Crises, ironies and contradictions

The prevailing economic crisis, which threatens the very survival of the Sri Lankan nation and has overshadowed all other issues, and the resultant social and political unrest that endangers democracy, have prompted the political leaders to work in earnest towards the formation of a national unity government. They are at loggerheads, but have had to make common cause against their will. All of them are responsible for the mega mess the country finds itself in, today, albeit to varying degrees, and the resentful public wants them to clean it up together, or go home.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has held several rounds of talks with the Opposition political parties on the proposed all-party government, and various views have been expressed on it, but basically all of them have agreed in principle to support it. None of these politicians are driven by altruism; all of them are aware that unless the economic crisis is resolved, the country together with them will be done for, and the polity will be too chaotic and violent to govern. Whatever their motive, it is heartening that they have at long last agreed to put their shoulders to the wheel.

Optimism is being expressed in some quarters about the grand political alliance taking shape, but the focus of this comment is not on the future of the ongoing campaign to forge a national unity administration; instead, it is on the ironies and contradictions the unfolding political ‘reconciliation process’ is replete with.

SJB and UNP

The UNP and the SJB are like two siblings feuding over their ancestral property. The SBJ came into being because a group of senior UNPers such as Sajith Premadasa fell out with their party leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who, they said, would never be able to achieve success. They left the UNP because they refused to accept Ranil as their leader. But today the SJB has not only accepted Ranil as the Head of State but also agreed to support a unity government under his leadership! Some of the SJB MPs, who used to ridicule Ranil as a failed leader, have already joined him and received Cabinet posts.

Ironically, it is SJBP MP Manusha Nanayakkara who proposed Ranil as the SLPP’s candidate for the recent presidential contest in the parliament. There are signs of the SJB, which emerged as an alternative to the UNP, being dissolved in the latter so much so that SJBP leader Premadasa has threatened to quit politics if the government continues to lure his MPs into joining it as Ministers.

SLFP and Ranil

Among the political parties that have offered to support the proposed unity government under Ranil’s leadership is the SLFP, whose leader Maithripala Sirisena has said he will extend his party’s support to the President without accepting ministerial posts. Whoever would have thought he would back Ranil ever again when they fell out about four years ago?  

In 2018, the SLFP under the then President Sirisena’s leadership turned hostile towards Ranil, who was the Prime Minister. Sirisena felt that Ranil was undermining him, and tried to oust the latter by joining forces with his sworn enemies, the Rajapaksas. His attempt to oust Ranil backfired, and the Yahapalana government survived. Today, Sirisena has agreed to work with President Wickremesinghe whom he did not want to accept as the PM!

SLPP and Ranil

The SLPP has won three popular elections—local government, presidential and parliamentary—since 2018 by basically demonizing the UNP and Ranil, who, its leaders said, was a traitor. They said he had betrayed the Sri Lankan armed forces by making the country a party to a joint UNHRC resolution, calling for an international war crimes probe; they also accused him of having compromised national security. They used him as a foil to make themselves out to be patriots, and rejoiced at the trouncing of the UNP at the 2020 general election. But today they have enabled him to secure the executive presidency, provided him with a parliamentary majority and thrown in their lot with him!

It is also ironic that Ranil accused the Rajapaksas of having engineered his defeat at the 2005 presidential election by bribing the LTTE into declaring a polls boycott, thus depriving him of tens of thousands of votes in the Tiger-held areas in the North and the East. The general consensus is that he would have won if the LTTE had allowed the Tamil people to vote in the areas under its control. About 17 years on, Ranil has become the President with the help of the Rajapaksas, who were compelled to deliver the SLPP votes to him at last month’s presidential contest in the parliament.

One of the main planks of the UNP-led UNF’s 2015 general election campaign was corruption as well the abuse of power under the Rajapaksa government. The UNP branded the Rajapaksa family as a bunch of kleptocrats and asked for a mandate to have them and their cronies tried for their bribery and corruption first thing after a regime change. Some of them were arrested, remanded and prosecuted. But, today, Ranil and the Rajapaksas have become partners in governance!

Fonseka and Ranil

In 2010, Ranil opted out of the presidential race to enable former war-winning Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka to contest for presidency. True, Ranil did so because he knew his chances of winning were very extremely remote, but the fact remains that he backed Fonseka, who stood to gain from the UNP block vote.  When Fonseka failed to enter the parliament in 2015, Ranil brought him as a National List MP. The latter is now all out to topple the former, who has clawed his way to the top.  Fonseka recently called upon the people to take to the streets on August 09 to launch what he called the final battle against Ranil, but he has since changed his tune, maybe because the SJB has dissociated itself from his proposed course of action, which is not likely to succeed under the present circumstances.

TNA and SLPP

The TNA would not touch the Rajapaksas with a bargepole, as is public knowledge. The former is all out to have the latter hauled up before an internal war crimes tribunal. It campaigned really hard against Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential races in 201 and 2015, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019. It was also instrumental in foiling the Rajapaksas’ attempt to make a comeback in 2018 by dislodging the Yahapalana government with the help of the then President Sirisena. The TNA stood by the UNF and saved the day for Ranil by enabling him to muster a working majority in the House.

It is a supreme irony that the TNA voted to make Ranil the President, in the parliament, recently, enabling in the process the perpetuation of the Rajapaksa rule! Ranil will have to look after the SLPP parliamentary group for him to retain a parliamentary majority, and thus in the final analysis the TNA has indirectly helped further the interests of the Rajapaksa family it detests so much by voting for Ranil!

Ranil and the people

President Wickremesinghe has reaffirmed his commitment to safeguarding the Constitution. His election to the topmost post was constitutional, but it has given rise to a huge contradiction. The Constitution says, “In the Republic of Sri Lanka, sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights and the franchise.”

The people exercised their franchise at the 2020 general election, and deemed the UNP unfit to represent them. The UNP could secure only a single National List seat, which was also an electoral accident. But today a person who failed to retain his parliamentary seat has become the President, and the UNP, which was rejected by the people wholesale, is consolidating its power and having a say in the affairs of the state, thanks to the appointment of its leader as the President. This contradiction points to the fact that the country needs a new Constitution free from such glaring flaws, which run counter to the spirit of the supreme law of the country.