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The SLPP bud bloomed mid-November last year with the meteoric ascent of Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Presidency of Lanka. Now after painting Lanka red this Wednesday, the ground has been carefully laid for the bloom to blossom in Parliament on August 20 and scatter its fragrance in the Diyawanna air.

The Pohottuwa poll sweep was, however, on the cards and surprised none. Neither the COVID pandemic which delayed elections twice nor the 24/7 curfews imposed nor the economic downturn as a result could weaken or tire the budding bloom’s unstoppable advance to Parliament or falter its resolve to flower in the House. Its supporters remained calmly confident of victory whilst the opposition remained resigned to certain defeat.

Moments after casting his vote on Wednesday at D.A. Rajapaksa Maha Vidyalaya at Medamulana, the Holy Phantom of the Rajapaksa triumvirate, Basil Rajapaksa foretold the first advent of the party he had organised from the grassroots. He predicted: “The SLPP would make history as the only party to come into power within a short span of time since its formation, defeating other old political parties.”

“The SLPP,” he said, “is ready to form a new government since the party’s victory had been confirmed. The SLPP, which was formed as a party that respects the opinions and views of the people, will continue to represent the needs of the people after forming a government. We are confident of the SLPP recording a historic victory. We hope for a two-thirds majority at the election but it is up to the people to decide.”

The final scoop the SLPP had in its election bag, after its marathon grab of electorate after electorate with a few exceptions, perhaps, to break the monotony, was 128 seats plus 17 bonus seats, totaling a grand haul of 145 seats.  Though the final  tally  fell five seats short of the magic 150 to gain a two-thirds majority in Parliament, it was more than enough to steamroll any opposition and make quick and easy passage for any bill they wished to enact, except, of course, one to amend the constitution. But no matter. Even that has been accounted for and plans made for its execution.

THE RAJAPAKSA TRIUMVIRATE: Flower power as Pohottuwa paints the country red

Shortly after having cast his vote, Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke of the need for the party to obtain a two-thirds majority in Parliament. But, he said, “if the party fails to receive a two-thirds majority at the general election, we will make arrangements to get a two-thirds majority created in parliament.” No sweat.

With only a five-seat deficit to bridge to obtain that elusive two-thirds majority, the quest to form strategic alliances with fringe parties and persuade them to cast their vote with the SLPP when it came to constitutional matters, will be a cakewalk for the government and will be as  easy as stealing candy from kids, compared to the 20O5 general election when the ruling UPFA received only 105 seats from the people’s vote at the election and needed 45  seats to obtain the two-thirds majority to amend the constitution. This they did by poaching, headhunting, wooing and ultimately winning the necessary numbers from the opposition benches.

Thus, today the ruling SLPP finds itself in an unassailable position. With a strong presidency gained by a 1.4 million lead and, now, with a near two-thirds majority in Parliament, it stands like the rock of Gibraltar, stable and solid.

But even as the people watched with awe the mercurial rise of the SLPP making its debut in the parliamentary hustings, they observed astounded the complete rout of the Grand Old Party of Lanka’s politics, the UNP, which had hugged centre court in any election final for the last seventy odd years.

Hard to fathom that the UNP which, until the day before the election, had been the party that had commanded the single largest majority in the House, should bite the dust in so humiliating a manner by pathetically failing to notch even one electoral win, even in its stronghold Colombo; and, given the public Order of the Boot, be banished to ignominious exile; and there left at leisure to rue the day it let an internecine war to split the party asunder.

But the gravity of the debacle seems not to have still sunk in to the minds of some of its stalwarts. Addressing a press conference in the aftermath of defeat at the UNP’s Sirikotha, senior UNP member Vajira Abeywardena who himself lost his seat, said there was no need for any major changes to be made in the UNP and saw no reason to replace Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the party either  as a result of the election outcome.

“What was needed now was to instil strict discipline in the party,” Abeywardena said. “The defeat is not a big deal for a political party. Failures are the pillars of success. The people in this instance have decided to vote for the SLPP en masse. It has more votes than those obtained by all other parties combined.”

True, in politics as in cricket, you win some, you lose some. But as in cricket, unlike in Abeywardena’s UNP political dogma, can the captain and his team mates afford to take comfort in parroting well-worn clichés such as ‘failures are pillars of success’ or ‘defeat is no big deal’ and add top spin to truth when the entire batting side is back in the dressing room without scoring a single run, all out for ducks except for a solitary extra? And the scoreboard reads the rival team has scored a match-winning 128, plus 17 extras to boot?

The SLPP’s soar away fortunes have also brought about the decline and fall of the other major political party that had hitherto dominated the democratic landscape of Lankan politics, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

It made its last stand in Polonnaruwa this Wednesday when ex-President Maithripala Sirisena contested under its banner and clinched his seat in Parliament with a respectable preferential vote of 111,000 votes. But before it fades away due to neglect, it spawned the whizz kid the SLPP, reminding all the truism, ‘the younger riseth when the old doth fall.’

That the old order is changing is also evidenced in the rise of the breakaway party of the UNP, the Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Though hardly out of its UNP bassinet, the  UNP offspring orphaned by intransigence and bastardised by parental  decree, nevertheless, made a promising start on its first outing  at the polls as Pretender to the UNP throne.

Whether the UNP Old guard and the SJB new knights will go their own separate ways and ‘never the twain will meet’ on some sunny day remains to be seen in the future. But these nobody’s children of a lesser UNP God who were thrown out from the UNP bosom and left out in the rain to starve, did well at the polls when a section of UNP loyalists took them to heart and adopted them as their own. They did so well, given the circumstances they were in, that they emerged as the main opposition party in Parliament, salvaging from the UNP shipwreck, the position of ‘Government in Waiting’.

So what of the triumphant SLPP as it savours the grapes of total victory?

Providence has blessed the party and is leaders with power beyond measure to transform Lanka from a laid back land or lotus eaters where nepotism rules and corruption is rife to a  modern secular state of the 21st century with professional management and transparency in Government at all levels; where racial equality is  not merely confined to the Constitution but is practised by the State as the norm in every sphere of human activity, where selective law enforcement is not permitted but the due process is allowed to freely operate, to minimise waste and maximise resources, to conscientiously manage public finance, to promote only eco-friendly projects and, among other aims and objectives, strive to achieve cleaner atmosphere.

In a few days’ time, the SLPP starts its parliamentary life with a clean slate. It has enough power in its hands to make Lanka either a Singapore or a Macau, enough power to find the solutions to the perennial problems that plague the people constantly. Though a two-thirds majority is not in its grasp, it is well within its reach as the Prime Minister has informed.  It has also said it needs a two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the Constitution, notably to repeal the 19th Amendment. But except to say in general and vague terms that it impedes the country’s progress, the government should take the people to its confidence and reveal what Articles in 19A act as obstacles?

Are the Constitutional Councils obstacles? Are Independent Commissions impediments? Are the powers of the Prime Minister far too excessive, the bar on his removal from office, the mandatory consent required from him before a person can be appointed to the cabinet and removed from it? If these issues are not identified beforehand and subjected to public debate and discussion, the danger is that the government may end up throwing the baby with the bath water.

Power is a double-edged sword. Used wisely, it blesses the giver and the receiver. Used rashly it curses both giver and receiver.

As the SLPP begins its formidable task of governing with the unstinted blessings of the people, it will be prudent for the government to remain magnanimous in victory at all times and to bear in mind Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Many leaders the world over have come a cropper and to an early end  for failing to realise the true intoxicating nature of power and how best to remain sane and safe without falling prey to its seductive charms.