Former Minister Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front, has decided not to contest this year’s parliamentary elections.
The National Freedom Front under his leadership is not contesting this year’s parliamentary elections either as a coalition or as a party.
In the last parliamentary election, seven representatives of his party were appointed as members of parliament and when the parliament was dissolved, four of them left the party and joined other parties.
An underlying purpose in Wimal’s statement
The press release issued by him explaining the party’s decision at length is as follows.
So far, the people of the country have elected the president through a free and peaceful election.
But it was clear from the warnings issued by some countries to their countrymen coming to Sri Lanka as tourists before the presidential election that the foreign forces hostile to Sri Lanka did not expect such a situation.
It is now no secret that their desire was to ignite conflicts by exploiting the uncertainty surrounding the results of the presidential election and ultimately turn the situation created in Bangladesh into the fate of Sri Lanka.
But because the people of the country and the government officials as well as the political forces deeply understood and acted accordingly, such a situation could have been avoided.
We are sincerely happy about that and express our thanks to the Honorable President as well as the Janata Vimukti Peramuna for organizing to prevent such a situation.
Wimal’s political reading
According to our political reading, the presidential election is taking place in a very critical global geopolitical climate created by history and a deep economic and socio-political crisis locally.
The war launched by Western imperialist countries against Russia based on Ukraine and the war being created in the South China Sea against China has become a military obstacle for the imperialists today.
Meanwhile, the state terrorism being launched using Israel in the Middle East is finally being transformed into an irreversible crisis for its founders.
At the same time, one attempt to rule the world through dollar hegemony has collapsed because Saudi Arabia has not re-enforced the agreement, which was used as a powerful device to create the US dollar hegemony, which was run based on the global petroleum market, after 50 years.
Also, it is very clear that the US-led NATO military alliance has faced a serious dilemma with the initiation of a new global financial system by the BRICS group of countries, which represents 40% of the world economy and 60% of the world’s population, to break the hegemony of the US dollar with the participation of other countries.
As reported by the ‘Financial Times’ newspaper recently, William Burns, the head of America’s CIA intelligence service, and Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, appeared together in public for the first time in history and declared that they had to face the most powerful challenge of the 21st century.
It is no secret that whenever they are challenged, they promote war to push the entire world population into crisis.
What Wimal says is often true
Also, it is clear from the above statements that the imperialist forces have been greatly disturbed by the declaration that Russia and China are repositioning their nuclear and other military power as well as their policy related to the use of atomic power.
In addition, it is now no secret to the world that the intelligence mentioned above services are making plans to counter the failure of the imperialist operations launched to collapse the economy of Russia and China and create internal crises. On the contrary, when those countries become economically powerful.
Those plans clearly show that the world’s main shipping route, which runs from the South China Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, has a strong geopolitical importance.
Accordingly, the future fate of Sri Lanka will be decided by the way the Sri Lankan state and people act in the geopolitical and military tension that is building in the Indo-Pacific region.
We have shown that the global situation was also reflected in the last presidential election. It is clear that their expectations have not been fulfilled in the presidential election results, especially in 7 districts and some constituencies where political groups manipulated by foreign forces have more influence. But that expectation was fulfilled in a different way
Anyone who knows ‘a’ in politics can understand that those forces are working to twist the hand of the president who was appointed to take over.
It is our political reading that whether we willingly submit to or oppose it is determined by the awareness and intervention of the country’s people rather than individual factors.
However, some people seem to think that the new president can slip between the feet of the American ambassador and the Indian ambassador and escape from those influences.
Nevertheless, it is evident that the President’s journey will not be easy in a situation where the root causes of the economic crisis, which the former President created in 2015 as the Prime Minister and then escalated after the planned back door storming of the Presidential Office, remain the same and in a situation where no priority is given to change them.
Especially in the above global geopolitical situation, India will be pressured to implement economic integration instruments to make Sri Lanka the 29th state of India.
According to the agreement made by the former President with the Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, on July 21, 2023, the current President is obligated to implement five economic integration devices and start signing the Etka Agreement. (See notification issued by the Ministry of External Affairs of India on July 21 2023)
It is clear from the statements made by the foreign minister on various occasions that the process of creating the state of Eelam, or the 30th state of India, is included in the Indian geopolitical agenda by fully implementing the 13th amendment.
We do not doubt that the current President will be pressured to take the final decision on the related Annex ‘B’ document as per the negotiations on the SOFA agreement initiated by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2019, according to the American agenda, which is running concurrently with the Indian agenda.
The American SOFA agreement presented to Sri Lanka has more serious differences than the agreements signed with the rest of the world.
According to its Annex ‘B’ document, if the government of Sri Lanka agrees to that annex, the US military personnel entering the country and the companies providing services can roam and camp anywhere in the country.
Also, the officers have the ability to enter the country from any port in Sri Lanka without prior notice, and they can travel within the country with or without uniform and armed or not, by air, sea or land.
Their luggage or vehicles cannot be searched and legal action cannot be taken if they violate the country’s laws and the relevant charges must be submitted to the US Embassy.
Vimal advising Anura Kumara
In such a situation, the President will have to face the conflict between the expectations of the new political movement called National People’s Force for which the President officially ran for election, the forces that have joined and gathered outside of its elemental force, the JVP, and the expectations of the forces that represent the JVP’s past heritage. We have no doubt that the conflict can be created and intensified by the imperialist forces themselves.
Accordingly, as a political movement rooted in anti-imperialism, which has a right to and respects the past heritage of the JVP, we are obliged to protect the mandate that the President put in power and to stand up for the expectations of the people who created that mandate.
In that situation, the establishment of a government with a simple majority through the general election becomes a precondition for facing the above-mentioned crisis.
It limits the bargaining power of separatist and religious extremist groups with the government. There, the unrepresented forces in the government and the forces known as the opposition are forced to choose one of two roles.
The first is to play an advantageous role in the imperialist agenda as the traditional opposition. The second, according to our reading, is the role of guiding and lobbying the government to prevent derailment by representing public expectations.
There is a possibility that certain parties who impose psychological barriers on national forces may define that role as supporting the government.
We have no objection to that, and compared to that challenge and the majority public opinion in the country, it is our political reading that the role outside the parliament should be more important and powerful than the role played in the parliament.
Also, by playing the role of the traditional opposition in the parliamentary election battle, we think that creating a conflict between the majority of people’s expectations and our expectations is an adverse action compared to the ultimate goal.
Therefore, we very responsibly inform the people of the country that the National Freedom Front as a political party will not compete in the upcoming parliamentary elections either in alliance or independently.
It is further to be informed that this decision is a political decision made by discussion in the organisational machinery of our party at all levels and based on the consensus of the boards and groups where decisions are made.
Also, we are informed that in the next few days, we will unveil our proposals or statements related to the principled division on how the division should occur in the upcoming elections and the political process that will take place after that.
Finally, there is no doubt that some opposition forces have a desire to make President Anura Dissanayake the ‘Second Gotabhaya’. However, we also responsibly assure the general public that our party represents that interest and will not contribute to making the country more vulnerable to crisis.
