Fed up of racist politics, corruption, and mismanagement

• Left-leaning Anura Kumara elected as President

Shortsighted and destructive racist politics aimed at gaining or retaining power, not realising the overall damage to the country since independence in 1948, brought Marxist National People Party (NPP) President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to power in the Presidential elections held on Saturday 21 September 2024.

The message is very clear. Clean up politics, bring those who plundered the country to book and unite divided communities to move ahead for a better future for all.

It all started since independence in 1948 from British rule when the country was blessed with all required ingredients to move ahead to ensure a better future for all. The island had political and economic stability, literate people, honesty and integrity at all levels and on top of all communal harmony. All what was required then was a leader from the Sinhalese community who could keep the communities together and jointly move ahead for the overall development for the betterment of all communities in the country.

Unfortunately racist mindset began to dominate politics and one of the first things the new Sri Lankan Government did was to, under a new citizenship act, deprive those of Indian origin of their citizenship. The businessmen of Indian origin who had established close ties with business communities in the region and brought in a great deal of revenue for the country left the island and established their businesses in other countries while the plantation workers of Indian origin languished in the estates without their citizenship rights.

In 1956 S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike adopted the Sinhala only slogan to grab power only later to realise his mistake and sign a pact with Tamil Federal Party leader S.J.V. Chelvanayagam. 

Racism started to dominate the island’s politics

However racism started to dominate the island’s politics dismissing minorities whose pleas, appeals and legitimate rights were dismissed as if they did not exist.

In 1970 Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s United Front government made Buddhism as the state religion leading Tamil parties to unite and form the Tamil United Liberation Front marking the division between the two major communities – Sinhalese and Tamils.

Adding fuel to fire President J.R. Jayewardene who introduced the draconian executive presidency consolidating all powers in his hands turned a blind eye when Government backed thugs began killing Tamils and burning their properties in July 1983 in response to the killing of Sinhalese soldiers in Jaffna by Tamil militants.

The result was the 30-year-long armed struggle by Tamil militants turning the once peaceful country known as Paradise Island into a killing field. It also brought in Indian forces and weapons dealers, merchants of death, from all over draining the island’s precious resources and retarding the economic growth causing death and destruction.

Once Tamil militants were defeated , not learning any lesson from the past, racist elements backed by former Presidents Mahindra Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena turned their guns against the island’s second largest minority Muslims living scattered all over the island in peace and harmony with other communities.

Organised Government thugs began attacking Muslims all over, destroying their houses commercial, industrial properties and mosques. Governments were suspected to have been behind these attacks which even killed many innocent Muslims. The irony was that Buddhist monks spearheaded these attacks killing Muslims.

These attacks on Muslims came in the wake of the growing presence in the island of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party government backed Hindutva forces and Israel whose hostility and violence towards Muslims is common knowledge.

It was under these circumstances came the Easter Sunday attacks on churches killing more than 250 worshippers and injuring hundreds of others. 

Though the Muslim community as a whole had nothing to do with these attacks, the community was subjected to immense atrocities. 

Islam was demonised and Muslims were associated with violence and attacked indiscriminately, Thousands were taken into custody and some of them still languish in custody.

Restrictions imposed on Muslims and practicing their religion still remain in force. It was on this anti-Muslim wave, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected to power as president in 2019 only to be forced out of office by a people’s uprising as he miserably failed the economy and brought immense economic hardships on the people.

The discredited parliamentarians of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa elected defeated politician Ranil Wickremesinghe as president who claimed that he had brought economic relief to the people although the prices of essential items such as food, medicine, water, and electricity remain very high causing unbearable hardships to ordinary people.

Plundering the country at every turn

While economic hardships continue there were also widespread reports of politicians and their sidekicks plundering the country at every turn while overall corruption became endemic. People in general were fed up of racist politics and looking forward to economic upliftment.

It was under this gloomy scenario that Marxist National People’s Party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected as the ninth president of the country. He has promised to bring the corrupt to book and introduce a new political culture to regain the lost country. His call to involve all – Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims and all others – in rebuilding the country was music to the ears of minorities. So much so there were special functions celebrating President Anura Kumara’s victory in Jaffna and in the east.