Unite!

Wednesday 20th July, 2022

Parliament will elect a new President today. The contest is actually between two candidates, Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe and SLPP MP Dullas Alahapperuma. NPP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake will be an also-ran. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa pulled out of the race at the eleventh hour following an understanding with Alahapperuma; if the latter wins today, the former will be appointed the PM. One may argue that Sajith has only made a virtue of necessity, but the fact remains that he has acted wisely and demonstrated that he is willing to make compromises.

The government is backing Wickremesinghe to the hilt in a bid to have the status quo maintained and safeguard its leaders’ interests; it is seeking the perpetuation of the Rajapaksa rule in all but name, which protesters and trade unions have threatened to bring down at any cost. The Opposition and the SLPP dissidents backing Alahapperuma have promised a new beginning.

The SLPP has suffered another split; its General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam and other Rajapaksa loyalists are supporting Wickremesinghe, but its President Prof. G. L. Peiris and others are backing Alahapperuma. The realignment of political forces that today’s vote has brought about is of interest.

Ironically, the Rajapaksas who sought to oust Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister in October 2018, when he had 106 seats in the House, are now all out to make him the President although the UNP has only one National List seat! At the 2005 presidential election, the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga tried to queer the pitch for Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was her party’s candidate and backed UNP candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. Today, the Rajapaksas are emulating Kumaratunga; they are supporting UNP leader Wickremesinghe at the expense of the SLPP MP Alahapperuma in the fray. Maithripala Sirisena, who became the President in 2015 with the help of Wickremesinghe has turned against the latter.

A lot of money is said to have changed hands in the run-up to today’s contest in the House, we are told. Former President Sirisena himself has said so. He must be privy to what is going on in Parliament. Popular elections are the times when politicians use public funds to bribe the people, and today’s vote in Parliament has led to funds stolen from the public being used to bribe people’s representatives. This is the name of the game in Sri Lankan politics, where politicians are even ready to sell their souls to the devil.

Nobody can outspend the Rajapaksas in this country; they are wealthy and have got buying off MPs down to a fine art. So, given our MPs’ greed for dosh, those who do not have the Rajapaksa’s blessings, will have their work cut out in today’s election.

The MPs have a right to vote for the candidates of their choice, but they will have to be mindful of the opinion of the people, whose verdict matters more than the outcome of a vote in Parliament. A parliamentary majority does not necessarily mean popular support. The UNP managed to muster a working majority in Parliament in 2018 and keep the Rajapaksas and their allies at bay, but it was trounced at the general election that followed. Whether the SLPP will be able to avoid a similar fate at the next election remains to be seen.

Whoever emerges the winner in today’s contest will have to ensure that the people get cooking gas and not teargas, and there will be a continuous supply of fuel and other essentials. In short, he will have to find dollars for essential imports and debt servicing. Protesters are girding up their loins for the next showdown, which may happen sooner than expected. They do not want to be losers! So, the winner, the losers and others in the House today will have to sink their political differences and make a concerted effort to live up to the people’s expectations if political stability is to be restored and the economy stabilised. Otherwise, nothing will prevent the country’s slide into anarchy.