Building people’s movements

Social movements can create history but only a handful of people’s movements actually achieve the change they aim for at the start. The National People’s Movement (NPM) is attempting to grow a new type of politician to tackle the governance issues currently facing Sri Lanka. Eventually the movement hopes to create a new political party that is aligned to the NPM that will champion its ideals but the goal is challenging.    

The United Professionals Movement together with Deshodaya and 17 other civic organisations launched the NPM last December, with the vision to create a people centric, progressive and effective Sri Lanka, free of corruption, where equality, justice and respectfulness prevails. Launching the website for the movement under www.npm.lk, this week the members invited the public to engage in conversation for the making of new policies or changing of prevailing ones that would benefit the envisioned Sri Lanka.

Few would disagree that Sri Lanka needs fresh political leadership. The people’s movement that brought the Yahapalanaya Government to power in 2015 had limited effectiveness because it relied on established political parties and political leaders who were unable to move away from their traditional business as usual politics to implement the promised change. Old loyalties and practices reestablished their dominance barely a month after the Government’s appointment.

Both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were already deeply entrenched in Sri Lanka’s standard political system. Each of them have five decades of parliamentary politics under their belts and as the term progressed it became apparent that they could not move away from making decisions based on self-interest and party loyalties. Voters who thought they were campaigning for a new form of governance found out that they had in fact merely selected old wine in new bottles and the disappointment was sharpened by political infighting between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) that culminated in the Constitutional crisis.

The end of the coalition Government did not stop the damage, however, and it can be argued that the people paid the ultimate price when the Easter Sunday attacks happened. The severely disgusted and disillusioned vote base is now in danger of drifting in an authoritarian direction and pulling it onto a moderate, progressive and inclusive platform will be incredibly difficult. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is the loss of hope as communal tensions and regressive policies gain the limelight ahead of elections.  Clearly the NPM has to focus on the long term. It has to get people to engage, not just within Colombo, but from all over the country. They have to feel that there is a genuine effort to engage and not just spout rhetoric, which is usually what happens in the age of social media. The NPM has to make a genuine effort to talk to people at grassroot level, clearly convey their policies and generate genuine buy in from the widest possible range of stakeholders. They have made the good starting point by inviting engagement on policies but these must also be presented to people in the way that will resonate with them rather than as campaign policies. 

Overcoming increasing thresholds of resistance, maintaining its principles, finding genuine leadership and allowing it to evolve and championing values above slogans will be needed. The NPM is a glimmer of positivity for Sri Lankans but it has many miles to go.