Comrades see red

Tuesday 21st January, 2025

A string of defeats in cooperative society elections during the past few weeks, indicating a sharp decline in the JVP-led NPP’s approval rating, and growing public disillusionment with the incumbent dispensation, has jolted the NPP leaders into making a determined bid to turn things around with the next Local Government (LG) elections slated for April. They are however labouring under the misconception that their pre-election tactics will help boost their popularity as a government. So, instead of carrying out their duties and functions diligently and living up to the people’s expectations, they have chosen to bash their political rivals. They endeared themselves to the public by being magnanimous in victory, but the problem with magnanimity of Sri Lankan politicians is that it falls by the wayside when the worm shows signs of turning.

The JVP/NPP has launched a series of public rallies to shore up its support base ahead of the upcoming LG polls. Interestingly, at these events the government leaders mostly repeat what they said during their presidential and general election campaigns. If they say anything new, it invariably runs counter to their promises. What President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said about the Trinco oil tank farm is a case in point. Over the weekend, he said Sri Lanka needed about 24 out of the 99 tanks; about 61 tanks would be developed as a joint venture between Sri Lanka and India, and the Indian Oil Company would utilise the others. When the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government proposed to do so, the JVP/NPP condemned it as a total sell-out. During its reign of terror in the late 1980s, the JVP murdered many of those who defied its ban on Indian goods and services; its sparrow units even killed traders who sold ‘Bombay onions’, which the then UNP government had to dub ‘Lanka big onions’ to save lives! Today, the JVP in the NPP’s clothing is sharing the Trinco oil tanks with India! It is heartening that sobering economic reality has had a mellowing effect on the JVP’s hidebound ideological shibboleths which plunged the country into a bloodbath about three and a half decades ago, but shouldn’t the JVP leaders tender an apology to the public for the heinous crimes their party committed in the name of a campaign to defeat what it called Indian expansionism?

President Dissanayake went ballistic at a rally in Katukurunda, Kalutara, on Sunday. Tearing into former Presidents of Sri Lanka, he repeated his campaign rhetoric. Claiming that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was occupying a state-owned house, whose imputed rent was Rs. 4.6 million a month, President Dissanayake said Rajapaksa would be asked to pay that amount as rent or vacate the house and collect the housing allowance (Rs. 30,000) the latter was entitled to. Was it an instance of a subconscious motivation manifesting itself? The government is under pressure to introduce an imputed rental income tax as part of the ongoing IMF programme.

The former Presidents of this country are not without private residences, and therefore it defies comprehension why they should be given state-owned houses. However, the question is why President Dissanayake, who takes on the former Presidents with might and main, has baulked at dealing with the large-scale rice millers and private bus mudalalis, with a firm hand despite their exploitative practices. His efforts to strip the former Presidents of their ‘undue entitlements’ may strike a responsive chord with the public, but such action will not help assuage the people’s resentment at the government, which has failed to fulfil its main election promises, and cannot even make rice freely available at affordable prices.

It will be a big mistake for the government to reduce security provided to the former Presidents, especially those who were instrumental in defeating terrorism. Equally, one may recall that in 2020, while being detained in the Boossa Prison, three notorious criminals, Podi Lassi, Kosgoda Tharaka and Pitigala Keuma, threatened to harm the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne, and some senior prison officers. Such is the power of the underworld. The government insists that security provided to the former Presidents has been reduced on the basis of proper threat assessments. But something that President Dissanayake said in Katukurunda on Sunday makes one doubt the veracity of that claim. Declaring that the number of security personnel assigned to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had been reduced to 60, Dissanayake declared that if ‘whingeing’ persisted, those 60 personnel too would be removed. The subtext of his statement is that the controversial decision to reduce security provided to Mahinda Rajapaksa was not devoid of politics, and the government would not hesitate to strip him of security completely if he offends it further.

A government that raises public expectations but fails to live up to them loses its popularity. Popular support cannot be regained by means of rhetoric, threats, warnings, scapegoating or rows with the media. The NPP must understand this if it is to avoid a crippling midterm electoral setback.