Sri Lanka: The arguments for and against the appointment of Ranil as Premier

He says that he will not dismantle or demolish the camps in Galle Face. After all, this is how Ranil behaves cunningly on this issue. He can not earn the public anger at all. So, he will let the public demonstrate for as long as they want. He strongly believes that if he can give some economic relief to people, he could get away with this crisis.

by A Lankan Patriotic in the UK-Friday, 13 May 2022

Some furious debates are coming out about the appointment of Ranil for the 6th time as PM of Sri Lanka at this difficult time.  Ranil is often said to be one of the luckiest politicians to survive in Sri Lankan politics. He was defeated many times in his election campaign and yet, he managed to survive his political career in some hilarious ways. In his last election campaign, his party UNP was badly defeated and yet, for his luck, he managed to secure his seat on the national list. Now, this time, he is lucky enough to secure the office of premiership once again in this difficult time. This makes a mockery of democracy in Sri Lanka. People did not vote for him, and people defeated him badly and yet, he was elected and became a PM.

It is often said Ranil is one of the craftiest and most cunning political foxes in Sri Lanka. He knows how to play around with the political twists in Sri Lankan politics. He understands well the political pulse in Sri Lankan politics. He is a political opportunist and tries to make use of all available political opportunities to fulfil his political dreams. Many Sri Lankan politicians doubt his sincerity in Sri Lankan politics. Does he want to save this country from this economic and political crisis? He says that he wants to save this country from this crisis and yet, many people think that he has greatly contributed to this crisis. He has been supporting and protecting all political crooks in Sri Lanka. When he was a premier last time, he protected all those who looted public money. He protected Mahinda and his cohort last time.  Mahinda and his cohort got away with all their frauds and corruption because of Ranil. Because Ranil did not want to punish them at all. It is said that Ranil was responsible for the Central Bank scam. Sri Lanka lost billions of dollars in that scam and yet, Mahinda did not punish him for this. Mahinda and Ranil are partners in all those fraud and corrupt activities. As Ranjan says all these people are friends. One protects another. This is the political culture in Sri Lanka as of today. Politicians have some mutual understanding on this. Otherwise, many of them will end up in jail.  

People have beenprotesting in Galle Face to free this country from all kinds of political corruption and fraud for the last month and yet, to see this unfolding political change in Sri Lanka must have stunned the crowd in the Galle Face. Rajapaksa family badly needs Ranil to save them from any law pursuits. Each Sri Lankan knows that the Rajapaksa family has inflicted greater damage to this country. They have made this country a bankrupt country and they can not get away from all those frauds and yet, they need Ranil to protect them from any law pursuits at this difficult time. For that reason, Gota prefers Ranil over Sajith in this difficult situation to save his family from all kinds of trouble.

Yet, Ranil argues that he accepted this invitation from Gota to save the country from this economic crisis. Crafty Ranil knows well that what people need today is not political freedom not a western medal of democracy rather they need food to eat, milk to drink, gas to cook, oil to travel and other essentials.  People are hungry and they need three-time meals on their table. Theseare the fundamental needs and necessities in life. So, he argues that he can put the economy of this country back on track. On this promise, he has assumed his duty now in his sixth premiership. There is no doubt that he understands modern economic principles well than any others in Sri Lankan politics today. He understands this crisis well than many others. No one doubts his skills, talents, and experiences in politics. He will do his best to save this country from this economic crisis and yet, he will not punish all those crook politicians. The current economic crisis is created by the Rajapaksa family. This is nothing but a political blunder of these crook politicians. The Rajapaksa family has destroyed the economy of this country with their wrong economic policies. Their unsuitable mega projects have done greater harm to this country and yet, neither Ranil nor any other politicians take legal action against them. 

