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All that is wrong in Sri Lanka’s culture of political servility is encapsulated by the spectacle of a young girl walking up to the stage of an election propaganda meeting in one of Colombo’s elite corners a few days ago and offering (outgoing?) President Ranil Wickremesinghe a red rose while asking ‘Sir’ as to whether, in the event of an opposing Dissanayaka-led NPP or the Premadasa-led SJB victory at the Presidential elections, he would ‘again’ save’ the country when that fails.

A matter of clumsy propaganda

That such a carefully choreographed spectacle could have taken place with Mr Wickremesinghe flanked by a ‘civil society leader’ and a grinning party loyalist, speaks volumes for the state of this nation. Was this to indicate that, in the wake of chances for victory at the polls steadily diminishing, the Wickremesinghe camp was making its bet that the country, under whichever successor, would inevitably fail? That malevolent eventuality seems to be increasingly articulated by the Government’s election campaign to its own detriment.

That apart, the premise of the question put by Mr Wickremesinghe’s callow albeit adoring fan to him was that, the ‘Aragalaya’ (protests) against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 had resulted in ‘the people requesting that the country be handed over’ to Mr Wickremesinghe. That claim is far from the truth. The fundamental objective of the ‘Aragalaya’ was to challenge Sri Lanka’s endemically corrupt political establishment, (of which Mr Wickremesinghe is very much a part if not a prime architect).

The demand was for collective accountability, not limited to one party or to one (Rajapaksa) family for that matter. So the absurd claim that the ‘people’ handed the post-Aragalaya chaos over to a ‘reformist’ Mr Wickremesinghe is a perversity. Rather, that consequence arose by the President deftly outstepping his arch rivals and manipulating the badly frightened former President Rajapaksa to step into his shoes.  That is a matter of political record, very much in line with his masterly political devilry.

Basic failures in the Wickremesinghe campaign

Thus, the propaganda blared by Mr Wickremesinghe at his election meetings as to why ‘Sajith (Premadasa) and Anura (Kumara Dissanayaka) ran when offered the Presidency in 2022’ amounts to classic Gobbelsian propaganda, (if a lie is repeated enough times, it becomes the truth). Perversely that belief of overweening ‘cleverness’ on his part has been the quintessential tragedy both for him and for this nation. Put simply this is why Governments led by him have let go of each and every opportunity for genuine reform.

This happened in 2001, 2015 and even in 2022 as well as in other instances when the Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as it were with the ‘grand old party’ imploding internally. To be clear, that does not detract from the effective economic recovery (at least in part) of a bankrupt nation devastated by the deadly idiocies of Rajapaksa rule that Mr Wickremesinghe steered.  But in doing so, he also greatly widened the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, protecting the Rajapaksa-corrupt as well as his own corrupt lieutenants.

His favourites were enabled to keep on robbing the national coffers while the poor were forced to beg for scraps, some died without medicines and thousands of children became medically classified as ‘malnourished’ while their parents watched helplessly. The Wickremesinghe election campaign’s core claim is that its candidate ‘saved’ the country from bankruptcy and he should be rewarded at the polls. This is akin to the mantra of the Rajapaksa faithful that because they ‘saved’ the country from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and ‘won the war’, it did not matter if they raped and robbed the land.

Is the tide of red anger ebbing?

But in 2024, the Wickremesinghe logic – if one can call it that – does not quite resonate beyond Colombo to the rural Sinhalese who do not feel as if they have been ‘saved.’ Rather, they feel that they have been ‘abandoned’ without compassion while the land of their birth is being callously fashioned as a playground for the uber-rich. This is the truth that remains to be understood, apart from a few careless words that, ‘we recognise that the people are suffering.’

This is why the tide of red anger (now ebbing a little?) stormed across the electoral landscape earlier on. That anger is not appeased by ‘election goodies’ including massive increases in salaries of the public sector and writing off the debts of farmers. But let us return to the question of the political servility of Sri Lankans. This is why, no matter what President or Government comes into power, a course correction of politically degraded systems and institutions is difficult to achieve.

That unpleasant phenomenon is not limited to the Wickremesinghe election campaign, let it be said. It is bewildering as to why lawyers, (even a retired Supreme Court judge for that matter), priests, professionals and academics of various hues and colours parade themselves on election stages of one candidate or another? That is not only to pledge support but also portray their chosen favourite as a veritable Messiah who will ‘save’ the people from desolation.

A ‘rosy’ difference between
2022 and 2024 

The only difference to this fault-line of uncritical adoration of political leaders came in 2022 when Sri Lankans (Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim), the infiltration of political parties notwithstanding, rose up to demand ‘system change.’ I remember the poignancy of a girl braving crackling guns and armour plated police ranked up against ‘Aragalaya’ protestors at the Galle Face Green, walking up to a helmeted  policeman and offering him a red rose which he accepted.

That was the emotion that swept the country leading to the ouster of the deeply unpopular Rajapaksa regime. There is therefore a world of difference between that memory and the ‘embarrassment’ of the pro-Wickremesinghe Colombo event this week, red rose and all. That was only heightened by the election candidate sipping cocktails with his fans while his opposing candidates jubilantly ploughed the electoral hinterlands of the Southern, North-Central and Central Provinces to cheering crowds.

Indeed, the most number of ‘scoring own goals’ or making mistakes rebounding against itself is by the Wickremesinghe election team if not by the candidate himself. Some days ago, Mr Wickremesinghe was asked by a participant when meeting the business community at Ratnapura as to how the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and its avatar, the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) party attracts voters despite having grievously damaged the country in their bloody insurrections.

The survival of Sri Lanka
as a democratic State

Mr Wickremesinghe’s immediate answer was that this was a failure of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa as he had allowed another party in the opposition to gain ground whereas he should have captured the political momentum. That slick answer betrays feelings of active malice against Premadasa, his much younger one-time protégé which he takes little trouble to hide. Certainly that searching question called for a more deliberately crafted response, particularly from a mature politician, acknowledging the State’s failure to alleviate the plight of the post-bankrupt poor.

But maturity does not dominate the Government’s electoral discourse, it seems. Even so, we must remember that the coming Presidential election is not a duel between individuals based on personal animosities. In fact, we may agree that this election will determine, in large part, Sri Lanka’s survival as a democratic State. Coruscating public rage against a highly exaggerated ‘76 year old curse,’ that is the slogan of the NPP, must give way to a sober consideration of the interests of the nation.

That must be the primary thought in the mind of every Sri Lankan as they troop to the voting booths next Saturday.