Time to drain the swamp……… The opportunity to make significant change in Sri Lanka’s political, economic and governance landscape! – By Aubrey Joachim
If one thing has come out of the Donald Trump playbook it’s the political clichés that he has come up with. Some of these fit well into the Sri Lankan political context. One that is most apt at this point – with parliamentary elections around the corner – is ‘drain the swamp’. The slight modification might be replacing ‘swamp’ with ‘cess-pit’!
Three weeks after the Presidential election opinions are still divided. While the victors are going about their business as best as can be expected in the short elapsed time and limited ministers, the vanquished are still licking their wounds. However, they do not seem to have learnt the lessons that their vile stories, falsehoods and misinformation regarding the victor taught them leading into the election. They continue to spread lies and falsehoods in an attempt to discredit and destabilise the democratically elected President, his team and his policies.
With the parliamentary elections just a month away the traditional parties seem to be in disarray. Some have already thrown in the towel. Most of the 222 – the previous 225 less the 3 NPP members – have also seen the writing on the wall and are not even contesting. Their lives will change to just being ordinary citizens facing the daily grind of ordinary folk. Their ill-gotten income streams will dry up. Some will be having nightmares and wet pants fearing the corruption investigations that are sure to commence under the new regime. They will surely miss their cushioned seats in the parliament building in the Diyawanna Oya. I doubt Deshamanya Geoffery Bawa- who designed the building would have expected such a lowly bunch to have graced his architecture.
The extended families and friends of the high and mighty must also be biting their nails. Their plum diplomatic postings, CEO roles in Government enterprises and agencies will see the sunset. The swamp was extensive.
Much insight into the occupants of the seats in the last parliament came out during the 2022 aragalaya uprising. Many were found to be below par with little or no educational qualifications let alone human decency. If corruption, thuggery, dishonesty and disloyalty were the yardstick of performance they would have scored straight A’s. This was the demographic of successive parliaments for the better part of the 76 years of Sri Lankan independence. This had led to a progressive deterioration in the governance and economic leadership of the country. The results were plain to see.
Thus the unanimous cry of the body politic was for wholesale change of the of the lawmakers as well as for a system change. Following the ousting of the then incumbent President – replaced by a stand-in charlatan leader, the lead-up to the expected Presidential elections saw the formation of various cabals of politicians criss-crossing like pieces on a chess board in search of a parking spot. Unfortunately, lack of checks and balances in some parties saw undesirable wolves in sheep’s clothing enter their stables. Another hard and bitter learned lesson!
Here then is the opportunity for the wishes of the masses to come to fruition. Drain the cess-pit! Voices on the ground are indicating that even those who in their scepticism did not vote for AKD are now regretting their actions and this shift is likely to turn into an NPP tsunami come November 14th. No wonder the traditional parties and the elitists are fretting. The dogs are barking and the proverbial barbarians are at the gate.
The people must realise though that with AKD at the helm only half the battle is won. He needs the peoples mandate to control the parliament. He must have an able crew to help him navigate the choppy waters ahead. At this point the NPP are doggedly sticking to their plan of nominating qualified and capable individuals to attract the attention of the voters. Already the names of high profile academics and professionals are emerging as candidates. This is leading the other parties to scramble and gather similar types to represent them and mirror the opposite camp. At least one thing is guaranteed – an increase in the IQ and capability of the next parliament which will be like none before.
The rest of the battle must be fought by the masses to ensure that the system change that has begun will continue into the future. For this to happen it is imperative that:
- None of the 222 are elected to parliament – irrespective of how good they seemed to be.
- All the traditional parties are decimated as they have outlived their relevance.
- Ideally the traditional parties should attract such low vote numbers that their national-list numbers are minimised.
AKD must be given all the legislative strength and tools to deliver on the NPP manifesto in order to transform the country to the promised land. From all accounts he will succeed in obtaining the unanimous peoples mandate.
Sceptics will argue that a clean sweep majority will present unfettered power that in the past has proven to be disastrous. However, Sri Lanka has no option nor time to loose. Its people have suffered far too long and have been waiting for a messiah to lead them out of the wilderness. There is no time to procrastinate. Such a landslide will not be a doomsday scenario.
So far, early indications are that the pre-Presidential-election lies and misinformation spewed by the vanquished were indeed fake news and must be a humiliation to their originators and an embarrassment to the so called elites who liberally dished them out at business forums, political platforms and social media. For that sin alone those former parliamentarians should be cast out and ostracised as they did not have the intelligence to fact-check such garbage.
So far, spokespersons for the new regime heard on various forums and TV / Youtube interviews are talking the right language and giving the right messaging – the most important being the crackdown on graft and corruption as well as the revival of the rule of law which had sadly disappeared in the last few decades. Get that done and dusted and the economy will blossom.
All indications point to a ‘Singapore-in-the-making’ albeit six decades too late. But as the saying goes – better late than never. If sceptics say that it cannot be achieved under this regime, then it certainly would not have under any other. It would seem like the gods have been good to Sri Lanka. It is now left to its people to bite the bullet, take the gamble and do the right thing for their future generations.
The author – former Global President of CIMA is an Australian citizen of Sri Lankan descent and is not a dual citizen but closely follows the happenings in his motherland.
