For a political outfit that thrived on crises and was smart enough to blame all else but itself and prospered from that narrative, the current governing party seems to be finding itself at the receiving end of its own medicine after just four months in office. The National People’s Power (NPP) reaped spectacular electoral results at both the Presidential Election as well as General Elections held during the latter part of last year by peddling the notion that all parties except it were responsible for what it described as the “75-year curse”.
That of course referred to Sri Lanka’s post-independence period and the carefully created notion that things could have been a lot better for the country if not for the “curse” of the other political parties that held office during that period. While there could be some merit in it, the NPP narrative carefully excluded the role played by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), its predecessor and in fact its mother party, in the current scheme of things during that 75-year period.
As far as the majority of the people of this country are concerned, the JVP has typically been associated with disruption, chaos, and violence – consequently finding it difficult to move beyond its vote base of 3% for the longest time. However, by rebranding the party as the NPP, it succeeded in camouflaging the adverse public perception of the JVP and became a born-again political party with democratic credentials, the key ingredients that were missing from the JVP political proposition.
Despite its lack of political experience, the NPP through a carefully curated narrative was hailed as the panacea to the country’s ills and the antidote to the 75-year curse. Now having completed four full months since taking complete control of Government, the initial euphoria of a new dawn appears to be slowly diminishing as people come to terms with the reality that nothing much seems to have changed.
The awkward arrangement of a party with a decidedly Marxist bent attempting to adapt and manage what has evolved over time into a capitalist economy, contrary to its own previous projections of the opposite, is not without risks given the delicate state of the Treasury. The decline in foreign reserves reported in the month of December as the country prepares to lift vehicle import restrictions next month must surely be cause for concern.
Contrary to pre-election pontification on how the course of the economy should be changed to one with a more socialist flavour, the fact that no change whatsoever has been made from the economic policy of the much-reviled Ranil Wickremesinghe era thus far, with even the same individuals yet presiding over the affairs of the Treasury as well as the Central Bank under the watchful eye of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is the clearest indication that although people were made to understand that radical change was in the offing, things are still very much the same and likely to remain that way. To add insult to injury, the de facto Finance Minister, in response to a query in Parliament over vehicle prices with the imminent relaxation of import restrictions, sought refuge in the IMF bailout agreement of all things, citing it as the primary reason as to why vehicle prices cannot and will not come down from its current prohibitive levels even after relaxation of import restrictions.
The irony of the regime’s Deputy Finance Minister quoting chapter and verse from the IMF agreement, in defence of its own policy – the very agreement it mocked while in Opposition and swore to amend in order to better reflect domestic requirements no sooner it assumed office – will surely dent its armour, and not without consequence either.
To make matters worse, two other top individuals in the Government have been making contradictory statements on the same subject of vehicle imports. In his capacity as the Finance Minister, the President claimed that vehicle prices could not be reduced and in fact would increase, in order to protect financial service providers like banks and leasing companies. However, Minister Vijitha Herath has been going around the country stating that vehicle prices will drop drastically once imports are allowed next month. Given this confusing backdrop, it is fair to assume that no one appears to have yet got a grip of things even at the Ministry of Finance with the Minister saying one thing and the Deputy another.
Needless to say, the carefully curated image of a professional outfit ready to turn things around appears to be falling apart at the seams. Some recent pronouncements by the party hierarchy on nagging issues have not helped the cause either. The President during a recent interview stated that the reason for the shortage of rice in the market was the unaccounted-for consumption by cats and dogs reared in homes as pets. He said there was an increase in the number of pets and consequently rice consumption had increased.
A notable shift from the sublime to the ridiculous, it took barely a day since that confounding pronouncement by the Head of State for another high-profile Minister to make an equally scandalous pronouncement. The Minister claimed that the consumption of pol sambol and the use of coconut milk in cooking was to blame for the shortage of coconuts.
One significant observation from the twin statements coming back-to-back – one by the Head of State and the other by a prominent Minister – is the extent to which the regime has isolated itself. Being out of touch with ground reality so soon into a five-year term is certainly cause for concern. For all intents and purposes, there is no documented increase in the number of pets; if at all there must surely be a drastic decline as people find it difficult to feed themselves leave alone pets with the price of rice – the staple food of both man and animal – going through the roof in recent times.
The other is the insensitivity and sheer lack of empathy in the Minister’s coconut comment that has earned him all sorts of uncomplimentary names on social media. The coconut has long been the poor man’s food – be it in the form of a humble sambol or in some other form. It is for this reason that the most basic, yet much sought after Sri Lankan meal is rice and pol sambol. In fact, be it in the humble roadside shop or the fanciest five-star hotel, no Sri Lankan meal can be complete without a pol sambol.
To mock this signature dish integral to the food culture of this land and call it a waste of resources is not only insensitive but underlines the regime’s lack of focus and just how out of touch it is with reality in such short a time.
This shift from the sublime to the ridiculous does not seem to be restricted to rice and coconuts. It appears to extend to more profoundly important issues as murder and corruption. In a media interview last week, the President, who prior to the polls promised swift justice to the killers of world-renowned journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, seemed to have undergone a strange transformation. Gone was the appetite for justice and instead a lame excuse that since the murder occurred 16 years ago and some witnesses have died since, the possibility of resolving the case seemed remote.
More excuses followed on the controversial Central Bank bond issue – the singular issue which caused the biggest harm to the ‘Yahapalana’ regime of Maithripala Sirisena and Wickremesinghe. The President, instead of highlighting how the investigation could be concluded as promised on election platforms prior to the polls, provided a long-winded explanation on why the chief suspect could not be extradited from Singapore and how that could stifle the investigation.
These sentiments in stark contradiction to what was promised just months ago and the sense of being out of touch with reality, as portrayed in the ridiculous explanations for the rice and coconut shortages, points to a regime that appears to be clearly losing the plot.