Nostalgia for the worst of times
President Maithripala Sirisena marked the end of his 100-day program on Thursday with a tempered yet sharply-worded statement, akin to the annual American State of the Union address. Holding forth on a wide range of pressing issues facing our island nation, Sirisena offered up a brief summary of the progress his Government made over the 100 days since he stormed into power on the ‘Yahapalana’ platform before going on to tackle the varied criticisms of his detractors head-on.
“Some say I lack strength. Some say I am weak. Some say I am no leader. However, I wish to tell all such critics, and you, my people, that my behaviour in the last 100 days was not to use the unlimited powers that are available to this office. Why? Because you elected me to distribute this power. I came for that purpose. I came to remove the unlimited powers of an executive president,” Sirisena asserted.
Not content with merely responding to his critics, Sirisena fired a salvo against the toppled Rajapaksa regime and its proponents. Drawing comparisons between his election victory and that of the abolition of slavery in the United States under Abraham Lincoln, Sirisena warned that individuals whose beliefs have been warped by extended periods of State oppression tend to reject change – democratic or otherwise – and instead seek a return to their previous degraded state of existence.
A noteworthy observation about Sirisena’s address would then be his appeal to his political opponents to set aside their short-term self-interest in favour of their legacy in relation to the abolition of the executive presidency and electoral reforms vis-à-vis the 19th Amendment. Sirisena in his address urged the representatives of the people to consider this as a historic occasion that has come them, adding that voting for 19A would bring them respect.
Sirisena also dedicated a significant portion of his address to the issues of national reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between the island’s diverse ethnic and religious demographics. He emphasised that in order to build a strong democratic and equitable nation, it was necessary to promote unity, friendship and coexistence among those who follow different religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity and also ensure reconciliation and brotherhood among communities such as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers, which will eliminate mistrust, doubt and fear among people.
On the same day Sirisena issued his message of national unity, supporters of the previous regime were left waving perversely-warped versions of Sri Lanka’s National Flag in anticipation of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s arrival at the Bribery Commission, while the Bodu Bala Sena – an organisation at the centre of communal tensions in Aluthgama and Grandpass – would be loudest in attempting to protect Gotabaya Rajapaksa from such investigations.
In this backdrop, when comparing similar statements on the issue of reconciliation by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the true distinctions between the former regime and the current one begin to reveal themselves. While former President Rajapaksa asserted in April last year that there could not be any minorities as we were all Sri Lankans who loved the Motherland, adding that nobody could deny this reality, Sirisena framed the issue as a target that could only be achieved through mutual trust, co-operation and friendship. Conversely, Rajapaksa painted the issue as being a goal that was already achieved and the achievement of which was indisputable. Ideologically, it placed every advocate for national unity in direct opposition to the Rajapaksa state.
