• Divisions within FPA on timing of forming alliance with some calling for haste and others patience   

All Parliamentarians representing the Freedom People’s Alliance (FPA) in the Parliamentary Opposition are of the opinion that they should form an alliance with political parties representing the Opposition, including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), but there is some division regarding when such an alliance should be formed, The Daily Morning learns.

In the wake of reports that several FPA MPs including Prof. G.L. Peiris, Dilan Perera, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, and Prof. Channa Jayasumana are to join the SJB, MP Dullas Alahapperuma – who is leading the FPA – recently told the media that MPs in his group hold different views on the formation of an alliance with the SJB.

When contacted by The Daily Morning yesterday (19), MP K.P.S. Kumarasiri, representing the FPA, said that all MPs in the group were of the view that they should get together with other opposition parties against the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and President Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said that they had been discussing the formation of an alliance with several political parties such as the SJB, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People’s Power in the recent past. 

In response to a query about reports of a division within the group, he said that there was no critical division among them. “We are all of the view that we should get together with other opposition political parties including the SJB. However, there is a slight division about the time when we should do it. For instance, a few MPs say that we should form an alliance with the SJB and other possible parties as soon as possible, while some others are of the view that we should wait for some more time. That is the only division we have.”

Dissatisfied with the programme of the then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the ruling SLPP from which they were elected to Parliament, a group of MPs including Kumarasiri, Prof. Peiris, Alahapperuma, Prof. Jayasumana, Dr. Godahewa, Prof. Charitha Herath, Gunapala Rathnasekara, Lalith Ellawala, Dr. Upul Galappaththi, Perera, Udayana Kirindigoda, Dr. Thilak Rajapakshe, and Wasantha Yapa Bandara left the SLPP-led Government, and formed the FPA, which they termed an “independent” parliamentary group. They sit in the Parliamentary Opposition at present.