Next Sunday, 24 November, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will be celebrating his 56th birthday, but the people of Sri Lanka have already given him the biggest birthday present he could have wished for. He is now both Executive President and Head of a Government with a two-thirds supermajority in Parliament. That’s not all; this unprecedented political success also coincides with his 10th anniversary as Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), having assumed the role in 2014. No doubt a personal milestone he could rightfully be proud of.
Be that as it may, Sri Lanka has spoken. And emphatically, too. A complete makeover is what the doctors have been prescribing for this politically afflicted nation for the longest time, and that is exactly what the people have delivered, as the country continues to digest the significant message emanating from the General Elections held last Thursday (14).
The conclusion of the General Elections hot on the heels of the Presidential Election completes a historic chain of events that have brought about extraordinary change in Sri Lanka’s political landscape. Gone is the old guard – unceremoniously thrust into oblivion – and as Sri Lanka enters a new era with probably the youngest political leadership it has seen in a generation, it appears that the emaciated people have run out of patience and taken control of their own destiny.
The historic outcome of the General Elections points to circumstances conspiring to place this politically insufferable island nation at the threshold of a new era and every effort must now be made to make that change count by both the electors as well as the electees, by holding each other accountable for executing the social contract that has been signed, sealed, and delivered into the hands of Dissanayake and his National People’s Power (NPP).
As we take this opportunity to congratulate the NPP on its spectacular election victory and wish it every success in fulfilling its promises to the people, we do so not only through a sense of obligation but also for the sake of this nation and its people, who have run out of options and have been at their wits’ end to come up with a reliable, corruption-averse political leadership capable of turning around the fortunes of this abundantly blessed nation that only lacks one thing: honest leadership.
While an NPP victory was a foregone conclusion after Dissanayake secured the presidency, what took the nation by surprise was the scale of the victory. It seemed that even the NPP found it difficult to digest the enormity of the mandate, which prompted the party’s long-serving, usually low-profile General Secretary to hurriedly scramble together a post-victory press conference and pledge to the nation that the party will not abuse the mandate. He also made the point that although the party had at no point requested a two-thirds mandate, it seemed that voters were keener than even the party to bring about system change.
Needless to say, as far as the people were concerned, this was an experiment that simply had to happen. For the NPP, it was destiny calling; what the people wanted harmonising with what the country needed. This harmony can augur well for the country as long as those who have received this historic mandate use it for the intended purpose and nothing else. The will to resist such temptations will ultimately define its success or failure, whether it will be lumped with the rest of the political ‘has-beens’ or continue to be a viable alternative.
Given the failure of regimes past that have received large mandates to utilise it as a tool to unite the nation, the NPP must be extra cautious in not going down that road and throwing away what could literally be the last opportunity this country gets to do so. After all, the people’s goodwill has been squandered at least twice before in the recent past – after the conclusion of the war when Mahinda Rajapaksa received a thumping mandate in 2010 and once again five years later when the nation united to send that same Rajapaksa home in 2015. Let’s hope Sri Lanka will be third time lucky and that this momentous mandate, which includes the north and east for the first time, will be utilised to heal wounds and unite the nation.
The NPP’s success in the north and the east is a watershed event in the local political arena where, for the first time since independence, a southern political entity has been entrusted with the job of representing the interests of the Tamil people in the north. This unprecedented turn of events, for which the NPP leadership can take a well-earned bow, has already predictably raised a storm across the Palk Strait, but such distractions should not divert the attention of the NPP in building on the trust and hope reposed in the party by the north-east citizenry. While this must qualify as the closest point this country has reached in achieving organic national reconciliation, it is up to the NPP to seize this historic opportunity and grab the outstretched hands.
However, it is an irony of ironies that out of all political parties in the island, fate has chosen the NPP to play this crucial role given its historic and violent opposition to the devolution of power through the 13th Amendment and amalgamation of the north and east. Having set the nation on fire in 1987, violently opposing the then United National Party (UNP) Government’s decision to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord that paved the way for the 13th Amendment and the creation of semi-autonomous Provincial Councils, it appears that 37 years later the wheel has turned full circle and the NPP, of which the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is the main constituent party, has been entrusted with the task of healing old wounds. The NPP owes it to the nation – at least in lieu of a formal apology for the chaos and carnage it caused at the time that set this country back decades – to finally put things right and seal the deal directly with the Tamil people.
Be that as it may, there is also the valid contention whether the NPP could have made as great an impact at the hustings had the previous interim President acceded to the calls of the people at the time and proceeded to conduct elections two-and-a-half years ago. In hindsight, it appears that former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was happy to trade two years at the presidency – something that he could not achieve at an election – as barter for the future of his own UNP, which has now been effectively consigned to the graveyard.
One thing about which Wickremesinghe cannot plead ignorance is that ever since people got rid of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the writing was always on the wall on the need to urgently consult the people. Unfortunately, the other alternative parties too have had to pay the price as collateral damage for Wickremesinghe’s avarice. Therefore, while the people celebrate the NPP’s rise, it also confirms Wickremesinghe’s legacy as a failed leader who not only sealed his own fate due to avarice but also that of his party.
Once the dust settles and the new Government gets down to work, Sri Lanka will not have to wait long to find out if it has made the right call, given the state of the economy. But it is only fair that the new regime is given the time and space it requires to get things done. Sri Lanka’s susceptibility to geopolitical manipulation stemming out of its economic fragility is a minefield the young, relatively inexperienced leadership will have to navigate with utmost caution, for there is no room for error in today’s dog-eat-dog world. With the wolves already at the door, the new leadership must move quickly to get its act together and keep Sri Lanka safe from predators bearing gifts.
The all-conquering NPP must also keep in mind that the mandate given, however big it may be, is temporary and given on trust. There is a new voting pattern that first began almost a decade ago in 2015, where voters have little patience with non-performers. Dominated by millennials and the Gen Z demographic group, they no longer subscribe to party loyalty and are almost exclusively influenced by performance. It is this segment that in turn also influences their elders, reversing the traditional parent-offspring system. Therefore, if the NPP fails to deliver on its many promises, it too will face the same fate as the UNP in 2020, Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022, and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna in 2024. As far as the country is concerned, proactive change is a good thing which the new dispensation should be mindful of.