The world is moving at a fast pace. Countries have changed drastically during the past several decades. Nevertheless, since independence, even after 73 years, Sri Lanka has been a ‘developing country’ or ‘lower-middle-income country’ and continues to be the same. (The recent upgrading of the status to an upper-middle-income category by the World Bank was short-lived). Besides, the 130th rank Sri Lanka holds in the ‘World Happiness Index’ has not shown a significant improvement for the past several years.
The pertinent question to ask about this stagnation is whether the country’s political leadership was inspirational and influential enough throughout the past seven decades. During the time until 2019 when the newest political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) took over, the two main political parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) with their alliances ruled the country interchangeably. Even though there was development work carried out by the Governments of both parties, the general status of the country has not substantially changed.
Political dialogue
A controversial political dialogue surfaced in the country when a senior politician who also is a leader of a political party backing the Government, said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should take over the leadership of the SLPP, the party leadership that is held by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The statement came into vehement opposition by almost all senior members of the SLPP and launched scathing attacks on the politician who made the statement. They claimed that this initial memberships were largely built around the Premier.
Most politicians will consent that the President should be a political figure. In this writer’s opinion, most of the citizens believe that the Presidency is more affluent and more effective to the welfare of the public as a ‘neutral’ person rather than a party politician.
The people experienced an unpleasant run with the previous leader who was voted to the office with a promise of neutrality. The pledge became a hoax in a short time. The whole scenario changed when the ex-President took over the SLFP leadership. Many people blame that the country was compelled to live through a terrible time due to this move.
Strength
The assumption of the people is that had the ex-President remained neutral, most of the negative incidents that occurred during that time would have been averted. The governance during the period between 2015 and 2019 was one of the worst and the weakest in the recent past due to weak, petty and insecure political leadership.
Nevertheless, as in many other democracies, the head of the Government in Sri Lanka has always been elected through a political party since independence. In such a situation, the key challenge is whether the incumbent President can win the next election without the backing of a strong political party or alliance.
Fortunately, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is relieved from that issue to a certain extent as his family possesses the best political strength in Sri Lanka. Particularly, with the presence of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa, perhaps the most charismatic leader ever born in Sri Lanka, the incumbent President will have a definite and unparalleled advantage with voters.
Good political leadership is not only about individual characteristics or qualities but also about managing the whole system to be supportive of the complex government machinery. A smart and successful leader knows that their task is not to have all the answers but to ask the right question from the right person. He knows that others may be better placed to answer.
A successful leader who aspires to be a statesman must possess dynamic, decisive and competitive personal traits. But he should be aware that the complex environments in the public policy sectors, such as welfare, health, national security, food supply and other related national matters have to be managed with patience and flexibility.
In this context, in the past few months, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has displayed many of these leadership traits concerning the pressing national issues, such as the Colombo Port East Terminal, PCoI report on the Easter Sunday attacks, Covid-19 vaccinations program, Muslim burial issue and several other similar issues.
The President has been patient and exceedingly flexible in solving issues diplomatically. He has shown ample political astuteness in collaborative decision-making in consultation with stakeholders. As a successful leader, the President understands that his task primarily is building relationships and working across diverse sectors to achieve a common purpose. He did not need much talk on political experience to succeed in most of these situations.
Sri Lankans, as a nation are looking towards a leader with an honest and genuine ‘Sri Lanka first’ attitude. In fairness, most of the past Presidents and Prime Ministers started with this notion with unadulterated interest and enthusiasm. However, the same cannot be said about the majority of other politicians who usually flock around power. These shady politicians with vested interests knowingly or unknowingly derail the path of the leadership, at times severely damaging the image of the leader. For the country’s sake, the citizenry believe that the incumbent leadership cannot be sent up a gum tree easily by these dishonest elements.
Vision
Citizens in any country wish for leaders with clear, precise and inspirational vision, who can take a nation to prosperity. The dire need for Sri Lanka is to have a leader who has the strength, desire, knowledge, and sheer will to achieve goals amid difficulties. Specifically, the leader must have the courage to withstand malicious criticisms while accepting constructive assessments positively. Such leaders earn the trust of the people who make them legends in a country. The vast majority of Sri Lankans notice these qualities in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and perhaps, it is the reason for expecting him to be a non-political statesman.
However, for the leader to be successful, he needs an ideal team. The successful execution of the vision depends mainly on the cooperation and support of the team members. Therefore, good leaders initially accept that they need the assistance of other efficient and committed leaders to yield successful outcomes that are beneficial to the country. It is imperative that the leader has an ideal team.
Mediocre
In public opinion, President Rajapaksa’s team comprises a mixture of good and mediocre members. Part of the team, particularly some Cabinet and State Ministers seems to have understood the leadership style of the President and work along with his plans while some others do not show adequate interest.
The salient point is that the whole team must be equally effective in public matters. Even a few bad characters can upset the apple cart. Even if such politicians (who are largely disliked by the public) can collect votes in their constituencies, they may create bigger overall damage in an election. Therefore, they must be kept in check for the sustainability of the Government.
It is up to the President himself to determine whether he should be a party politician or not. Nevertheless, the expectation of the entire population, irrespective of which party they belong to, is that the President is a statesman rather than a traditional politician. The country has witnessed 73 years of post-independence politics without much progress in public lives. Therefore, the vast majority of Sri Lankans still believe that the plan under the presidential vision is the most ideal development program for prosperity if carried out without hindrance.