A worthless debate over experience of leaders

While Ranil harps on experienced leadership the NPP says it is the so-called experienced people who had ruined the country 

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda attributed to Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Besides, whether a statement is true or not, people, at least a section of them would gradually begin to believe it when it is repeatedly said or written. Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his loyalists seem to follow this theory in their effort to establish that the new government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was failing due to their inexperience.

Do not hand over the government to those without experience in governance was the motto which the former President’s campaign for the September 21 Presidential election was based on. Despite the leaders of the National People’s Power (NPP) having expressively replied this idea so many times pointing out how the so-called experienced leaders have ruined the economy for the past seventy-six years; they adamantly still attempt to sell the idea.  

In spite of the people also having rejected it with their verdict at the Presidential election, the former President and some of his former advisors stubbornly use the mainstream and social media to establish their motto apparently before the next week’s Parliamentary election. 

Last month, they claimed that the government was borrowing money to meet the day-to-day expenses which not only the government but also the Central Bank had to deny. In fact, the value of Treasury bills issued during the month of September (before the Presidential election) was over Rs. 500 billion whereas the value of three issuance of the same after the election was Rs. 444 billion, according to Central Bank data. 

Then they alleged that the government was printing money which was also denied both by the government and the Central Bank. The former President later dropped a bombshell claiming that the Dissanayake government was not releasing the funds to increase the salaries of public sector employees as decided by the Cabinet during his time. 

Public sector salaries

Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Vijith Herath stated that although the Cabinet during the previous government had taken a decision to increase the salaries of public sector employees, funds had not been allocated for it. However, Wickremesinghe without replying to Herath’s claim about allocation of funds, kept on demanding the payment of increased salaries according to the Cabinet decision. 

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya gave ammunition to Wickremesinghe who was finding something to continue his annoyance campaign by accusing him of not obtaining advice from the Central Banka and the Treasury before taking the Cabinet decision to increase salaries. He immediately grabbed her statement to put her down saying that her knowledge on the Constitution was so low that she contends that the Cabinet cannot take decisions without the advice of the officials. He attempted to further humiliate her by calling her to learn about Constitutional affairs either from him or from former Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena who was his classmate. 

Harini on her part, while reminding the Central Bank bond scam, shot back saying she did not want to learn about the Constitution from a person who postpones elections, a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution and repeatedly ignores the decisions of the Constitutional Council. Then Wickremesinghe disregarding her reply stated one of the advisors of President Dissnayake was a member of the Udaya R. Seneviratne Committee that recommended the salary increase for the public sector. Minister Herath was then forced to explain that the issue is not with the committee or the decision but with allocation of funds. 

In fact, Herath was correct. The Government Information Department in a statement said on September 3 (during Wickremesinghe’s tenure) that the “basic salary for public service will be increased by at least 24% for the lowest ranks, with increases ranging from 24% to over 50% for all public service professionals, commencing from January 1, 2025. However, Wickremesinghe wanted the Dissanayake government to pay the increased salary straightaway. 

Two newspaper cartoonists have creatively portrayed former president’s repeated annoyance of Dissanayake, in their cartoons. Wickremesinghe in one of them had been depicted as a fly harassing Dissanayake by repeatedly sitting on the latter’s hand, nose, mouth, head and all over while in the other, he was a wasp chasing Dissanayake to sting.  

After the salary issue Wickremesinghe took up another one raised by some of the politicians of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) that the new government has reduced the security detail of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa whom they claimed to have successfully spearheaded the war against the LTTE. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga too joined the bandwagon accusing the government of attempting to put her life in danger by reducing her security as well. Wickremesinghe called on the government to downsize his security detail but not that of Rajapaksa and Kumaratunga whose husband he said was killed by the JVP. 

Government had to deny that allegation as well. Minister Herath told media that 180 police personnel have been assigned to Rajapaksa’s security detail apart from a team of armed forces personnel. He said that a committee has been appointed to assess the degree of security that has to be provided to the former Presidents and the government would follow its  recommendations. 

However, the security of former Presidents is a serious issue that should not be politicised as happened during the tenures of Rajapaksa and Kumaratunga due to which two prominent senior army officers, Majors General Lucky Algama and Janaka Perera who joined the UNP after their retirement were killed by the LTTE. 

What former President Wickremesinghe and his loyalists have not realized is that annoyance of President Dissanayake does not any way help the election campaign of the candidates of New Democratic Front (NDF), the party he currently leads. A political party must tell the people as to why they should vote for its candidates. It is more so for a party that has humiliatingly lost a previous election held weeks ago. Besides, the NPP’s argument that the so-called experienced people have ruined the country has more appealing than the NDF’s contentions that is meant to glorify experience of leaders of a bankrupt country.