Why Maithripala did what he did

by Harsha Gunasena

The country experienced a series of unique situations after the Presidential Election on January 8, 2015.

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Firstly, it was widely reported that there was an illegal attempt to stay in power during the early hours on January 9 by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was defeated. Certain units of the Army were reportedly stationed in strategic positions without the knowledge of the Commissioner of Elections and the Inspector General of Police.

It was also reported that there was a plan to declare a state of emergency and prevent the issuing of election results, which was objected to by the Attorney General, Inspector General of Police and Army Commander, at an unusual discussion at the Temple Trees in the presence of the Chief Justice.

Secondly, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe who did not command the majority in Parliament as the Prime Minister subsequent to which, a minority government was formed.

Thirdly, the President accepted the leadership of the main opposition party which commanded the majority of the Parliament and thereby became the head of the minority government as well as the head of the majority opposition, simultaneously creating history in the world. At the point he accepted the leadership of the SLFP, there was no strong opposition to his decision.

He walked out of the SLFP before the Presidential Election and campaigned and won against the candidate of the SLFP. There were a few members of the SLFP who walked out along with him. As a result of the new situation, these few members of the SLFP, along with him, remained as members of SLFP.

In addition to that there were members of SLFP who supported the leadership of Maithripala Sirisena. However, the majority of the SLFP membership supported the defeated candidate, Mahinda Rajapaksa and all of them viewed Sirisena a traitor who grabbed power from the SLFP and handed it over to UNP.

Members who supported Sirisena were against the rule of Rajapaksa and were of the view that the SLFP should be cleansed by the removal of Rajapaksa from active politics.

The Rajapaksa conundrum

On the other hand, the politicians who were involved in corrupt activities and would face possible investigations supported the comeback of Rajapaksa, using his popularity, although it was diminishing since there was no other way for them. Rajapaksa himself would have thought that he would be safe among the people and in the legislature in view of the possible investigations against him, rather than being isolated in retirement.

Isolated in retirement

In addition to that, the leaders of other parties making up the UPFA who did not have a vote base supported Rajapaksa for their existence since they would not enjoy any favour under Sirisena.

Therefore, there were two factions of the SLFP with clear divisions with the support of the UPFA leaders to Rajapaksa faction. One of the UPFA leaders has gone to the extent of saying umba palayan- 'you go away'- to Sirisena in a public rally and addressed Wikremesinghe in Parliament, in utter filth in Sinhala, disclosing the calibre of parliamentarians we have today as well as the freedom enjoyed under the new administration.

Principles of Lichchavi

On the other hand, Wickremesinghe was promoting consensus adapted by the Princes of Lichchavi. We were told that the origin of democracy was in the age old city states in Greek. The underlying values of the Western democracy can be identified as Liberty, Equality and Justice. In Sri Lankan collectivist society, which is in contrast to the Western individualist society, these values are not respected. There is hardly any sense of liberty of the citizens here where there is not even a proper Sinhala word for liberty. In this society, Govigama Sinhala Buddhists are more equal than the others and we have experienced how notoriously flawed the adjudication of justice was, during the Rajapaksa regime.

Therefore, in this type of society under the multi-party system where the wish of the majority is implemented, which can even be a mere 51%, if the people in power do not respect the underlying values of democracy, there can be an authoritative regime. If the minority who is not in power does not respect the underlying values of democracy, then there can even be anarchy.

In these societies, always there is a struggle between authoritarianism and anarchy. Example for the former was the Rajapaksa regime and an example for the latter is the recent political history of Bangladesh.

Indian democracies

Just as the Greek city state democracy began to evolve, at the same time, there were small democracies operating in India in parallel kingdoms. Lichchavis adapted such a democracy where they applied saptha aparihaniya dhamma. The Buddha declared that no one could defeat them (the Lichchavis), as long as they followed those principles.

The main value behind those principle is consensus, which is more suited and applicable for a country like Sri Lanka where collectivist values prevail. Hence Wickremesinghe's attempt to base the Sri Lankan democracy on indigenous values rather than western values should be appreciated.

No clear signal

In order to apply this consensus, there should be a clean and responsible SLFP, which is not prepared to place its own goals ahead of the goals of the country.

Rajapaksa and his corrupt politicians secured their nominations.One corrupt politician secured nomination for his wife, while the UPFA General Secretary was boasting about that politician not being given nomination. It appears there is no clear signal from the Rajapaksa-led SLFP that if it comes to power, the rejected way of governance would be abandoned.

President Maithripala Sirisena in his own way, did try to avoid this situation by strengthening his position within the SLFP in order to have a clean and responsible SLFP which would be able to respond to the call of consensus. At one point, President Sirisena was travelling around the country and calling upon the SLFP members and loyalists for support.

However, the supporters and members of the SLFP continued to view Sirisena as an opponent who defeated them rather than their leader. This thinking failed to assess the ground situation: That interests of groups are well looked after against the interests of other groups or the larger community. Finally, having not been able to establish his position within the party, President Sirisena had to agree to give nomination to Rajapaksa, along with his group of corrupt loyalists. Having faced strong criticism mainly from the civil society, President Sirisena addressed the nation to explain his own position and predicted the defeat of Rajapaksa, yet again. This statement was a heavy blow to the SLFP.

People should understand the President's lone battle to promote good governance within a political party that shows lack of respect for such values. This is why it is important to defeat the corrupt Rajapaksa and his corrupt clan for a second time and to strengthen the hands of President Sirisena to reach the kind of political consensus he desires, to solve unresolved national issues, a novel political experiment which is best delivered with Ranil Wickremesinghe, post August 17.