BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

It has been reported in news media in Sri Lanka that Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated if he becomes the president of Sri Lanka from the next election, he will give all politics and political-related activities in the country to Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and fully concentrate on the economic development, elevating the economy and national security of the country.  No presidential candidate in the past made such a strong statement or promised to separate politics from national activities and even practically activated to work the same way after the election to the presidential position. In 2015, Mr. Maithripala Sirisena showed to work the same way as a candidate of Yahapalanaya, however, after few weeks acquiring the presidentship, he also acquired the leadership of his opponent’s political party (SLFP) and stuck in a political mud puddle.  The statement of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a highly appreciated and respected statement compared to other presidential candidates. When compared to so-called presidential hopeful or self-proposed presidential candidates, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa demonstrated his suitability to be the president and his maturity and understanding of the major issues of Sri Lanka.

UNP and its associated parties show internal conflicts to select the candidate for the presidential election and Mr. Sajith Premadasa and Mr. Karu Jayasuriya make conflicting statements to the community, most probably they are intending to covering up the real behavior of them during past five years. There is no argument that they behaved like henchmen of Western forces despite the will of people of Sri Lanka.  It is quite clear that Mr. Sajith Premadasa has no idea about Sri Lanka’s economy, elevating the economic status and national security. Can UNP candidate separate politics from economic development and the national security if he/she becomes the president of the country? It seems that the associated parties with UNP aim at playing politics as they played after 2015 and the people of Sri Lanka don’t want such games.

The experience since 2015 has been shown that UNP or it supported a candidate for the presidentship could not separate the politics from the economic activities and national security. The upliftment of the economy has been a pipe dream of supporters and people voted for them in 2015 realized with a short period that they did a mistake voting to so-called Yahapalanaya.   The current behavior of much-publicized UNP choice reflects that Mr. Sajith Premadasa is in a mud puddle without understanding or practical experience in the economy and national security and foreign affairs. There is no doubt that acting like Mr. R. Premadasa means taking arms against poor youth who struggle for a life with basic needs.   Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe learned many strategic options for administration under Mr. JR Jayewardene and Mr. ACS Hameed but Mr. Sajith Premadasa did nothing and people will twice consider whether voting for Mr. Sajith Premadasa could be justified.

There are many negative points against Premadasa’s politics in Sri Lanka since the era of the last stage of Mr. Dudley Senanayake. What happened to Puravasi Peramuna established by the leadership of Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Gamini Fonseka is known to nobody.  Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa after the defeat in 2015 publicly stated that a mistake he has done during his administration was helping Mr. Sajith Premadasa’s sister, Mrs. Dulanjali Jayakody to get away from the case of printing fake money or attempting to deposit fake money to her account.  These are moral issues against the honesty of Mr. Premadasa’s family.  If these issues emerge, Mr. Sajith Premadasa cannot answer to them but Mr. Sajith Premadasa attempts to show he is a superior person by words of mouth and pointing figure to a housing scheme, which is clear to people but there is more spending for publicity than the value of houses. 

People of Sri Lanka want a concrete person with excellent ideas and practical experience for development activities and national security.  Sri Lanka doesn’t want a presidential candidate, who purely attracted popularity because of playing Cricket or acting in movies or spending money for attracting popularity. If Sri Lanka wants a Cricketer, Mr. Arjuna Ranatunga was the best person who brought the Cricket world cup defeating Australia, but he might not be the choice of UNP. Sri Lankans are highly concerned with culture and religion.  Culture means rules, regulations, laws, and procedures, etc. Any presidential candidate disrespects culture and religion he or she is not the choice of Sri Lankans and candidates from any political party must be a respected person for human values and understand the expectations of people without racial differences.  The economy is the giant challenge of Sri Lanka which has been complicated by the changes during the past five years and the economy should be able to fulfill the expectations of the young generation.

Recent speeches of Mr. Sajith Premadasa reflected that although he studied in the London School of Economics, that he does not know about Schumpeter’s idea about investments, profit, and entrepreneurship. If so, how can he bring investment to the country? Can he develop an environment in Sri Lanka to attract investments as Schumpeter explained and why didn’t he work during the past five years to attract investment without money laundering in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is a small country, which is subject to global hegemony and has no power to react or respond to global hegemony.  Mr. J.R. Jayewardene said without surrendering to India he works to live under the shadow of India.  Now Sri Lanka needs to live under the shadow of India, China, and America to attract investments without constraints. The future presidents of Sri Lanka must be able to live the shadow of these powers and the next presidential candidate needs to show the skills for it.  Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has shown his capability and people of Sri Lanka have a clear understanding of his capabilities.

To do these, politics need to be separated from economic development, elevating the economy, national security, and foreign affairs.  Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa already stated that he will do it and he will be the best choice to Sri Lanka. Politics means differences and when a person elected as the president, he or she must be a national leader working for the country without any differences.  Mr. Sirisena elected in 2015, but he could not work as a national leader and he had to work for people who supported him to be the president.

The statement of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa confirmed that he will be a national leader, who is desperately required by the people of the country. People of the country never expect a henchman in the way that Mr. Karu Jayasuriya acted in October 2018.  Therefore, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa can understand what is needed for the people of the country.