In the days to come, new conflicts are likely to emerge with the consequences of the newly gained democratic freedoms.
In the days to come, new conflicts are likely to emerge with the consequences of the newly gained democratic freedoms.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tried to defy widespread public pressure to resign, even after his official residence and presidential secretariat fell into the hands of protesting citizens. His attempt to leave the country from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport failed. According to the latest media reports, Mr. Rajapaksa and his wife fled the country in a military plane in the early hours of July 13. Other senior members of the Rajapaksa family are probably still waiting to flee the country.
These dramatic events between July 9 and July 13 are of extraordinary importance. The political family that ruled Sri Lanka for more than 15 years has been ousted from power by an uninterrupted peaceful protest movement by ordinary citizens.
Rajapaksa’s later phase
These developments have opened the door to a new phase of post-incumbency politics in Sri Lanka. This can be called the later phase of Rajapaksa. The key feature of this new phase is the restoration of democracy. There is a massive public demand for a return to democracy through the enactment of a new constitution. Eliminating Sri Lanka’s much-anticipated executive presidential system through a comprehensive package of political reforms should be a priority on the policy agenda of any new government.
In addition, a new President, a new Prime Minister and a new government will have to work under the watchful eye of politically active, alert and vigilant citizens. A new generation of young political activists, who have little patience with the traditional political class and political culture, are providing a new direction to the political citizens of Sri Lanka. In short, in the post-Rajapaksa era of Sri Lanka, there will be no place for politics as usual.
Two recent developments seem to have facilitated this massive change. The first is the unprecedented economic and social crisis, exacerbated by the economic slowdown and the government’s gross mismanagement of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. A catastrophic economic collapse and the government’s failure to ensure uninterrupted supplies of electricity, fuel, food and essential commodities led to the spread of several waves of social misery created a general sense of rage against the president and his government.
The second is the spontaneous protest movement of the affected citizens demanding the immediate resignation of the President and his government. Citizens’ protests have been taking place regularly since last year. They debuted in rural Sri Lanka following a government ban on imports of chemical fertilizers following a sharp decline in foreign exchange reserves. Government school teachers and plantation workers also started their own protests last year demanding higher wages. In March this year, the urban middle class joined the protests amid growing economic hardships. On 31 March, these protests suddenly turned into a massive urban campaign around the rally’s slogan, ‘Gota Go Home’.
democratic demand
It is a multi-class, multi-ethnic, multi-generational social movement that has become the most powerful agent of change in contemporary politics in Sri Lanka. The demands of this movement have been fundamentally democratic in nature. The movement emphasizes not only a change of government, but a change in the political system as a whole. It also seeks to reform the institutions and practices of representative democracy, which have been repeatedly abused by the political elite, especially the Rajapaksa brothers.
The New Citizens Movement demands not just a return to parliamentary democracy, but a democracy that addresses the shortcomings in representative democracy through a robust framework of checks and balances, effective in preventing corruption and abuse of political power. measures, and enables voters. Right to recall elected representatives at all levels of government. It also seeks a fusion of direct democratic measures to enable citizens to prevent parliament and the political class from abusing the popular mandate.
Following the dramatic events of 9 July, new complexities have arisen in Sri Lankan politics and is characterized by both excitement and anxiety. This enthusiasm is not only because the ruling bloc, which it believed to be invincible, has been ousted from power by peaceful means, but also because now a huge road has been opened for re-democratization and cleansing of politics. Its primary authors are ordinary citizens, not the political elite. The seeds of democratization have germinated in the field of quiet dissent and civil resistance. This is perhaps the greatest contribution to the contemporary democratic imagination by the country’s protesting citizens.
There is concern about the ability of the current political class as well as parliament to meet the expectations of democratic reform of Sri Lankan citizens. Given the radical nature of the demands of argalaya There are serious doubts for neo-liberal democracy embodying commitments to social-democratic and republican goals to pursue a program of rapid transition from autocratic authoritarianism (rebellion), political parties, parliament and fragmented political class .
possible changes
Thus, in the coming weeks and months, two new paradoxes are likely to emerge, with deadly consequences for Sri Lanka’s newly gained democratic freedoms. The first is the polarization between radical sections of protesters and opposition parties in Parliament who are conservative and conservative and skeptical about it. argalaya Agenda Once the conflict between Rajapaksa and others is temporarily resolved by ousting him from power, the ball is in the parliamentary opposition’s court to devise a credible succession plan to run the government. Still, there are signs that infighting has begun between the various parties, centered on the urgent question of who should be the next president. This has once again opened the door to backroom deals and an unprincipled alliance of the corrupt.
This uncertainty can give rise to a second paradox. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is likely to become the new president as he will be supported by MPs from Rajapaksa’s party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. Incidentally, Mr. Wickremesinghe has recently rediscovered himself as a strong defender of Rajapaksa’s interests. Thus, the continuation of Rajapaksa’s rule under a different name is most likely to ignite a second phase of confrontation. argalaya And what will emerge as the new government.
Such a scenario has the potential to create a situation where there is an open confrontation between two competing centers of political power – one represented in Parliament and the President, and the other centrally located. argalaya The site of the Galle Face of Colombo – the inevitable. This new phase of the struggle will be most directed towards solving the question of political power. And history tells us that political power is an issue that has not always been resolved by peaceful means.
Jayadev Uyangoda is Honorary Professor of Political Science, University of Colombo