AKD-led NPP Government – one year on

The first anniversary of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s administration marks a moment of reflection for a nation that, just twelve months ago, placed unprecedented trust in a political force long kept at the margins. The mandate Sri Lankans handed to Anura Dissanayake and the National People’s Power (NPP) was unlike any in the country’s post-independence history. It was not merely a change of leadership or a reshuffling of political faces.

For over eight decades, the country oscillated between two main political entities that, despite their differences in rhetoric, often converged in practice that included patronage politics, corruption, and an inability or unwillingness to address deep national fractures. By the time the 2022 Aragalaya erupted, that model had exhausted every last reserve of public patience. The mass mobilisation that swept the island was not just an anti-government uprising but a recalibration of national expectations. People demanded not piecemeal reform, but a fundamental restructuring of the political culture itself.

Against this backdrop, AKD’s victory was more than electoral, it was symbolic. A mandate for a different way of governing, a different way of imagining a country that had long been promised change but seldom delivered it. One year on, the results are mixed.

President Dissanayake has taken cautious steps towards the reform agenda he championed. On the anti-corruption front, the administration has shown greater willingness than its predecessors to confront long-protected networks of political misconduct. Investigations have been initiated, files reopened, and some powerful individuals finally brought within reach of accountability. These moves, unthinkable under the old order, have offered a glimpse of what genuine transformation could look like.

Yet the broader justice system remains sluggish, overburdened, and structurally incapable of delivering timely outcomes. High-profile cases that should take weeks or months in a functional democracy drag on for years, sapping public confidence and rendering justice little more than a distant aspiration. As long as delays remain endemic, even earnest anti-corruption efforts risk appearing cosmetic. Justice not seen is justice not served.

On socially progressive reforms, the Government's hesitancy has been even more pronounced. Whether addressing long standing ethnic grievances, advancing the rights of marginalised communities, reforming military structures, or modernising education, the administration has too often retreated at the first sign of resistance. The courage of conviction that defined the NPP’s rise has not always translated into governance.

This reluctance has consequences. Sri Lanka’s unresolved ethnic conflict will continue to shape the national psyche. Marginalised groups remain side-lined. Structural inequities endure. And a nation that expected bold reform finds itself confronting familiar patterns of caution and compromise.

The honeymoon period for the president and his administration has ended. One year is a reasonable time for orientation. The next four must be for action. The overwhelming mandate given to AKD was not a blank cheque but a contract. And like all contracts, it requires fulfilment.

The spectre of a Rajapaksa resurgence cannot serve as the sole justification for inaction. Sri Lankans have already seen what happens when reformist governments fail to deliver, disillusionment breeds backlash, and backlash paves the way for autocratic revival. The lessons of Yahapalana are clear and the political goodwill is finite, and transformative mandates squandered do not return easily.

If President Dissanayake is to honour the faith placed in him, he must embrace the transformative agenda he once spoke of with conviction. Systemic change was not merely an electoral slogan but a national demand.