Other players in the perfect storm

We can only hope that voters would choose wisely and well again, as arguably they did a brace of months back – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

As the nation gears down for the second election in the short space of two months, it is incontrovertible that the winds of change continue to whistle through the corridors of power and influence.

A quick survey of the contenders in the parliamentary polls set for 14 November shows that a slew of newcomers to the fore focus on ‘national’, ‘developmental’ and ‘progressive’ fronts.

The decks are cleared for showdown between the old guard representing a rump in the house that until recently looked like it could not be ever moved, and that the people’s aspirations as reflected in the ultimately abortive Aragalaya of 2022 would not be reflected in the legislature of 2024-9. 

Only a year and a half ago, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe appeared to have set his sights on the year 2048, a then far-in-the-future date the ex head of state said he had hoped Sri Lanka would come to rank – yes, finally, after 100 years of independence – among developed nations.  

In his address to the UNP’s May Day rally in 2023, the GOP leader and six times Prime Minister of Sri Lanka said: “The country should not focus on short-term politics; instead, we should think about the future, specifically 2048, and work towards making Sri Lanka a developed country.”

Despite his critics (and there were many even then, but mostly beyond the pale of City and Chamber) who felt it was a bridge too far and too blasé an ask, the erstwhile chief executive in June 2023 elaborated on his workers’ day address in his ‘National Transformation Road Map’. 

However elusive in these past 75+ years this laudable objective may have been to the Grand Old Party’s long-serving leader – in power, so to say, for almost five of those decades – the UNP stalwart who was elected as chief executive not through the ballot but by a parliamentary poll and who failed to consolidate his office at the Presidential elections in September 2024 may come to realise in hindsight that there is no preaching patience to a people with a hunger for more than justice. Striking a counterpoint to the GOP’s and the Old Guard’s traditional approach to development, civics and governance, and posing a potential countervailing force to the until recently seemingly entrenched and unshakeable political culture, the United Centenary Front (UCF) led by a parliamentary aspirant in 2024 envisages ‘a country without corruption’ among many other attributes including ‘an inclusive Sri Lankan identity’ and ‘true meritocracy.’ 

Strikingly, the youthful challengers who grew out of Sri Lanka Unites’ leader Prashan de Visser’s Centenary Movement, ‘a movement with a vision for the year 2048,’ envision a Sri Lanka that is ‘a country where the state serves its people, not politicians.’

The movement set up a political academy with students islandwide undergoing 52 week, 700 hour courses in theory and practice for public sector leadership and to become politicians ‘of character, competence and with compassion for those whom they serve’ – and the first batch from out of 400 applicants in all 25 provinces (42% of whom are women) graduated symbolically on Independence Day 2022.

Out of this come voters who will eschew blind loyalty to party ideology and opportunistic promises to win elections, and develop national transformational leaders to shape smarter strategic policies... inclusive of all – especially those who are presently excluded from policy-making because they don’t belong to the right family, inner circle or social stratum.

Since that day when we as a nation will now well have to choose between two contesting ideologies – the establishment touting stability and emerging contenders for leadership promoting change with responsibility – we can only hope that voters would choose wisely and well again, as arguably they did a brace of months back (QED). 

And may we never feel cornered by the false dichotomy: ‘If only old age could, if only youth knew how...’ 

(Editor-at-large of LMD | 

The power of a vote)