By Vishvanath

The Opposition has got hold of something big to beat the government with. It has blamed the recent killing of the Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) Chairman Lasantha Wickremesekera (SJB) on the government, which has denied the charge vehemently. The Opposition parties joined forces to protest  in the Parliament against Wednesday’s killing in Weligama, demanding justice expeditiously and action to ensure such attacks would not occur again inside state institutions.

The Opposition MPs attended the parliament, wearing black, on Thursday, and made fiery speeches condemning the government. They are sure to keep on flogging the issue to discredit the government and gain political mileage. Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala claimed in the parliament on Wednesday that the Wickremeskera had underworld links and a rival gang had gunned him down. The Opposition vehemently denied his claim, protesting and demanding to know why the police had not taken any action against him if he had been involved in criminal activity. It accused the NPP of trying to justify the killing by insulting the slain politician. The government said a thorough probe was underway and the police, which had deployed four teams to probe the crime, were hopeful that they would be able to make a breakthrough in a few days.  

The Opposition and its propagandists have targeted what may be described as the NPP’s ‘moral pillars”—fundamental principles or values that serve as the foundation for a person’s or a group’s sense of right and wrong, guiding their judgments and actions. The JVP-led NPP rose to power meteorically by making itself out to be morally far superior to the political parties that had been in power. It dubbed the post-Independence era a curse, and asked for a mandate to cleanse politics and the parliament and bring about a clean political culture which would have no place for corruption and other forms of malpractices. It demonized its rivals as evil incarnate who had to be defeated to achieve its goal of ushering in good governance and making the country a better place to live in. The public, disillusioned with the previous governments and reeling from the worst-ever economic crisis, responded to the NPP’s call positively, giving it a two-thirds majority in the parliament.

The NPP effectively used several issues to take the moral high ground and turn public opinion against the previous governments and the Opposition led by the SJB. It made the most of corruption charges against its rivals and tarnished the images of several key Opposition politicians. It claimed that the rule of law had collapsed due to political interference with the legal and judicial processes, and abuse of power had deprived state institutions of their vitality. It carried out a sustained propaganda campaign against the assets and luxury lifestyles of the previous leaders and their kith and kin while promising to share in the suffering of the ordinary people if voted into power. Some of the prominent NPP/JVP members like Sunil Handunnetti, went so far as to declare that, if elected, the NPP MPs and ministers would use public transport and lead simple lives. The NPP vehemently condemned the suppression of democratic dissent and attacks on the Opposition at that time.  

The current Opposition has been on a campaign to dismantle the NPP government’s ‘moral pillars’ one by one. It has been attacking them aggressively. It has levelled serious allegations of corruption against the NPP leaders, such as the controversial release of 323 red-flagged freight containers from the Colombo Port without Customs inspection, a questionable coal procurement deal, irregularities in rice imports, etc., to question the integrity of the NPP government. It has also taken up the asset declarations of the key NPP leaders, especially members of the JVP, demanding to know how come the JVP seniors without any known sources of income have amassed so much of wealth. It has asked the government why the police have not arrested and interrogated a minister and a deputy minister over a serious fraud charge. It has also claimed that one of the large-scale drug smugglers is a JVP supporter from Tangalle. The government has denied this charge, but its arguments are not cogent. Now, the Opposition is holding the NPP government responsible for the killing of the Weligama PS chairman and claiming that the country has become a dangerous place with the government having failed to ensure public security. It insists that the killing of Wickremesekera was a political assassination. Some SJB MPs, addressing the parliament on Thursday, sought to use Wednesday’s killing to revive the memories of the JVP’s spree of violence in the late 1980s.  

There is no way the effectiveness of the Opposition’s propaganda onslaught against the government can be gauged accurately, but the NPP looks somewhat rattled and lacks confidence to face an electoral contest any time soon. The government has said the Provincial Council polls will have to wait until the completion of the delimitation process although it can expedite them with the help of a simple legal amendment if it is ready for an election. The Election Commission has said it will take about one year to conclude the delimitation process. In fact, the government would have held the PC elections a couple of months ago if it had been able to sweep the local government polls. Its national vote share declined in the mini polls, and it had to struggle to secure some of the councils which it hoped to bag with ease. It seems to believe that it may be able to shore up its approval rating by fulfilling some of the key election promises and vigorously pursuing legal action against the Opposition politicians with corruption charges against them. However, it is extremely difficult for governments to win elections by postponing them as evident from the experience of the previous administrations that delayed polls for political reasons. The humiliating defeat of the SLFP-led United Front Government in the 1977 general election following the extension of life of Parliament by two years, is a case in point. All signs are that the propaganda campaigns of both the government and the Opposition will get down and dirty.