By Saumya Liyanage –

Prof. Saumya Liyanage

Sri Lanka as a democratic nation has come to a decisive moment. On the 21^st September 2024, Sri Lankan people are ready to vote for their 9^th executive president. This political moment is vital for the party politics in Sri Lanka because today the major parties who dominated the elite political culture have been dismantled by their own power politics. It is the JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) led NPP (National People’s Power) who has emerged as a powerful political force giving much hope for the public.

This important moment was not created in a vacuum but was heightening through decades of hard work of the members of the JVP and the NPP activism. The emergence of Anura factor was further intensified by the weeks’ long Aragalaya (people’s struggle) steered by farmers, youth and many other organizations including NPP and allied groups against the oppressive regime of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Gotabaya failed to govern the country amidst his fame created through media as the most effective administrator and disciplinarian. His militarized upbringing and his Sinhala Buddhist nationalist sentiment paved the way for his failure within a very short period of time.

Anura

People’s struggle created the opportunity for the mases to show their discontent towards Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime. Aragalaya finally expelled Gotabaya from his position as the president of Sri Lanka along with his prime minister and the cabinet after weeks of continual street protests and occupation of Galle Face Green by youth led protests. He and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa and his close family clan fled from Colombo finding safer places to hide in naval bases in Trincomalee and Maldives. People stormed at the presidential secretariat, president’s residence, Temple Trees and other spaces to showcase their power of sovereignty. Amidst this calamity, Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as the successive president of Sri Lanka to continue Rajapaksa’s failed regime.

As clearly seen, Sri Lanka’s democracy has mainly been steered by a few families who have been governing this country for nearly 76 years. These families are known to be upper middle class and the elite of the society. They have nourished and sustained family politics for decades while the country was leading to corruption and debts. Knowingly or unknowingly, the elite of this country should be responsible along with these political oppressors for bringing this country to the utmost misery. Now the country is facing its worst economic crisis and struggling to deal with the IMF to restructure the heavy debts. Even the debt restructuring is now being presented as a positive fact for Ranil to be re-elected as the president.

For the first time in history of Sri Lankan politics, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the NPP has come up to the fore as the representative of  the common people of the country. His presidential contenders are either sons of former presidents or those who are in align with the bourgeoisies. Sajith Premadasa was educated at S. Thomas College and known to have further studied in the United Kingdom. But his degree or his educational competencies are not clearly known to public. Ranil Wickremesinghe has a close affinity with JR Jayewardene family and is an old Royalist. Both have had English educational backgrounds and are known to be alumni of two prestigious schools in the country.

The elite of this country and the small number of business circles seem to be alarmed due to the fact that the leader of JVP has the potential to get elected as the next president of the country. The supporters of those business circles and the media tycoons of the country are propagating false misconceptions about NPP. These false misconceptions have created a space for those who support Wickremesinghe or Premadasa to believe that if NPP gains power, their businesses and the peaceful livelihood will be demolished. This unreasoning fear is germinated through the misconceptions created and circulated by the pro-Wickremesinghe media institutions. They need the support of this failed political elite to continue their media business.

Neither Covid-19 pandemic, Aragalaya uprising nor the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe have affected the business tycoons of the country. Whatever the price that the people of the country have paid for the collapse of the economy or the rising the prices of daily rations or unbearable and merciless tax policy, their businesses have been booming throughout the time. The small number of business tycoons are happy to have this regime along with Wickremesinghe to continue their mundane exploitations. Hence, they will pump millions of rupees they have secured through unofficial ways to sustain the regime. They do not need any political or regime change because they are well off with the system and secure a good life with the neo-liberal policies maintained and sustained by the regime.

But the country is ready to take a major turning point with NPP and electing Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the next president. Anura represents the lower middle class of this country, and is a product of the free education system. He studied in Thambuththegama and has graduated from the University of Kelaniya obtaining a degree as a Bachelor of Science. The elite of this country are now being embarrassed to feel that Anura will be their next president. They have an inferior complex to believe that a former rebellious man who was an active member of JVP and is now the leader of NPP is becoming more popular among mases to become the next president of the country. But it should be noted that Anura is a symbolic representation of the rapture of the elite political discourse of Sri Lankan democracy for the first time.   

Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksas have already proved what they can do and how they can solve the issues of the country and its people. Their economic policies and the policies steered through neo-liberalism have done little to improve the lives of the people of the country. As Bangladesh people have clearly shown, we as a nation need a change that do not worship these elite political culture anymore. When people’s sovereignty has been stolen from a few families of the country, the people have the sole right to gain the stolen sovereignty back. That is what those images of demolishing marionette heroes of the nation in Bangladesh teach us.

It is very clear that NPP will gain a major breakthrough in this coming election. The general public has flocked around NPP and Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been actively involved with the people to analyze how a few groups of people who represent those elite families and their inner clans have robbed and ruined this country. Anura has already spoken about how NPP will rail the country which has been derailed for more than seven decades by the ruling parties and alliances of UNP and SLFP. NPP as a collective of intellectuals, artists, workers, scientists, teachers, famers, students and many more have trusted Anura Kumara and his party for the first time to make this change possible.

Anura has clearly emphasized many times how his government will prioritize the education, health and food security of people. These are vital sectors of the majority of the people in this country whose lives have been thrown into darkness and misery by those who ruled this country. Anura has clearly stated how the education is directly related to the recurrent issue of poverty of the majority of people. How the public health is still an important component of a country like Sri Lanka. How agriculture is still an important source of national income and the need of introducing new technology and innovation to improve modern agricultural approaches to increase the productivity, storage and transportation.

As clearly shown in the recent past in Bangladesh, the elite politics and family sagas of South Asian political map has been collapsing and the people are becoming more and more aware of the brutalities those families have done to their countries. In the recent weeks, the students led mass uprising has pressured the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina to resign from her position and flee from the country. This uprising resembled our own aragalaya, the people’s movement. Aragalaya ignited the revolutionary drives of people and showed that it is possible for masses to make a change if they are not satisfied with the democratically elected government.

Now it is time for Sri Lankans to wake up and decide who will be the next president of Sri Lanka. Those who truly think about the future of this country, there is no other alternative but vote for Anura Kumara Dissanayake and elect an NPP led government. But the struggle will not be over then. The struggle is to protect and sustain the government and implement the policies and the procedures that NPP has brought forward for the betterment of the people of the country. This needs further support and the constructive criticism to push the NPP government to do the task they placed on people’s hands.