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The long wait is over
View(s):Ranil’s rocky ride to presidency
Forty-four years ago, on February 4, 1978, its leader Junius Richard Jayewardene (JR), then seventy-two years of age, was sworn in as the country’s first Executive President. He was not elected by the people to that position. He was elected Prime Minister in the UNP’s landslide victory in July 1977. He enacted a new Constitution which proclaimed him, ipso-facto, as the country’s first Executive President. At the time, JR’s young nephew Ranil Wickremesinghe, then just twenty-eight years old, was first made Deputy Minister of foreign affairs and then Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment. Later, Education Minister.
Three days ago, on the 45th anniversary of JR’s landmark 1977 landslide, that nephew, Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe, now a mature seventy-three years of age, was chosen by Parliament as Sri Lanka’s eighth Executive President. He too, like his uncle, was not elected by the people to that position. He was elected after a contest in Parliament, following the resignation of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa several days earlier.
Thus begins the Wickremesinghe Presidency, the most unexpected of presidencies barring D.B. Wijetunga’s overnight ascent to power in 1993. It is also the culmination of a political journey undertaken by Wickremesinghe, who, as a schoolboy at Royal College, shared a classroom with two others, Dinesh Gunawardena and Anura Bandaranaike with Ms. H.D. Sugathapala as their class teacher. Among the three friends in this ‘Class of ‘60’, Anura was the son of the sitting Prime Minister and Dinesh was the son of Phillip Gunawardena, known as the ‘Boralugoda Sinhaya’ and the ‘Father of Marxism’ in Sri Lanka. Though a nephew of JR, Ranil’s political pedigree came more from his father Esmond Wickremesinghe, an astute political strategist in Sir John Kotelawela’s inner circle and later a trusted adviser to JR. The colourful Anura passed away, but it was Dinesh who proposed Ranil for the Presidency and became his Prime Minister on Friday. Once before, Ranil had proposed Anura to be the Speaker.
Gotabaya’s Rajapaksa’s ouster posed an interesting constitutional conundrum. He fled from office because the people were disgusted with him for foisting the worst economic hardships the country has ever known. Yet, his replacement had to be chosen by Parliament where his political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) still held a comfortable majority. When party chairman and then Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris threw his hat in with the opposition-backed candidate for the top job and called for an explanation from the party secretary Sagara Kariyawasam who was saying the party decided to back the sitting Prime Minister, the country was officially informed of the split in the ‘pohottuwa’ ranks.
It could have been a four-way tussle for the Presidency in Parliament between then Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, his erstwhile deputy and now political bete-noire, Sajith Premadasa, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the ‘dark-horse’ in the race, Dullas Alahapperuma.
The emergence of Alahapperuma reflects the state of disarray the SLPP finds itself in. Previously an avowed Rajapaksa loyalist, he was introduced to politics from Matara by Mangala Samaraweera, the former Minister of many portfolios. A journalist at the time, he became the kind of regional politician who makes it to Cabinet but was never thought of as national leadership material. At least in the early phase of his career, his wife, vocalist Pradeepa Dharmadasa was more famous than him.
In the end, the contest was a simple numbers game. That the SLPP retained a sizeable parliamentary majority was not lost on the Opposition. Therefore, whoever wanted to win the contest had to woo the SLPP. The votes for Dissanayake being negligible, had there been a tussle between Wickremesinghe, Premadasa and Alahapperuma, the division of anti-Wickremesinghe votes between Premadasa and Alahapperuma would have allowed the Acting President to win easily.
So, Premadasa withdrew after seemingly working out assurances from Alahapperuma that he would be the Prime Minister in an Alahapperuma Presidency. Tactically, it made sense, but it was not enough to counter the four decades of experience in political manoeuvring Wickremesinghe had.
In fact, Wickremesinghe won by a whopping margin of 49 votes. There can be only one explanation that Alahapperuma fell well short: some of those independents as well as a significant number of MPs in the Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) voted for Wickremesinghe. The guessing game goes on, how many?
To appreciate the tasks and challenges that await President-elect Wickremesinghe, a closer look must be taken as to why the Gotabaya Rajapaksa flattered at first, then faltered and eventually flopped.
The moment his Presidential campaign was launched in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, his hurrah-boys took over. He was projected as the Messiah who would make ‘system change’ a reality because he was not a politician. He had lived and worked in the United States and was unencumbered by political baggage — although that baggage was packed and ready for him in the form of his siblings and nephew in politics, Mahinda, Basil, Chamal and Namal.
Rajapaksa eventually acknowledged two of his failings: his decision to ban chemical fertiliser overnight (based on the advice of ill-informed medical ‘experts’ who were not qualified on the subject) and his refusal to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), taking advice from the likes of Ajith Nivard Cabraal and P.B. Jayasundera who had their own disastrous recipe for the economy.
Rajapaksa not only went as a failed leader but was forced to hurriedly pack his suitcases and flee for safety, reportedly giving a final order to the armed forces not to shoot the protestors. In that final reckoning, he valued the lives of others over his political survival. Perhaps one day, the nation would be grateful to him for that, however much the manner of his exit was so unworthy of a Head of State of a democracy.
ENTER RANIL
The other final act that Gotabaya Rajapaksa did was to appoint his Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe, as Acting President. Wickremesinghe, after initially saying that he too was willing to resign if the need arose, stepped into the presidential shoes, at least momentarily. He then lost no time in sending signals that he was firmly in charge, calling a meeting of party leaders, speaking to the service chiefs, imposing a curfew and addressing the nation.
