UNP serendipity
PROVINCIAL Council elections took place at the end of May. The governing United National Party (UNP) won comfortably. The campaign was peaceful despite the atmosphere of violence that dominated following the assassinations of opposition leader, Lalith Athulathmudali,
D.B. Wijetunga
International Viewpoint #246 June 1993 madasa and the new President is talking of reducing Presidential powers. In this situation it is quite natural that the broad masses conclude that it is necessary to test out the policy of the new President.
and President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Below, we publish a short report that outlines the central features of the campaign, the parties involved and the reasons for the UNP victory.
So, the UNP were victorious, particularly in rural and plantation areas. Nonetheless, it is in the plantation sector that a strong tendency has developed towards the left. Chandrasekharan, the Tamil plan-
VICKRAMABAHU KARUNARATNE * — Colombo, May 20, 1993
T is still not clear who or what forces were behind these killings. The security forces have claimed that they were the work of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But there are too many things that need explanation, particularly in the case of Lalith's assassination. Nobody believes that this murder was done without the connivance of government forces.
However, Premadasa's assassination may have been carried out by a Tamil terrorist group. But the question of whether some government politician is involved in the conspiracy remains unanswered. In any event both murders were very helpful to the governing party, the United National Party (UNP). They managed to shed their unpopular autocratic face, while also removing the smiling populist image of Lalith's Democratic United National Front (DUNF).
D.B. Wijetunga, the new President, hails from a peasant family in the Kandgan province. He is reputed to be a simple peasant farmer who still looks after his cattleshed and garden. This image struck a sympathetic chord with many. The bourgeois opposition, the DUNF and the Podujana Jana Peramuna (Peoples Alliance - PA), were claiming before Premadasa's death that all bad things were due to his personal behaviour. They were very annoyed with the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) for raising political questions that went beyond Premadasa and the establishment of a non-Presidential constitution. Now a terrorist has removed Pretation leader, under detention as a terrorist suspect, was elected as an independent. But the fact that the UNP won when they were quite incapable of any intimidation or electoral malpractice, shows that the rural masses and the plantation workers still keep faith in the government. Police and state officials were fair and in many places went out of their way to prove this point. Only the opportunist opposition leaders, who are unable to explain their defeat, come out with complaints of malpractice.
The PA, the coalition between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the opportunist left, emerged as the hope of the working masses.? It was supported by the DUNF. Together, they dominate three provincial councils; the southern, western and north western. These provinces contain a good 90% of the Sinhala working class. These workers will press for reforms and welfare expecting the PA/DUNF leaderships to help them out. In particular, workers will expect measures against police brutality and police intervention in workplace disputes.
We can expect a period of class unrest but it will be based on illusions in coalition politics. The PA has already become a radical movement in the eyes of the masses, with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party winning important positions within the coalition. Where left leaders were elected they won with a substantial number of preferential votes, further compounding the illusions of the working class in coalitionism. Anura Bandaranaike, the central leader of the SLFP, and her adjuncts were undoubtedly discredited in the eyes of the workers as those who undercut the cam* Vickramabahu Karunaratne is a leader of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International.
1. For details of the NSSP's campaign see International Viewpoint, No. 245, May 1993
2. The People's Alliance coalition also included the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party.
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