Gampaha District Member of Parliament Dr. Kavinda Jayawardena called on European partners to support stronger party institutions, internal democracy and youth leadership while speaking at an international roundtable held in Brussels on September 29.
Addressing the opening panel of the event, titled “Political Parties Under Pressure – How to Strengthen the Resilience of Parties Against Malign Influence from Third Actors,” Dr. Jayawardena presented a Sri Lankan perspective on the challenges facing political parties in smaller democracies.
Organised by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP), the roundtable brought together representatives of European political foundations, experts from EU institutions and think tanks and delegates from partner regions worldwide.
Highlighting Sri Lanka’s strategic importance at the heart of the Indian Ocean, Dr. Jayawardena noted that the country’s rich ethnic and religious diversity remains one of its greatest strengths, which must be protected from those seeking to divide communities. He outlined three key areas where political parties must build resilience: developing strong party institutions rather than relying on individual leaders, countering misleading and emotionally charged content spread through social media and AI particularly in Sinhala and Tamil where fact checking capacity remains limited and ensuring transparency in party financing both during elections and in the years between them.
In his address, Dr. Jayawardena urged European partners to assist in building fact-checking capabilities and digital literacy in local languages and to engage with countries such as Sri Lanka as genuine democratic partners. Concluding his remarks, he emphasised that malign influence does not respect borders, stating that building resilient democracies in Europe requires helping to build them in the Indian Ocean as well. The roundtable was conducted under the Chatham House Rule. (Newswire)
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