Sri Lanka’s New President: Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Shift in Political Power

• Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s swearing-in as Sri Lanka’s new President on September 23, 2024, signifies a significant shift in political power from a privileged minority to a broad coalition of non-elite social forces.
• The election resulted in a peaceful and bloodless transfer of power, with the promise to overhaul a corrupt government system that had been the birthright of the privileged social classes for nearly seven decades.
• The National People’s Power (NPP), the political movement led by Dissanayake, has a short but transformative history.
• The NPP was formed in 2019 as an electoral front of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), with a moderate and centrist reform ideology.
• Despite its participation in the presidential election in 2019 and parliamentary elections in 2020, the NPP could only secure a little over 3% of votes and three parliamentary seats.
• The NPP’s rapid rise to become a major political force is a direct outcome of two developments: the economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and the deep social and political crisis that exploded as the Aragalaya or the citizens’ protest movement, of 2022.
• The management of the debt crisis since 2023 by the Sri Lankan government created widespread social discontent and anger against the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration.
• Growing poverty, income inequalities, and increasing social polarisation have generated a clear shift in people’s political loyalties, away from the traditional elite parties.

Political Polarisation in Sri Lanka: NPP and Samagi Jana Balawegaya

• The Aragalaya, a political force, created the space for the NPP to emerge as a leading reformist force in Sri Lanka.
• The NPP’s agenda of reforming Sri Lanka’s politics, political culture, and governance practices aligns with the Aragalaya’s slogan of’system change’.
• The NPP’s rapid rise coincides with the consolidation of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB-Unified People’s Force), marking a significant transformation of Sri Lanka’s political party system.
• The emerging political polarisation in Sri Lanka is between the NPP and SJB, with the SJB filling the space for a right-wing party.
• The new President faces challenges such as holding early parliamentary elections, forming a caretaker cabinet, and securing a comfortable parliamentary majority.
• The NPP’s weak presence in districts with large Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities necessitates early corrective action.
• Two tasks to test the resolve and capacities of the new President and his government are repaying the external debt and purifying public life and the culture of governance.
• The people expect a new beginning leading to ‘genuine change’, and it is up to President Dissanayake and his NPP government to prove their sensitivity to people’s expectations for ‘genuine change’.