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SRI LANKA: Hopes High for Fresh Leadership as Election Looms
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Nov 14 (IPS) - Political developments are rapidly unfolding as the public eagerly awaits the
President’s announcement on Sunday of the date for the next presidential or
parliamentary polls—an event widely expected to bring about a new leadership
that could bring to fruition the people’s collective yearnings for a return to law
and order as well as discipline.
"Discipline has crumbled in the country. There is no order," said a sports
journalist working for a local newspaper, who declined to be named.
Rajapaksa’s popularity soared during heightened battles between government
forces and Tamil separatist guerrillas in the past 36 months. Yet in recent
months it has been slipping, with the resignation on Thursday of a popular
and powerful army general further lifting a rejuvenated opposition.
General Sarath Fonseka, Chief of Defence Staff and widely credited with
leading the army to a crushing victory over Tamil rebels in May this year, has
resigned from his position over disagreements with the President.
Once a key member of the ‘war cabinet’ with Rajapaksa and his brother,
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Fonseka fell out with the brothers in
a spat over who should take credit for the victory.
The General is widely tipped to enter the presidential race as a common
candidate for an opposition alliance, which includes the main opposition
United National Party (UNP)—a development that has been played out daily in
newspapers, radio and television, and endorsed by a large segment of the
population.
The spat with the ruling party hierarchy, which has been publicly aired, has
lifted the opposition from its subordinate position. Daily press conferences
and small public meetings among opposition leaders headed by UNP chief
Ranil Wickremasinghe have denounced the government and praised Fonseka,
turning the entire process into an election campaign.
It was only a few months back, just before the war ended in May and soon
after, that the government won overwhelmingly at a series of provincial
elections.
Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council and a popular political
commentator, says the Fonseka factor has completely revived the opposition.
"Optimism is growing in the opposition camp as there is a sense that they
have (finally) found a candidate that can win against Rajapaksa," he said.
Rajapaksa has been in power since November 2005. His political fate will be
decided in the polls due to be held between January and April next year, the
exact date of which will be known by Sunday.
Fonseka has studiously avoided the media since his disagreement became
public with the current administration. His reported political plans have drawn
criticisms from government ministers – which in turn have become fodder for
the local press.
Soon after his resignation on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s most decorated soldier
visited a Buddhist temple with his wife to take part in religious observances.
Swarmed by the media, Fonseka deftly parried questions on his political
future.
"I am a soldier, still in uniform (until the end of the month when the
resignation takes effect). After that I will resume civilian life and have the
same rights as a civilian," the 59-year old official said with a mischievous
twinkle in his eyes.
The jubilation and fervour that greeted his anticipated foray into politics has
been seen as a welcome respite from the people’s desperation over the
breakdown in law and discipline since the war against the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began.
Abductions of political opponents and harassment of the media in which
scores of journalists have been killed, assaulted or abducted, among other
human rights issues, have prompted the West to accuse the government of
turning a blind eye to several international conventions on human rights and
governance that Sri Lanka has ratified.
Citing allegations of rampant corruption in the present government, UNP
leader Wickremasinghe has pointed fingers at some members of the
Rajapaksa clan, including Basil Rajapaksa, a powerful advisor to the
president, and Minister Chamal Rajapaksa, both brothers of the president.
Although public support was high and tolerant of other misdeeds during the
recent, bloody military campaign against the rebels, sympathy towards the
president and the government is now waning.
While the war against the Tamil rebels, who have been involved in a near 30-
year armed struggle to push for more power in the northern and eastern
regions where most of the Tamil minority community lives, has effectively
ended, thousands of civilians displaced during the fierce fighting between the
government troops and the LTTE, still remain in government camps.
"I feel the General can restore law and order. We have lost our ‘Vinnaya’
(discipline)," Nishantha Amila, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, who said he
supported the war campaign.
Wariyapola Silva, a taxi driver, is confident that the General can restore
discipline in the country, and with that the cost of living burden will also be
taken care of. "He can get rid of corruption and use that money to cut huge
expenditure costs of government and reduce the cost of goods," he said.
This week, trade unions attached to the petroleum, water, electricity and
ports sectors launched a work-to-rule campaign that ended on Friday,
backing demands for a wage hike that they said had been delayed for three
years due to high war spending.
The campaign, in which workers refused overtime and shift work or fill for an
absent colleague, failed to disrupt services. But unions are still flexing their
muscles for a general strike in the coming weeks—in all sectors, including
the private sector—backed by political parties.
Kadirgama Thangeswary, a female parliamentarian from the Tamil National
Alliance in the eastern town of Batticaloa, says the Chief Minister
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a former militant backed by the Rajapaksa
administration, is harassing his opponents.
"There is no law and order in Batticaloa. Last month, officials who invited me
to open some libraries in the region were threatened and warned," she said,
adding that abductions were taking place daily.
Wijedasa Rajapakse, a former minister and government parliamentarian who
recently crossed over to the opposition, says the problem (over Fonseka)
began when the war ended and there was a scramble for "credits".
"The government wanted to take credit for the war. The Rajapaksas wanted
credit and so did Fonseka. Then there was a rift and the General was
sidelined," he said. Gen Fonseka has in recent speeches said credit for
winning the war should go to the soldiers and not the politicians, a remark
that has repeatedly irked the government.
"During this clash for credits, the people saw who the real heroes were. They
also saw Fonseka as someone who would bring the rule of law and discipline
back to society. The people have been waiting for someone to provide strong
and disciplined leadership and that’s how Fonseka has emerged," he said.
(END/2009)
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