Malinda Seneviratne

Post Independence Sri Lanka. That’s a period of 75 years. Long enough for a decent mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. And the downright scandalous. Now in this long period of time, we’ve had representative democracy. More or less. And we’ve had periods when that what and what it means were grotesquely twisted.  Here’s a question: what were the darkest days for democracy?

The Rajapaksa Era, hands down.

During the tenure of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa the following happened, as people would very well recall:

Mahinda Rajapaksa famously said, with regard to economic policy, ‘let the robber barons come!’ He also said ‘I will roll the electoral map for ten years.’ Was it Gotabaya? No, I think, Mahinda. He obtained undated letters of resignation from all MPs of the UPFA and later the SLPP. He waved these over their heads when he compromised the sovereignty of the country, wrecked territorial integrity and allowed India to obtain more than a hegemonic toehold over the island when the leader of that country held a pistol to his head, so to speak.

Well, friends, Mahinda Rajapaksa is guilty of a lot of wrongdoing, this much is clear, but none of the above can be attributed to him. That was J R Jayewardene and his government which included the likes of Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ranasinghe Premadasa. The latter, one might argue, was biding his time but the former was clearly in agreement, never mind the undated letter of resignation he submitted to the then President.

‘JR’ came to power with a five-sixths majority. He didn’t postpone parliamentary elections, as Sirimavo Bandaranaike did in 1975. He simply cancelled elections. Instead, he went for a referendum where the people were asked to allow the parliament elected in 1977 to continue in office for a six years more. All he needed was a simple majority (50%+1) so that the five-sixths sway could be held.

That referendum was rigged. The Presidential Election of 1982 was rigged. Indeed all elections held until 1994 were rigged. Voter impersonation, intimidation of opposing candidates and voters likely to support some other party, burning of party offices, ballot box stuffing, you name it. It was par for the course under JR.

He stripped his strongest opponent of her civic rights. He crushed trade unions. He unleashed party thugs on Tamils in 1983. Students were killed in 1984. Censorship was his constant companion and that of his successor too, let’s not forget. And by the end of the decade, 50-60 people were getting killed on a daily basis. You want a script for a horror film called ‘Dark Days of Democracy’? Well, JR wrote it. Yes, you could do a compare and contrast with Gotabaya’s brief tenure and you may very well conclude, ‘if #gotagohome was legit, it was overkill plus plus.’  

JR had lost legitimacy by 1982. Ranil Wickremesinghe, president and current leader of JR’s party, the UNP, never had it. His only claim to a semblance of legitimacy lies in the fact that he accepted the Prime Minister’s post at a moment when there were simply no takers. That’s about it.  

The largely illegitimate president hasn’t been twiddling his thumbs, democracy-wise or rather with record to being anti-democratic.

Elections. True, there’s been no agitation about PC elections not being held for years and in the case of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils, for more than 11 and 12 years respectively. He hasn’t made that point, though, as a justification for what is clearly his opposition to holding local government elections.

Wait, he hasn’t said that has he? Right. He has not. However, he is the EXECUTIVE President, all powerful, all-wise and all that. He knows what’s what. And it’s not as though he’s not executed anything so far. The way he extracted ‘agreement’ with the PUCSL for tariff reform, heavily skewed against the low-end consumer by the way, is scandalous and reminiscent of JR’s tactics. He waited until the forthright chairperson of the PUCSL was out of the country and (it seems) arm-twisted the other commissioners to give in to his preferred formula.

So he, understandably doesn’t want the local government elections to be held. Understandable because a) his party is almost a non-entity now in Sri Lanka’s political firmament, and b) his main ally to whom he owes his position today, the SLPP, appears to have lost much ground in terms of political legitimacy or even relevance. Naturally, the opposition stands to gain in such scenarios caused or exacerbated by economic hardship. The SJP is the main opposition in Parliament. The JVP is already on the ground and running. The possibility of a massive defeat is real.

Ranil Wickremesinghe has been in this business long enough to know the costs of an electoral nose-dive. He knows how the Yahapalana regime in which he was Prime Minister lost legitimacy after the SLPP swept the local government elections in February 2018. Sure, there wasn’t much yaha (good) and hardly any palanaya (governance) post January 8, 2015, but that defeat buried the ruling coalition. Without a party of his own worthy of that term, dependent on a political group he has been at odds with for most of his political career, a resounding opposition victory would be curtains. It’s worth pointing out that given the political fortunes or lack thereof of the SLPP, most of the MPs of that party are now operating as though they’ve given Ranil Wickremesinghe undated letters of resignation.

One may have serious issues with the SJB or the JVP or both but that’s irrelevant here. The point is that this government is elections-averse. It is terrified of the true dimensions of legitimacy being stamped by way of election results. This government or rather its movers and shakers (and there’s no mover or shaker more powerful at this moment than Ranil Wickremesinghe) has resorted to disgusting tactics to stop local government elections.  

If Gotabaya, for whatever reason, was reluctant to anger India and the USA, Wickremesinghe seems to have resolved to bend over backwards in submitting to the strategic and economic interests of these two countries. Most of it behind the scenes, although the recent in-your-face show-of-force by the USA was a bit hard to conceal.

Whether it is economic policy (21st Century racketeers courtesy the IMF instead of the robber barons JR loved), strong-arm tactics (the PTA stands, still) or spurning of democratic norms, it’s JR all over again.

If democracy was struck by an abnormality called JR with ripple effects running into the third decade of the 21st Century, it’s got a second kick in the face. As abnormal as it was back in JR’s time. ‘The New Abnormal’ would be a fair description. 

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