Just one week ago, Gotabaya Rajapaksa won a convincing victory at the Presidential Election, becoming the country’s seventh Executive President.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Rajapaksa name or being the brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa propelled him to victory. But the most immediate reason for his triumph was his impressive track record as Defence and Urban Development Secretary and his thrust on national security at a time when Sri Lankans felt insecure following the tragic events of April 21.
And with the appointment of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister, the citizens should feel doubly reassured. The significance of the combination is not simply based on family ties, although in the family oriented South Asian community this adds to the strength and scope of institutional co-ordination. Rather, the combination is one that thrives on an existing record of coordinated performance in the management of State and politics.
This is the strength of the new Rajapaksa regime and is a strong foundation that can empower it to take big steps not just on the economic plane but also in addressing the knottiest problem of inter-ethnic relations.
As for the UNP-led New Democratic Front, its candidate Sajith Premadasa and his team failed to feel the pulse of the electorate correctly. Some of their spokespersons muddied the waters further, angering the electorate. A perceived lack of empathy for the concerns of the majority community and a lackadaisical attitude to national security even in the aftermath of the April 21 events sealed its fate at the hustings.
The defeat has resulted in a split in the party, with Sajith and Ranil loyalists at loggerheads over a range of issues from that of the Party Leadership to the Opposition Leader’s post. Yet Sajith is still politically young at 52 and can chart a course for a future victory if party and policy reforms are carried out. However, all credit should go to former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for gracefully stepping down from his position and paving the way for the new President to appoint his own team to a new Cabinet from within the existing composition of Parliament. This has averted a crisis of governance.
The JVP, contesting as the Jathika Jana Balavegaya under the Compass symbol, lost its bearings more or less completely and of course, its election deposit as it garnered only 3.1 percent of the valid votes. A lot of the blame has fallen at the doorstep of JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who has been accused by many of taking the party towards the UNP in terms of ideology. The JVP will have a lot more work to do to put up a better performance at the General Elections due in March-April 2020.
President Gotabaya has every right to expect an even bigger mandate from the people at the forthcoming General Elections. The President has, with a frankness not usually heard from majority community politicians, acknowledged, in his very first formal address to the nation, that his victory was made possible almost entirely by the votes of the majority community. Even more significantly, he has candidly acknowledged the failure to garner ethnic minority votes in any significant number.
Going even further, he has urged the Tamil and Muslim communities to join the journey he has started for the prosperity of the Motherland. If the President and his team, in their words and actions, accommodate the sentiments of these communities during the next few months, his victory at the General Elections will be even more inclusive.
Already, there are indications that the Tamil leadership is willing to talk with the new President on a range of issues, which augurs well for the entire nation. After all, the bulk of the Tamils have voted for the principal rival candidate, Premadasa, who is a Sinhala-Buddhist, rather than opting for a Tamil candidate.
The President has taken many commendable steps during his first week in office, from the displaying of the State symbol in Government offices and removal of politicians’ portraits to restricting VIP security convoys, including his own. But it seems that some of the President’s ardent social media supporters have got ahead of themselves to post many decisions purportedly made by the President on Facebook et al without any fact checking.
This prompted the President to issue a media statement to the effect that only official statements from his office should be accepted. Fake news can damage his credibility and in any case, he should be given the time and space to take decisions after careful deliberation. The fact that he has appointed many top-class public servants to key positions in Government augurs well in this regard.
Now that the President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet are in place, they will have to begin work in earnest right away. Having kept his promise to restrict the Cabinet to 15, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be keen to ensure the proper implementation of his “Vistas of Prosperity” manifesto, in a clear departure from the practice of discarding it soon after coming to power.
But the focus will firmly be on national security, at least for the first one year of the President’s tenure. The President has already given a pledge to His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith that a high-powered committee will be appointed to probe the Easter attacks. He has also instructed Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne to improve overall security.
There are a host of other challenges for the new President and his team to surmount, from the rising Cost of Living to Climate Change. A professional, measured approach will be the key as he embarks on a new journey for Mother Lanka.