Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Sixth (Mis)adventure: An Indisputable Reason For The ‘Aragalaya’ To Stay Alive

By Jude Fernando –MAY 19, 2022

Jude Fernando

“Misery acquaints a man with strange (yet familiar) bedfellows.”— Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” —John F. Kennedy

“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The success of the People’s Movement in the removal of Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) is simply the first step towards a greater victory; a more solemn, yet surely not final victory; it is an essential step toward the movement’s broader objective of paving the way for a just and accountable political culture. A larger victory would be the exit of RW from politics, ironically facilitated by his autocratic and unconscionable takeover of the premiership on terms antithetical to the aspirations of the Movement. RW’s return to the post of Prime Minister provides justification for the Movement to stay focused and provide clarity to challenges and obstacles that stand in their way.

The Movement triggered the conditions that RW exploited to cement his position as Prime Minister, and he is destined to betray the goals of the Movement. In shaping his current administration, RW is continuing the legacy of economic and political crises that inspired the Movement. His narcissistic politics of deception have significantly contributed to entrenching the barriers and political culture he claims to have altered during his tenure as a member of the ruling party and while in opposition. In his five-time rise and fall as prime minister, RW has overseen a cycle that has contributed to crises, broken promises to help the country out of crises, and erected barriers to prevent resolutions. Now in his sixth term, RW’s policies are enabling the Movement to identify politicians who are working against Sri Lanka’s citizens and aiding preparations in case the economic and political crises become unbearable.

Politicians who once refused to cooperate unless President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) resigned are now finding excuses to join the RW-GR regime, based on their assertion of ‘helping the nation rebuild’, in the hope that their excuse might help them escape accountability for their past conduct, yet again. Now the focus has shifted to RW, who has declared “…I am accepting this challenge for our nation. My goals and dedication are not to save an individual, a family, a party. My objective is to save all the people of this country and the future of our younger generation”. The Rajapaksa supporters could seize the current moment as an opportunity to regroup and to escape the Peoples Movement’s demand for accountability. Previously, RW has supported them as a Prime Minister elected by the people. He may be on the verge of repeating this favor as an appointee of the GR regime without the support of the legislature and without regard to democratic norms. In a display of shamelessness and disrespect for the movement, on 18th May 18, 2022, MR came out of hiding and made his first appearance in Parliament since he was forced to resign. MR and his son, Namal Rajapaksa, sat behind RW, who is now on the side of the ruling party.

The indications are that Sri Lanka is going to be jointly governed by an authoritarian and incompetent president, who is likely to follow anyone who makes him, and his supporters feel safe, and an equally autocratic prime minister known to pay lip service to democratic governance and surround himself with an exclusive circle of friends. Neoliberal institutions and the minority of the society most likely to benefit will welcome RW-GR leadership combination. Despite worsening economic hardship due to austerity measures linked to neoliberal economic policies, the RW-GR nexus are committed to more stringently continue policies underpinned by the same political culture that the Movement aims to dismantle. As RW-GR, inevitably take on the responsibility of suppressing dissent against inequalities in the name of fostering political stability to boost economic recovery, those who disagree with them and dissent against inequalities are likely to suffer the consequences of suppression.

Against this backdrop, Sri Lankan society will hold the RW-GR regime responsible if the political and economic consequences of their leadership become unbearable. Today, the most formidable challenge to the RW-GR regime comes, not from political parties, but from a citizens-based movement that is well informed, politically savvy, and unique in terms of its demographic make-up, political beliefs, aspirations, its non-conventional methods of organizing and sustaining protests, and its use of technology to achieve its goals. The Movement’s success has shown that the tactics political regimes typically employ to co-opt and assimilate dissidents are ineffective. We must not forget it was the People’s Movement and not the opposition political parties that forced MR out of power and made the removal from politics of the entire Rajapaksa regime an attainable goal. The Movement is in a well-positioned position to take on a leadership role in guiding society toward a change if the RW-GR regime becomes intolerable. For this purpose, the Movement must stay focused on the original goals of the “Gota Go Home” movement, find ways to make ongoing economic hardship and the character of the RW-GR regime a central focus, and avoid falling into the traps set by RW-GR regime and the pitfalls of conventional intellectual frames typically used to understand citizens movements like the one in Sri Lanka.

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