By Jehan Perera –

Jehan Perera

The ITAK endorsement of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa will give a significant boost to his campaign for the presidency which has been steadily growing stronger, drawing massive crowds and reflected in improvements in public opinion polls. As the main component party of the Tamil National Alliance, the ITAK commands considerable political weight in terms of its ability to muster the Tamil vote. Also, the ITAK enjoys credibility with the international community as it consistently engages with them in order to obtain justice for the Tamil people. By endorsing the opposition leader, the ITAK joins the main parties of the Muslim and Malaiyaha (Indian origin) Tamil minorities who have already done so.

Endorsement by the party hierarchies is no guarantor of the people’s vote. Both the Muslim and Malaiyaha Tamil parties that endorsed the opposition leader have found that several of their parliamentarians have defied the party leadership and thrown in their lot with President Ranil Wickremesinghe who is also making a strong appeal to the ethnic and religious minorities. Even in the case of the ITAK, its current party president Mavai Senathirajah and parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan (whose presidency is legally disputed) have not been part of the ITAK decision. The party president claims ill health prevented him from joining the meeting of the central committee of the party at its deliberations. The latter has already made a personal decision to give his support to the common Tamil presidential candidate, P. Ariyanethran.

The endorsement that the opposition leader has received from the ethnic and religious minority parties is also no guarantee of electoral victory. At the presidential election of 2019, opposition leader Premadasa received the support of these same parties only to be defeated by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. President Rajapaksa, who campaigned on a nationalist platform, obtained strong support from the ethnic majority Sinhalese voters. This time, however, the three main presidential candidates have not resorted to ethnic nationalism in their election campaigns. This is a welcome break from the past, when elections invariably generated ethnic nationalist sentiment in which the enemy image of the other communities was highlighted.

Moderate  Manifestos 

In their manifestos, each of the presidential candidates have adopted constructive positions on the ethnic issue without getting diverted into issues of narrow ethnic nationalism. The opposition leader’s manifesto states “The government will be committed to fully implementing the current constitution including the 13th Amendment to the constitution till the passage of the new constitution. Reaffirm the commitment to provincial councils by not retracting the powers granted to them and instead strengthen the developments made at the provincial level.” This indicates that Opposition Leader Premadasa is not retracting his previously stated promise to devolve police and land powers to the provincial councils. Unlike his political rivals, he has been categorical about what he will implement.

President Wickremesinghe has said that as per the 13th Amendment, powers will be devolved to the Provincial Councils. He has also mentioned that the powers which the central government had taken back from the provinces will be given back to them. However, he has been cautious in handing the responsibility of deciding on the police powers for the provincial councils to the new parliament. NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said that the constitutional drafting process carried out by Yahapalana government between 2015 and 2019 will be expedited and that political and administrative powers will be shared with each local government institution, district and province so that all people can participate in governance.

At these elections, the central issue is the question of the economy and how best to revive it in line with the IMF programme. The economic collapse the country went through in 2022 continues to affect all sections of the people, regardless of ethnicity, religion or region. Two years after the economic crisis of 2022, the poverty level in Sri Lanka has risen from 13 percent to 26 percent. Inflation which reached 70 percent has eroded living standards. In this context, issues of corruption and misallocation of resources have formed the heart of the ongoing political debate, which can arouse strong feelings of anxiety and even hatred in both the accused and accusers. The government’s offer of repeater weapons to parliamentarians may be an indicator of these concerns.

Reduce Polarisation 

The unfortunate feature of the present election is that the polarization and fear that accompanied earlier elections for reasons of ethnic conflict, can take the form of class conflict. This is on account of the strong performance being shown by the NPP/JVP presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The party’s popularity has grown during the economic crisis and the protest movement that demanded “system change.” Those who want change above all will prefer to vote for him as he has the least connections with the business and political elites who have been running the country. But this generates apprehensions of what might happen in the event of his victory. The Marxist-Leninist antecedents of many in leadership positions in the JVP, and the memory of past violence, feed these concerns.

In the few days remaining till the presidential election, it would be constructive on the part of the presidential candidates to ensure that the level of polarization and anxiety about the post-election scenario in society is reduced. In particular, they need to assure the people that no section of the population, whether ethno-religious community or socio-economic class will be targeted for reprisals or subject to punitive actions. Individual accountability for crimes or frauds committed is one thing, collective responsibility is another. The former is necessary, the latter is unacceptable. They need to also pledge to respect the verdict of the electorate, and in the unexpected event of losing the election, to hold back their supporters from engaging in destructive acts of opposition. The past decades of collective failure are there to teach better lessons for the future.

Therefore, a necessary task for the winner of the presidential election would be to reassure the losing candidates and their supporters that they will be protected by the law. Certainly, the winner’s manifesto will need to be implemented and whether or not accountability for past crimes is part of it, the law needs to take effect. The manifestos of the three leading candidates are ones meant for the betterment of the country. They need to be implemented in a spirit of inclusiveness. The political culture that needs to be cultivated is one in which those in opposition are heeded, and their views taken seriously, as they too may hold part of the truth. It is statesmen and not politicians that Sri Lanka needs today who will be thinking of the country first, rather than their supporters and vote banks.