Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena turned out to be a willy fox, contrary to all expectations, and yet he fell into the trap carefully laid by former president and newly-appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to informed sources.
Like in 2014-15 when Sirisena ousted pro-China Rajapaksa, he has once again stunned Sri Lanka.
This time though with a bloodless coup against Ranil Wickremesinghe. And when Wickremesinghe refused to step down as prime minister and sought to prove majority, Sirisena moved fast to suspend the parliament.
Till December 2014, political analysts in Sri Lanka had never thought that Sirisena will betray Rajapaksa. He did that. Until this month, nobody had thought that he was going to betray Wickremesinghe. He did that, but this time in a move orchestrated by Rajapaksa, sources indicated to ET.
The political and constitutional crisis in Sri Lanka is unlikely to end any time soon. Through his hasty and unconstitutional acts, Sirisena seems to have caused damage to his credibility, experts say.
It may be recalled that in December 2014, Sri Lanka’s joint opposition, led by former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumarathunga and then leader of opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe had declared that Sirisena would take on incumbent Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election.
Sirisena, a mild-mannered senior minister in the Rajapaksa cabinet, quit and crossed over to the opposition to take on the pro-China president. Rajapaksa was stunned.
In a closely fought election, Sirisena defeated Rajapaksa, who tried to cancel the election results, but the move was foiled by army and police chiefs. Rajapaksa stepped down, handing over the charge to Sirisena.
Sirisena appointed Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. The Rajapaksa era was over, so thought many.
A few months later, the Lankan parliament was dissolved. The United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) came together to form a national unity government under Sirisena and Wickremesinghe. It ended last Friday.
In the first two years, both the leaders shared an excellent chemistry and China received a setback.
Media and civil society, who were under constant threat during the Rajapaksa regime, heaved a sigh of relief.
Friday’s developments were set in motion in early 2017. Rajapaksa and MPs close to him exploited and even fuelled the rift. Sirisena and Wickremesinghe differed over several vital issues. They even fought in public over the handling of several domestic issues.
Rajapaksa was successful in driving a wedge between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, including the conspiracy theory that India was trying to assassinate the president.
When Sirisena was chosen to take on Rajapaksa, the joint opposition had claimed that his personal integrity and mild manners would be their trump card against the incumbent president. Sirisena's Buddhist moorings also helped the opposition dent Rajapaksa's carefully-built Buddhist image.
Wickremesinghe had said that Sirisena was the best choice before them at the time. Even Kumarathunga had expressed faith in Sirisena, who had served in her government before Rajapaksa succeeded her in 2015. (Economic Times)
Leave your comments
Login to post a comment
Post comment as a guest