By Vishwamithra –

“Common man’s patience will bring him more happiness than common man’s power.”  ~ Amit Kalantri

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) was comfortably voted in as President by a plurality of our voters. Parliamentary Elections that followed was a resounding victory for the National People’s Power (NPP), with a four fifths majority. There should be no reason for apology for their victory. Not only were the greater majority of those who voted AKD and the NPP into power looked down upon by those so-called elites in our society, even the leaders of the party themselves were, time and time again, were subjected to ridicule, intimidation, torture and even murder.

Yet, Colombo and all other big cities, where those elites roam and satiate their esoteric pleasures, come nightfall, overwhelmingly voted for AKD and his party. They, AKD and NPP, may be not experienced; nor could they be called consummately equipped to handle state affairs with ease and the comfort of seasoned civil servants. But those seasoned and experienced civil servants and other officials and the political leaders who were charged with the responsibility of crafting and designing and implementing people-friendly policies and principles with the sole intention of ‘serving the people’ had left a legacy of absolute shame, mental torture and financial bankruptcy.

Those civil servants and political leaders, Presidents, Prime Monsters, Cabinet Ministers and all and sundry parliamentarians were quite comfortable in communicating in the English language. Most of them had been elected to parliament time after time and their comfort and ease with which they executed their work orders was, sometimes, the envy of those who were looking from outside into the parliamentary corridors and inner meeting rooms. Yet they all failed the country miserably.

The verdict of the people was not questionable; nor was it obscure or with conditions. The two absolute judgments that were delivered last year in September followed by November elections had no nuanced attachments; they did not carry some enigmatic innuendos. Both Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the National People’s Party received a mandate to change the country’s path to development. Period.

SWRD Bandaranaike’s victory in 1956, at the base of which was the so-called ‘common man’ led by the Maha Sanga, ultimately placed Bandaranaike, a quintessential representative of the then elite of society in Ceylon, at the helm and it was starkly different from the AKD/NPP victories in 2024. Along with Bandaranaike, the Cabinet of Minsters who were appointed too were distinctive products of the system that accepted the mercantile cum foreign-educated class and rejected the common man’s existence. Approach to governance of SWRD, the ‘Expedient Utopian’, as described by James Manor, Bandaranaike’s biographer, was never founded on the service of man. On the contrary, his mission was to stamp his kind of liberalism with anger and dislike towards the then UNP-led elite class.

When the common man placed his destiny on the shoulders of one of the most uncommon men in society, SWRD Bandaranaike, the voters rejoiced, not because he had any personal knowledge of or any abstract compassion for Bandaranaike. He rejoiced because his expectations and aspirations reached an unprecedented high and the privileges that were enjoyed exclusively by the English-speaking elites in the big cities, whether in the Deep South or way up North, would be available for him and his family.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. The very condescending attitude adopted not only by the bureaucracy, but vicariously backed by the common man’s politicians began eating into the fondly draped fabric of his sociopolitical environment. His fondly held fidelity towards his political leaders gradually began its escape; what is apparent and what is real, that blurry space between illusionary and manifestly tangible could not be deciphered by the unsophisticated mind of the average Appuhamy or Natarajah or Mohamed. That tragic reality paved the way for unusual suspicion, outright dislike and growing hatred towards our elites of society.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake did not have to face this dislike, hatred or suspicion. Unlike R Premadasa who recreated his own history by discarding his humble beginnings and portrayed himself along the decadent lines of the rural elite in the Ambalangoda area, AKD did not hide his ancestry. He used his parents’ humble and poverty-level beginnings as an advantage in his election campaign. The people at large, for the first time in their electioneering experience in making choices, saw an authentic leader who could identify himself with them. That alone was a great advantage AKD had. AKD promised the common man a common platform atop which was another common man in AKD.

Now the challenge AKD faces is proving to the people at large that he is a commoner who could understand and implement policies and programs that serve the greater needs of the common man. But statecraft is not only serving the domestic needs of the common man. Being President of the country means much more than pontificating to the converted; the growing geopolitical demands need to be met by the government on time and in a given global context.

The crazy demands of Trump’s tariffs, uncertainty on the diplomatic stance on India and China, that brag of their respective one plus billion populations, purchase of petrol and diesel from Russia, search for new markets in Europe for the garment industry, developing stories of Israel’s involvement in Arugmbay and Potuvil area, require focused attention and the resultant issues could be rightly resolved only by a strategic approach as against impulsive responses.

These uncommon issues too are subjects that the government led by AKD and the NPP has to deal with. Such global-level issues cannot be resolved by thinking ‘small’. AKD and his Cabinet of Ministers need to ‘think big’ not in the abstract, but in tangible terms indeed. The power they were given by the people in successive elections in 2024 cannot be understated. Nor could it be expressed in terms of the common man’s needs alone. It’s undeniably true that the main purpose of their journey is to serve the man and woman who voted for them. But by attempting to resolve their needs exclusively in preference over the growing international demands would only deem the country to a more horrendous fate. The government’s treasury being the source of all our monetary assets and treasures can allure many a disciplined man or woman to the selfish ends of enriching themselves who are charged with the disbursements of such funds which lie in those assets.

The Rajapaksas engaged in politics with the sole aim of making money for themselves and their henchmen. And they succeeded in that dubious endeavor. But they were soundly defeated at both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections. But the unfortunate feature of the current administration seems to be their preoccupation with a sense of inferiority in the presence of the battering intelligentsia who have always opted to sit in their Cinnamon Gardens armchairs and pass verdicts on the abilities, capacities and experience of AKD, his Cabinet and parliamentarians.

Lack of ‘thinking big’ may have contributed to this negative and debilitating condition. However, if ‘thinking big’ leads to arrogance and unruly conduct on the part of the power-holders, then that new condition would be surely more dangerous than being humble and ‘thinking small’. Can they strike a moving equilibrium between these two fringes. That, in fact, seems to be the dominating factor that the present government has to address.

The common man led by another set of common men and women is a spectacular phenomenon and one must indeed be proud for generating such a social dynamic. Politics is the art of the possible. What one would have concluded as impossible could be realistically possible if the enormous powers invested in the politicians is well directed and managed with reasonable care. AKD, for all purposes, seems to be well equipped to manage a diverse set of men and women and motivate them towards achieving their common goal. But by caging themselves in a self-made cocoon would not get them there.

Given the diverse and uncommon global economic and political environment, AKD’s mission has become so much more complex and challenging. When seated in an airconditioned room in the Presidential Secretariat with his cabinet colleagues and friends-in-arms, he should be able to instill in them that notion of self-confidence which he himself has displayed time and time again. Would his friends-in-arms be able to take the lead as much as AKD himself has shown in the six months he has been in power?

There is a vast difference between ‘thinking small’ and ‘thinking big’. One cannot achieve big things if time after time one is bogged down in ‘thinking small’, getting involved in matters that could be resolved by a chief clerk of the Secretariat or a Ministry. A small beginning does not necessarily lead to ‘thinking small’. One great example is R Premadasa. He was one man who was born traditionally small, yet smart and capable enough to ‘think big’. But where Premadasa went wrong was that he did not know where to stop being big. AKD has to be smart enough to apply constraints when brakes are required without ever abandoning his need and capability to ‘think big’.

*The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com