Even though the opposition parties have severely intensified their campaigns against the National People’s Power (NPP), the political developments of the past one and a half years clearly demonstrate that it will be difficult to challenge the government unless a structurally solid unity is formed among them.
The opposition parties, which are in an unprecedentedly weak state, only act collectively when it comes to holding press conferences; otherwise, they remain incapable of launching joint political actions against the government. A major reason for their current setback is the lack of a popular leader who can unite the opposition parties and guide them as a broad alliance.
Joint press conferences are mostly held under the leadership of Professor G.L. Peiris, a legal expert and former minister. Although the Professor is skilled at explaining the issues facing the country and the flawed approaches handled by the government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, he is not a leader with mass popular support, despite being involved in politics for more than three decades. He has never entered parliament by being directly elected by the people.
In the aftermath of the 2022 ‘Aragalaya’ public uprising, the NPP government came to power by campaigning aggressively against corruption and bad governance. The opposition is now primarily concerned with damaging the image of ‘clean governance’ that the public associates with this government. Whether the government leaders are directly involved in the corruption allegations raised by the opposition or not, it is true that they are faltering in showing their counter-response.
In any case, among today’s political leaders in Sri Lanka, President Dissanayake enjoys the widest popularity among the public. No other leader can be identified as his equal. Until the opposition parties free themselves from this poverty of leadership, it seems impossible to challenge the government, no matter what its shortcomings are.
Although former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his political heir Namal Rajapaksa speak about returning to power, they seem to be oblivious to the public’s perception regarding the true nature of their past governance. They appear to be relying on racism once again for their political revival.
Against this backdrop, the remarks made few days ago by Navin Dissanayake, the Senior Vice President of the United National Party (UNP), at a meeting of Kandy District organizers, warrant attention. Calling for the forces aligned with UNP leader and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and those aligned with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa to reunite, Dissanayake stated that a new political direction for the country could only emerge through an alliance formed by the unification of these two leaders.
“If we combine Ranil’s intellectual vision with Sajith’s grassroots public strength, we can successfully move forward on a new political journey,” he said. In other words, the son of Gamini Dissanayake—one of the once-powerful leaders of the UNP—is saying that it is essential to connect Ranil’s head with Sajith’s body.
It is a pathetic state of affairs that the party is relying for its political resurrection on Ranil, who has had the lowest popular support among the UNP leaders to date, and Sajith, who failed to function effectively while serving as the opposition leader in the previous parliament, thereby allowing Anura Kumara to project himself as the ‘real’ opposition leader and ultimately clear the path to becoming the President.
