ECONOMYNEXT – People in Sri Lanka’s southern district of Matara want to punish past rulers of the island nation.
Most of the people are now campaigning for Marxists Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP), which has never ruled the country in its 76-year post-independence era.
Sri Lanka is holding its first election after facing an economic crisis which led to a political crisis and compelled a democratically elected leader to flee the country.
Analysts say the September 21 presidential election is seen as a litmus test for elitist-led Sri Lanka politics, which has been dominated by a few families since the country got independence from British colonial rulers in 1948.
NPP leaders are predominantly from non-elitist rural people.
“This time, we will vote for JVP. None of the other parties is going to end corruption. Corruption is the main reason for the economic collapse,” S Kulatunga, a 34-year-old three-wheel driver at Matara town told EconomyNext.
“We are now campaigning for JVP because we have lost trust in all other parties due to their past corruption. They all led the country down.”
NPP election meetings attended by its presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka draw tens of thousands of people, mostly brought via hired buses from other areas of the country.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa, and former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, Namal Rajapaksa, are the three key candidates competing with NPP leader Dissanayaka.
Dissanayaka hails from Sri Lanka’s north central district of Anuradhapura, the island nation’s key paddy cultivation area. He has studied in a rural school in the same area.
Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Rajapaksa hail from the capital Colombo and have studied in elitist schools.
MURKY PAST
NPP supporters are buoyant and say only the NPP led by JVP, which was involved in two bloody insurrections in 1971 and 1988/89, can bring in drastic policy changes to eradicate corruption and make a system change in Sri Lanka’s mostly divide-and-rule politics based on ethnicity, race, and religion.
Most of the Matara District is decked with red and pink flags with the picture of a compass, the symbol of NPP. Most three-wheels have stickers printed “We are for compass this time” without Dissanayaka’s photo.
Dissanayaka’s JVP is popularly known as “3 percent” because it has failed to win more than 3 percent of the total vote in past elections.
JVP had its peak in 2004 when it contested under a center-left party and won 39 seats in the 225-member parliament.
Dissanayaka, popularly known as Anura, has been critical of corruption under all successive governments in the past and vowed to eliminate corruption, bring back stolen money alleged to have been stashed in foreign countries, and arrest all those who are involved in such illegal wealth accumulation.
“If Anura does not deliver, we will agitate and force him to resign like how Gotabaya was compelled to resign,” S Perera, a banker by profession said referring to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was forced to resign after fleeing the country in the face of mass protests after his wrong economic policies led the country into the sovereign debt default.
FRUSTRATED VOTERS, SILENT MAJORITY
Voters’ sentiment on NPP is the same across the country. In the central Sri Lankan city of Kandy, NPP has become populor among ethnic minority Muslims who have traditionally cast their votes for President Wickremesinghe’s center-right party or for Muslim political leaders.
“They all have failed this country in the past. We don’t need the same people in politics this time. We are ready to give a chance to Anura and his party to change the fate of this country,” M Ilham, a 27-year old businessman said.
Ilham acknowledged that Wickremesinghe has given proper leadership to the country’s economic recovery.
“But we need new ideas, new people, and grass-roots people in governance and decision making. Under other leaders, we will only see corrupt elitists,” Ilham said.
But most people, except NPP supporters, say they are yet to decide who to vote for.
Most of them did not want to be quoted, but said they will decide in the final week before the elections.
“I have not decided the candidate, but I will not vote for NPP, because we know the past of JVP and their atrocities,” S Rathnaweera, a 53-year-old street vendor in the Western Sri Lankan town of Kalutara said.
“They burnt people alive and I am scared of JVP repeating the same when they come to power.”
Analysts say Dissanayaka, if elected, could struggle in addressing economic crises with the current International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led economic reforms, facing geopolitical issues with an informal cold war between India-US-led allies and China, and solving ethnic issues which have existed since independence.
“Trends developing and the politics within will have no change in the IMF programme,” Kusal Perera, a political columnist told EconomyNext.
“Western powers are working to dismantle governments in power which are friendly with China and in the Belt Road Initiative (BRI). Sri Lanka is playing a crucial role in the BRI. So obviously we are caught in it,” he said.
This election is keenly watched and perhaps manipulated by external factors to suit their needs. Whoever wins the election will not change anything for Sri Lanka.” (Matara-Kandy/September 02/2024)