When old political culture endures, shaping governance

A brief history of duplicitous politics and broken promises

By Vishvanath

Old habits are said to die hard, and the NPP government and its leader, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, stand accused of employing the same campaign tactics as their predecessors in a bid to win the upcoming local government (LG) elections. The previous governments earned notoriety for using election bribes, such as salary increases for the state sector, freebies in the form of dry rations, etc., jobs in the public service, welfare schemes, and religious functions, to shore up their electoral chances.

 The Opposition has welcomed the ongoing Dalada Vandana relic exposition in Kandy, but it has taken exception to the timing of the event, which is to end a few days before the mini polls scheduled to be held on May 06. It has also complained to the Election Commission (EC) that some NPP candidates have been unlawfully involved in the administration of local councils that are going to the polls shortly, and using their influence over those institutions to get a head start in the upcoming elections. The government has promised jobs for 35,000 more individuals in the state sector and to increase the number of families receiving Asweumma benefits by 400,000, according to media reports.

Sri Lanka has witnessed several epoch-making regime changes that raised the people’s expectations of radical transformation, if not, the emergence of a whole new political culture as promised in the election manifestos and campaign slogans of incoming leaders. But all of them have led to false dawns, so much so that the public is now cynical about CHANGE and good governance, and anti-politics is on the rise, much to the detriment of Sri Lanka’s democratic wellbeing. A brief look at the turning points in the country’s electoral history during the last five decades or so, and subsequently developments on the political front, will support this view.

When the SLFP-led United Front (UF) came to power, riding the crest of a massive wave of popular support, it was popularly thought that the new regime would usher in a fresh political culture, among other things, but the status quo remained under that administration with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which was misused to further the UF’s political interests. The state service was politicized as never before, with politicians undermining the independence of the administrative service, and political allegiance to the new regime became the sole criterion for employment in the state sector. The UF government introduced the so-called chit system for the provision of state sector employment. Worse, it extended the term of the parliament from five years to seven, in 1975, amidst howls of protests from the then UNP-led Opposition and those who cherished democracy.

Interestingly, the 1970 regime would not have been so impactful, if not for the JVP, which threw its weight behind the UF; it campaigned hard for the SLFP-led coalition, claiming that the UNP government led by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake was a CIA puppet, and the US would keep it in power regardless of the outcome of the 1970 general election. It said the only way to defeat what it described as a CIA conspiracy was to give a supermajority to the UF. Having helped bring the UF to power, it took up arms against the new government the following year and perished in the process. The UF government did everything in its power to retain power but lost to the UNP, which scored a massive five-sixths majority in 1977.

The Batalanda Commission Report, which the JVP-led NPP has welcomed and tabled in the parliament, about 25 years after its submission to the House, reveals the crucial role played by the JVP in the UNP’s general election campaign in 1977. It says in Chapter III: “By the time the 1977 General Elections were declared, the peripheral organizers of the JVP were active, and in fact went to the extent of directly supporting the United National Party, which had been during that period classified as a right-wing political force.”

The UNP promised to create a Righteous Society, of all things, but its rule turned out to be a nightmare for democracy, with political violence, election malpractices, attacks on democracy and interference with the public service and the judiciary becoming the order of the day. The UNP’s oppressive rule lasted for 17 years under two Presidents—J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa. The victory of Premadasa in the 1988 presidential election only led to an extension of the UNP’s reign, which ended following his assassination in April 1993. The Premadasa administration did more of what the Jayewardene government had done, including political violence and election malpractices.

The Year 1994 saw a significant political change in the country after 1977. The SLFP-led People’s Alliance, under Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s leadership, received popular mandates, in two elections, parliamentary and presidential, to govern the county in 1994. One of the main campaign promises of the PA was to eliminate state terror and corruption, but that pledge remained unfulfilled, and President Kumaratunga’s rule also became notorious for political violence, corruption and election malpractices, although it had to take the initiative to introduce the progressive 17^th Amendment to the Constitution, under duress, towards its collapse in 2001.The brief UNP-led UNF government, which came into being in that year, by winning a snap parliamentary election in 2001, also reneged on its promises to usher in a new political culture free from corruption. Another snap general election enabled President Kumaratunga to regain control of the parliament in 2004, and the SLFP-led United Freedom Front (UPFA), had the JVP as a main ally The following year, Mahinda Rajapaksa won the presidency with the help of the JVP, and the UPFA’s rule continued until 2015, after winning both presidential and general elections in 2010. The newly elected Rajapaksa government replaced the 19^th Amendment with the 18^th Amendment, which restored most of the executive powers of the President. Political violence, attacks on democracy and corruption increased under that administration.

The defeat of the UPFA in 2015 and the ascent of the UNP-led UNF to power raised the expectations of the public of good governance, which the ruling coalition had promised. But there was another false dawn. The biggest ever financial crime—the Treasure bond scam—occurred during the first few weeks of the formation of the UNF government, which ironically set up a special police unit, the Financial Crimes Investigation Division to probe corruption allegations against its political rivals. Public trust further eroded in the established political parties and institutions under the UNF government, which came to be dubbed the Yahapalana administration. The UNF government introduced the 19^th Amendment, doing away with the 18^th Amendment, and restored most of the provisions of the 17^th Amendment. However, that administration became dysfunctional and neglected national security, and the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks sealed its fate.

The last two regime changes occurred in 2019 and 2024 owing to protests votes. The SLPP, formed by the Rajapaksa family, as an off-shoot of the SLFP, in 2016, captured power in 2019, when Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency. The SLPP consolidated its power by winning the 2020 general election with a two thirds majority. It did away with the 19^th Amendment with the 20^th Amendment, which restored most of the President’s executive powers. President Rajapaksa and his Cabinet had to resign due to the onset of the current economic crisis in 2022, but the SLPP government dragged on until last year under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became President fortuitously in 2022, when the 21^st Amendment was introduced to address the issue of overconcentration of power in the executive presidency.

What led to the rise of the NPP’s spectacular rise to power with a two-thirds majority last year was its main constituent, the JVP’s solemn pledge to bring the existing political culture to an end. The people were so frustrated with the Rajapaksa government that they voted overwhelmingly for the NPP. The new government has embarked on a campaign against corruption, but it, too, is facing serious allegations of corruption.

The Opposition has accused the NPP of having profited from rice imports unlawfully. The controversial release of 323 red-flagged freight containers from the Colombo Port via the green channel has also tarnished the NPP government’s image to a considerable extent. It has also failed to make good on its election promise to be different from its predecessors in electioneering, if the complaints of election law violations the EC has received against it are any indication.

President Dissanayake himself has drawn heavy criticism for warning at NPP rallies that local councils will face difficulties in obtaining state funds in case of being controlled by parties other than the NPP. The Opposition has accused him of trying to leverage his position as the Finance Minister to influence the outcome of the upcoming local government polls. It has blamed the EC for being lenient towards the NPP and its candidates.

Public resentment is palpable. There can be no greater blow to democracy than the erosion of public trust in the electoral process—the bulwark against the rising tide of anti-politics, which breeds anarchy.