Speaking for the first time since Sri Lanka’s political turmoil began three weeks ago, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga said she regretted that some in her party were betraying the January 2015 mandate. “The country has reached a dangerous precipice of chaos, anarchy and breakdown of the rule of law,” she said in a statement issued on Thursday. She recalled that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) — founded by her father S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and later led by her mother Sirimavo Bandaranaike — built a “massive unprecedented movement” with other parties to forge a brighter future for the country. “It is regretful that some sections of our beloved party find it fit to betray all our policies and once again join hands with a political group that destroyed fundamental rights, democracy, democratic institutions and built a destructive network of graft and corruption,” Ms. Kumaratunga said, alluding to President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent realignment with Mahinda Rajapaksa.
