Are we now moving towards a new Sri Lankan political culture?

The Sri Lankan voters have overwhelmingly voted for the newly formed SLPP for the second time in just nine months, knowing well that they were approving the holding of the two most important public offices in Sri Lanka; the posts of President and Prime Minister, to two of the Rajapaksa siblings

By Rev. Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CSsR

The General Election of 2020 has become historical for many reasons. The Sri Lankan voters have overwhelmingly voted for the newly formed SLPP for the second time in just nine months, knowing well that they were approving the holding of the two most important public offices in Sri Lanka; the posts of President and Prime Minister, to two of the Rajapaksa siblings. 

Not only have they given an unprecedented mandate to them, but they have also decisively voted to send the oldest active political party in Sri Lanka – the UNP, which was also the largest political party in the last Parliament – into political oblivion. 

This particular election has many other salient features. To begin with, it is the election that was declared in April and took some four months before it could be held. This was partly due to the COVID-19 threat and partly due to the alleged Constitutional blocks to holding an election (propelled by the understandable election phobia of most of the Opposition political parties). 

It’s also reported to be the most expensive Sri Lankan election thus far. It will also go down in history as one that was held amidst a global pandemic; at a time when thousands of people are killed daily all over the world. 

But one also needs to note that this was the election with the least amount of violence recorded in recent history, in our country; a fact which is corroborated by all the election monitoring groups. As a matter of fact, no killing linked to elections was reported which is surely a major positive development. 

By conducting a peaceful General Election under very strict health precautions (even though this cost so much of money) Sri Lanka has become a model to the entire world under the present trying conditions of health and economy all over the world.

For those who are pessimists (both within the country and outside of it) who tend to see only what is negative in Sri Lankan ethos, the 2020 General Election is a clear indication that even with regard to local politics; there are quite a number of evolving positive points that should never be ignored. As a matter of fact, this election could well be the moment of transition into a new political culture in the country.

The massive mandate

No reasonable political pundit could have ever imagined the ultimate result of this election, especially the margin of victory with which the SLPP won. Ever since J.R. Jayewardene master-minded the present proportionate system of electing members to Parliament, and that too, under the preferential system of voting, at every General Election (except in 2010 when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA won comfortably, immediately after the historical military defeat of the LTTE); it was hard for a single political party to muster even a workable majority to rule the country. 

Consequently, after each General Election, the winning political parties had to dilute their own manifestos and agendas to please and allure those of the other parties with whom they were forced to form coalition governments. The fact that it was within such a crippling system of elections (which rarely reflected the overall will of the voters) within which the SLPP won, not just a simple majority, but a nearly two-thirds majority – is surely a record. Only a massive wave of popularity could do this. 

It is also important to note at least in passing that the massive vote which the SLPP received was not an exclusively so-called “Sinhala-Buddhist” vote which the critiques of the Rajpaksas love to attribute to them. They won convincingly even in the traditionally Catholic Western coastal belt with massive margins in electorates such as Wattala, Jaela, Negombo, Katana, Wennappuwa, Nattandiya and Chilaw. They also gained a few seats from the Eastern Province which by no means is dominated by the Sinhala Buddhists.

Of course, during the election campaign, the SLPP clearly appealed to the voters to grant them a two-thirds mandate to right the wrongs and to untie the legal knots of the haphazardly formulated 19th Amendment by the previous “Yahapalana” government. However, one wonders whether even the SLPP itself ever dreamt of coming closer to that target, realistically speaking within the prevailing restrictive system of electing members to Parliament. 

The fact that a vast majority of the voters as one bloc (so to say) have responded collectively to this call single-mindedly, is itself a sign that they themselves freely chose to give a workable mandate to realise the agenda which the SLPP placed before them. This overwhelming voter response is also a flat refutation of the fears and phobias expressed continuously in the media and the Opposition political stages that granting such a two thirds majority would be unhealthy to democracy. 

It appears as if, a vast majority of voters en bloc had instead concluded that they rather need to give such a majority to the SLPP to correct those constitutional clauses of the 19th Amendment which held the country at ransom during the last couple of years. After all, the Sri Lankan masses were first hand witnesses to the glaring reality as to how the hands of the Executive President they elected with such a thumping majority hardly nine months ago were tied, thanks to the notorious 19th Amendment. 

In short, this massive mandate is not only the Sri Lankan polity’s reaffirmation of the benevolent, well-intentioned policies of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, but it is also their clearing all potential obstacles for him to realise his dreams for the country. Now that the voters have responded positively, the President and his SLPP government will surely have no excuses not to realise the agenda they themselves had put before the voters.

The high voter turnout

True to its firm belief in democracy, the Sri Lankan citizenry also kept to its usual high percentage of voter-turn-out, thanks to the Election Commission and the health authorities who defied all prophets of doom with regard to the threat of COVID-19, and assured the voters of their safety, and that of the others. 

