By Ameer Ali –

Dr. Ameer Ali

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” ~Barak Obama

No other election in the history of independent Sri Lanka had been fought and decided on one single issue as the one to be held in less than two weeks from now. The presidential election is turning out to be a referendum on whether the voters prefer the prevailing seventy-six years old political culture and corrupt governance which had been the source of multiple crises and bankrupted the economy or get rid of it in favour of a new and enlightened democratic culture with clean governance backed by a new constitution. The credit for converting the coming election to a referendum for system change should go entirely to the Aragalaya youth. It was their demand for such a change two years ago which finally awakened the nation to realize that the mother of all problems in this country is the ruling political culture and governance. Like the Kundalini awakening in yoga which comes to an end only after purifying every part of the human body and senses this political awakening will also come to an end only after putting in place a purified system of governance and democratic culture enshrined and protected by a new constitution. Thus, the task facing voters on 21^st is not just choosing X, Y or Z to be the president but to choose the one who would translate the aragalaya dream into reality.

In the meantime, every contestant and specially the leading ones are offering a plethora of proposals to improve the economy, ease cost of living, achieve ethnic reconciliation, end corruption and so on. But these proposals and promises are part of their own models within the existing paradigm, and it is the paradigm that has lost its vitality and become the mother of all problems. They are not willing to throw out that paradigm. It is like repairing the walls and roof of a house when the foundation itself is cracking. Only one among them, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) is proposing to destroy that foundation to build a new house. His proposal to end the political culture and reform governance is to introduce a new paradigm for a new model of development and growth.

Along the campaign trail AKD’s opponents have started labelling him and his LPP leftists, insurrectionists, revolutionaries, red shirt sahodarayas and so on. These labels belong to a bygone era and to use them now for an awakened generation only demonstrates the opponents’ mediocre intelligence to grasp the dialectics behind the awakening. The demand for system change is not simply a locally generated slogan by a generation of youth with any romantic attachment to a political ideology or dead prophet. On the contrary, it is the local chapter of a global movement led by a generation of enlightened youth awakened by an economic order which is the primary source of gross economic inequity and ever widening wealth gap between an extremely affluent minority and an impoverished majority as encapsulated by ratio 1:99. This injustice is borderless and cuts across every country and community. Climate crisis, wars, migration and asylum seekers are other products of an unjust global order. Each country and community may have their own peculiarities, but the main theme of their grievance is the same. That was why when the aragalaya broke out in 2022 it immediately caught international attention. Today thanks to AKD and his LPP system change has become an issue for a virtual referendum.    

One of the most encouraging features of this phenomenon is the keenness demonstrated by young women and particularly from the Muslim community, one of the most conservative groups that had been shut out from public rallies by religious orthodoxy until now, in support of systemic change.  There has been a mini revolution in Muslim kitchens in recent decades. This political awakening among women should have a positive impact in reducing the prevailing male dominance in political representation and prestigious public positions.               

All signs therefore point towards a yes vote to system change, which means barring any surprise from the old order the chances of AKD winning the presidential race looks encouraging. He has promised to dissolve the parliament almost immediately and call for a General Election. If NPP could win a working majority the country could witness the new system unfolding in stages. There is a huge pool of talent within the new generation which could be harnessed to embark on this once in a lifetime project. It would be a mistake to underestimate their talent. This does not mean that there is no support within the elders for system change. However, victory is one thing but delivering the promise is quite another. Let us dwell on that after 21^st.  

*Dr. Ameer Ali, Business School, Murdoch University, W. Australia