Ranil Can’t Be A Rajapaksa Man

New Lankan president needs to rise above the calculations of those who voted him to power

- Jehan Perera

Ranil Wickremesinghe who has just become Sri Lanka’s eighth Executive President has actually won this prize in his third attempt. He lost in 1999 to Chandrika Kumaratunga and again in 2005 to Mahinda Rajapaksa. On both occasions he was dealt unlucky blows.

President Kumaratunga gained a sympathy vote when LTTE attempted to assassinate her during one of her campaign rallies and blinded her in one eye. LTTE intervened again in 2005 to scuttle Wickremesinghe’s election bid when it ordered the Tamil people to boycott the presidential election. Finally now, Wickremesinghe has won a convincing victory, although it was not the people who voted him into power but parliamentarians.

Rajapaksas made him PM in May: Wickremesinghe was appointed as PM by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the ranks of the opposition after Aragalaya (people’s uprising) took a violent turn on May 9. That day saw the torching of some 70 houses of government members in the aftermath of government-sponsored goon attacks on peaceful protesters, and also the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The entry of Wickremesinghe into the ranks of the government immediately served to stabilise the Rajapaksa government that was tottering without a cabinet and without a PM.