Colombo: Sajith Premadasa has no doubts that he will win the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election — the first after a popular uprising in 2022 sent the president of the time, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, packing.
Sri Lanka’s leader of the opposition, and now, presidential candidate expounded on his strengths, winning chances and aspirations for the country in an exclusive interview with ThePrint on 19 September.
Calling the current dispensation “bumbling, inefficient, corrupt, decrepit”, Premadasa says President Ranil Wickremesinghe, appointed by the Sri Lankan parliament after the 2022 crisis, did not have the people’s mandate to form the government, and hence, has worked against people’s interests.
“Right now, we fervently believe that current governmental policies are mishandled, irrational, and not in the national interest,” says Premadasa. “There needs to be a massive correction, and we are confident that the people of this country will provide us with a requisite mandate to make that correction.”
The “triple tragedies” of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic crisis — all in quick succession — have had a detrimental impact on the Sri Lankan people, according to Premadasa. And the Wickremesinghe government’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) plan hurts national interests, he says.
Sri Lanka goes to polls on 21 September. The leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Premadasa, is facing stiff competition from Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who leads the National People’s Power coalition, which his party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), helms. Both Premadasa and Dissanayake are up against President Wickremesinghe, who, distancing from his United National Party (UNP), is running as an Independent.
The political tensions since the last 2019 election have resulted in deep fractures in Sri Lankan society, leaving many concerned that none of the three candidates will command a majority of votes. In that event, the country would have to go for another round of voting to declare a clear winner.
However, Premadasa is confident about a decisive outcome. “I am going to be very humble [when I respond to you]…. I do not see that situation developing,” he says.
‘Passed on opportunity’
In 2022, Premadasa refused to take up the mantle of either prime minister or president following what’s known as the ‘aragalaya (struggle)’. His stance was clear — he would never take up an office that required him to depend on the politically influential Rajapaksa family.
It was an issue of mandate — anyone who took up the leadership role would be coming in with an extension of the Rajapaksa’s “failed mandate”, Premadasa tells ThePrint, recalling the events of 2022.
“All your policies would have to be approved by the very same majority that plunged Sri Lanka into this crisis,” he says. “So, we were very forthright in our decision, that we would form a government with the peoples’ mandate, not from a mandate provided by the very same majority that landed Sri Lanka in this huge economic disaster.”
According to Premadasa, Wickremesinghe is a president who has been completing Rajapaksa’s term, not a president who has been working to realise the people’s will.
There’s some personal history between the two heavyweight political leaders. Premadasa left Wickremesinghe’s UNP in 2020 and founded the SJB. The SJB now has over 50 parliamentary seats compared to the singular share of its parent party.
His campaign hopes that his walking out in 2020 and his decision not to form the government in 2022 have made a moral impact on voters, who are now especially mindful of the extent of deep-rooted corruption that has plagued previous governments.
Premadasa, therefore, has been running his campaign on the fulcrum of “Sri Lankanism”. His party has a base in all sectors of society, regardless of ethnicity, religion, class and caste, which, Premadasa says, makes it a “truly national party”, with the interests of the whole country in mind.
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A promise of change
This election is not the maiden attempt of Premadasa or Dissanayake.
Premadasa lost to ousted and beleaguered ex-president Rajapaksa in the 2019 election, coming in second with 42 per cent of the vote.
On the other hand, Dissanayake got only 3% of the votes in that election, but his vote base seems to have astronomically shot up.
Premadasa, however, is not too concerned. He does not see Dissanayake or his party as a threat. His approach is “empowering people economically, socially, politically”, and he is confident that improving health, education and other social indicators will win him people’s votes. All that heavily depends on the increased inflow of foreign direct investment, and to do that, he wants to reduce bureaucratic bumblings and cut through all the red tape.
His policies, however, aren’t catered to “get the applause of the people”. Premadasa says his approach is “practical” and “target-oriented”, with a timetable to achieve it.
The IMF deal, negotiated by President Wickremesinghe, should have been better negotiated and more people-friendly, says Premadasa. “Where we differ from the president is that we would not contract the economy; we want to expand the economy,” he says. “We will grow ourselves out of the problem.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)