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Founding & History
The Liberal Party was founded in 1987 by a movement of young academics, intellectuals, and professionals who deplored the absence of a political party committed to liberalism. Although only officially recognized in 1988, and directed by a National Committee with an average of less than 30, the Party was able to garner 2.6% of the vote in the 1988 Provincial Council elections, gaining two seats. The Liberal Party has grown in influence ever since, gaining a parliamentary seat in 1994. In the presidential election of 1994, the Liberal party supported and drafted the manifesto of Hon. Gamini Dissanyake, who was the leader of the opposition, who was assassinated during the campaign.
Platform & Policies
The Liberal Party is Sri Lanka’s political party most committed to individual liberty and parliamentary democracy. The Liberal Party advocates replacing the current constitution with one making Sri Lanka a parliamentary democracy with a cabinet system, with membership in parliament determined through a proportional system modeled after Germany. The proposed constitution would also make Sri Lanka a federal state with eight or nine provinces, which would enjoy a significant amount of power and extensive chapter on fundamental right and the restoration of judicial review of legislation.
The Liberal Party favors building Sri Lanka into a vibrant market economy supplemented with welfare provisions for the underprivileged. It supports the development of enterprise partnerships for the very poor with the involvement of private companies and the state. The Party also advocates repealing the ceiling on land ownership; privatizing plantation, ports, the national airline, and other industries, and developing enterprise partnerships with the very poor. Thanks to the Party’s campaigning, the government has agreed to incorporate the right to privacy into the constitution.
Social and civil freedoms are necessary an essential plank in the Liberal Part platform. The Party supports privatization of state-owned newspapers, and is opposed to censorship of any kind, whether ideological or moralistic. |
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