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With the commencement of the countdown for Presidential Election 2024 the switching of political allegiances and the consequent political traffic has increased considerably adding to the confusion that voters are faced with.

The largest movement of political traffic was witnessed soon after the long delayed but expected announcement of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s intention of entering the fray at the hustings.  

According to the President’s Media Division 92 Members of Parliament from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) rushed to the Presidential Secretariat to swear allegiance to the current President. That did not come as much of a surprise because many of them had been making noises in support of the President publicly long before the National Election Commission announced the dates for calling of nominations and the conduct of the elections.

The SLPP however, took a decision at its politburo to field its own candidate for the Presidential Election 2024 thus depriving Ranil Wickremesinghe of the party’s support.

The President’s modus operandi in seeking the SLPP’s support only after unilaterally announcing his candidature may have reduced his chances of obtaining the SLPP’s support. This was similar to the President seeking Opposition support for his economic programme with the IMF after unilaterally finalising arrangements with the multilateral agency rather than consulting the Opposition prior to making such commitments.

Usually when alliances between political parties and groups are formed it is done after detailed discussions and based on an agreed common programme. In this case the offer of support by the SLPP Ministers and MPs was unconditional and done “for the love of the country” and based on the belief that “Ranil Wickremesinghe was the only leader” who could guide the country to economic salvation. No agreements have been entered into or signed between the President and his SLPP supporters with regard to the policies to be followed in the event of winning the election.

There was a sense of de ja vu in this expression of support for the President by the SLPP Parliamentarians. In the run up to the 2019 Presidential Election these SLPPers extolled the ‘virtues’ of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the country’s saviour. They even dubbed Gotabaya Rajapakse as Lee Quan Yu and Mahatir Mohamed rolled into one. The rest as they say is history as Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Government collectively plunged the country into the worst economic crisis since Independence.

Clearly Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe who served as Minister of Justice under President Ranil Wickremesinghe does not share the same view as his former colleagues that only the UNP Leader can take the country out of the economic mess that they themselves created. Hence his decision to stand for election against President Ranil Wickremesinghe. It is obviously illogical to believe that there is only one politician in the country who can rescue the country from the current crisis and expression of such a view is contrary to common sense.

It is more likely that the SLPP Parliamentarians see their political future best served by hitching themselves to the Ranil Wickremesinghe band wagon rather than their erstwhile Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Pohottuwa. The rage and anger of the public with the SLPP because of the suffering they had to go through under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government would probably result in most of the SLPP parliamentarians losing their seats at the next Parliamentary elections.

The self preservation impulse of the turncoat SLPPers make them believe that the mere absence of the horror that they helped to create in the form of fuel queues, gas shortages, electricity cuts and what not during the last two years will enable them to hoodwink the people and regain their Parliamentary seats.

It is difficult to imagine that the public would easily forget the misery of the 2019 to 2022 period which reduced the country to bankruptcy. The consequences of that period of misrule are still being faced by the poor and marginalised as well as the middle class.

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has clearly determined that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and others (the respondents) violated the public trust and breached Article 12 (1) of the Constitution, in their administration of the economy, leading to the economic crisis in the country.

Some of the key observations made by the Supreme Court in its judgment are worthy of note and have been set out in the Transparency International Sri Lanka website as follows:

The conduct of respondents directly contributed to the results that led to the crisis situation.

Respondents ought to have known and should have taken actions to resolve matters that negatively impacted the economy and not further aggravating the impact and are responsible to act in the best interest of the country

Public officers have a responsibility to discharge their duties in the best interest of public.

Respondents are bestowed high power to uphold public trust and are duty-bound to discharge duties according to Directives of the Constitution.

Respondents cannot shirk responsibility by merely stating that the decisions they took were policy decisions.

It was within full power of respondents to prevent such calamity as they had full knowledge.

It is clear that they did not act and take all measures to remedy the situation in the public interest.

Cumulative actions and inactions by respondents led to the debacle.

The public trust reposed in respondents was not a higher one and is bestowed on all officers, and therefore Respondents were obliged to act in a responsible manner.

Actions, omissions and conduct of respondents contributed to the economic crisis.

By extension all ministers and parliamentarians of the SLPP who were part of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government have to be held accountable for the economic crisis that was of their making. They will find it hard put to explain themselves to the people when they go canvassing on behalf of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Another factor that casts a poor reflection on the SLPPers who now support President Ranil Wickremesinghe is how easily they have switched to the neo liberal policies of Ranil Wickremesinghe when they espoused diametrically different policies in the Vistas of Prosperity Programme of Gotabaya Rajapakse.

The servility with which they paid obeisance to Mahinda Rajapaksa has now been transferred to Ranil Wickremesinghe purely in the pursuit of their future political objectives. Such fickleness on the part of the representatives of the people hardly inspires confidence and hope for integrity in governance.

(javidyusuf@gmail.com)