“I have already made my decision. I have no alternative. If you agree, you may stay. If not, you may leave. The door is open — you can get up and walk out right now…”
J.R. Jayewardene did not say this in anger. He spoke calmly and deliberately. Having decided to sign the Indo–Lanka Accord, he summoned the parliamentary group and addressed them with those words. The MPs sat frozen like inflated balloons. Not a single one stood up to leave.
How did J.R. possess the confidence to speak that way?
After changing the country’s Constitution and introducing the Executive Presidency, J.R. also amended the UNP constitution. According to the amendment, if a UNP member became the Executive President of the country, he or she would automatically become the leader of the party as well.
Why did J.R. introduce such a constitutional change?
Because he understood that no Executive President could govern a country without control over the party machinery.
Maithripala Sirisena knew this constitutional arrangement very well. Soon after becoming President, he laughed loudly and made a memorable remark:
“If I take UNP membership, I automatically become the leader of the UNP…”
And he was right. During the presidencies of J.R., Premadasa, Wijetunga, Chandrika, and Mahinda, the country was governed smoothly because both the government and the party remained firmly in their hands.
Although Chandrika became President earlier, she officially obtained party leadership only in 2000. Even before that, however, she effectively controlled the party because her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who remained the formal leader, had become physically frail. Chandrika thus functioned as the unofficial leader long before assuming the title.
When Mahinda became President in 2005, he did not control the party leadership. From the very first day of his presidency, he worked relentlessly to secure it. He politically cornered Chandrika from every direction, subjected her to relentless pressure, and eventually pushed her into political exile in London before finally taking control of the party.
In 2015, Maithripala became President with the backing of the UNP. But Ranil Wickremesinghe remained the leader of the UNP. Maithri possessed presidential power, while Ranil controlled the party that dominated the government. The result was chaos. Maithri had no real authority over the UNP parliamentary group or the Cabinet ministers. Ranil wielded governmental power, but not presidential authority.
Maithri undermined Ranil from behind the scenes. Ranil did the same to Maithri. Eventually, the two began openly fighting each other. Mahinda famously described them as “a bull and a buffalo pulling in opposite directions.”
Ironically, Mahinda himself repeated the same mistake in 2019 by making Gotabaya Rajapaksa President while he himself retained control of the SLPP leadership. Few even knew whether Gotabaya was formally a member of the party. He was not even part of its political council. Real party power remained with Mahinda and the national organizer, Basil Rajapaksa.
Gotabaya had little say in party decisions. He could not even independently appoint his own Cabinet. It was Mahinda and Basil who selected P.B. Jayasundera — and later Gamini Senarath — as Presidential Secretary. Though Gotabaya later brought P.B. Jayasundera closer under his own influence, he still lacked the freedom to choose his own top officials. Even the later move to replace P.B. with Gamini Senarath came under pressure from Mahinda.
Since Mahinda remained both party leader and parliamentary group leader, Gotabaya had little choice but to comply. Yet over time, conflicts between Gotabaya and Mahinda, and between Gotabaya and Basil, became increasingly visible. Like the Maithri–Ranil administration before it, the Gotabaya–Mahinda–Basil government too became a case of leaders pulling in opposite directions.
The biggest clash within the Maithri–Ranil government erupted over the Finance Ministry. Maithri strongly insisted that Ranil, who controlled the Central Bank, and Ravi Karunanayake, who headed the Finance Ministry, should both step aside because of their connection to the bond scandal. He even used the opposition to bring a no-confidence motion against Ravi and pressured Ranil to relinquish control over the Central Bank. Eventually, Ravi and Ranil stepped back, and the Finance Ministry was handed to Mangala Samaraweera. That was where the government first began to crack.
Similarly, the fractures within Gotabaya’s government deepened after Mahinda left the Finance Ministry and Basil took over. Basil’s appointment sidelined Mahinda, unsettling MPs loyal to him. There was virtually no dialogue between Gotabaya and the parliamentary group. To many MPs, Gotabaya remained an outsider. Eventually, the government imploded and collapsed into economic crisis.
Today, the same pattern appears to be unfolding in Anura’s government.
Anura is the Executive President. Yet the party and the parliamentary group are effectively controlled by party secretary Tilvin Silva. Unlike Maithri or Gotabaya, Anura is also the leader of the JVP and therefore naturally heads the parliamentary group as well. But within the JVP’s organizational culture, real power traditionally lies not with the leader, but with the party secretary.
Unlike the UNP or the SLPP, the JVP is a highly disciplined party. Because of that, disagreements between President Anura and party secretary Tilvin have not openly surfaced.
Still, signs of differing views have emerged regarding the recruitment of opposition politicians into the government. It was Anura who appointed opposition politician Eran to the Cricket Board. Later, Wasantha Samarasinghe publicly invited opposition politicians to join the government.
Yet the JVP’s official Facebook page released a statement declaring that the government opposes crossovers and intends to introduce legislation against party defections. The statement read:
“It is the policy of the Compass government not to absorb opposition MPs into the government. From the very beginning, we have maintained that a law must be introduced to prevent crossing over in Parliament. If a member changes sides, there must be provisions to cancel that MP’s parliamentary seat. This is the position of the Compass movement and is clearly stated in our policy framework.”
— Media Unit,
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
2025.05.18
This is one indication that differences may exist between Anura and the JVP leadership regarding the inclusion of opposition politicians in the government.
“The two of us cannot rule the same kingdom…”
One wonders whether the song lyric once whispered by Maithri to Ranil — and later by Gotabaya to Mahinda — is now being quietly murmured by Anura to Tilvin as well.
