ECONOMYNEXT – With Sri Lanka on the verge of a widely anticipated election, which may or may not be held as scheduled in March, tensions seem to be brewing between the two main challengers to the ruling party that the opposition says is poised for defeat.
The main opposition the Samagi Jana Balawegaya is already crying foul over criticisms levelled at its leader by fellow opposition party the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), whose leadership has allegedly mocked a school bus donation campaign by SJB leader Sajith Premadasa.
The JVP’s apparently pithy comments were not to the liking of SJB frontliner and former MP Hirunika Premachandra, who at a press conference in Colombo expressed her disappointment at the low-blows.
Premachandra claimed that JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake had recently gone on a live television programme and spent a majority of its airtime not criticising the government but taking potshots at the leader of the opposition.
The JVP leader and another party senior had also made disparaging remarks about the bus donation at one of the very schools the SJB had donated buses to, she claimed.
“The SJB is engaged in politics against the government. We believe the JVP too is engaged in politics against the government. So who should be the common enemy of both camps? It should be the government, which is hurting the people of this country,” said Premachandra.
“But since of late, the JVP is not talking about the government. They’re talking about Sajith Premadasa donating buses. They claim Sajith Preamadasa never had a childhood, that he is distributing buses, that he’s playing basketball,” she said.
Taking a potshot of her own at the JVP, Premachandara said: “There are some people who in their school days would be involved in various [extracurricular] activities like playing basketball and the piano and photography and all that and become skilled at them. Then there are people who rarely went to school or bunked school if they did go and after leaving school without even doing Advanced Levels join some guerilla group and set fire to people’s homes in the guise of doing politics.”
Premachandra claimed that her party’s leader’s campaign to donate buses to school, a valuable gesture that would benefit hundreds of students for years to come, was being criticised because Premadasa had his own signature way of doing things.
“Sajith Premadasa’s conduct is different to that of the ordinary politician. If he visits a school, he’ll play with the students there. If he donates a bus, he’ll drive it. So some people may see this as different.”
Premachandra said the SJB has donated 67 school buses so far. However, she did not reveal the sources of funds for the buses.
The JVP is not the only party to make thinly veiled digs at the SJB’s bus campaign. Following discussions with the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) on Tuesday on forming an alliance with the United National Party (UNP) for the local government elections, UNP general secretary Palitha Range Bandara said to reporters: “[The SJB] may prove a challenge in a bus race, but not in an election.” (Colombo/Jan11/2023)