Sure, as usual in Sri Lanka, at this General Election too, there has been a noticeable drop in the percentage of voters using their right to vote, compared to the Presidential Elections (except the one in 1988 under the JVP insurrection when it dropped to less than 30%). Yet a 75% overall voter-turn-out at this election is something very commendable, especially when one considers the trying conditions under which the recent election was held. 

Not even in those so-called “Western democracies” (some of whom habitually try to give paternalistic lectures on democracy to nations such as Sri Lanka) does one notice such a high percentage of voting even under normal conditions. Perhaps, this could be attributed to the long tradition of exercising the franchise in Sri Lanka which goes back to 1930’s. 

The massive mandate given at this election has demonstrated once again that a winning political party need not always depend on minority political parties (which often means sabotaging their own agenda for the country for which the people had voted them). 

The unjustified clout which the minority political parties in our country (most of which are based on exclusive or extremist ethnic or religious foundations) had been enjoying since 1994 (a clout that usually held at ransom the will of the majority of voters in the last Parliaments for nearly 26 years), had been neutralised by the voters at this election just as they did in the November Presidential Elections. 

The winning party now need not depend on the minority parties and dance according to their tunes. While there is no denying that keeping to the best of democratic traditions the voices of both majorities and minorities ought to be fairly represented and heard in Parliament, in no way should this mean that using the political clout (in the form of the number of seats they have in Parliament) the minority parties should dictate terms to the whole country as it has often happened in Sri Lanka during the last few decades. 

Lest this writer be misunderstood or misinterpreted, it needs to be repeated that minority representation in Parliament and their involvement in the country’s decision-making are non-negotiable but in no way should it mean that they can suffocate the legitimate collective aspirations of the Sri Lankan voters as expressed at an election. 

Unrealistic election promises

Promises by political parties during election campaigning is normal in any democracy. As a matter of fact, the voters need to know what the respective political parties would do if they were to be elected. A positive point of the recent General Election that should not escape the attention of any political analyst is the way the ordinary Sri Lankan voter (however poor and miserable his/her socio-economic condition may had been) has flatly refused to be hoodwinked by the unrealistic election promises of various political parties. 

Gone are the days when they would vote for two measures of rice or eight kilos of grain, as promised by political leaders of the calibre of the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the late J.R. Jayewardene.

Just as at the last Presidential Elections, at this election too, the voters have refused to be taken for rides by such cheap promises. If not, they ought to have elected with a thumping majority the newly formed SJB of Sajith Premadasa who continued to make bizarre election promises which could not be realistically maintained with our weak economy. 

The promise to give each person Rs. 20,000 is an example in this regard. There were also others who were trying to keep pace with him but to a lesser degree. The promise of the UNP Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe to give “money in the hand” of every citizen, was one such example. 

The very high cost of living and the dwindling of job opportunities due mainly to the COVID-19 epidemic did not tempt the voters (especially those in the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder who form the bulk of the voters in Sri Lanka) to be hoodwinked by such enticing promises. 

Rather, they seemed to have been more interested in long-term, realistic programs aimed at promoting the common good of the country, first of all, by eliminating corruption and poverty. This surely is a mature sign of a nation in transition towards a new political culture.

New faces in Parliament

In spite of the great trust the Sri Lankan citizens have consistently placed in democracy, especially through elections (of which the Opposition parties in the last Parliament had a phobia of), they had been continuously disappointed by the type of persons they themselves had elected. 

Not only did those members of Parliament consistently fail to keep what they had promised, but more so, their uncivilised, arrogant behaviour and highly corrupt practices in enriching themselves (such as the robbing of the Central Bank in broad day-light), and their other glaring abuses of power (such as letting free the real culprits of the Easter bomb attacks) had been disgusting to the majority of Sri Lankans, so much so that quite a number of them been opting to never to vote again.

Thus, one notices in the overall election results that the number of those who abstained from voting was higher than the total votes gained by the UNP and the JJB. 

Things in this regard had deteriorated so much that many citizens have now come to believe that the easiest way to enjoy power and status, and at the same time, mint money at one’s will (and that too, often, without any professional qualification or hard work) is to become a member of Parliament. 

In short, people had come to perceive that to be elected to Parliament was the easiest way for ‘nobodies’ to become ‘somebodies’. It is in this sense that a vast number of Sri Lankans, both rural and urban, have been longing to see a new political culture, especially among their elected representatives. 

As is it well-known, there has been a clamour in the country for some time now for new faces in Parliament, replacing the hackneyed corrupt and unruly political lot, and thank God, at this election a good number of new faces have been elected who hopefully will not disappoint their electors. At the same time, more than 70 members of the last Parliament have been defeated. 

Another gratifying aspect is the number of professionals who have been elected this time. Although the mere fact of being a new face or a professional is no guarantee of decent and ethically respectful politics, at least the voters have placed their trust in the new faces and professionals they had elected, hoping that they would not rob our national assets and aggrandise themselves as it had happened in recent decades, thanks to some hooligans and an uneducated gang of robbers entering Parliament. 

