With the brutal terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday, many faces of our society have changed. Those changes were not only demonstrated in the “talks” of the leaders of political or religious circles, but also on the ground level, especially with the country’s economy being badly affected. It is not an exaggeration to say that the country’s tourism sector is almost dying.
Large-scale businesses which were dealing with international supply chains, such as the apparel sector, are alienated from their respective buyers since the country’s security situation became vulnerable, hindering prospective future activities. Some of these large factory chains were asked to search for “alternatives” to their operations and it has been suggested that the backup plans be initiated in “peaceful” countries like Bangladesh or Vietnam. In a nutshell, the economy of the country has been hit by a tsunami on all fronts.
"The growing political interests in the town show that people’s expectations to have a non-party representative(s) for the lawmaker’s position would be hijacked by the mainstream political actors to cover up their interests"
The repercussions of these waves are not only shown in the economic sector; the political drama shows that the power-political dimensions of the country have been completely messed with the Easter Sunday attacks. Political stakeholders in the mainstream such as President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe have shown that they don’t have any strategic plan to counter the disasters that arose as a result of the incident. And both of them only seem to be trying to leave “room for suspicion on each other” by adopting a “the other didn’t allow me to act on it” kind of thinking.
According to a friend of mine, what they are trying to do is create a pattern of thinking among the common people that “if I was not blocked by the other, I could have delivered the tasks that were promised in the 2015 mandate”. This is a pathetic situation.
Now the people want a leader who would not play this blame game again, and achieve the task of the hour. It is at this conjuncture that we see talks that the potential candidate must be an outsider – a businessman or a cricketer who could run for the presidential race, which will be held in the latter part of this year.
"The real intention behind the “third party” or a “common candidate” syndrome from the UNP is to search a hole to hide the faces of some of the leaders they can’t market as the choice of the people. This was not the way the traditional UNP did their politics, but it became the main strategy for them from 1994 onwards."
Sri Lanka at a crossroads
In my view, we have arrived at a crossroads again in the history of our democratic system. Growing political interest shows that people’s expectations to have a non-party representative(s) in the lawmaker’s position could be hijacked by the mainstream political actors to cover up their interests.
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| (Dr. Charitha Herath reach him via Twitter @charith9) |
The first point is to see the real objective of such a move. As we all know, this is not the first time the UNP tried to use a “third party” to run for the presidency, and this is not the first time they tried to capture power by placing such third party persons in the forefront. They tried this in 2010 by selecting a war-time general (whom they once called a suitable general for the Salvation Army) as their presidential candidate. The move was a failure and was defeated by the people.
However, the same strategy succeeded in 2015 and started this hybrid administration of Sirisena-Wickremesinghe, which is responsible for many lapses in governance and political crises that we face today in many areas.
The real intention behind the “third party” or “common candidate” syndrome in the UNP is to search for hole to hide the faces of some of the leaders they can’t market as the choice of the people. This was not the way the traditional UNP did their politics, but it became the main strategy for them from 1994 onwards.
The discussion of the “non-political common candidate” after the Easter Sunday attacks should be read in this context and should be identified with the interest of the “hidden force” behind the mask, rather than of the person who shows interest to run for the presidency.
We have heard that some big businessmen or retired cricketers were approached for the candidacy as well. History (the failed one in 2010 and the succeeded one in 2015) is going to repeat itself. The important task of the hour is to identify such a move clearly and unveil the interest behind these interventions.
The second point I would like to note here is the historical records of the UNP gaining power. The UNP as a party after 1994, defeated in both the parliamentary and presidential elections, never succeeded in regaining power on their own.
Even the two occasions they won the parliamentary and presidential elections after ‘94 were times where then SLFP secretaries crossed over to them; when then SLFP Secretary S.B. Dissanayake’s crossover to the UNP in 2002 and then SLFP Secretary Maithripala Sirisena’s crossover in 2015.
It is interesting to see that after this second crossover, the SLFP as a party was weakened and became non-functional due to many reasons. So now, the UNP does not have a strong second party to hijack a secretary to their side.
Since securing power through a “third eye” has become the only way possible for the governing party – UNP – from 1994 onwards, it seems that the shadowed figure that carries the “professional or non-political” identity would be the next victim of this political gamble. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use a professional in the “gambling domain” to play this gamble.
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