By Athulasiri Samarakoon –

Dr. Athulasiri Kumara Samarakoon

This year, the government held the 77th Independence Day celebration at Independence Square as a simple ceremony. In keeping with the proposed administrative and budgetary ethics of the new government, the event was organized without extravagant displays of weaponry, resulting in a less militaristic procession. However, even this modest celebration cost over 80 million rupees, which some argue was necessary to maintain a sense of national pride at a moderate level. The government also pointed out that last year’s expenditure amounted to 200 million rupees, emphasizing that this year’s costs had been significantly reduced. This is a positive step and deserves appreciation.

Another aspect worth appreciating about this year’s short Independence Day celebration is the underlying message of national unity and communal peace. In particular, as the President stated in his speech, this year’s celebration serves as a moment when “people in the North, South, East, and Central regions dream of a prosperous Sri Lanka and a modern Sri Lankan nation.” He further stressed that “the injustices arising from social divisions, including ethnic and religious differences, must be eradicated, and our society must be cleansed.” This view should not provoke political disagreement from either the left or liberals, but only from xenophobic nationalists.

A notable feature of this year’s celebration was the participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. In a political climate where the government is actively addressing corruption and fraud committed by previous administrations and bringing the perpetrators to justice, the Opposition Leader deserves commendation for supporting the government’s positive actions. In particular, the opposition, led by Sajith Premadasa, may find long-term benefits by aligning strategically with the government’s program, rather than rushing into short-sighted alliances aimed at gaining power for the sake of power. From a game-theoretic perspective, Sajith Premadasa appears to recognize that his opposition (SJB Alliance) is not subjected to the same rigorous legal inquiries and impending punishment as those who previously looted the treasury or misappropriated public funds, contributing to the country’s bankruptcy.

Greatest Challenge

Generally, we feel that the people of Sri Lanka are more hopeful about the country’s future direction after the 2022 struggle than they have been in the past few decades, marked by violence, bloodshed, corruption, and bankruptcy in the post-independence era. They look forward to a ‘clean Sri Lanka,’ as outlined in the government’s policy. Despite daily economic challenges, the majority of the population remains optimistic about the regime change. As Professor Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri of the University of Colombo’s History Department expressed on his Facebook page, ‘Managing this expectation’ is the greatest challenge facing the current government. Here, I would say that as responsible opposition, Sajith Premadasa and his team have a duty to support the government in addressing this formidable challenge. It is a great opportunity for both the democratic government and the opposition to collaboratively shape the country’s political future.

The people who brought the National People’s Power (NPP) to power represent a new political phenomenon that must be understood on a deeper level. Many interpret the public’s behavior in the last election as a response to deep frustration. However, reducing this historical force to mere frustration undermines its true transformative potential. Yet, addressing the current level of enormous public disappointment is not an easy task, nor is it something that can be done hastily. The government’s approach should be to identify the root causes of these long-standing unmet expectations and begin to address them. So, what is the government’s strategy in this regard?

Abuse of Power

The primary factor that has corrupted the politics of this country since independence is the abuse of power. It is a commonly held view that the corruption of power leads to all other forms of corruption. If we examine the way political power is structured, it can be described as the relationship between the ruler, the people, and the existing constitution or the basic law. The constitution was originally granted to us as a written document by the colonial British. A critical truth becomes evident when we look back over 77 years: the democratic constitutional model created by the British colonizers was never fully understood or embraced in its spirit. What we have done over the years is attempt to reshape the democracy we inherited from the British, with local adaptations favoring autocracy and authoritarianism. The main responsibility for the mockery of democracy lies with the UNP and SLFP/SLPP elites who governed the country, one party after the other.

However, through all the elitist political reforms, the distance between democracy and the people has only grown, and the local rulers have made us despise this system to the point where it offers little benefit. This frustration culminated in the formation of the current government under the National People’s Power, led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a force that had led two armed struggles since its inception in 1965, just 17 years after independence.

Thus, the existence of an opposition that would refuse to recognize this new form of government and seeks only to destroy it through power struggles represents a failure to acknowledge the rights of the people. Therefore, we must emphasize once again that Sajith Premadasa, unlike Namal Rajapaksa, Dilith Jayaweera, or anyone else, should lead the opposition with a long-term futuristic vision. He must be humble enough to consider what Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who leads the government, also expressed in a highly abstract but admirable futuristic vision on Independence Day. This future is one of a respectable democracy, which signifies the futility of politics driven solely by the pursuit of power in a country facing all sorts of problems.

Greedy and Corrupt Rulers

Meanwhile, in a scathing revelation, we learned how greedy the MPs of the previous government were, as they even benefited privately from the Aragalaya/Porattam by making bogus claims for property damage. Under President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who assumed power after the 2022 struggle, many MPs from the SLFP or Pohottuwa, who had faced certain threats and had their property damaged during the ‘Gota Go Home struggle,’ have been overcompensated, with the compensation seeming disproportionate to the actual damage.

While we do not condone the violence of the struggle, we cannot approve of massive compensation being paid from the public treasury for alleged property damage. As revealed in Parliament last Thursday (6^th February), the government distributed Rs. 122 crores as compensation for property damage caused during the struggle for some prominent members of the previous government. This is just one example of how previous rulers have led the national state into bankruptcy since independence.

Therefore, the current opposition, as opposed to the corrupt opposition, must understand that it is not feasible to challenge the legitimacy of this government solely by focusing their energy on daily issues such as the rise in rice or coconut prices, or the lower minimum price of paddy, etc. In this new era, both the government and the opposition must engage in reform and moderation. Unless they work in harmony and allow their genuine expectations for a better country to converge, the ordinary people will not have a sustainable future.