A week ago today, Galle Face, which has symbolized the peoples struggle which began in April this year transformed into a sea of heads as thousands of Sri Lankans converged at the site for the final push.
Guesstimates of the crowds that turned up are between one and two million. The protestors walked towards President’s House, the President’s official residence in Colombo’s commercial capital in Fort, amidst a rain of teargas. There were temporary setbacks, but again they pushed back with determination and breached the barriers that protected the access road to the Presidential Secretariat which would lead them eventually to their final destination. Security forces guarding President’s House opened fire at a wall separating them from the protesters. Their message though clear, went unheeded by protesters.
The final push ended on a conciliatory note for the strugglers though there were many who were injured, including some who were critically injured, as the military personnel opened fire. The government’s position was they were forced to do it to defend President’s House.
Social media clips of two naval vessels that had dropped anchor in the Colombo harbour, and an overnight bag being rushed onto the ships, fuelled speculation about who could be leaving. The President had fled in a hurry. The protesters discovery of bundles of new currency notes amounting to millions which were eventually handed over to the police, was telling. The President eventually ended up in Trincomalee where he spent the night at the Naval House with Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ulagetanne and returned to Colombo the following day. The people were searching for the President and accused Air Force Commander Air Marshall Sudarshana Pathirana of harbouring him. The reason for the alleged accusation was because the close affinity between the Air Force Commander and the President were known to some. The relationship developed when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the Defence Secretary while Sudharshana Pathirana was functioning as the Defence Attache at the Sri Lanka embassy in Moscow. When Pathirana returned to the country, he joined the Ministry of Defence under the aegis of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. As Defence Secretary, Gotabaya liaised with Pathirana when Sri Lanka procured Russian MIG fighter jets. The Sri Lanka Air Force used MIG fighters extensively in the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The SLAF issued a denial when social media posts stated that the Air Force Commander had given refuge to the President. However, the Air Force facilitated the President’s departure to the Maldives in the wee hours of Wednesday.
In the press release which the SLAF issued later that day, it said they acted in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and provided the President safe passage out of the country since he was still the head of state.
The President landed at the Velana International Airport in the Maldives on Wednesday morning amid protests by Sri Lankans. The former President of the Maldives and the current Speaker of the Maldivian Majlis Mohamed Nasheed had prevailed on the Maldivian president to allow Rajapaksa in after the government there had refused him entry. Nasheed was returning favours. His ties with Sri Lanka run deep. Western educated Nasheed has also studied in Sri Lanka which has given refuge to him and his family during their bouts of political distress. Nasheed who has a political history chequered with activism against the presidential system of Maldivian ex-President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom as well as corruption and climate change, is the Maldives first democratically elected leader. As soon as Ranil Wickremesinghe took on the job of Prime Minister in May this year, it was to Nasheed that he turned. Nasheed offered Wickremesinghe his services as an international coordinator. Tweeting about it at the time, Wickremesinghe said he has accepted former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s generous offer to assist in the relief efforts in Sri Lanka’s economic recovery by coordinating the efforts to secure foreign assistance.
Rajapaksa meanwhile headed straight to an island resort Waldorf Astoria, Ithaafushi. The Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, formerly The Waldorf-Astoria Collection, is a luxury hotel and resort brand of Hilton worldwide.
The President, through the Speaker, had given a time frame to send in his resignation. When it eventually took place a day later, it came at a cost to the integrity of the Speaker, already maligned by the people because of his obvious partisanship to the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. The damage which was done was irreparable, leading to further questions of the legitimacy of the current parliament. One can confidently surmise that Rajapaksa wanted to make sure before he relinquished his presidential immunity that he was out of reach of even the short arm of the Sri Lankan law for the multiple fraud and corruption and war crimes that he is being accused of.
Although there was speculation that Rajapaksa was heading toward Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, his next stop was Singapore which was where he sent his resignation from via WhatsApp to the Speaker and promised to send the signed official letter on Friday through the Sri Lanka mission there. Singapore’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is in Singapore on a private visit and that he had not asked for asylum nor that the Foreign Ministry in Singapore had granted him asylum.
Nasheed meanwhile tweeted that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had resigned. ‘I hope Sri Lanka can now move forward. I believe the President would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka and fearful of losing his life. I commend the thoughtful action of the Government of Maldives. My best wishes to the people of Sri Lanka’, he said in his tweet.
