JVP/NPP needs to move away from political rhetoric

Populist rhetoric is common when an election draws close, and the public is hearing a lot of it from the JVP/NPP. The latest is from JVP/NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake who said that under a government led by his Party, they would disband the large security detail assigned to the President and do away with the fleet of expensive vehicles used by politicians.

“The President has thousands of army and police teams assigned for his security. Police stations at village level have only about 10 police personnel. We will bring the security detail of the President to the Galle Face and dissolve it and send them to police stations in the villages,” Dissanayake said at a recent meeting at Hambantota.

Some JVP activists have gone on record calling the Governor of the Central Bank an agent of the IMF and more such rhetoric is piling on. 

There is a general consensus that way too much public funds are wasted on buying expensive, fuel guzzling vehicles for politicians and this needs to stop but cutting back on security is easier said than done. 

Love them or hate them, the reality is that politicians in the country have had to pay a high price with their lives, falling victim to both the violence perpetrated by Tamil terrorist groups as well as the JVP. Politicians of all communities have been killed in bomb attacks, shootings, etc., and the country has lost some of its most promising politicians to violence. Sri Lanka has one of the worst records for political assassinations in the world going as far back as 1959 when then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was killed. The country has had a President assassinated (R. Premadasa) while former president Chandrika Kumaratunga narrowly escaped assassination while in office. The list goes on and is too many to name, but the common factor is that whatever community these politicians belonged to, they were killed for believing in the democratic process and engaging in active politics.  It’s true that since the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, a sense of complacency regarding security had set in until the Easter Sunday bomb attacks of 2019. The heightened security soon after that has once again given way to complacency, but the absence of violence does not mean that the country is safe from future acts of terrorism or political assassinations.

If Anura Dissanayake becomes President, as he is obviously hopeful, decisions on how many security personnel or vehicles should be assigned to him will not be made by him but those in the speciality establishment who have the expertise and bear the responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of VIPs. 

It is tempting for politicians to make statements that have mass appeal, but it is more important to make responsible statements without this kind of loose talk which will be happily forgotten once an election is over. 

It was many moons ago that former president Chandrika Kumaratunga promised during her election campaign to detain all the corrupt politicians and officials, parade them at Galle Face Green and have them shot. The country knows well what became of such hollow promises.

Anura Dissanayake seems to be following in the same footsteps pledging to bring the personnel attached to the President’s Security Division to Galle Face, disband them and send them off to duty in different villages. 

Whoever takes power in the country at the next elections, one thing is certain. It will be the same bureaucrats and those serving in the security establishment who will be in place and politicians, whether they like it or not, have to work with them. Making lofty claims that are unattainable may make for good sound bites but are a recipe for failure if they manage to take power.