‘The President says that if he loses, he will accept defeat, go home and sleep. Should he be allowed to sleep? No. What he needs is not a vote but a punch in the face. I tell J.R. that he will have to roll up his sleeping mat and leave Ward Place by the 20th. I am the party’s Deputy Secretary, Vijaya Kumaratunga. If the police do not solve this, there will be bloodshed. Otherwise, we will settle this in five minutes…’ (22 June 1982 – Dinamina)
Dinamina published this as a speech delivered by Vijaya at an election rally during the 1982 presidential election. On 19 November 1982, Vijaya was arrested for this statement, with the claim that he had plotted a Naxalite conspiracy to assassinate J.R. and seize power.
The Prime Minister at the time, Premadasa, stated in Parliament that J.R. had been informed of this by the brothers of Mrs Bandaranaike.
Anura gave a statement to Tyrrell Gunathilaka, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department under J.R.’s government, about this. Vijaya was arrested based on Anura’s statement.
After Vijaya was sent to prison, neither the SLFP leader, Mrs Bandaranaike, nor Anura went to see him. Neither did they claim his arrest was unjust. J.R. later remarked that they should erect a statue of him for saving the lives of Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura from Vijaya. The truth is that Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura betrayed Vijaya to J.R.’s government to protect the SLFP leadership.
After the 1982 presidential election, Vijaya’s popularity surged, and Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura feared he would seize control of the SLFP. J.R. feared that if Vijaya remained at large, he would be unable to win the 1982 referendum.
Vijaya fell ill in prison. Chandrika, unable to do anything, went to J.R.’s house in Ward Place and pleaded for his release. J.R. eventually freed Vijaya.
After his release, Vijaya realised his enemy was not J.R., but Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura. Nevertheless, he united all opposition parties and campaigned to defeat J.R. in the May 1983 by-elections. Even then, Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura continued to undermine him.
Realising he had no future in the SLFP as long as Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura remained, Vijaya, along with senior SLFP leaders T.B. Ilangaratne, V.W. Kularatne and Kobbekaduwa, broke away to form a new party, the Mahajana Party.
J.R. took advantage of the split. By-elections were held on 25 October 1984 for Kundasale and Minneriya. Vijaya contested from Minneriya for the Mahajana Party and came second, pushing the SLFP to third place.
When J.R.’s government signed the Indo-Lanka Accord with India to end the war in the North, Vijaya supported it. The backing of leftist parties, including Vijaya’s, strengthened J.R.’s position. In the 1988 presidential election, Vijaya ran as a third candidate in the duel between the SLFP candidate and the UNP’s Premadasa.
The UNP knew that if Vijaya contested, Mrs Bandaranaike’s defeat was inevitable. The JVP assassinated Vijaya. However, Vijaya’s friend Ossie ran in the 1988 election and split Mrs Bandaranaike’s vote, enabling Premadasa’s victory.
Thus, Vijaya, imprisoned by J.R., ultimately brought good fortune to J.R. and the UNP, as his release divided the opposition.
Mahinda similarly won the 2010 presidential election by imprisoning his opponent, the UNP–JVP common candidate Sarath Fonseka, just as J.R. imprisoned Vijaya. As in 1982, Mrs Bandaranaike and Anura again sided with J.R.
When Fonseka was imprisoned in 2010, Ranil and his allies secretly supported Mahinda, fearing that if Fonseka remained free, he would challenge Ranil’s leadership. While Fonseka was jailed, Ranil did not join opposition protests calling for his release. Mahinda swiftly released Fonseka.
Upon his release, Fonseka returned home from Welikada in a procession. He realised his enemy was not Mahinda but Ranil. He formed the Democratic Party and split the UNP vote. In the 2013 and 2014 provincial council elections, Fonseka’s party slashed the UNP’s base to 20%. Foreign forces, aiming to defeat Mahinda in 2015, secured Fonseka’s support for Maithripala.
‘Is Ranil, recently released, now trying to weaken the opposition just as Vijaya and Fonseka, after their prison terms, undermined it?’
Since his release, Ranil has not sought to unite the opposition but to seize control of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Media friendly to him reports that Sajith was summoned before the Bribery Commission to intimidate the party into submission and destroy it.
When Vijaya was imprisoned in 1982, the SLFP under Mrs Bandaranaike incited J.R.’s government against him. When Fonseka was jailed in 2010, the Ranilists of the UNP encouraged Mahinda’s government. Now, when Ranil faces imprisonment, Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya have organised protests despite the risk of contempt charges.
The media, once carried by the shoulders of Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, now seeks to send him to jail.
Ranil’s actions aim not to unite the opposition but to divide it by painting Sajith as an enemy. This is a disease that leaders who have been imprisoned often develop. It is a fate spread by governments holding two-thirds majorities. J.R.’s government in 1982, Mahinda’s in 2010, and Anura’s today are all two-thirds governments.
