology throughout the world.  

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