Later that evening, a mob set fire to his private residence at 5th Lane in Colombo. Investigations are ongoing as to who instigated this — and the theories are many — but Wickremesinghe, who rarely displays emotion in public came on national television, with a clear lump in his throat, to lament his personal loss. It was, after all, the home where he had lived his entire life, emerging from it to turn left and then to the right to attend Royal College and later, to turn right and then to the left to proceed to the Colombo University. He said his only treasures were his books. He had no other house either in Sri Lanka or overseas. It also housed a treasure trove of books and gifts and the house itself was bequeathed to his old school and the books to university libraries. His brother’s house next door was looted. Animal lovers were mostly concerned about his two dogs, who were reported safe later.
If whoever planned the arson attack thought that would deter Wickremesinghe, they judged him incorrectly. If anything, that would have made Wickremesinghe even more determined to stay on. Being the shrewd tactician that he is, he would also have seen an opportunity to achieve the highest office in the land which had eluded him since 1994.
Unlike national elections, where one had to trudge from district to district, kiss babies and spout rhetoric and promises from political platforms, this contest for the Presidency was tailor-made for Wickremesinghe. His electorate was a captive audience of a mere 224 colleagues. Reportedly, he burnt the midnight oil on the day before the contest, calling MPs individually, to convince them he was the better choice. In the end, it may have turned into a night of the long knives because the final vote suggested that more than a few from the SJB betrayed their party leader’s decision.
Having overcome that challenge, now anointed as President, Wickremesinghe faces quite a few formidable obstacles. Foremost, of course, is resurrecting the economy. Some SJB MPs are known to be itching for a call from the President, to assist in that task. If Wickremesinghe succeeds in winning them over to his team, he will be killing two birds with one stone: saying he leads an all-party Cabinet and at the same time splitting and weakening Premadasa and the SJB.
In the few days that he was Acting President, Wickremesinghe announced that he had facilitated the speedy re-introduction of the 19th Amendment which will assert Parliamentary oversight over the presidency. Now that he himself is the Executive President, an office for which he ran twice and lost, will he have the political courage to diminish the powers of the Presidency? If he does so, he can reinvent his standing as a democrat, a standing that had taken a hit in recent times, because he cosied up to Gotabaya Rajapaksa and obtained the premiership during the dying days of that regime.
That wouldn’t be President Wickremesinghe’s biggest hurdle, though. Arguably, the most daunting task that awaits him domestically is convincing the ‘aragalaya’, the loose confederation of activists who ignited the popular uprising against Rajapaksa that he stands for reform of the country’s political framework and that he will initiate measures to cleanse politics of corruption. The ‘aragalaya’ has, from time to time, been infiltrated with various elements with different agendas but still has a public following not because it is a wholly virtuous struggle but because most of its demands resonate with the public.
President Wickremesinghe, with the benefit of hindsight, must also know that one of the main reasons why his UNP suffered a humiliating defeat in 2019 and 2020 was because as Prime Minister he failed to act on his corrupt predecessors but instead pussy-footed with the investigations. His task is even more difficult this time around because his parliamentary support base now consists of the SLPP, where most of those allegedly corrupt individuals have taken refuge. Can he act against them and risk a backlash? He can and he should, and he must because his position as Executive President is now secure until 2024, but that is easier said than done in the volatile politics of this country.
Political purists and other Wickremesinghe critics, of whom there are many, argue that Wickremesinghe has no moral right to be President. How can it be correct for a person who had a mandate of 6.9 million voters to be replaced by someone who couldn’t enter Parliament at the last election and is there only because he is on the National List? Pundits can argue this point until the next ship carrying fuel arrives but President Wickremesinghe can redress the balance somewhat by heeding the call for a general election as soon as the urgent economic needs are met or the ground situation is fertile for such an election. When the Central Bank Governor says there are no rupees leave alone dollars, good luck with early elections. Just hope nephew Wickremesinghe doesn’t do an uncle Jayewardene by extending the life of Parliament with a referendum, especially of this Parliament.
On the other hand, if that is done soon enough, it will annihilate the SLPP electorally. Who will benefit from that? It will be the public who will have a government more representative of the current public sentiment and none other than President Wickremesinghe who could use the opportunity to resurrect the fortunes of the Grand Old Party and his stature as a statesman. The icing on the cake would be a reunification of the UNP with the SJB accommodating the likes of Premadasa with a seat in government, or like JR did with Ranasinghe Premadasa, having him as his second in command. This would, of course, be a betrayal of the trust the SLPP placed in him but there are no permanent friends in politics. The difference here though is that Premadasa is viewed by Wickremesinghe as having stabbed him in the back and resulting in the crash of the UNP in 2019 and 2020. But then, Wickremesinghe is also known to be an ‘accommodating’ politician provided it serves his ends.
In the days to come President Wickremesinghe’s focus will be on forming a new government and allowing the dust to settle on recent events. Ranil Wickremesinghe entered the current Parliament only in June last year but now finds himself leading the nation through a combination of historic, extraordinary and unprecedented events. Asked by a friend where he is working from these days, with his home torched, his office taken under siege by protesters, he had replied; “from the pavement”. That may not be a bad place to start, really, to feel the pangs of the millions whose destiny will be largely in his hands.
Had his uncle J.R. Jayewardene still been around, he probably would have smiled and applauded his nephew’s tenacity and perseverance against all odds. He once told his nephew that politics is a test match, not a one-day game. As he embarks on the greatest test of his political skills, even his detractors must wish Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe well because, regardless of whether they like him or loathe him, the country he now leads deserves another chance.
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