Sins of ‘saviours’

Thursday 19th September, 2024

The mandatory cooling-off period prior to an election is time for reflection. But it is doubtful whether Sri Lankans make the best use of it, for informed voting is a rarity in this country. Promises, rhetoric, handouts, gimmicks such as inflated crowds usually sway voters if the voting patterns at the last few elections are any indication. One can only hope that there will be a difference this time around, and the public will vote wisely.

All formidable candidates in the presidential fray are making various claims and trading allegations. The irony of something that NPP presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake said at a campaign rally in Kurunegala, on Tuesday, may not have been lost on political observers and analysts. Making a crude caricature of SJB candidate Sajith Premadasa and castigating President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake traced the genesis of the present economic crisis to reckless borrowing during the UNP-led UNF (Yahapalana) government from 2015 to 2019. Placing the total value of the loans obtained during that period at USD 13.5 billion, Dissanayake said that they had led to the current crisis; Wickremesinghe, who was boasting of having rid the country of queues for gas, automotive fuel, etc., had been trying to solve the problems the Yahapalana government had created. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had paid for what the UNP-led government did between 2015 and 2019, Dissanayake said, taking pity on Gotabaya.

If the UNP-led government (2015-2019) had not resorted to heavy borrowing from external sources, fuel shortages would not have arisen, Dissanayake stressed. In saying so, he opened a can of worms for the presidential candidates who claim to be frontrunners and the political parties/groups they represent.

The JVP was instrumental in paving the way for the election of Maithripala Sirisena as President and the formation of the UNP-led government in 2015. While that administration was on a borrowing spree, issuing as it did International Sovereign Bonds, the JVP was honeymooning with the UNP, and therefore there is no way the JVP/NPP can absolve itself of the responsibility for the disastrous outcome of heavy borrowing between 2015 and 2019, and the resultant aggravation of the country’s forex crisis. The JVP unwaveringly stood by the UNP-led government and went so far as to help Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe retain a parliamentary majority following an attempt by President Sirisena to dislodge that regime in October 2018.

Moreover, the JVP/NPP derived a turbo boost for its election campaign from Aragalaya, which came about mostly due to the country’s foreign reserve crisis. Is it that the JVP/NPP has gained mileage from a crisis it helped create, albeit unwittingly, by helping the Yahapalana government remain in power until 2019? Isn’t the JVP culpable on multiple counts for the people’s current predicament. This is the blowback of Dissanayake’s scathing attack on Wickremesinghe in Kurunegala.

Interestingly, all other prominent presidential candidates also cannot deny culpability for what has befallen the country during the Yahapalana government and the incumbent regime. Dilith Jayaweera has credited himself with the successful propaganda campaign that propelled Gotabaya to power in 2019. Sajith was a powerful minister in the Yahapalana government, which worsened the country’s debt crisis. Namal is one of the Rajapaksas, who mismanaged the economy, ran away, catapulted Wickremesinghe to the highest position in the country and provided him with a parliamentary majority. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was in the Cabinets of both the Yahapalana administration and the current government.

All these candidates pretend to be on a mission to deliver the hapless Sri Lankans from their suffering, but Dissanayake has unintentionally thrown light on the sins of the self-proclaimed saviours.

from The Island https://ift.tt/jDXYMET