A Champion for Change

PROJECTION OF AKD AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE

- By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The first part of this article published last week delved into the election campaign conducted by Anura Kumara Dissanayake when he contested the September 2024 presidential elections. The second part was to scrutinise President Dissanayake's post-election performance in fulfilling those promises during the past year

However, this week’s article will focus -- with the aid of earlier writings -- on AKD’s rapid rise in politics and the winning strategies adopted by him. President Dissanayake’s post-election performance will be analysed in a future article.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) suffered two major splits in 2008 and 2012. In 2008, many of the Sinhala ultra-nationalists within the JVP led by Wimal Weerawansa broke away and formed the National Freedom Front(NFF). In 2012, most of the revolutionary socialists in the JVP under Kumar Gunaratnam’s leadership left the JVP and formed the Frontline Socialist Party(FSP). After these splits, what was mainly left behind was a “residual middle” somewhat in between Sinhala nationalism and revolutionary socialism.

The JVP began losing its vigour and vitality in the postwar years and began turning into a caricature of its former self. It was becoming increasingly clear that the JVP required a new sense of direction under a fresh leader if it were to survive as a political force.

The veteran JVP leader Somawansa Amersinghe realised that he needed to step down and began dropping hints that he would retire soon. The question was who would succeed him. There were many potential successors. K.D. Lalkantha, Tilvin Silva, Vijitha Herath, Sunil Handunneththi, Bimal Rathnayake and Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Among these stalwarts the General Secretary Tilvin Silva was tipped to be the new leader.

JVP's Fifth leader