- Change of an era in SL’s political history
The Presidential and General Elections of this year (2024) ushered in a new era in our political history. We experienced the era of Western colonialism where we were usurped of all our rights and made second-class citizens under oppressive white supremacist rule. During this period, our national wealth was plundered and made the Commonwealth of the Crown. Our people were divided ethnically, culturally, religiously, and regionally, deliberately, by sensitising them on the differences as a strategy to maintain social tension by ‘divide and rule’ politics. Their 450-year rule ended with World War II, leading to our Independence from Britain in 1948.
When they left, they handed power to brown sahibs, the indigenous leaders who were mentally British but Sri Lankan in outlook. They inherited the political system and governance from the colonialists. Thus began the era of the brown sahibs (1948-2024). During this period, they led the country as a vassal State with a neo-colonial stranglehold. They perpetuated the ‘divide and rule’ politics and masqueraded as patriots using nationalism as a mask to usurp the rights of the people and squander national wealth to sustain the class-based society-benefiting cronies. The post-colonial system influenced by power-hungry political elites corrupted the system to perpetuate the status quo. The people were ruled by rulers as opposed to established rules of governance which are equal to all. Thereby, people experienced systemic discrimination caused by ‘divide and rule’ politics, spawning conflicts between people, making one segment feud with the other. This led to at least 100,000 deaths in all communities. Similarly, an equal number of people were incarcerated without evidence whilst some emigrated due to the ensuing economic and security situation in the country, causing brain drain.
From 1948, the political culture was not focused on nation-building, but on retaining the power of the political elites. To sustain this, the political leadership used policy changes to gerrymander the electorate. To note a few: The land colonisation policy of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, the Sinhala Only policy of Premier S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the disfranchisement of estate Tamils by President J.R. Jayewardene as initiated by Senanayake through the Citizenship Act, the removal of the minority community protection clause from the Constitution by Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike, the creation of the Executive Presidency by Jayewardene, the alleged abuse of power by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the end of the internal conflict, the West-centric alignment of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and tinkering with the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, entrenching clauses that gives leverage to Western powers to control the local scene challenging Western dominance locally, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s populist economic reform and his ‘one country, one law’, which made the country nosedive socioeconomically and politically, leaving the country bankrupt.
The ‘Aragalaya’ that followed made citizens stream onto the streets without discrimination of caste, creed, colour, and status, protesting for a system change. This was followed by two years of crisis management by Wickremesinghe, which culminated in propelling to power the classless patriotic political Party of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People’s Power (JVP-led NPP). Thus dawned the era of the patriots.
The dawn of this era is evolutionary after 76 years of mis-rule by brown sahibs and the struggle of the people against colonial and neocolonial influences undermining social stability. The NPP was at the right time and place to rise from three to 159 seats in the Parliament, set to govern the country.
Going by the data of Table 1 that reflects the actual demography of voting, it is important for the NPP to recognise the fact that they secured 159 seats in the Parliament due to the system in place and their polled voter base is nominal in the range of 35.04% to 40.04%. This makes them a weak Government electorally, despite having a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Therefore, they must work hard to deliver on their promises to increase their support base to consolidate this circumstantial victory caused by a divided opposition during a crisis time in the country and voter disillusionment.
More than five decades of struggle by the JVP and transmuting to become the NPP helped them secure votes at a crisis time in the country. Transmuting as the NPP helped them increase their basket of votes. This is indicative of the voters’ choice that they prefer a more streamlined social democratic NPP over the socialist JVP. The NPP forming the Government should factor this to soften the rigidity of the hardcore JVP by becoming malleable to embrace others to build soft power and consensus in the society.
Post-colonial countries, though generally independent, were not truly independent since their leaders were Western surrogates, and the people were divided, and lacked the sense of belonging and had wide gaps between the rulers and the ruled. This is further worsened by geopolitical influences. This phenomenon should change in the new era. The new Government may have a good vision and intentions to build the nation, yet, being the underclass and new to power, must surpass many hurdles to bring about the desired changes in the society. They can succumb to human frailties in the absence of checks and balances in how they govern. Being an ideologically-driven political Party with the JVP as the bedrock, they may spurn traditions and damage the hitherto upheld conventions, irritating the public. Therefore, it is important that they set a clear and transparent agenda that is inclusive and representative of the aspirations of all people, reflecting the demography of the society in their Cabinet of Ministers and Government. They must restore the trust lost between the people and the State as peoples’ representatives in governance.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a challenge to the new Government. They must keep the system free of corruption and create an ambience for the honest to serve the public interest with integrity and patriotism.
After 76 years of brown sahibs’ rule, a Government of the commoners has come to power with many of the minority votes. Their challenges are in restoring the aspirations of the people, nation building, establishing law and order, strengthening the economy, and maintaining an independent foreign policy free of geopolitical interferences.
The new Government has many challenges. The foremost is the strengthening of the economy whilst attending to other pressing issues. They should truly represent the people and embrace all communities as one people and lead them through this difficult time. A failed economy could give rise to poverty, selfish competition to survive, the accumulation of wealth, and the erosion of the share and care culture. These can give rise to racism of all kinds, undermining national solidarity. Therefore, building the economy must have utmost attention and strict conditions must be placed against corruption, resource-waste by State and non-State actors to sustain the economy.
Geopolitical challenges that coerce weak States to align with the grand plans of strong States must be fought astutely. It is a multipronged challenge and the story about the Arugam Bay may be one such diplomatic snub that is geopolitically influencing. Similarly, the threat from the deep State which has a local and geopolitical network focused on sending the country back to status quo ante must also be considered. This is a multi-layered threat to national security like the presumed deep State operation that enacted the Easter Sunday blasts to bring a change of Government.
Sri Lanka is not the only country to experience colonial, neo-colonial, and brown sahib rule having geopolitical influence and the local powers acting as their appendages against the rule by patriots. This challenge should not be lost sight of as it foretells dangers for countries which aspire to be truly independent to represent the aspirations of their people. The recent history of Egypt is a lesson to learn. President Mohamed Morsi was democratically voted in a landslide to power in 2012 after more than 50 years of dictatorship after Independence from Britain in 1922. Western geopolitics colluded with the Egyptian deep State to foment trouble. They used disinformation, supply chain disruption, enforced system failures, caused racial and communal conflicts and sabotages to destabilise the State by disrupting the Government.
Patriotic liberation is not over until each citizen feels free and the country is united as one people amidst their diversities, standing independently with respect and dignity as a nation.
(The writer is an architect and sustainability consultant)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication
TABLE:
Table 1: Parliamentary Election 2024 all island results*
Registered electors
17,140,354
100%
Remarks
Total polled
11,825,246
68.99% of registered electors
31.01% did not vote, which shows either disillusionment with the system or not finding suitable candidates, among other reasons
Rejected votes
667,240
3.89% of registered electors
NPP votes
6,863,186
40.04% of registered electors
Assuming that 5% of the protest votes went to the NPP, then their actual votes stand at 35.04%, and that makes a difference of only 6.15% between the NPP and the Opposition and the others who did not vote for them
Opposition and others
4,952,082
28.89% of registered electors
*Schedule based on the Election Commission 221537093-N2 dated 15/11/2024