{"id":57480,"date":"2018-02-02T08:32:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=57480"},"modified":"2018-02-02T17:10:25","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T22:10:25","slug":"a-scenario-where-mahinda-rajapaksa-stages-a-comeback-wwuld-be-the-sirisena-wickremesinghe-governments-own-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=57480","title":{"rendered":"A Scenario Where Mahinda Rajapaksa Stages a Comeback, Would be of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government\u2019s Own Making."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s local government elections, scheduled to be held on February 10, have elicited the interest of a national election, and with good reason.<\/p>\n

This is the first time the country will go to the polls in about three years since the President Maithripala Sirisena\u2013Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe combine rose to power promising \u201cgood governance\u201d, giving voters a chance to say what they think of the performance of the government they elected to office.<\/p>\n

Further, the two coalition partners in government \u2014 Mr. Sirisena-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s United National Party (UNP) \u2014 are contesting the island-wide local polls separately, with their campaigns laying bare the deep fissures and insecurities within the coalition government.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Inevitably, the outcome will impact the future course of the government in the remaining two years of its term, with much of the work on the promised constitutional reform and post-war reconciliation remaining only on paper. Going by the mudslinging on the campaign trail, it is clear that the elections will most likely leave the country\u2019s first national unity government, formed by two traditionally rival parties, considerably weaker.<\/p>\n

Focus on corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amid severe criticism of his government for taking little action against corruption during his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s term, Mr. Sirisena has pegged his campaign to an anti-corruption crusade, chiefly targeting the SLFP\u2019s senior coalition partner in Parliament, the UNP. The President\u2019s attacks have grown shriller after a presidential commission of inquiry (CoI) held a former Central Bank Governor, handpicked by the Prime Minister, responsible for a loss of 11,145 million Sri Lankan rupees to public institutions following a major bond scam at the apex bank, in 2015. The CoI also accused former Finance and Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake, a close aide of the Prime Minister, of corruption. On Tuesday, it was decided that Parliament would debate two different reports on the bond scam and other serious acts of fraud and corruption on February 6, four days before the election.<\/p>\n

Justifying Mr. Sirisena\u2019s pre-poll rhetoric, his supporters maintain that it is no surprise, given that he is competing with the UNP. For the purpose of this election, he has donned the hat of the head of the SLFP and engaged in mass politics, with no compulsion to sound statesmanly in his campaign. His attacks have irked many UNP-ers, especially the backbenchers who have not missed an opportunity to retaliate, though the Prime Minister has shown restraint. What has also given more fodder to the UNP camp critical of the President is his recent move to seek clarification from the Supreme Court on his term limit and his ambivalence about the executive presidency.<\/p>\n

Three-cornered fight<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge for the two parties does not end there. Mr. Rajapaksa and his supporters, basically a faction of the SLFP and others who call themselves the \u2018Joint Opposition\u2019, are campaigning for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), or Sri Lanka People\u2019s Front. His brother Basil Rajapaksa, a prominent member, is known to be an efficient organiser.<\/p>\n

The SLPP has become the de facto political vehicle of the Rajapaksas, though Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had earlier resolved to topple the government in 2017, remains a member of the SLFP that Mr. Sirisena, his former cabinet colleague and now arch rival, leads.<\/p>\n

In effect, the local government polls present a three-cornered contest, with the President and Prime Minister fighting each other, despite being coalition partners in the national government, and the Rajapaksa-backed SLPP threatening to eat into the SLFP\u2019s vote share.<\/p>\n

While it remains to be seen whether the bond scam will cost the UNP electorally, or if Mr. Sirisena\u2019s apparent inability to garner more support within his party will weaken his position, what will certainly matter is the government\u2019s failure to deliver on many counts, be it on the new Constitution aimed at a political solution to the Tamil question, assurances on war-time accountability, jobs to unemployed youth and the spiralling costs of living gripping the urban and rural poor.<\/p>\n

Forgotten issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though the leaders are contesting local government polls, they are in fact gearing up for a bigger fight, so much so that key local issues such as illegal sand mining, deforestation, irrigation and drinking water hardly figure in the ongoing campaign. The widely read local weekend paper, The Sunday Times, reported that unemployment is a chief concern not only in the war-affected north and east but also across other provinces, despite the Prime Minister\u2019s grand promise of a million jobs.<\/p>\n

For a government facing enormous pressure within and outside, the fact that the Rajapaksas, who retain considerable support in the island\u2019s southern districts, are seeking to capitalise on the incumbent government\u2019s shortcomings makes matters more difficult. It is in this context that the UNP and the SLFP have to take a decision, following the local polls, on the likely renewal of their memorandum of understanding signed when they formed the government.<\/p>\n

Mixed bag<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not to say that the story of the forthcoming local polls, in which about 16 million citizens are eligible to vote, is entirely about a brewing political crisis. It does offer some promise, especially after the government enacted a law mandating 25% representation of women in local government bodies, prompting many women community leaders to contest. This is also the first time that Sri Lanka will follow a mixed electoral model whereby 60% of members will be elected by the first-past-the-post system and the remainder through closed list proportional representation.<\/p>\n

All the same, it is a high stakes election as UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim, who is also a cabinet Minister, noted recently. \u201cElections have consequences \u2014 and sometimes they are dire,\u201d he warned, reminding voters of the \u201cera of darkness\u201d under the previous regime.<\/p>\n

A scenario where Mr. Rajapaksa stages a comeback, would be the government\u2019s own making. In the last three years, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration has left the people of Sri Lanka, including Tamils, with fewer reasons to remain hopeful. Despite the initial promise and some welcome initiatives, disillusionment and frustration pervade the electorate. Busy fire-fighting to manage frequent tensions within, the ruling coalition has had little time for the good governance it promised.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the political stakes are high for all parties and the actors in this election. But the leaders would do well to remember that the stakes are higher for the people.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka\u2019s local government elections, scheduled to be held on February 10, have elicited the interest of a national election, and with good reason. This is the first time the country will go to the polls in about three years since the President Maithripala Sirisena\u2013Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe combine rose to power …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘A Scenario Where Mahinda Rajapaksa Stages a Comeback, Would be of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government\u2019s Own Making.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57489,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57480\/revisions\/57489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}