From defeat to president; Sri Lanka’s Wickremesinghe has hard choices ahead
ECONOMYNEXT – For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, his centre-right United National Party (UNP) lost in the 2020 parliament election without winning any seats. Ranil Wickremsinghe, the president-elect through parliament vote, himself lost the election in capital Colombo for the first time in his entire political career since 1977.
But nothing barred Ranil Wickremesinghe from entering the parliament with just one bonus seat, staying there for one year, becoming an accidental prime minister in May and then being elected as the country’s eighth executive president of Sri Lanka.
He will take oath as the president on Thursday at the island nation’s parliament complex after winning the parliament vote with 134 votes in the 225-member legislature. His close competitor Dullas Alahapperuma got only 82 votes.
Wickremesinghe has never been a populour leader in Sri Lankan politics. He was seen as a master manipulator in politics though many politicians who worked with him say he is a “very good administrator” than a politician.
Wednesday’s presidential vote could be the highest victory for him in any election with a clear majority.
Leader By Default?
Wickremesinghe, the 73-year old lawyer by profession, is considered as a leader by default by many politicians.
He was chosen as the prime minister by then president D B Wijetunga in 1993 following many UNP leaders who were killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which fought for a separate state in the island nation’s North and East.
He has the backing of his uncle, J R Jayawardena, Sri Lanka’s first executive president.
He then became the leader of the UNP. Since then, he is the UNP leader and there has been no change despite the party’s continuous defeat in successive elections. Since 1994 till 2020, Wicktrmesinghe has been the opposition leader.
But he never gave up.
In 1999, he contested in the presidential election against Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, but lost.
In 2001, his party won a parliamentary election after 10 legislators defected then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s government to his party as the economy plunged into a contraction following the LTTE attack on the island nation’s airport and national carrier SriLankan Airlines.
During this period, Wickremesinghe was hailed for the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement with the LTTE and calling a donor conference to get a $4.5 billion pledge from the international community led by Japan in 2003. This fund was never disbursed because the parliament was dissolved before its term.
The truce exposed LTTE atrocities internationally while it also helped to divide the Tamil Tiger rebels, which later helped President Mahinda Rajapaksa to win the war.
Incomplete Terms
Wickremesinghe could not complete his six-year term as then president Kumaratunga dissolved the parliament prematurely in February 2004. Later he lost the election in April 2004 for a coalition including Marxists Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP) and most leftist minded parties.
He has never completed a full term as the prime minister despite being appointed as the second powerful leader of the country six times.
In November 2005, he lost another presidential poll because the LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabakaran forced people under its control in the North and East to abstain from voting.
In 2010, his party had no chance of winning the presidency. But he brought in the war winning army chief Sarath Fonseka as the common candidate against Mahinda Rajapaksa. Fonseka lost badly and then was forced to serve in prison for politicking in uniform.
However his second attempt with a common candidate in 2014 was a success. Wickremesinghe became the president of the minority government under President Maithripala Sirisena whose government later reduced the powers of president and increased the powers of prime minister.
But an alleged bond scam, economic hardships, and higher taxes made Wickremesinghe unpopular. Sirisena sacked him in October 2018 in a constitutional coup, but he was forced to appoint Wickremesinghe again in December 2018 on a Supreme Court order.
An Easter Sunday suicide bombing in 2019 that killed at least 269 people led to his fall. His party lost the presidential poll in November 2019. To aggravate his pain, his party faced a landslide defeat in the Parliamentary polls in August 2020 that saw him losing the 106 seats he had.
He managed to secure only a single bonus seat.
The bonus seat led him to be sworn in as an MP in June 2021.
Eventually, on May 12, 2022, he became the prime minister all of a sudden after former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned amid clashes. Then he became the acting president on July 15 after former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and announced his resignation from Singapore.
On July 20, he became the president of the country to serve the rest of the term of Gotabaya Rajapaksa until November 2024.
Stubborn Leader
Unlike other politicians. Wickremesinghe has hardly changed his policies throughout his career.
He was ridiculed for his policies, for his dance, and some called him as Mr. Bean, a populour comedy series named after the main actor.
He has always tried to go for fiscal reforms, increase government revenue, reduce state expenditure, and improve private sector investments, and foreign direct investments. He also tried to minimize losses from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by reducing government employees and reducing more recruitments into SOEs.
But his rivals, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa and JVP, opposed his policies.
With the latest economic crisis, his opponents now agree that he was correct and ready to back such policies.
Under the last government, the opposition tried to tarnish Mr. Clean’s image and they succeeded too over the bond scam.
But his international relations and policy stance with India and China have never changed despite being under pressure.
An avid reader by nature, he was worried about the books that were burnt by protesters on July 9 when agitators stormed into his house.
Unlike many politicians, in defeats, he shrugs off his shoulders and spends time either reading books or watching movies.
His party politicians who later crossed to other parties have said Wickremesinghe is a “leader with insecurity’ because he does not allow any others to thrive as a leader in his party.
Soft Corner
Wickremesinghe is still seen as a leader protecting Rajapaksas instead of prosecuting them. But that soft nature of him also helped him to turn his foes as friends.
It was former president Chandrika Kumaratunga who sacked his government in 2004, helped him to become the prime minister in 2015 after forming a coalition with Sirisena.
Likewise, it was all his rivals from the former ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) who helped him to win the presidential votes on Wednesday.
Late Mangala Samaraweera was his biggest opponent from 1994-2008. During this time, Samaraweera ridiculed Wickremesinghe in many ways to tarnish his image to reduce his chances of becoming the leader of Sri Lanka in future.
However, Samaraweera crossed to the UNP and later regretted what he did and said about Wickremesinghe.
For him, politics is just another activity in his day-to-day life. He is hardly seen in a serious mood anywhere, including the worst times of political crisis.
Even in front of TV cameras, he tries to become natural in contrast to other politicians who are concerned over their image and perception.
Hard Choices
Wickremesinghe has been elected at a time when the country is going through an unprecedented economic and political crisis.
Obviously, he was not the first choice of the protesters who brought down the Rajapaksa dynasty from politics.
But Wickremesinghe has the responsibility of ensuring essentials to the public, economic recovery, and deescalating violence that has risen in the last three months amid continuous protests.
He has to implement hard choices like fiscal reforms, pruning state sector employees, curbing record high inflation, ensuring the welfare of the poor and vulnerable groups, debt restructuring, the deal with the International Monetary Fund, establishing an investment climate while implementing law and order without any discrimination.
He will also have to facilitate the reconciliation after the end of a 26-year war and a series of anti-Muslim riots which were organized by politicians for political reasons. They are not going to be easy.
But the positive side of his current presidency is people expect the minimum from him as he never promised anything to become the president. (Colombo/July 20/2022)