In Sri Lanka, there was speculation that the President may return after some time after assigning the Prime Minister to cover his duties. In short, people thought it was another one of decisions which would go down the same path as his now infamous reversals. While still in Sri Lanka, the President attempted to leave the country through VIP channels and the immigration officers on duty at the Silk Route channel at the Bandaranaike International Airport withdrew from duties without stamping his passport. The President’s brother Basil, who was to board an Emirates flight at midnight that same day had to turn back owing to the attitude of the immigration officials.
Later the Association of Emigration and Immigration officials stated that denying the right of an individual to leave the country (Freedom of Movement) amounts to an infringement of an individual’s fundamental rights guaranteed under constitutional provisions. The Association declared that it lacks the power to stop anybody unless the person concerned has a prohibition to travel issued by a competent court of law.
Basil and former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remained in the country because they may have to appear before the Supreme Court to give evidence in a case filed by well-known swimmer Julian Bolling, Chandra Jayaratne and a few others to queries on the economy and how Sri Lanka faced such an economic predicament. The two respondents, including Ajit Nivard Cabraal, gave an undertaking through their lawyers that they would remain in the country.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has now become a part of the contemporary political history of Sri Lanka. A President who was elected with utmost public confidence and dubbed a hero of the masses whose popularity hit rock bottom within a short period.
With public anger mounting over his inability to provide the basic needs of the people, Gotabaya Rajapksa pushed the country into a dark abyss. His downfall was his own creation. Rajapaksa was a reluctant President. He did not want to hear the advice of intellectuals because many said he had a chip on his shoulder. The most shocking error was his unilateral decision to replace synthetic fertiliser with organic fertiliser.
The President, without any reservation, listened to the advice of Ven. Ratana Thero and Dr Anuruddha Padeniya on the use of organic fertiliser.
The project was to popularise its use in a backdrop where people have become used to synthetic fertiliser more than the necessary levels. The advice was that it give the President leverage to project his image as a champion of the people if it could reap the expected results. However, top agricultural experts held a clear position contrary to the views of a coterie of the President’s men. The experts pointed out that it would not be advisable to change to organic fertiliser overnight, and their stated position was that no country has been able to achieve the desired results.
Bhutan is one country which initiated such a programme as a model. They discovered that it was a longer process than expected and the only way to achieve success was through a phased-out programme. However, in an atmosphere where Bhutan also failed to reach the required standards, Sri Lanka doubled the process. It ended up a sheer flop much to the chagrin of the farming community.There appears to be a looming food crisis in the country that will further aggravate with more scarcities in the offing.
Massive tax cuts implemented as soon as the regime assumed office and various frauds that ripped off the people’s money to help the Rajapaksa cronies to make a fast buck contributed to the rapid deceleration of the country’s economic growth.
Untimely decisions and failure to take farsighted measures to correct the economy have dealt an unforgiven blow to the Rajapaksas.
The Rajapaksa factor in the Sri Lankan body polity is gradually dwindling thanks to the Galle Face Green strugglers who channeled the people’s wrath in the right direction to depose the otherwise powerful Rajapaksas.
The people are now guessing who the next President of Sri Lanka should be. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has already assumed office as the Acting President and is poised to contest the presidency trough an election in parliament at which its members will vote. The Prime Minister may stand a chance to win since the SLPP has resolved to throw their weight behind him. SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam’s announcement that Wickremesinghe will be the party’s chosen candidate prompted a fast and furious rejoinder by party Chairman GL Peiris contradicting Kariyawasm. As a single entity, the SLPP holds sway in parliament as a majority and is still siding with the party whip.
SLPP parliamentarian Dullas Allahapperuma has also expressed his intention to join the fray along with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. Others who have thrown their hats into the ring are Patali Champika Ranawaka, Sarath Fonseka and the leader of the National Peoples Power Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The candidate who secures 50 per cent of the total votes cast will be declared president. The election can also have an elimination process if one candidate fails to secure the required 50 per cent. The Speaker is also eligible to cast his vote. The Returning Officer has a greater responsibility to ensure the transparency of the process. The Acting President has informed the Speaker to reach a consensus with all the parties of the interim government about a prime minister and has also tossed the name of Sajith Premadasa to take over the parliamentary mantle. The latest reports say that Premadasa has refused to work with Ranil Wickremesinghe since he has not been elected to parliament but came in through the national list and without a peoples mandate.
Does this argument hold water? It is true that Wickremesinghe rose from the ashes like a phoenix to make a dramatic comeback, to the chagrin of many. No one expected him to come to parliament through the only national list slot which the UNP secured at the last general election and manoeuvre his way to become the Prime Minister and then Acting President.
