The architect of the Sri Lanka Podu Peramuna (SLPP) Basil Rajapaksa, recently lauded President Ranil Wickremesinghe for his accomplishments. It was a rare thing for an erstwhile arch–rival to do.
Rajapaksa said that Wickremesinghe was the best thing that happened to Sri Lanka following the inauspicious resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
His praise came out of the blue at a time when the SLPP seniors were hatching a conspiracy to defeat the maiden budget presented by the President.
It may have come as a surprise to the SLPP’s senior leadership, led by S.B. Dissanayake and others.
On Basil Rajapaksa’s arrival, there was quite a lot of rhetoric by the party juniors and his loyalists saying that the SLPP would regroup and make headway in the political arena.
Then there were much-hyped reports on the drafting of a new constitution for the party to cruise along with the other political entities that came into being following independence.
Was Basil’s action a far-fetched shot to implement his political scheming one way or the other?
Addressing the media following his arrival in the country, Basil Rajapaksa underlined the importance of electing Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe as the President of this country after the resignation of former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
“It is the right choice,” he said.
Pointing out that he was of the opinion that every party and opposition group should be allowed to do politics freely, he said that there is such an atmosphere in the country today and that all parties should be given a level playing field to do politics freely the way they want.
Was it a blatant admission that it was absent during their regime which started in 2005 by misleading the masses and getting the LTTE to boycott elections in favour of Mahinda Rajapaksa?
It was evidently clear from what minister Tiran Alles said some time ago. His narration of how he got Emil Kanthan, believed to have been a LTTE operative, to meet Basil Rajapaksa is on record. He said that he revealed all of that since there had been a plot brewing within the then-government to assassinate him. His justification for concealing all the evidence was that since he didn’t want to come out with classified information when the governmental authority fell out with him, he decided against it when he found out that his life was under threat. Once again, Alles has been able to mend fences with the Rajapaksas and has been appointed minister of public security.
Coming back to Basil Rajapaksa’s change of stance, he uttered all this and poured praise on Wickremesinghe while participating in the ceremony held at the party head office on December 5. It was on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the establishment of the media centre of the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP).
The centre was started as the first media operation owned by a political party in Sri Lanka, with modern, state-of-the-art technical facilities, including recording facilities, centralized distribution and more.
Speaking further, Rajapaksa pointed out that the opportunity has now been provided to do politics and do what is necessary freely. He said there is an expectation that the economic and other problems will be solved in the future.
He continued that although there are opinions among some parties that the party is divided, the SLPP has never been divided and the party is mainly intact and going along with the people of the country.
He mentioned that Professor GL Peiris remains the chairman of his party. The former minister pointed out that his party’s motto is “think differently—don’t be afraid,” and said that some people are used to thinking differently. He pointed out that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was an ideal leader and said he willdo politics according to the directions of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa, who indicated he is ready for any election as a political party, explained that elections are an expression of the will of the people and that the SLPP will try to win over the people. He pointed out how the SLPP had been able to win every election in the past and expressed his gratitude and respect to the entire nation for it.
Taking a swipe at his brother and deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Basil went on to say that he is sorry he could not fulfill the expectations of the people who placed their trust in his party and said he will take the necessary action to rectify the shortcomings and fulfill the expectations of the people.
The former minister said he is involved in politics even though he is not in governmentbecause of a prohibition in the 21st constitutional amendment, and that he has no chance of appearing in parliament. He said he was happy about it.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who came to power with the votes of 6.9 million people, resigned from his position. In terms of the constitution, a president should have been elected through parliament. Basil clarified that he took the necessary steps to select the most suitable person to be president.
Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa also had a one-on-one meeting with the President in the early part of the week. What prompted these talks remains a mystery, but insiders confirmed that there had been a long discussion regarding the final budget vote held on the 8th of December and speculation that SLPP MPs were to join the United National Party (UNP).
It is reported that Basil Rajapaksa had asked President Wickremesinghe about the measures to be taken regarding MPs who are planning to join the UNP from the SLPP, in a background where he had done all the spade work for the budget victory.
Basil had asked Wickremesinghe the truth about the news that the UNP seat organiser positions are being given to MPs from the SLPP. The president had replied that several people from the SLPP have inquired about the possibility of joining the UNP.
Basil Rajapaksa had told the President that allocating electoral organiser seats to such incoming MPs will not be a problem, but he has asked that they not be granted membership of the UNP in order for them to remain in the SLPP.
Although the President has not responded specifically to this, internal sources say there is a possibility the UNP will avoid such a scenarioinstead of going for a confrontation with the SLPP right now given the dicey political situation overall.
People are reconsidering the role of Basil Rajapaksa taking over the party reins from outside with many believing he will play the role similar to that played by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini from behind the scenes in the 1970s.
Besides, many talk about the possibility of a snap presidential election. Several MPs also voiced their opinion that the president should seek a fresh mandate. Earlier this week, former UNP MP Navin Dissanayke told the press during a meeting at the UNP headquarters in Sirikotha that the people can expect a presidential election next year. He went on to say that because the opposition is demanding an election, he has asked the President if presidential, parliamentary and local government elections can be held on the same day. He elaborated that a presidential election can be held after March and by August next year.
According to legal sources, there should be a thorough examination of the constitution to determine whether a stopgap president can call a snap election. The constitution makes it clear that the incumbent president can call for early elections at the expiration of four years after assuming office, but it is not clear whether a president who succeeds the incumbent halfway through a term can count the term that his predecessor expended to hold snap elections.
All in all, politicians and analysts are of the opinion that it will not be possible under the present circumstances where President Wickremesinghe has mapped out an economic recovery plan within the years to come.
