One cannot help but ask Parliamentarian Dullas Alahapperuma as to why he waited so long to urge former Presidents to bow out from active politics. If anyone puts this question to him, they cannot be faulted.

Alahapperuma said recently that former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR), Maithripala Sirisena, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) should keep away from politics for their own health and for the sake of the people. Public funds which were spent on them should not be used for any political activity, he added.

“Only one-time US President John Quincy Adams contested for the US Congress. He was the only foreign head of state to remain in politics after his retirement from the Presidency,” he added.

We in Sri Lanka have four ex-Presidents who have no intention of giving up politics even after serving in the highest office of the country and are eager to return to political office despite being driven out of power by the people.

At least now, Alahapperuma is able to understand the futility of their involvement in politics.

The saga of SL’s ex-Presidents

Sri Lanka’s first Executive President J.R. Jayewardene retired from politics following the completion of his two terms in the latter part of the 1980s. Until his death, he showed no inclination to return to politics and refrained from commenting on political problems publicly.

The second Executive President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed in a suicide bombing before the end of his first term in mid-1993. D.B. Wijetunga was in power for the remaining one-and-a-half years of the Premadasa presidency but kept out of politics after his retirement in November 1994.

However, after him, those who have been presidents during the last three decades are actively involved in politics even after the completion of their terms. Among them, MR and Sirisena contested the General Elections and returned to Parliament.

As for Kumaratunga, her political involvement has largely been aimed at supporting anti-Rajapaksa groups. Apart from that, she has mostly limited her political activities to issuing occasional statements on important issues affecting the country and giving interviews to the media.

However, she has recently intensified her activities with the intention of reviving the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which has been badly weakened under the leadership of Sirisena, and turning it around into a party with popular support. This may be an impossible task since there are clear indications of further splits in her party. 

The Rajapaksa brothers 

After MR won the 2005 Presidential Election, he changed the SLFP from being a party controlled by the Bandaranaike family into one under the control of the Rajapaksa family.

Following MR’s defeat in the 2015 Presidential Election, the Rajapaksas were unable to retain the leadership of the SLFP. Thereafter they launched their own Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and regained power with the overwhelming support of the people.

MR had no qualms about becoming an ordinary Member of Parliament (MP) after holding the highest office in the land. He was elected from the Kurunegala District in the 2015 August General Elections and was the Leader of the Joint Opposition in Parliament. He was re-elected from the same district in the 2020 August General Elections and was appointed as Prime Minister in the Government of his younger brother GR. What happened thereafter is recent history.

The GR administration has gone down in history as the most discredited Government in Sri Lanka. Though Sri Lankan politics had been dominated by certain elite families in the past, people had not taken to the streets and revolted against those families as they did against the Rajapaksas.

It is a great irony that a family with such historical disrepute can still run the Government from behind the scenes and think they can determine the country’s future political direction.

Following MR, another former President, Maithripala Sirisena returned to Parliament after forging an alliance with the Rajapaksa party in the last General Elections. The world will certainly doubt the sanity of the Sri Lankan people who voted for such a person as the Executive President when considering the way in which he ruled the country and the controversies created by his irresponsible utterances in recent times.

Meanwhile, a few vain attempts were made by GR’s loyalists to bring him to Parliament following his resignation from the presidency. However, his brothers are distancing themselves from him by placing the entire blame for the misrule on him. 

Some observers said that his recently-released book on an alleged foreign conspiracy to oust him from the presidency was an indication of his return to politics. As the country is bracing for national elections, we will not have to wait long to ascertain whether GR will return to active politics or not.

Need for a new political culture 

While discussing the politics of our former Presidents, we must not fail to observe an important element which is of great concern for the people.

All former Presidents, including the one who fled the country amidst the popular uprising and resigned from the post while in a foreign land, are supported by public funds while people are suffering from immense hardship as a result of their misrule. They enjoy many boons such as a pension, security details, a fleet of vehicles, and luxurious palatial residences in the high-end areas of the capital.

In addition to these, MR and Sirisena enjoy the privileges afforded to MPs. 

None of the ex-Presidents sacrificed their wealth for the common good. On the contrary, they have amassed massive wealth through politics. In fact, there is no need to maintain them at Government expense.

People will greatly welcome any new law to make it possible for ex-Presidents to be given pensions and other benefits at Government expense only if they do not return to political office, such as to hold MP positions.

In this regard, political parties should come forward to make a promise to the people at the coming national elections. Opposition political leaders who are claiming they will bring a new political culture and a system change should take serious note of this.

It could be argued that it is a fundamental right of the former Presidents to engage in politics. However, being involved in politics after retiring from the highest office of the country and returning to political office and enjoying additional privileges at Government expense are entirely different things.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)