On July 15, 1993, Mrs. Bandaranaike, the leader of the Sri Lanka National Party, banned the party membership of Anura Bandaranaike, the crown prince of the Bandaranaike family. After being banned from party membership, Anura was in a political mess. Although he had the support of Mahinda Rajapaksa and ‘Anuraloyal’ MPs, he himself had questions about the political decision he had to make.
It was at this time that UNP General Secretary Sirisena Coorey started sending messages to Anura. Wijetunga, who was currently in the position of President, also considered adding Anura to the UNP as a huge victory. Before his assassination, Premadasa, Anura’s arch political enemy, had tried to bring Anura into the UNP. When Lalith and Gamini broke away from Premadasa and started working together with Mrs. Bandaranaike, Chandrika, who rejoined the SLFP, was also willing to ally with them. Anura did not tolerate the alliance of Matheni, Lalith, Gamini and Chandrika. Because of that alliance, Anura was ostracized from the party. Premadasa sent messages to Anura through Sirisena Kure asking Anura to join the UNP government and if he joined, he could be given the post of Prime Minister.
If Anura had joined the Premadasa government and assumed the post of Prime Minister then Anura would have become the President when Premadasa was killed. Anura was not so lucky. For him, SLFP was bigger than his prime ministership. He thought joining Premadasa was political suicide. But after Premadasa was killed and Chandrika became the Chief Minister in the Provincial Council elections held Wijetunga as President, Anura became even more helpless in the SLFP. When his party membership was suspended, he decided to accept President Wijetunga’s invitations through Sirisena Corey.
Even after 89 days passed since Anura’s party membership was banned, the SLFP was afraid to present a charge sheet against him. If Anura wanted, he had the ability to join Wijetunga’s government while he was still a member of the SLFP. Anura resigned as a SLFP member of parliament citing the decision of the court against Lalith, Gamini and Premachandra, who had already left Premadasa, and their councillorships were made null and void by the court and he was unwilling to hand over the parliament membership he won by the SLFP votes to the U.N.P. To take him into UNP through the National list the UNP presided and the General secretary in an attempt to remove one already MP to fill the vacancy through Anura.
Ayurvedic medical expert W.I. Fernando aka ‘Konda vedamahththya’ Premadasa was appointed as a Member of Parliament through the National List by Premadasa. Premadasa was very fond of Ayurveda, and Premadasa wanted to promote local Ayurveda medicine internationally and wanted to find ways to earn foreign exchange. Kondaveda W.I. Fernando Ayurveda expert was sent to Parliament for that purpose. When President Wijetunga and Sirisena Coorey asked him to step down and allow Anura to come to parliament, Kondaveda unconditionally agreed and withdrew from the national list.
Anura came to Parliament and that’s how he joined U.N.P and the government and took the post of minister. If he wanted, Anura could have gone to Parliament and argued in court that he was not presented with a charge sheet when he was still a member of the SLFP. But he did not. In the 1989 general elections, Anura was the second most popular candidate of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party after the leader of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party, Mrs. Bandaranaike.
But he said that the party received those votes and cast for the Sri Lankan Freedom Party MP. He went to parliament from the national list. Along with Anura, a large number of Sri Lankan Freedom Party MPs joined UNP, and they joined when Wijetunga was about to dissolve the parliament. They did not go earlier because they were afraid of losing their seats.
This fear was instilled into the minds of the MPs by JR through his constitution. Chandrika, who became the president in 1994, removed this fear. Chandrika had one more seat in Parliament than the opposition. She wanted to break the main opposition U.N.P. She broke the UNP into pieces brought MPs into the government and made them ministers.
She appointed Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva and the judges gave different interpretations of the clause in the constitution which states that MPs cannot switch sides, and to the judgment given by the court against Lalith, Gamini and Premachandra, differently and which became a ladder for MPs to change parties after getting elected. who switched sides. Mahinda became president and accelerated the wave of switching parties which started during Chandrika’s time
‘I have baby elephants in my pocket. My saloon door is open…’
By saying this, Mahinda made a big mistake by downloading the MPs. Mahinda took 17 members of the UNP into the government in one instance. In 2015, Mahinda’s party secretary general Maithripala and a group went to the opposition, embarrassing Mahinda who said about the saloon door. After that, the Maithri-Ranil government opened a saloon door. Mahinda’s MPs broke up and joined the government. Gotabhaya became president and opened a new saloon.
In 2015, the Maithri-Ranil government cut the wings of the executive presidential system and opened a saloon door to create independent commissions. In 2019, Gotabhaya became president and once again strengthened the executive presidency system and opened a saloon door to clip the wings of the commissions. Without that amendment, Gotabhaya would not have acted foolishly. Basil would not have become the finance minister. The country will not go bankrupt.
Today’s government and parliament are a distortion. Podujana Peramuna asked for a mandate in 2019 to defeat Ranil. Today the same Podujana Peramuna has made Ranil the President. He was not made President by the approval of the Central Committee or the Working Committee of the Podujana Peramuna Party. Ranil did not accept the post of Prime Minister or the post of President of Podujana Peramuna with the approval of the UNP Working Committee. UNP won in 2020 only one national list MP against Rajapaksa and Podujana Peramuna. From the day Ranil became the president, a new saloon opened.
‘ 40, from SJB coming’
‘ 20, from SJB coming’
‘breakaway group of 40 coming from podujana peramuna’
This is what Ranil’s government said after the establishment of the Saloon door. But the Supreme Court decided it right and gave a proper decision on Muslim Congresse’s Naseer Ahamend and closed this saloon door. As long as this saloon door was open nothing productive happened in the country.
‘ who jumps tomorrow..?’
Who jumps the day after….?’
Since Chandrika’s time, people have been watching this monkey dance. This monkey dance must come to an end. If an MP wants to join the government, the electorate he won against the government must be returned to the people who voted for him/her for his party, the parliamentary seat must be vacated, and Anura’s gentlemanly politics must be followed.
‘your honour, Resuscitate the distortion..’
People turn towards Hultsdorf and plead in this manner