The new faces and the professionals, together with two newly formed political parties, the SLPP and the SJB as the main political parties (though both of them still have some corrupt and useless members of the bygone years) in this new Parliament, Sri Lankans now have a good opportunity to re-kindle our hopes for a new political culture in Sri Lanka.

A mandate to change the 19th Amendment/the Constitution

One of the main mandates asked by the winning SLPP from their General Election platforms had been to grant them a two-thirds mandate to change the Constitution, especially to change the disastrous 19th Amendment which was hurriedly enacted immediately after the General Election in 2015, mainly to keep the ever-popular Mahinda Rajapaksa from coming to office again. 

It was so haphazardly drafted with this single intention that even the noble democratic elements that were used to camouflage it (such as the establishment of Independent Commissions) paled into an insignificant horizon when it came into effect. 

Moreover, the 19th Amendment crippled the functioning of that “Yahapalana Government” itself, especially in the latter part of that Government. The many unprecedented legal knots and riddles with regard to the constitutional matters during the past few years sprang forth mainly from that notorious 19th Amendment. 

Now that the people have given a resounding mandate to change it, the new Government should not hesitate to do so as early as possible, but at the same time taking precautions to safeguard those positive aspects of it, such as the establishment of Independent Commissions, and making sure that under the new Constitution, the members appointed to those Commissions be really “independent”.

One of the main factors that paved the way towards the deterioration of the well-established democratic political culture in our country was the introduction of the proportionate system of voting to elect members to Parliament, in 1978. The preferential system of voting which came along with it had been mainly responsible for the in-fighting even within the same political party, thus, paving the way to a violent political culture in our country since then. 

It is high time to put an end to this root cause of political violence at elections, which the country had suffered for more than four decades. It would be imperative for any new Constitution first of all to draft provisions to respect the will of the voters that is normally expressed through their franchise. 

As such, the recent phenomenon of MPs getting elected from one political party and then crossing over to another after the elections should be stopped at any cost because this is a brutal betrayal of the voters, especially under the present system of elections. If this is not checked through some provisions to the Constitution, it could lead to a serious erosion of people’s confidence in democracy and in elections in this country.

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, a fact which no Constitution can afford to ignore. Fair representation for the ethnic and religious minorities in the country’s decision-making is a must. It is in this sense that the new Constitution should assure that those ethnic and religious minorities be given seats in Parliament through what is now known as “the National List” or some other list similar to it, so that those minority ethnic and religious groups (who cannot get their representatives elected at the elections) would have their representation in Parliament. 

Under the first Constitution of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) there was a list of reserved seats for this purpose under the title ‘Appointed MPs’. The 1972 and the 1978 Constitutions also wished to continue this practice through what came to be known as the ‘National List’. But unfortunately, for the past four decades or so, instead of giving representation to those minorities of our country through that list, what we have witnessed is the shameless practice of filling this list with the cronies who are supporters of the respective political parties, or still worse, with those defeated candidates. 

We witnessed this shameless act at the last Parliament, when the ruling UPFA appointed six of its defeated candidates to fill their National list, eventually even appointing all of them as ministers, while the UNP and the JVP, too, did the same. This is nothing but a thundering slap on the face of the Sri Lankan voters (and eventually on democracy) – namely, to bring in the very persons whom they had rejected at elections. The new Constitution ought to prevent such shameless, undemocratic practices.  

The need for a benevolent “dictator”

To get out of the messy political culture we had been in, we, the Sri Lankan citizens need political leadership which is with a firm and resolute will. This is what most of the citizens in ordinary parlance intend when they say “We need a benevolent dictator”. 

Of course, we need a “dictator” in Sri Lanka, but not a dictator with the true literal sense of the word, but someone who acts like a dictator using his/her legitimate authority but always well within the Constitution. 

Such qualifications may sound as a tautology, but what is meant is that we need someone who can take decisions for the common good of the country, with firm and resolute will, ignoring all political party affiliations and favouritisms. He/she ought to be someone who upholds law and order, irrespective of the status or political affiliations of persons. 

Ever since his election in November 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has shown many signs of such resolute and impartial leadership for the good of the country. His commendable way of coordinating the available persons and resources in our country in the fight against the world-wide threat of COVID-19 is a case in point. 

The unprecedented mandate given to him at this General election is a clear endorsement of the exemplary style of leadership he has been exercising during the past nine months. 

Now that he is given what he wanted, namely – a Parliament that would cooperate with him in implementing his programs for the common good – one hopes that he would continue this benevolent style in exercising his role as President of our country (as the head of State) in the coming years too, so that at last we as a nation could now begin our journey realistically towards a new political culture in our beloved motherland. We as a nation that believes in democracy and elections cannot afford to be disappointed again.