Last week President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament he will not hold parliamentary elections until the economy has stabilised.
If Wickremesinghe genuinely believes that in Sri Lanka’s current context the economy and holding elections can be divorced from each other, he is more than delusional. ‘Sri Lanka’s economic turmoil has become a full-blown political crisis and humanitarian emergency’, said Human Rights watch in August this year.
Despite it being old hack, but just for the record, reams have been written about the devastation to the economy from the direct impact of the tax reliefs introduced by deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hot on the heels of his election to Office in 2019. It wiped off USD 2.2 million (Observer Research Foundation) and put a smile on the faces of the Rajapaksa punters.
In April 2021, a gung-ho Gotabaya defied the advice of experts and decreed that the import of synthetic fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides must stop for Sri Lanka to go organic. It was done under cover of a bogey, the occurrence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) among farmers in the north central province, which was debunked. A study by the National Research Council ruled out a causal link between CKD and synthetic fertiliser. Gotabaya’s troubled sojourn in the presidency was marked by more policy reversals than their implementation and the ban too was revoked within months. But by then, the tea industry was on track to lose more than USD 425 million and the agriculture yield nose-dived by 20 percent. The gaping economy led to downgraded credit ratings, cutting off access to international markets. It prompted Professor Mick Moore, a political economist at the University of Sussex in the UK to claim it was the most man-made and voluntary economic crisis he came to know of.
Although Gotabaya was chased away from Office by the people and the rest of the Rajapaksa kin fled their seats of power, the cabal responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic Armageddon have returned thanks to Wickremesinghe. Putting it very loosely in the words of Basil Rajapaksa, they found the right person in Wickremesinghe to give them another lease of life. Former governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal, an economic hitman discredited for mismanaging the economy, felt safe to pen his memoirs in Among Economic Killers. Basil Rajapaksa, another economic hatchet man, is back in the saddle of the Sri Lanka Podujana Party to kiss it back to life and before Namal Rajapaksa inches closer to his presidential dream, he looks set to head the opposition in parliament after the next hustings. Clearly, with Wickremesinghe at the helm, it’s deja vu all over again.
Between 2015- 2018 when Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister in the Yahapalana government, he is widely known to have protected the Rajapaksas and their cronies from prosecution for the plunder of state resources, corruption, and crime. It was no one less than the Foreign Minister in his government, the late Mangala Samaraweera, who made a public claim that the Rajapaksas had stashed away $18 billion in secret off-shore accounts and that $30 million worth of assets had been seized in ongoing investigations against the nucleus of the Rajapaksa family. The Yahapalana government’s tokenism resulted in a multitude of investigative outfits that came to naught. They were simply big names like the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Serious Acts of Fraud and Corruption (PRECIFAC) which was set up by President Maithripala Sirisena. Not to be outsmarted by Sirisena, Wickremesinghe started the Committee Against Corruption (CAC).
In the Rajapaksa political cycle which followed, Gotabaya as president drove the final nail in the coffin. He set up a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCOI) to look into political victimisation and a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry to implement the recommendations of the PCOI. The PCOI turned the tables on the victims and recommended they should be penalised instead. Ironically, among them was Wickremesinghe, who testified about financial irregularities in the Divi Neguma case. In an analysis of the work of the PCOI, the Centre for Policy Alternatives had this to say: several objections were made about the proceedings and recommendations of the PCOI by various parties. Foremost is that the process of inquiry followed by the PCOI was neither fair nor just, that parties against whom proceedings were undertaken were not afforded due process guarantees and that certain complaints entertained by the POCI exceeded its remit, including complaints made by private parties.
Love them or hate them, it has almost become ritualistic for Sri Lankan governments since 2005 to allow themselves to be flagellated by the international community. Sri Lankans themselves, fettered and frustrated by governments that are unresponsive to their needs, have turned to the international community for intervention. At the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) earlier in September/October this year, the international community passed a resolution calling on the Sri Lankan government ‘to address the ongoing economic crisis, including by investigating and, where warranted, prosecuting corruption, including where committed by public and former public officials. The resolution went on to say that the international community ‘stands ready to assist and support independent, impartial and transparent efforts in this regard’.
It was the first time that a resolution with an element of economic crimes has been passed on Sri Lanka. The resolution was preceded by a comprehensive report by the UN High Commissioner which recommended that Sri Lanka should be supported in the investigation of economic crimes that have an impact on human rights and in the tracing and recovery of stolen assets.
It was in line with this resolution that the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Menendez and Senators Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, and Cory Booker moved a resolution in the Senate calling for a “comprehensive international approach to address Sri Lanka’s current political and economic crisis, including challenges related to poor governance and economic policy under the Rajapakse family’s rule.” Their resolution claims that the Sri Lankan economic crisis was “exacerbated by predatory loans” from China “as part of its debt trap diplomacy.”
Sri Lanka is now wooing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the 17th time for an economic lifeline. Among the key asks of the IMF are a reduction in corruption vulnerabilities through improving fiscal transparency and public financial management, introducing a stronger anti-corruption legal framework, and conducting an in-depth governance diagnostic, supported by IMF technical assistance.
Even if Wickremesinghe has his head buried in the sand about the economic joyrides and swindles that have crippled this country, the messages from these organisations are clear. They want a government of integrity in place to work with, to help Sri Lanka out of the hole she has been dragged into. A government with two faced diplomacy will hardly fit the bill. In 2015, a government with Wickremesinghe as second in command co-sponsored a UN resolution. In 2022, a government with Wickremesinghe as first in command opposed a UN resolution, which was in the same spirit.
Sri Lanka needs a parliamentary election asap for a credible government to take over. It is not even a chicken or egg situation.
