Monday 9th September, 2024

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has torn into NPP presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake over a statement the latter made in the North recently. Claiming that the people of the South were mobilising in support of change, Dissanayake asked a Tamil audience in the North whether their northern counterparts wanted to be seen as the opponents thereof. Insisting that Dissanayake issued a veiled threat to the Tamil people, President Wickremesinghe has called for an apology.

Dissanayake has hit back at Wickremesinghe. Curiously, support for Dissanayake in his tussle with the President has come from the least expected quarters; TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran has said Dissanayake has not issued any threat to the Tamils; Dissanayake is not a racist and the ITAK/TNA is ready to work with the NPP to achieve shared goals though it is backing SJB leader Sajith Premadasa in the ongoing presidential race, he has said.

The JVP has a history of resorting to violence to suppress democratic dissent, but Dissanayake’s statement at issue cannot be considered a threat to the Tamil people. If so, why has it become an issue?

There was no need for Sumanthiran to get involved in an argument between Wickremesinghe and Dissanayake. Why has he stuck his oar in? He has apparently made a calculated political move. The TNA/ITAK, as one of the Sri Lankan political parties driven by expediency rather than principle, knows that only Wickremesinghe is capable of eating into its vote bank in the North and the East, and he is trying to endear himself to the Tamil voters by taking up the cudgels on their behalf over Dissanayake’s statement. This may be the reason why Sumanthiran has sought to dispute the President’s claim by defending Dissanayake, who does not pose a political threat to the TNA/ITAK in the North and the East.

It is also possible that the TNA/ITAK has realised that the presidential election is becoming a two-horse race and therefore it has sought to curry favour with the NPP while backing Premadasa so that its interests will not suffer regardless of the outcome of the contest.

The JVP/NPP propagandists have, true to form, sought to put a twist on Sumanthiran’s statement in question to make it sound like an expression of the TNA’s support for Dissanayake. They have also blown President Wickremesinghe’s criticism of Dissanayake out of proportion in a bid to counter the SJB’s claim that Wickremesinghe is promoting Dissanayake’s interests in the presidential race. Wickremesinghe delivers political killer hooks when he takes on Premadasa, but he floats like a bee and stings like a butterfly, as it were, in his fights with Dissanayake. The SJB has accused the state media of supporting Dissanayake at the behest of the powers that be.

The UNP and the JVP earned notoriety for what may be called political pillow talk during their Yahapahana honeymoon, with the latter going all out to defend the former during the 2018 constitutional coup, in Parliament. The ongoing row between President Wickremesinghe and Dissanayake could be considered a political pillow fight for public consumption. What one gathers from Wickremesinghe’s campaign oratory is that he is wary of saying anything that has the potential to ruin Dissanayake’s chances in the presidential race lest Premadasa, whom he considers a bigger political threat, should gain electorally. It may be recalled that a couple of years ago, Wickremesinghe declared during a heated argument with Dissanayake in Parliament that if he revealed ‘certain things’ that had happened during the Yahapalana government, the latter would face trouble in his own party (JVP). Curiously, Dissanayake did not dare Wickremesinghe to carry out that veiled threat. Nor has Wickremesinghe made any such revelation yet.

It is hoped that in the run-up to a crucial election, the public will not allow political sideshows to distract them from the key issues affecting the country and their future and the pressing need for informed voting .