Sri Lanka:The Rise & Fall of Leadership Groups

INTRODUCTION: SRI LANKAN POLITICAL PARTIES

More than five decades of independence for Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, has witnessed the rise of a political system with basically stable political parties. Before the 1980s two major parties formed to create a two-party political system consisting of the United National Party (UPN) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). After the 1980s, internal factions in these parties and increasing minority activism gave rise to a number of parties. Some of these are factions within the two main parties, while others are independent of them or represent the extreme.

The UNP came into existence in 1946, championed and led by Don Stephen Senanayake and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike (Political, 2002, 1). By the early 1950s Senanayake, who served as Sri LankaÆs first Prime Minister, broke away from the UNP and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Like modern day political parties in Sri Lanka, these parties often consisted of factions with differing attitudes and ideas and hostile to each other. A Library of Congress document holds by the 1970s, the UPN was ôorganized around power personalities and politically influential families rather than a consistent ideology or a strong party organizationö (Political, 2002, 2).

The SLFP has a leftist character in comparison to the UNP moderate right leanings. While part of the UNP Bandaranaike maintained a faction known as the Sinhala Maha Sabha which he

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ecently, after a period of seven years of no new negotiations, the Sri Lankan government agreed to meet with the leaders of the LTTE in order to negotiate a peace settlement. One of the major driving factors behind the negotiations comes from the needs of the LTTE. Because of the U.S. War on Terrorism, mainly supported by the U.N. and NATO, the LTTE was listed by the Bush Administration as one on a list of various terrorist organizations. One of the worst blows to the LTTE from making the list was a freeze on its more than $4 billion in assets: In most capitals the TigerÆs sources of money are being tracked down and their bank accounts frozen. The Tigers are desperate to protect the rest of their money, which is mainly collected from sympathizers abroad. They need to strike a deal with the Sri Lankan government that will restore some respectability to their organization (Civil War, 2002, 39). The main source of money for the LTTE cause comes from sympathizers who live abroad. The impact from a worldwide crackdown on terrorism is not the only driving factor that pushed the government and LTTE to the negotiations table. Another major factor was the December 2001 election of the UNP led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. As with e
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Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)