With two weeks left before the long awaited presidential election, the campaigns of the principal contenders widely perceived to be Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sajith Premadasa and the incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe – not necessarily in that order – are gaining momentum. Namal Rajapaksa was a late entry to the fray after billionaire businessman Dhammika Perera backed out for reasons he has not chosen to explain to the people. There have been defections by the score, so many that it’s hard to count, from the Rajapaksa party with the majority opting to go with RW, while a few have thrown their lot with Sajith Premadasa. What is crystal clear is that these defections have little to do with the fast approaching big contest but very much to do with the parliamentary election that will soon follow.

Defections as well as hastily cobbled alliances are obviously meant to cover parliamentary turf. The various MOUs or agreements between the different participants have not been made public but discerning people know that national list seats, portfolios, places on party lists of election candidates and what have you are all part of the currency of exchange. Obviously some of those outside parliament serving as party organizers for various electorates must become sacrificial lambs to accommodate defectors. They will not take kindly such arrangements and it remains to be seen what will follow. There can, of course, be let downs as evidenced by the country’s post-independence politics.

Who can forget that Mr. W. Dahanayake, a onetime prime minister, was persuaded not to run at Galle, for long his home turf, and placed on the UNP national list. Came the election results and his name was not among those selected for appointment to Parliament. If we remember right, President Premadasa made some arrangement about his pension. But he was forced into retirement. Another fall guy, if we may borrow from the American lexicon, was Mr. Maithripala Senanayake, who had long served the SLFP as its de facto deputy leader. He too was placed on a national list and fobbed off after the poll by being appointed Governor or the North Central Province. These examples vividly illustrate that anything is possible in politics.

Among the principal contenders, only the NPP/JVP has declared that there would be an immediate dissolution of the incumbent Parliament in the event of their election. The president is empowered by the constitution to dissolve the legislature at his discretion no sooner two years and six months have passed since its first meeting. This period has now lapsed and whoever is elected president on September 21, is empowered to dissolve. AKD says this is the first thing he will do once elected (note that he doesn’t say if he is elected) and has even gone as far as saying how he would form an interim government until a new Parliament is elected.

This with just his present three-member parliamentary group. He says that his parliamentary seat would be vacated should he become president and will be filled by a nomination by the party. He plans to run an interim government with four ministers – himself plus three MPs – and hold portfolios not allocated himself until a new Parliament is elected. Nothing is impossible: RW became PM and then president with a single national list seat!

Readers would remember that RW was under heavy pressure from the SLPP which elected him president, and particularly by Basil Rajapaksa, to first hold a parliamentary election and follow with a presidential contest. Wickremesinghe resisted this demand, made undoubtedly on a calculation that the SLPP whose stock had plunged to its lowest depths post aragalaya in July 2022, would be able to salvage at least a respectable parliamentary presence with such an arrangement.

By then many of the termites that disappeared from the picture had crawled out of the woodwork. The SLPP kept saying interminably that it would run a candidate for president but remained remarkably shy of naming that worthy. RW too dragged his feet about declaring his own candidacy while his proxies set about organizing his campaign. Clearly he was awaiting word of SLPP support but in the interim had no scruples about attracting pohottuwa MPs to his camp. Whether it was that or any other reason that made the SLPP abandon Wickremesinghe, we do not know.

The NPP/JVP made a concerted effort last week to convince a wide segment of business leaders that they had no reason to fear an administration of their party. The audience they attracted was significant. No doubt other contenders for the presidency also attracted a similar presence. Election funders commonly back more than one horse in the race regarding whatever they drop into political war chests both as insurance and investment. That has no doubt paid off in the past. Many observers and commentators have predicted that this election, unlike previous presidential polls, will see no candidate clearing the magic 50 percent plus one barrier at the first count. That would involve counting second and third preference votes. If there is yet no conclusive result, whoever led the popular vote will be declared the winner.

Whatever the outcome, photo-finish or otherwise, let us hope there will be no violence. While numerous complaints of violation of election law has already been reported, there has been no murder or mayhem thus far. Let us hope this situation will prevail until the final winner is declared.

Saturday 7th September, 2024

State Minister A. Aravindh Kumar is reported to have been evicted from a house belonging to an estate company, in Lindula, following a court order. In 1987, a case was filed against him for refusal to hand over the house, when he left the estate, where he had worked, according to newspaper reports. It took about 37 long years for the property to be returned to its rightful owner!

Worryingly, court cases over such property disputes usually drag on for decades. Delays in the dispensation of justice are multifactorial, and the need to eliminate them as a national priority cannot be overstated. There is a pressing need to ensure that the judiciary is provided with all necessary resources to overcome delays, which have come to characterise the judicial proceedings much to the resentment of the public.

The State Minister’s eviction from the estate bungalow reminds us of the unauthorised occupation of more than 100 state-owned houses at the Madiwela MPs’ housing scheme. These houses are made available to the MPs on rent, and they are required to vacate them upon retirement or defeat.

