Sri Lanka, battered and bruised by an unprecedented economic and governance crisis, had just managed to get a small window of breathing space, when the long-standing political culture of impunity and self-interest has once again disrupted relative peace and is pushing the country towards a constitutional crisis. This latest crisis is the last thing a bankrupt nation struggling to get back on its feet needs at this juncture. 

Sri Lanka does little to build confidence domestically and internationally, when its leadership choses to wage an egotistical battle between the two key pillars of governance, the Executive and the Judiciary, over who has more clout. This is not a battle Sri Lanka needs at this hour. It does not serve Sri Lankan national interest, but the petty and vile self interest of a few who seem hell-bent on having their way and are lost in the hunger for power. This perilous venture of trying to undermine the apex court of the land, appears to have dramatically backfired on them, and will likely hurt the Government’s political ambitions of holding on to power. Come 21 September, the voters will likely give a message to those power-hungry individuals, that the change the masses called out for during the last two years, stands for something. The people want change.

Wickremesinghe, often viewed as a ‘strategist’ may have sabotaged his own boat, by creating a crisis which may push dormant voters to come out in anguish.  Wickremesinghe’s sacrifice of two allies last Friday for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) crisis will not win him any friends at this stage. The Prime Minister and the Speaker, both who have played by his rule book thus far, entrapping them into a constitutional crisis, will do little to win Wickremesinghe the votes he needs to hold on to power. The State’s and Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resort to legal and constitutional trickery to delay the Presidential Polls have failed. This lust for control has also placed the island, which was already in a vulnerable position on the threshold of lawlessness by leaving the State without a Police Chief.

The current onslaught on the Judiciary is not one of recent making, there has been a trend of trying to bend the Judiciary to the will of the Government, or at least to try to undermine the key pillar of governance. In a functional democracy, the three pillars of the State – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary, must have their powers and functions clearly separate. However, over the last year or so, the current Government and President has acted in a manner which has been observed to be confrontational and deliberate in effecting the erosion of judicial independence. Let’s be clear, yes there are issues about the Judiciary and the mechanism of justice in Sri Lanka. However, none that warrant the kind of behaviour we have seen from the members of the Government and the President himself. Recently the Minister of Justice made certain critical remarks about a few judges whose conduct, he said, tainted the entire Judiciary. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s loaded words, ‘judicial cannibalism,’ in reference to a court determination on the recently enacted Gender Equality Bill, was a broadside fired from the safe harbour of ‘parliamentary privileges’ may be the marvel of less-educated and refined lawmakers, but is clearly detested by more mature politicians and is despised by international players who are keen to see Sri Lanka, ‘settle on a new foundation of reforms and good governance’.

Sri Lankans today are more politically aware, and closely watch what their Government and leaders are doing. The last few years of pain and continued suffering has been the crucible which has forged the thinking of many a young voter, that change, transparency, integrity, and accountability need to become the cornerstones of a new style of governance for Sri Lanka. As such, the young vote, or ‘swing vote’ will not take kindly to the power hungry display of ego.