Presidency in Sri Lanka: Maithripala Sirisena in, Mahinda Rajapaksha out! Will Sirisena change Rajapaksha policies?

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

_________________

Dictators do not believe that they would lose power one day - sooner than later – though they all know that dictators have never stayed in power as long as they want.  Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapakse, who became ruthless and dictatorial upon his success in killing Tamils stock and barrel and thus ending the LTTE fight against state terrorism and anti-minority policies. Rajapakse’s bid for a third term also ended a decade of rule that critics say had become increasingly authoritarian and marred by nepotism and corruption.

Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena, a one-time ally of Rajapakse and a minister who defected in November and derailed what the president thought would be an easy win, took 51.3 percent of the votes polled in Thursday's election. Rajapaksa got 47.6 percent.

As Rajapksha accepted his historic defeat and vacated the official residence, newly elected president Sirisena was sworn in at Colombo's Independence Square at 6:00 p.m on January 09. Celebratory firecrackers were set off in the capital, Colombo, after Rajapaksa conceded his defeat to Sirisena, who has vowed to root out corruption and bring constitutional reforms to weaken the power of the presidency. People in Tamil Nadu, India also joined the happy moments of anti-Rajapakshe Lankans. "We expect a life without fear," said Fathima Farhana, a 27-year-old Muslim woman in Colombo. "I voted for him because he said he will create equal opportunities for all," she said of Sirisena, a soft-spoken 63-year-old from the rice-growing hinterlands of the Indian Ocean island state. Sri Lanka's stock market climbed to its highest in nearly four years.

However, Sirisena wound have won the presidency without the Singhalese people, who account for about 70 percent of the country's 21 million people that got split between the two candidates. For the first time Lankan history, Singhalese populations joined the Tamils and Muslims to bring the Rajapksha regime down.  The results showed Rajapaksa remained popular among Sinhala Buddhists but Sirisena earned his lead with the support of the ethnic Tamil-dominated former war zone in the north and Muslim-dominated areas.

Rajapaksha won handsomely in the last election in 2010, surfing a wave of popularity months after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels. But critics say he had become increasingly authoritarian, with several members of his family holding powerful positions. Although the economy had blossomed since the end of the war, voters complained of the high cost of living. Many in the party think Rajapksha is preparing his son, now an MP, to takeover power in Colombo in the next election.

Rajapaksha had called this election two years early, confident that the usually fractured opposition would fail to come up with a credible candidate. But he did not anticipate the emergence of Sirisena, who shared a traditional Sri Lankan dinner with him one evening and turned on him the next day. The opposition's coalition parties have not agreed on a common approach to economic policy and, in our view, were mainly united by the desire to unseat Rajapakse Like Rajapakse, Sirisena is from the majority Sinhala Buddhist community, but he has reached out to ethnic minority Tamils and Muslims and has the support of several small parties. His allies say he will rebalance the country's foreign policy, which tilted heavily towards China in recent years as Rajapakse fell out with the West over human rights and allegations of war crimes committed at the end of a drawn-out conflict with Tamil separatists in 2009. US Secretary of State John Kerry was quick to welcome the successful election and commended Rajapakse for accepting the verdict of the nation's 15 million voters.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned Sirisena to congratulate the new leader of "a close friend and neighbour". “But we are not against Chinese investment either. We will maintain good relations with China too," he told the Hindustan Times.

Sri Lanka is just off India's southern coast and has historically had mixed ties with its much larger neighbour. Rajapakse had cold-shouldered New Delhi in recent years but Sirisena told an Indian newspaper this week that "we will revert to the old, non-aligned policy. India is our first, main concern".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing believed the new government would maintain a friendly policy towards China and support investment projects already agreed.

It is presumed, Sirisena will lead a motley coalition of ethnic, religious, Marxist and centre-right parties, which analysts say could hamper economic reform and encourage populist policies. Policy differences are likely to surface."

Sirisena has pledged to abolish the executive presidency that gave Rajapaksa unprecedented power and hold a fresh parliamentary election within 100 days. He has also promised a crackdown on corruption, which would include investigations into big infrastructure projects such as a $1.5 billion deal with China Communications Construction Co Ltd to build a port city. It is not clear if the port, to be built on land reclaimed from the sea in Colombo, will be cancelled. However, Sirisena's backers have said a casino license given to Australian gambling tycoon James Packer's Crown Resorts Ltd will be withdrawn.

One does not know if the new president would understand the problems Tamils, Muslims, Christians who voted for him, face in the country and if he would try to change the policy of Rajapakse.

Since, however, Sirisena pursed the Rajapakse policies till November, the minorities of this island nation wonder if he can change the Lankan mindset.

Rajapakse seems to be eager to support the new president so that he needs not unnecessarily promote the interest s of Tamils, Muslims and Christians.

Rajapaksa’s historic defeat obviously has an important message for BJP leaders and PM of India Modi because Indians can reject him and Hindutva parties if they misbehave with the voters by taking them for granted forever.  Unless PM Modi puts an end to ultra fanaticism being espoused by VHP-RSS by forcefully converting Christians and Muslims into Hindutva, people of India, including Hindus, would not fail to teach some useful lesson to the ruling Hindutva parties. They have taught lessens to Congress and other parties and BJP’s coming to power with full majority itself was due to  their expression of anger at the polls towards Congress and other pseudo secular parties