AKD governance crisis debate grows as questions rise over defections, SJB experts, economic failure and calls for fresh elections.
AKD governance crisis questions are growing as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake faces criticism over alleged attempts to attract opposition MPs into government.
“Breaking news keeps coming all the time now. And what is this breaking news about? This MP is supporting that side. That minister is backing someone else. But when you look closely, they are the very same people who supported someone else before.
Take G.L. Peiris. He spent a period behind Chandrika Kumaratunga. Then in 2011, he stood behind Ranil Wickremesinghe. After that, he stood behind Mahinda Rajapaksa. Then he moved behind Gotabaya Rajapaksa. And now, he stands behind Sajith Premadasa.
You keep changing governments, and they keep changing sides. How does this happen? Do we really need such clownish politics? Will this kind of ugly politics ever build our country?
Before many of these people moved to those sides, they knocked on the door of the National People’s Power too. What did we do when they knocked on our door? Out of courtesy and custom, we opened the door. We welcomed them politely. We looked them in the face. Then we realised they were the same old faces, with bad track records. So, we said, thank you very much, but you cannot come inside our house.
They kept circling us, but what did we do? What we need today is principled politics for this country. Some people jump sides for money. Some people stay for money. And then they beautifully describe our party as if it were like the door of a salon, always open.
Those are not political parties. They are public shelters. Anyone can come in, and anyone can walk out. This politics of crossing over from party to party must end.
These are the last few days in which people will be allowed to switch parties. The moment the National People’s Power comes to power, we will bring laws to cancel the parliamentary seats of MPs who switch parties.
Should politicians be allowed to change sides and still come first in elections? We need a political movement that rejects party switching if we are to put an end to this culture of defections…”
— 10.08.2024
These were not the words of an ordinary political speaker. They were the words of the current President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, during his 2024 presidential election campaign on August 10, 2024.
Anura became President after promising to end the politics of defections and create a new political culture.
During the 2024 general election, the main slogan of the National People’s Power was to uproot the wild weeds and plant flowers, calling on the people to join that collective effort.
Around 6.8 million people joined that effort.
After that, Anura said what remained was only a broken and shattered opposition.
But now, the same Anura who said that is calling on MPs from that “broken opposition” to switch sides and join the government to rebuild the country.
When Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power in 1994, she said the same thing.
She said it because she had only a one-vote majority in Parliament to govern.
That deciding vote came from Chandrasekaran of the Kandurata Janatha Peramuna.
She knew that if Chandrasekaran left the government, her administration would collapse.
The rest of her support came from Ashraff’s Muslim Congress.
She also knew that if Ashraff walked away, the government would fall.
Because of this, in 1999, Chandrika invited ten UNP MPs from the opposition to join her government and stabilise it.
When Mahinda Rajapaksa became President in 2005, he too did not have a parliamentary majority.
Half of the government side consisted of JVP MPs.
He knew that if they crossed over to the opposition, his government would collapse.
Therefore, he brought in seventeen UNP MPs from the opposition to stabilise his government.
When Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President in 2019, he too needed a two-thirds majority.
He broke away MPs from the opposition Sajith Premadasa camp and built that two-thirds majority.
But Anura does not face such a problem of lacking a majority.
For the first time since the proportional representation voting system was introduced, the people gave him a two-thirds mandate.
They gave that mandate to end the culture of party switching.
They gave it so he could make decisions fearlessly, without depending on MPs from other parties.
Even after receiving a two-thirds majority, why is Anura still chasing opposition MPs?
It shows that the government itself has accepted its own failure.
It shows that the government recognises that the capable people needed to run the country are in the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
During the 2024 presidential election, Sajith Premadasa appointed an economic committee to rebuild the economy.
He named Harsha de Silva, Eran Wickramaratne, and Kabir Hashim as key members.
After that, Anura also appointed an economic committee to rebuild the economy.
He named three people to that committee:
- Professor Anil Jayantha
- Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma
- Sunil Handunnetti
When Anura announced the National People’s Power economic committee, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s economic committee challenged it to a public debate on how to rebuild the economy.
They did not merely challenge them verbally.
They sent a written notice to the National People’s Power.
But the National People’s Power economic committee avoided the debate and disappeared.
That was the moment the people should have understood that Anura’s economic committee could not rebuild the country.
Do you remember the press conference held by Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa after Gotabaya was announced as the presidential candidate?
During that press conference, a journalist asked Gotabaya a question about the economy.
Instead of answering, Gotabaya looked at Mahinda.
Mahinda answered.
Wasn’t that the very day people should have understood that Gotabaya could not run an economy?
But they did not understand it then.
Believing that Gotabaya could govern the country, 6.9 million people voted for him.
In the end, after bankrupting the country, Gotabaya had to flee.
He had to hand the country over to Ranil Wickremesinghe because there were no capable people in the Pohottuwa camp to fix the economy.
Is the same thing now happening to Anura?
In truth, yes.
The head of the economic committee Anura appointed before becoming President was not even given the post of Finance Minister or Deputy Finance Minister after he came to power.
Then, Harshana Suriyapperuma, a member of that committee, was appointed Deputy Finance Minister.
Later, he was removed from that post and appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Finance.
Today, he faces allegations regarding the disappearance of funds meant to repay foreign debt creditors.
Is that the fate of Anura’s economic committee?
It means that even while knowing that the economic committee presented by Sajith in 2024 was capable, Anura misled the public.
He claimed that Harsha, Eran, and Kabir, who had also served on Ranil’s economic committee from 2015 to 2019, were the very people who had ruined the country.
“Iran was in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government economic committee. Harsha was there too. The very people who built Sajith’s economic committee today were the people who destroyed the country back then…”
— Anura Kumara Dissanayake
Those same members of Sajith’s economic committee, whom Anura once accused of destroying the country, are now the very people he needs to keep his government running.
Anura, who won votes promising to end the political culture of party switching, is now inviting Samagi Jana Balawegaya MPs to cross over and work for the country.
The people did not give Anura a mandate for this.
If he cannot govern, he should hold a general election and hand the country back to the people.
That is what an old former JVP member said, saddened by a government now searching for wild weeds to patch together the broken vehicle of governance by breaking apart the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
SOURCE:- MAWRATANEWS.LK
