As the countdown to the presidential elections continues, with precisely twenty-four days more for the polls, the battle lines between the two principal contenders - Sajith Premadasa running from the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the swan symbol and Gotabaya Rajapaksa contesting from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the lotus bud symbol - are becoming clearer.
For some time, the tussle between the two major contestants appeared to be a clash of personalities rather than a debate about policies, with the Rajapaksa camp being critical of Premadasa’s attire, speeches and his heritage. Similarly, the NDF camp was scathing about Rajapaksa’s record on human rights and the allegations before him in numerous courts of law.
Now, however, the policies- and therefore, the strategies- in the two camps are slowly emerging. It is clear that Premadasa is campaigning on a platform of poverty alleviation and welfare, a theme his father Ranasinghe Premadasa exploited successfully at his presidential election thirty years ago.
This is in keeping with Premadasa’s role as Minister of Housing where he was instrumental in the construction of thousands of houses in the form of model villages, distributing them among the less fortunate- again, a strategy utilised by his late father.
The other pledges that Premadasa has made- free fertiliser for all crops, free uniforms and mid-day meals for schoolchildren, slashing expenses for government ministers and a promise from himself that he will lead a Spartan lifestyle, foregoing his salary and not living at President’s House- are in keeping with this theme of austerity and bettering the living standards of the masses.
Premadasa campaign
The Premadasa campaign has also made another important pledge- that former Army Commander and Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka will be in charge of the nation’s security if Premadasa wins the election. This is to counter the SLPP claim that the security of the country is in disarray after the April 21 Easter bombings and that the government is unable to guarantee the safety of its citizens.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, however, made a terrible blunder in this regard when he was asked at his first media conference about Tamil Tiger cadres who surrendered to the Army who have not been located since. Rajapaksa replied that he was not in charge of the Army which was led by the Army Commander, who at that time was none other than Sarath Fonseka.
Unfortunately for Rajapaksa, this projected him as an individual who is promoting himself as the saviour of the nation who led the war effort that led to the defeat of the LTTE. However, here he was, taking only the kudos that came with it, conveniently passing on the brickbats to the Army Commander when it suited him. Naturally, it led to the question, was it then Sarath Fonseka who led the war effort?
Meanwhile in the SLPP camp however, the emphasis is entirely different. It is all about ensuring the safety and security of the nation. That is hardly surprising given Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s background as an ex-Army officer and his role as the Defence Secretary who successfully supervised the end to a thirty-year war against the Liberation Tigers’ of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
It is also obvious that the events of April 21 when Muslim extremist terrorists staged multiple bomb attacks in several cities killing over 250 persons, presented Rajapaksa with a convenient opportunity to portray himself as the man who will once again secure the nation. That he was alive to this political windfall is evident from the fact that a few days after the bomb attacks, he offered himself as a presidential candidate.
Now, however, the SLPP has raised this theme of securing the nation one notch higher. It has taken a thinly-veiled racist tone. While Rajapaksa himself projects himself as a person who is tolerant of all communities, the rhetoric emanating from his platforms send an entirely different message.
Speaker after speaker, Buddhist monks among them, dwell on the theme of saving the nation for the Sinhalese and Buddhists. This theme is evident even more in the various websites and social media campaigns that promote Rajapaksa. In these, caution is cast aside and there is an open call to vote for Gotabaya Rajapaksa at this election to save the nation and race (‘rata, jaathiya’).
SLPP strategists are hard at work, monitoring news and events and being on the lookout for issues that could be portrayed as being disadvantageous to the majority community. These issues are then highlighted from their campaign platforms. A case in point was the recent opening of the Jaffna International Airport. At SLPP rallies speakers repeatedly focused on the fact that signposts at the airport displayed the signage in Tamil above the signage in Sinhalese- and how this spelt doom for the Sinhala race!
It appears that strategists in the SLPP have made a conscious decision to take a hard-line communalistic stance during the election campaign. If there was any hesitation in this regard, that has diminished after the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha election which was concluded recently, which the SLPP won comfortably.
At that election, the same communalist rhetoric about saving the nation from extremists in minority communities was consistently unleashed on voters in what is a predominantly Sinhala Buddhist constituency. At the election, it appeared as if this tactic had yielded dividends: the SLPP secured 56.3 per cent of the votes cast.
Minority communities
Emboldened by this outcome, the SLPP has decided this was the way to go at this election. The thinking of their hierarchy is that, by adopting a no-nonsense, no concessions to the minority communities stance during the campaign it would be successful in capturing the majority community vote in the South of the country to such an extent that it would not have to worry about the minority vote in the North and East or the traditional United National Party (UNP) vote base in the major cities.
This strategy does have its precedents: at the 2010 presidential election, the theme was similar. After winning the Eelam war, Mahinda Rajapaksa was projected as a demi-god reincarnation of King Dutugemunu who had appeared to save the nation. The swing in the South of the country for him was such that it obliterated any opposition in the North and East.
The SLPP is hoping for a repeat performance in 2019, creating a fear psychosis of sorts in the Sinhalese community about the resurgence of terrorism by minority communities and casting Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the next saviour. This is why they are latching on anything and everything that has communal undertones.
For example, pro-SLPP websites widely circulated a video that depicts Minister Rauff Hakeem discussing with a group of persons which allegedly includes Zaharan Hashim, the suspected mastermind behind the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21. Speakers on SLPP platforms were focusing on this fact and alleging that this government was in cahoots with the terrorists. Some were even displaying photos of Minister Hakeem meeting with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran during peace talks with the terrorist organisation.
The allegation was not restricted to campaign rhetoric either. A hitherto little-known entity calling itself ‘The Organisation for the Protection of Muslims’ complained with the Police against Minister Hakeem. This was followed by an attempt to give a veneer of respectability to this allegation by the SLPP, with its nominal Chairman and former Minister G. L. Peiris holding a press conference and calling for Minister Hakeem to resign from the Parliamentary Select Committee probing the Easter attacks.
Minister Hakeem has, of course, responded to the allegations clarifying that while Zaharan may have been a member of the crowd that he was having discussions with, he was unaware of Zaharan’s links with terrorism at the time of the meeting which was in 2015. Indeed, it is debatable whether Zaharan had embarked on his militant journey at that time.
Violating party discipline
In another development, former Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who was a member of the government and its Minister of Justice for a while, pledged his support to Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week. Rajapakshe has had a chequered career in politics, initially supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa, then quitting his Cabinet, joining the UNP and then being removed from the Cabinet for violating party discipline.
Previously perceived as a person of integrity, Rajapakshe’s reputation has nose-dived in recent times, particularly given his public support of Nissanka Senadhipathi, an accused in the Avant Garde armoury case in which Gotabaya Rajapaksa is also implicated. Whether Rajapaksa would benefit from the support from the likes of Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe is a moot point, especially after startling revelations made by the latter at a media briefing announcing his support for candidate Rajapaksa.
The former Minister revealed that he, as Justice Minister had blocked a directive from the Attorney General’s Department to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa about the Avant Garde armoury case. Rajapakshe said that the directive by an Additional Solicitor General of the Attorney General’s Department was for the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa along with seven others under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Firearms Ordinance and the Explosive Substances Act. Whether such revelations would help or hinder Rajapaksa’s campaign remains to be seen.
Many more cross-overs, claims and counter-claims are likely as the campaign enters its final stages. Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka could be right when he said that the nation is awaiting with bated breath the ‘mother of all elections’.
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