Ranil will never act against all those Rajapaksa family and their cohort who looted all those public money. Ranil does not care about all those frauds and corruption.  He thinks all those frauds and corruption are gone now and nothing can be done about it now. No action will be taken to bring back all those looted funds by the Rajapaksa family and its cohort. There is a huge difference between ideal politics and the ground realities in Sri Lanka politics. JVP and some other political parties want to do an ideal politics. They want to live by their political idealism and yet, the ground reality is different. Sajith wanted to do an ideal politics and put some pre-condition to accept the offer of Gota to take over the premiership. Yet, in Sri Lankan politics such ideal politics does not work. All those who protest in Galle Face demand some ideal politics in Sri Lanka. They want to see a thriving politics free of corruption, fraud, and bribery. They want to promote unconditional justice, equality, freedom and liberty and other ethical and moral values in Sri Lankan politics. Yet, the ground reality is different. MPs could loot millions from the public money and yet, they could get away with it. But when a poor man steals something out of his hunger, he will be punished. 

I appreciate all these good and sincere intentions and objectives of these politiciansyet; the ground reality is different in Sri Lanka.  The appointment of Ranil as PM shows this ground reality. While thousands of people are protesting for their political freedom, Gota managed to appoint Ranil as PM as he likes against the will of the people. Gota has slapped the face of his political opponents by this. Heslapped the face of the people who are protesting in the Galle Face.  It is more likely that Ranil will get the support of the most of SLPP members. SLPP members have already declared that they will support Ranil. Because most of them live in hiding for the last few days in fear of people’s anger and agitation. So,  those MPs want to protect themselves and they do not want to end up in jail for their fraud activities. Ranil is their hope to get away with all this. So, they will support Ranil in the parliament. Will Ranil now send Gota home, and will he allow the parliament to impeach the President? Will he bend to the demands of protesters in Galle Face, and will he make some meaningful political reform as public demand in Galle Face? 

          He says that he will not dismantle or demolish the camps in Galle Face. After all, this is how Ranil behaves cunningly on this issue. He can not earn the public anger at all. So, he will let the public demonstrate for as long as they want. He strongly believes that if he can give some economic relief to people, he could get away with this crisis. He thinks people will forget all these difficulties as and when he gives them food on their table. This is a convincing argument to some extent.  

Ranil is a different personality in politics. He is a politically arrogant and dominant personality. He is a resilient politician, and he does not give up easily. He did not get on well with Maithri last time How could one expect him to work with Gota? Will Gota listen to Ranil or will Ranil listen to Gota in their decision making? It does not look like a good marriage of convenience in Sri Lankan politics at all. Yet, Gota might get well with Ranil for some time to protect his family members from any law pursuit. No doubt Ranil has got good international connections and links to put the economy back on the right track and yet, it will take a lot of time. It will take years to pay back all those loans and it will take years to recover from this economic crisis and yet, someone needs to take responsibility to deal with it. If there are two evils, we must choose the lesser evils. We all know that many Sri Lankan politicians are crooks except all those JVP guys. Yet, the public is not ready to vote for JVP right now. What do they do now? People must choose the lesser evils among all those evil politicians because we must choose someone to run this country. Peoplecannot let the country go into anarchy and a chaotic situation. They are obliged to come to terms with some good political orders or systems. They must choose someone with some political skills, knowledge, and abilities to run this country. 

For good or bad, luck has stuck Ranil once again in this political drama in Sri Lanka and only time will reveal his true patriotism to this country. All these political dramas tell us that all those public demonstrations are meaningless unless some constructive actions are taken.  People’s political aspirations will be suppressed meticulously and systematically by our politicians. They do not care about people and their suffering. They will tell some things before the election and do another thing after the election. This has been going on in Sri Lankan politics since the 1950s. The Sri Lankan politicians make some false political promises to come to power and yet, once they are elected, they do not care about the public opinions. I wonder if all this public outcry in Galle Face goes into the political dust bins in Sri Lankan politics. This political storm in Sri Lanka must yield some good results otherwise, all these efforts, energy and time of our youths will be meaningless. So, our politicians must take some lessons from all these political agitations. Coming days will tell us in which direction all these political dramas turn in Sri Lankan politics. 

    Now this appointment will put the political skills, talent, knowledge, wisdom, and experience of Sajith and his groups into testing.  How will they react, behave and counter this political challenge? Can they get more support to defeat the President in their impeachment attempt?