The Nation' started a series on what could be called the curse(s) of the slfp and unp. Sudat Pasqual reflects on the slfp and the need to put it out of our misery and I pen the notes on the unp. Sudat's notes are in blue and mine in Green. Note: we've moved pretty fast from query to assertion!
What does the slfp bring to the table in terms of policies? Does it offer a clear set of ideas that address pressing issues facing the country like how to tackle post war reconciliation between the 3 main ethnic groups in the country or how to tackle the high rate of unemployment among the youth in Sri Lanka? The most charitable answer to those questions one could give would be to say that the upper case SLFP of the pre-Sirisena/Kumaranatunga II era did address those issues. The truth of the matter is the lower case slfp of Sirisena/Kumaranatungadoes not seem even interested in formulating any national policies of its own. slfp of today is piggy backing on the policies of the UNP or what has been spoon fed to Sirisena/Kumaranatunga duo by whoever is their favourite of the moment. One day it could be a position paper submitted by a think tank and on another day, it could be a whimsical notion forwarded by a leftist hang on from yesteryear. But mostly slfp has latched on to whatever policy positions fancied by RanilWickramasinghe. slfp of today is a koha bird when it comes to adapting policy positions. That is to say, like the brood parasitic koha bird that uses the nests of other birds to lay its eggs, present day slfp is a policy parasite that poaches or latches on to the policies of other parties.
The slfp today is sorry excuse for a political party.
Time to put the lower case unp out of our misery
What does the unp bring to the table in terms of policies? Does it offer a clear set of ideas that address pressing issues facing the country like how to tackle post war reconciliation between the 3 main ethnic groups in the country or how to tackle the high rate of unemployment among the youth in Sri Lanka? If we go by track record dating back to JR’s march, through complicity in the 83 riots, the legitimation of fictional claims via the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987, the arming of a bunch of communalist terrorists in the late eighties, to the CFA of February 2002 and now the scandalous co-sponsorship of resolution designed to wreck possible resolution and reconciliation, the unp is the pits. As for the economy, it’s all about copy-pasting World Bank and IMF dictates, vetted of course by USAID.
The unp today is sorry excuse for a political party.
2 comments:
Dear Mr. Seneviratne,
There is a rumor going around that Nation is to close down?? IS there any truth in this?
Not 'is to close down'....but 'was closed down'.
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