Flavours of democracy

Wednesday, 15 July 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PRESIDENT Maithripala Sirisena has spent the last few weeks vacillating from hero to villain and back again after giving nominations to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But on Tuesday he made an attempt to communicate his intentions and stance to the public through a clear and, some would say moderate, statement that may just reduce ire felt by some of his supporters.

Sirisena has not had an easy start to his presidency. While public support has stayed with him longer than with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the cracks began to appear when the dissolution of parliament was delayed and later through nominations to his predecessor. Some of his strongest supporters swiftly became his strongest critics over what they felt was a “betrayal” of the mandate given on 8 January.

The President arguably returned to his statesman mode by declining to return the criticisms levelled at him but merely appealed for them to taste “the flavours” of democracy and let the people decide what would be the best for the country. He freely admitted that while he had reservations about Rajapaksa’s nomination, he felt it was not possible for him to ignore the cry of his party but predicted Rajapaksa would lose on 10 August. This decision not to interfere but allow the people and the institutions to decide the fate of Rajapaksa has been hailed by pockets of Sirisena supporters and they would feel vindicated by the reasons given in the special statement.

Interestingly, the President, who heads both the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), stopped short of predicting the result for his coalition overall. Many analysts see Rajapaksa’s return as the trump card for the UPFA and if Sirisena does not share this view then it begs the question of whether he is confident of having a strong party presence in the next Parliament.

Reasons for the highly speculated rift between Sirisena and the UNP were also revealed when the President noted he had requested Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to seek the resignation of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran over “bondgate” but had been ignored. The revelation might be minor but it underscores the general sentiment that the President felt he had not been adequately consulted or included in key policy decisions made by the UNP, thus leading to a divide.

Yet on a positive note, Sirisena insisted that he is only interested in a Government that will take forward the progressive policies he outlined in his election manifesto and seemed unconcerned about its hue. He also pointed out he had taken on the leadership of the SLFP and UPFA to implement the 100-day plan and had defended the UNP by dissolving Parliament when the double threat of no-confidence motions emerged. This lays the stage for Sirisena and the UNP to forge a stronger relationship that could well be an added advantage at the next polls. It would leave the January rainbow coalition virtually intact.

Still the question of how deep Sirisena’s involvement will be in the upcoming campaign remains. His actions over the next four weeks will decide not just the fate of Rajapaksa and the UNP but also his legacy, putting the President at the centre of the next election.