Extending an invitation to all stakeholders to participate in his new initiative, Wickremesinghe who obtained a mammoth 500,566 preferential votes from the Colombo District, emphasized that it would be in keeping with the silent revolution for good governance and consensual politics that a vast majority of Sri Lankans had helped launch on the Jan. 8 and re-endorsed by them last Monday by voting for a UNP-led UNFGG government. The UPFA won in the predominantly Sinhalese rural and suburban areas but with a significantly reduced majority. The extensive network of patronage from which Rajapaksa family and friends benefited will have to be dismantled.
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Sirisena, who was still a member of Rajapaksa’s ruling party (United Peoples Freedom Alliance), contrary to political norms, appointed the Opposition Leader PM as a thank-you gesture for his victory. But his party was seven seats short of the 113 required to form a government. Rajapaksa’s loyalists, however, compelled an unwilling Sirisena to field the former president in the parliamentary election.
Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have been pledging a national government with the participation of the two main political forces during the run-up to the August 17 election.
Former president Mahinda Rajapakse attended Friday’s ceremony. His followers refused to trumpet his other achievement on the “rural development” front – where again he had a first to his credit, though his inspiration might have been the LTTE-slain, rival-UNP president Ranasinghe Premadasa, whose tenure was relatively a short-lived two-plus years. If this trend continues, the results will mark a win for incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena.
The Tamil parties that control the balance of power in parliament want measures “that fulfill the expectations of a diverse society to live as equals”, said R. Sampanthan, head of the Tamil National Alliance, which won 16 seats in the election. For now the only contender is a Marxist party, with just six seats.
Rajapaksa also knows that his son, Namal, or anyone else of his choosing, would have had to put in years and experience before the party and the nation considered him/them for a leadership role. This is welcome news for the U.S., which has been pressing Colombo to improve the human rights of its minority populations-especially the Tamil community-following the end of the 26-year civil war in 2009.
The second term of Rajapaksa’s presidency witnessed gross abuse of power and rising corruption. India has loaned Sri Lanka around $1.7 billion compared to China’s $5 billion over the past decade. The task of reconciliation with the Tamil dominated districts and the investigation of war crimes against the Rajapaksa regime must also be renewed with the mandate at hand.
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Sri Lankan Tamils are naturally anxious to open a new chapter in living with the Sinhala majority and are seeking to return to the days before the Tigers took over.
