International Workers’ Day celebrations have long since lost their original meaning and significance. It had been a revolutionary tradition that, through May Day celebrations, workers around the world united to honour past struggles and reaffirm their commitment to continue the fight for a more equitable and humane society. Today, however, May Day has been transformed into one of crass politicking and personal political aggrandisement.

As Sri Lanka looks ahead to national elections, political parties organised May Day celebrations on Wednesday (1) to showcase their strength in order to kickstart their campaigns.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has been organising mass marches and rallies regularly and in a disciplined manner for decades on May Day after older left parties such as the Sri Lanka Communist Party (SLCP) and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) lost influence. Last week too, the JVP’s May Day rally was much bigger than those of other parties. The party held rallies not only in the capital but also in Anuradhapura, Matara, and even Jaffna.

It seems that unlike before, the JVP, now with a new avatar as the National People’s Power (NPP), has become one of the main political parties in the country and come into line with other main parties.

The traditional mainstream political parties such as the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have now become small parties in terms of organisational structure and popular support. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which the Rajapaksas founded eight years ago, not only grew into the country’s largest political party within a short span of time but also seized power with the overwhelming support of the people. 

The Rajapaksas, who were ousted from power two years ago by Sri Lanka’s unprecedented popular uprising, have once again stepped up efforts to strengthen their party. They also held a May Day rally in Colombo. 

Ranil’s grand display

The UNP led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe organised its May Day celebrations on a grand scale on this occasion after a long time. It is noteworthy that after more than three decades, the UNP celebrated its May Day under the leadership of an Executive President. On May Day in 1993, President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed in a suicide bomb attack while leading the party’s procession in Colombo. 

After him, no UNP leader won a Presidential Election. How Wickremesinghe, the current Leader of the UNP, rose to the presidency that had been eluding him for more than a quarter of a century is a remarkably strange story in recent history.

Although he is two months away from completing two years as President, he continues to be unable to rebuild his party’s support base. The UNP, which suffered a historic defeat at the last General Election, failing to win a single seat in Parliament, was able to entertain hope for revival only after Wickremesinghe took office as President. 

Last Wednesday saw thousands of people gathered at the party’s rally. It is commonly heard that support does not translate into votes at elections, despite the massive turnout at JVP meetings. Even in the case of the UNP now, one cannot help but ask whether the mass of people who attended the May Day rally will translate into votes. 

This time the UNP too had the compulsion to put on a grand display by bussing people from many parts of the country for its Colombo rally. Wickremesinghe, who has already embarked on efforts to form a broad alliance before announcing his candidacy for the Presidential Election, needs to show that his party is no longer in the dire state of weakness it was in four years ago.

However, Wickremesinghe did not mention anything about his candidacy for the presidency, although it was expected that he might announce it at the rally in Colombo. Instead, he called on all political parties including the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Power) and the NPP to come forward to reach a common agreement with the Government to continue with the current economic restructuring programme being carried out with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure the country’s recovery from the economic crisis. 

Instead of making new promises, the President asked parties to support the Government in enacting the IMF agreement in Parliament as a law. It is obvious that he is focusing on handling the current economic restructuring measures as a major part of his future political agenda. 

Members of Parliament from some other parties, especially those from the SJB, were expected to attend the UNP rally. Despite the party’s Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardene saying the previous day that there would be some political tremors on Wednesday, none other than a Monaragala District MP of the SLPP took the stage. 

Other parties woo the masses

Meanwhile, SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa, while addressing the party’s rally in Colombo, explained the approaches his party would adopt to deal with the country’s political challenges and gave numerous promises. He said that a future government led by him would strive to find a permanent solution to the problems faced by minority communities with the support of the Sinhalese people, adding that he was committed to the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. 

The Opposition Leader’s speech, which was an attempt to reach out to minority communities, revealed his keen interest in winning the support of those communities at the Presidential Election. 

Addressing the NPP’s Colombo rally, which was attended by a massive crowd, its Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that Sri Lanka would celebrate the next May Day under their government. No doubt it was a reflection of his firm confidence of victory at the Presidential Election. 

Dissanayake, who as usual launched a scathing attack on past and present Governments instead of expounding on specific policies of his party, spoke in general terms about uniting the people as part of the NPP’s plan for economic recovery. 

This being the case, it cannot be said that the Rajapaksas, who hoped to use their May Day rally to demonstrate the popular support they believe they have, were able to witness the success they expected. 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who addressed the rally held at Campbell Park in Colombo, boasted as usual that the candidate who contested with the blessing of his party would win the Presidential Election. 

Rajapaksa offered an indirect compliment to President Wickremesinghe, saying that Premadasa and Dissanayake had been afraid to take up the challenge when Gotabaya Rajapaksa had asked them to take over the Government in order to handle the economic downturn two years ago during the people’s uprising. However, he did not openly say that his party would support Wickremesinghe at the coming election.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who addressed a rally in Gampaha outside Colombo a few hours after former President Maithripala Sirisena announced him as the SLFP’s presidential candidate, said they were ready to form an SLFP government. 

One is at a loss to understand why the Justice Minister took the gamble of contesting as the presidential candidate of a section of the party which has been severely weakened under Sirisena’s leadership and is now further divided after the intervention of another former President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. One cannot help but suspect that there may be an ulterior motive behind it.

As these are the messages from the May Day rallies, which were deemed as a spectacular starting point of election campaigns, the question arises as to when President Wickremesinghe will announce his decision to contest the election. What does he think is the appropriate (or auspicious) time to make his announcement? 

Rajan Philips, a veteran Sri Lankan political analyst living in Canada, made an interesting comment about President Wickremesinghe in his regular column in a local newspaper last week.

“Ranil Wickremesinghe’s stars and fortunes are different and might be even rising. He has no party in Parliament but is in total control of Parliament. He has no party to take to the hustings, but that gives him the freedom to shop around for an alliance and promote himself as the common Government candidate. A new political animal.” 

 (The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)