’The times they are a-changin’

“Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall, for he that gets hurt, will be he who has stalled, the battle outside ragin’, will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a-changin’…”

These are the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s anthem of change “The times they are a-changin’, a song written six decades ago but remains relevant today as it would’ve been at the time it was first released.

Change is the only constant. This is true of life as well as societies which rise and fall. 

In Sri Lanka, the last Presidential election was fought on a platform for change, a change of the old guard that has held onto the reins of power in the country for nearly eight decades. The slogans were for a change so that a younger group of political leaders could take charge and set the country on a new direction.

On the back of this call of change, the National People’s Power (NPP) candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected President. The country is once again weeks away from a general election for which a record number of first-time candidates are seeking to get elected. The NPP has fielded the largest number of new faces given that it has had fewer MPs than the other main parties in parliament. The party has also fielded around 30 women to contest the election, a refreshing and welcome move.

The main Samagi Jana Balwegaya (SJB) as well the Democratic National Front (DNF), the party contesting under the gas cylinder symbol too have fielded many fresh faces to attract voters along with some from previous parliament.

Over 8,000 candidates in all are contesting in the election for a place in the 225 legislatures. It’s a tough fight with no saying which way the voters will swing.

Former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday in an address to the people urged voters to re-elect members of his team who worked with him in the past two years to stir the country toward some sort of economic stability from the depths to which it had fallen in 2022 when he took over. He said experience was essential to ensure that the country does not fall down these same abysses it had two years ago.

There will be some who will agree with him but also many who will scoff at such an idea. The reason for this is the fault of politicians themselves who have for years turned a blind eye to the public concerns and carried on in a business as usual attitude fostering corruption, nepotism, cronyism and many other such ills.

Hence the level of frustration among the people remains high though the election of a new president has somewhat calmed some of the nerves of the public.

Three weeks into his term, the new President is already realising that promises made from the election platform are not as easily achievable and the new Government is aware that they face an uphill task even if the NPP obtains a majority in the House.

For a desperate public, the last election was akin to a drowning man clutching at straws given that they had very little to choose between the main candidates. President Dissanayake certainly cut a better figure compared to the other two, but it would be naïve to believe that he can make a break with the past as rapidly as his supporters expect him to.

But change must come even if there are many nervous about in what form this change will come. A majority of the citizens are above party politics and want a better future for themselves and future generations. It may be baby steps but the times are changing, and all Sri Lankans must unite to ensure that change is for the better and not for the worse.