What Is Sajith?
By Rasika Jayakody -October 13, 2013 |
Rasika Jayakody
If Sajith Premadasa is to replace Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the main opposition party of Sri Lanka, the ