Looking at politics sans ‘sunglasses’

Sri Lankans are once again eagerly awaiting a presidential election hoping that a new regime would bring about a much needed change.   

The present UNP regime is riddled with corruption and the presence of a lousy set of administrators hasn’t helped the system to function smoothly. The regime’s top ‘players’ can always find a scapegoat in President Maithripala Sirisena whom they accuse of buckling their plans using Executive powers.  

Between the time Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed power in 2005 and now we have seen the same set of politicians changing parties and being elected to parliament. Citizens who are educated and love the country want a change in the Sri Lankan political culture. Gone are the days when affluent individuals played the role of ‘politician’ where they busted the money they possessed to make the lives of the downtrodden masses better.   

During the past three decades we saw candidates representing the lower income groups enter politics and fatten their purses. The sad story is that as the years rolled by most of the rich individuals who entered politics too started to plunder the regime’s finances. This questionable habit and wasteful expenditure by lawmakers have made the country debt-ridden. But the island’s citizens haven’t learned from their gloomy past.   

Tax payers have had enough. They are once again faced with a situation similar to 2015; a time when the majority wanted to send the rulers home! But they also don’t wish to see a game of musical chairs in the political scene, once again. For example former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayke, who was forced to resign from his post as Finance Minister over a controversial ‘Penthouse dealing’, was later appointed as Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development.   

• This is a time when the country is starved of seeing a proper lawmaker with enough experience and the temperament to be the head of state
• One of the most brutal points in the Rajapaksa regime was imprisoning former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, who took on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential elections
• It’s sad that people who still want to pursue with the ‘old brigade’ have such short memories

In this context presidential hopefuls like Nagananda Kodithuwakku and a Tamil youth by the name of Arulanandam Arun, who says he is working towards creating a political change in the country, made lasting impressions on the viewers when they aired their voices on television. We once saw how Chief Minister for Western Province was hell-bent in wanting to purchase chairs to his office by spending a colossal some of money. But an unwanted waste of the tax payers’ money was averted when the then Governor of the Western Province Hemakumara Nanayakkara intervened and stopped these chairs from being purchased. As many as 104 chairs were to be purchased at a cost of Rs 650,000 each. Though that loss was averted nothing could be done about the loss to the Government which was caused by the alleged Central Bank Bond Scam.   

When Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected for a second term and final term as president in 2010, he had both fame and power. The former is something he is blessed with, but the latter was taken away when the majority of voters gave him the thumbs down sign just prior to the presidential elections in 2015. His opponent Sirisena polled a mammoth 6,217,162 (51.28%) votes while Rajapaksa polled 5,768,090 (47.58%) votes. There were many views expressed about the election loss that Rajapaksa suffered. Some termed this result ‘a shock defeat for Mahinda’. There was also a sizeable section of the voters who knew that defeat was written for Rajapaksa given the questionable way in which he administered the country during his second stint as the head of state.   

Dealings with China and India

There was also a school of thought that there was an alleged role played by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Rajapaksa’s defeat. This was said largely because India wasn’t happy about China setting foot in Sri Lanka and being involved in construction work at business sites. It was alleged that India did play a role in uniting the opposition forces in Sri Lanka to topple the Rajapaksa regime.  The Rajapaksa regime used brutal force to squash its opponents. In most operations his brother Gotabaya was alleged to have played a role. The white van concept is associated with Gotabaya, a claim which the former Defence Secretary refutes totally. One of the most brutal points in the Rajapaksa regime was imprisoning former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, who took on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential elections. That was a time when the media was gagged or media institutions were bought up by Rajapaksa loyalists. It was a time when the Executive meddled in the affairs of the Judiciary. Powerful ministers showed scant respect to military officials. There were times when pedestrians walking on the road were shoved into nearby lanes just to clear the roads of both people and traffic, so that VIP vehicles could have an easy passage. We had politicians who brandished weapons in public and also lawmakers who went to schools and made the teachers kneel down because their children were punished in the classroom. It’s sad that people who still want to pursue with the ‘old brigade’ have such short memories!  

That brutal way of suppressing the people, we’ll never forget. And the people then, choked, but they chose not to speak out. Now we have a different regime headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe, a total dictator, who suppresses the members of his party in a subtle way. People now choke too, but cries for change have fallen on the deaf ears of this veteran politician who is so self-opinionated. Political analysts say that when one compares the two eras-Mahinda’s and Ranil’s-the latter’s regime can be termed the worse for the people. One does remember the Wickremesinghe regime wanting to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act with the Counter Terrorism Act. The new act received Cabinet approval, but was stopped short of being forwarded in parliament and passed as law due to mounting criticism. The new act, if passed, would have defined legitimate political and trade union action as well as the dissemination of information and protection of sources by the media as terrorist activities.   

Wickremesinghe, the survivor he is, faces a formidable force from within the party; Sajith Premadasa. The two working together for so long, despite their differences, leaves us room to think whether they can really fall out so badly in the political scene as portrayed by the mainstream and social media. There is speculation that this whole battle between the two is an eyewash and if Premadasa wins the election, Wickremesinghe would get another chance to continue as Premier in a new government formed by a UNP led alliance.   

This is a time when the country is starved of seeing a proper lawmaker with enough experience and the temperament to be the head of state. Given that there won’t be a smooth change of the baton to the next leader, political analysts predict a period of turmoil in the island, in the future.