Sri Lanka elected a new President in the early hours of 23rd September (AEDT) 2024. I watched it all unfold from 8351km away. It was the first time I had not voted; I couldn’t afford to fly to Sri Lanka just for that. (Petition to have us vote at Embassies like many other countries do!)
The result of this presidential election encompasses many firsts: it is the first time that a party outside the main two emerged victorious; it is the first time Sri Lanka has a President who does not belong to the aristocracy; it is also the first time in my life where the central issue of the election was not based on ethnicity and ethnocentric nationalism. It is also the first election since the Aragalaya of 2022.
Had anyone told me in 2010, in 2015, even 2019 that what ends the Rajapaksa dynasty is the power of the people, I would have scoffed.
I was first able to exercise my franchise in 2010, the first election after “winning” the civil of ~30 years. I knew my vote would not make much of a difference, as the country was rooting for Mahinda Rajapakse, deluded by a fantasy of a win. In 2015, when the country – especially the young people – sought a change, I was a proponent of the common candidate, but without much hope. In 2019 when Gotabaya Rajapaksa became the President, when Namal Rajapksa was clearly being groomed to take on the mantle, when the MRs and GRs were having grandchildren, I had resigned myself to a life of being governed by a Rajapaksa. What happened in 2022, then, caught me by such surprise. That was the moment of truly understanding what a people’s power means. It might have been the case for many others.
The current result, I think, is the outcome of a realisation that started in Aragalaya. In its most utopic version, Aragalaya was a space to push back against the myriad of ways in which Sri Lanka’s political system has exploited the country and its people since 1948. It went beyond the Rajapaksas, though they were the main villain. It was a call to end corruption, to end the way we have been doing things for decades. NPP, whatever their faults may be, was able to capitalise on this moment.
From 3% in 2019 to 46% in 2024, their journey needs to be studied (I really hope it does get studied). There was grassroot level mobilisation – much of it was attributed to JVP’s history of building grassroot movements. There was a focus on women since the early days in a way that has not been done by a political party in my lifetime. The women were addressed as people who understand and are at the brunt of financial and emotional issues of the family and the society. Women were addressed as people in their own right: not as someone’s mother or wife or sister or daughter. Against the SJB’s attempt at imitating this but with a focus on class and caste, however subtly, NPP’s efforts stood out to me. Their campaigning, from what I saw, started years and years before an election was ever conceived. It is a testimony to building movements. I would love to learn more about it from people who were actually involved.
NPP’s promises – the statement of policies upon which AKD was elected – depend on ending corruption. How they are to achieve this in a political landscape where no other party is likely to support them is beyond me.
AKD promised a renaissance. For the sake of the country, I hope it is a renaissance.
*Can the international media stop with the “Marxist President” please. It is insulting to Marxists, and shows they have stopped following all but UNP-SJB-SLPP-SLFP alphabet salad since the 80’s.
Minoli Wijetunga 