In an interview that discusses the key question ‘Has Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation cleared a path to a political solution of the Sri Lankan crisis or are there still complications that need to be tackled?’, one of Sri Lanka’s top policy analysts has said the biggest outstanding complication is the possibility the Rajapaksa SLPP, which has a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliament, could choose to elect Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new president thus permitting him to serve as president for the remaining two years of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term.
Amita Arudpragasam says this would, of course, be popularly unacceptable and would fuel the protests. She, therefore, hopes the SLPP will have the wisdom to act differently. However, she accepts they have the democratic numbers in parliament and the constitutional power to elect Wickremesinghe. Were they to do so it would mean the pitting of their constitutional power against what the people want and are prepared to accept.
Another factor that could prevent the SLPP, with its two-thirds majority, electing Wickremesinghe as the new president is the fact the SLPP is itself internally divided and now comprises several factions and, therefore, may not unite behind Wickremesinghe.
Arudpragasam says the only way the Sri Lankan people might possibly accept Wickremesinghe as the new president is if the decision is taken unanimously by all the parties in parliament, including Sajith Premadasa’s SJB and the other smaller parties which include the Tamil parties.
In the interview Arudpragasam also discusses three other issues. First, the possibility that Wickremesinghe might facilitate a form of military rule by giving carte blanche to the army to restore order.
Second, she discusses the damage the Rajapaksa family (both Mahinda and Gotabaya) have done to the Sri Lankan economy over the last almost 20 years. In this context, she also says the Sri Lankan people would be willing to accept hardship and sacrifice to help the country get back to where it was provided they are honestly told the truth about the state of the economy and why difficult or even painful measures are necessary.
Finally, Arudpragasam discusses the emergence of a new young leadership that led the people’s movement over the last 100 days and how, if it comes to the fore, Sri Lanka’s politics could change.
She says at the moment Sri Lanka is at a crossroads in its history. It can either take a turn towards popular, democratic, constitutional and transparent governance or slide into military rule.