The late President D.B Wijetunge created precedence by being the first parliamentarian to ascend to the presidency following the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Former Secretary General of Parliament Nihal Senevaratne in an article written to the Island newspaper in September last year recounted the election process. Unlike today, President Wijetunge was the unanimous choice of the House amidst a volatile political situation which prevailed in the country at that time.
Dingiri Banda Wijeunga (born February 19, 1922), hailing from Pilimatalawe, Udunuwara was one of the most popular politicians at that time. He endeared himself to others with his stark simplicity and his very affable manners. The people were so fond of him that his initials DB were used by people to call him Dearly Beloved and even Dunnoth Baraganan.
In the nineties, he was chosen as Prime Minister by President R. Premadasa overlooking two outstanding UNP politicians of that time who were Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. It was a very adroit move. Mr Wijetunga had a parliamentary service of over 25 years having served as Minister of Power, Highways and Energy, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and Minister of Agricultural Development in the seventies and eighties.
On Tuesday May 4, 1993 the Speaker announced the assassination of His Excellency President R. Premadasa. “It has been a brutal and cowardly act not just in the personal sense but also because it is directed at the Head of State, therefore at the Government and the entire nation. The loss of the Head of State of any country affects its citizens, irrespective of caste, creed and religious and political affiliations…. We Sri Lankans, cherish democracy and we must all join hands to ensure that the reasons for such insane acts do not recur – the Secretary General of Parliament will now make an announcement,” he said.
I then announced that as a vacancy in the post of President had arisen and that under Section 2 of the Presidential Elections (Special Provisions )Act No 2 of 1981 a new President had to be appointed and under Section 5, the Secretary General of Parliament has to keep Parliament notified.
The second notice I was called upon to read to Parliament was that under the Act, I name Friday, May as the date for receiving of nominations under the provisions of Clause 5 of the above Act. On May 7, the Speaker at the commencement of business announced that the Secretary-General will make an announcement in regard to the election to the office of President.
I then made the following announcement: Under Section 6 (1) I wish to inform the House of the provisions relating to the receipt of nominations to the office of President. The relevant Section 10 of the Presidential Elections (Special Provision) Act No 2 of 1981 reads as follows:
6 (1) On the date fixed for the receipt of nominations, Parliament shall meet and the Secretary-General should act as the Returning Officer.
2) A Member who wishes to propose any other Member for election to the office of President shall obtain the written consent of the Member indicating that such Member is willing to serve.
3) A Member addressing himself to the Secretary-General shall propose any other Member present to the office of President. The proposal shall be seconded by another Member but no debate will be allowed.
4) If only one Member is so proposed and seconded to the office of the President, he shall be declared by the Secretary-General to have been elected to such office. If more than one Member is so proposed and seconded, Parliament shall by subsection of Section (3) find a date and time for the holding of the election, such date being a date not earlier than 48 hours from the date of receiving nominations.
In terms of Section 6 of the Presidential Election (Special Provisions) Act 2 of 1981, I shall now receive nominations for the Office of President.”
Election of President – Mr Wijepala Mendis, Minister of Transport and Highways said: “Mr Secretary General of Parliament, under the terms of Section 6 (1) of the Presidential Elections (Special Provisions) Act No 2 of 1981, I have much pleasure in proposing the name of Hon. Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, a Member of the Honourable House for election to the office of President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. I tender to you the written consent of the said Honourable Member agreeing to serve in the said office if elected by the House.”
The Hon. A.C.S. Hameed, Minister of Justice and Higher Education – “The Secretary General of Parliament, I have much pleasure in seconding the name of Hon. Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, a Member of this Honourable House for election to the office of President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
The Secretary-General: Are there any other names?
I then made this announcement:
“In terms of Section 6 (4) of the Presidential Elections (Special Provisions) Act No 2 of 1981, I declare that Dingiri Banda Wijetunga has been elected to the office of President uncontested.
Congratulations to His Excellency the President.”
On the 20th of this month Sri Lanka will elect a new President. The modalities of the election process are already in the public domain. The essence of the modalities remain the same save for one proviso which was announced by the current Secretary- General of Parliament Dhammika Dassanayaka when he was explaining the rules for the election when parliament met on Saturday morning. He reminded Members of Parliament of the need to look at the suitability of a nominee for the post of president. The acting President, in the meantime, has announced his eagerness to revive the now defunct 19th amendment to the Constitution. Will he move in that direction before the 20th of this month is a crucial question which baffles most?