In 2022, we reported that acting on a slew of complaints that many of the MPs’ official residences at Madiwela were illegally occupied, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had ordered a probe and called for a report. Media reports placed the number of those houses at 120, and among the culprits were outsiders. The possibility of the ownership of some of them having changed hands illegally cannot be ruled out.

It was also brought to the notice of Speaker Abeywardena that a large number of former MPs continued to stay in the official residences in spite of repeated reminders. Some of these houses have reportedly been turned into political party offices. Our report said the Speaker had ordered a separate probe into the complaints against the former MPs refusing to leave the Madiwala housing scheme; he also directed the Mirihana police to conduct an investigation.

Every house in the MPs’ residential complex consists of three bedrooms with sanitary facilities, a kitchen, a living room, a dining area, a staff washroom and a parking lot. Real estate prices in the area have increased exponentially, and the illegal property grab in the Madiwela MPs’ housing scheme has caused a massive loss to the state coffers.

It was reported that the Speaker would inform Parliament of the findings of the aforesaid probe and action he intended to take against the culprits. Nothing has been reported of the promised probes, and the public will be interested in knowing what has become of them.

Much is spoken in Parliament about the need to restore the rule of law and eliminate illegal practices that have cost the state dear. Shouldn’t the lawmakers put their ‘House’ in order and ensure that legal action is taken against the lawbreakers among them?

Meanwhile, there is a campaign against the provision of state-owned houses as part of the Executive Presidents’ retirement benefit packages. One cannot but endorse the call for discontinuing this practice. None of the former Presidents are without privately-owned houses, and it does not make sense to allocate official residences to them.

Politicians never retire penniless in this country, and therefore they do not deserve any retirement benefits. Even those who identify themselves with the proletariat live high on the hog and outspend their capitalist rivals at elections.

Friday 6th September, 2024

A group of dissident SLPP MPs who are supporting President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the current presidential election, launched a new political alliance—Podujana Eksath Nidahas Peramuna (PENP) yesterday. Having thrown in their lot with the Rajapaksas’ bete noire, Wickremesinghe, and burnt their boats, they cannot return to the SLPP’s fold after the forthcoming presidential poll, much less secure nominations from it for the next parliamentary election, which is expected in quick succession. They seem to have realised that it is not prudent to keep all their political eggs in Wickremesinghe’s basket and therefore thought of having a fallback position in the form of the PENP.

Political alliances have mushroomed during the past several decades, and almost all of them have withered away. The People’s Alliance (PA), the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the United National Front (UNF), etc., used to dominate national politics as ruling coalitions, but they have been forgotten today. The PA was in power from 1994 to 2004 and the UPFA from 2004 to 2015. The UNF ruled the country from 2001 to 2004 and again from 2015 to 2019.

The biggest challenge before the newly-formed PNEP is to muster enough popular support to gain political traction quickly. In fact, it should be able to perform a vertical takeoff. This is something an alliance cannot accomplish without a robust political party as its main constituent. The PA and the UPFA were led by the SLFP, and the UNF had the UNP as its principal constituent. There is no such party among the constituents of the PNEP, which is therefore like a train without a locomotive. It may be able to gain some political traction if Wickremesinghe succeeds in winning the 21 Sept. presidential election, but he has his work cut out. This is a disconcerting proposition for the SLPP defectors who let go of the saataka and opted to ride on Wickremesinghe’s coattails.

Some Opposition MPs, addressing Parliament on Tuesday, highlighted the depressed rate of growth for age among Sri Lankan children, who are rightly called the future of the nation. Malnutrition is a very serious issue that the next President will have to address as a national priority. However, it is not only children who are affected by what is known as ‘failure to thrive’; Sri Lanka’s political party system is also troubled by faltering growth, and some parties are wasting away.

Mass defections from its ranks and its failure to live up to public expectations have debilitated the SLPP, which is only a shadow of its former self. The UNP has not been able to recover lost ground despite its leader Wickremesinghe’s fortuitous rise to the highest position in the land. The SLFP has been split into three factions, which are backing Sajith Premadasa, Wickremesinghe and Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa in the ongoing presidential race. Nothing short of a miracle will enable the SLFP to make a comeback in the foreseeable future. The JVP finds itself in a dilemma; its leaders have stopped promoting its Marxist ideology and they prefer to be identified with the NPP. Its economic policies and those of the NPP are like chalk and cheese.

Interestingly, only two parties with parliamentary representation—the SJB and the debilitated SLPP—have been able to retain their identities in the current presidential contest while their older counterparts are struggling to remain relevant in contemporary politics. Whether the SLPP and the SJB will be able to cope with political and electoral vicissitudes and preserve their identities in time to come remains to be seen.

The devitalisation of the old political parties augurs ill for democracy; it is fraught with the danger of giving a fillip to the rise of anti-politics.