A deal will not suffice

Democratic politics is very much about negotiations, compromise and deal making. In a functional multi-party, pluralistic, democracy such deal making ensures the representation of many shades of the political spectrum, encourages moderation and healthy political discourse. Yet, in Sri Lanka despite its rich democratic history, the art and craft of political deal making has evolved into a manifestation of individual interest of a handful of powerful players that is devoid of legitimacy and representation of the people’s will. 

As President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned and the task of appointing the next president to complete his term until November 2024 begins the mother of all deals are in the making. If this process loses legitimacy in the eyes of the public, Sri Lanka faces prolonged chaos, instability and even possible collapse of the whole State.

In the coming days Parliament is set to elect the next President of Sri Lanka who will serve for two and a half more years. This had happened only once in our history after the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. At that moment Prime Minister D.B. Wijetunga was nominated unanimously by Parliament to complete the rest of the tenure which was little over one year. Wijetunga commanded the confidence of parliament as his own party had a majority and appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as his prime minister. This time around the dynamics are different with the only commonality of Ranil Wickremesinghe still being in the fray.

Wickremesinghe who is now the purported acting President lacks legitimacy and a mandate. He led the United National Party, the country’s most formidable political machine for the last 70 years, to the ground, ensuring a humiliating defeat at the last general election in August 2020. It obtained one seat through the National List which was duly grabbed by himself.

After the monumental failure of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration, and countrywide protests, Wickremesinghe was appointed as Prime Minister in May 2022. 

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had an overwhelming people’s mandate securing 6.9 million votes in 2019 and the party that backed him securing a near two-thirds majority in Parliament in 2020, both records in Sri Lankan presidential and parliamentary electoral history. Yet, he was deemed to have lost his mandate with the public uprising and has now fled the country. The common question is how then could his handpicked nominee for prime minister who was very much part and parcel of the Rajapaksa administration with a measly single national list seat in Parliament have a mandate from the people?

The escape of Gotabaya to a foreign country and the safe passage of other members of the Rajapaksa family are deemed to be part of the deal to secure the parliamentary votes when electing the next president. This will not be the first time Ranil Wickremesinghe has made numerous deals with the Rajapaksas. Throughout the Yahapalana administration, which came into office with an explicit promise to bring to justice the Rajapaksas and their cronies for the corruption and violence, saw interventions by Wickremesinghe and president Maithripala Sirisena to stall cases. 

Numerous court cases were deliberately derailed and information regarding police investigations, particularly concerning Gotabaya Rajapaksa were leaked to his lawyers by individuals in Wickremesinghe’s inner-circle. These actions ensured that Wickremesinghe was untouched by the post-election witch-hunt launched by Gotabaya Rajapaksa against the police officers who investigated him, the prosecutors at the Attorney General’s Department who prosecuted him and journalists who reported on his crimes. It is due to these deal makings that Ranil Wickremesinghe, purportedly representing the diametrically opposite political dispensation to the Rajapaksa-led SLPP, was considered the ideal candidate to be appointed as prime minister in May 2022.

Any attempts to disregard the public will and opinion at this juncture through an unscrupulous deal in Parliament will be disastrous to the country and will prolong its misery according to the majority of the political parties. They perhaps with the exception of Wickremesinghe-supportive SLPP, insist such a pervasion of the will of the people must be prevented at all cost.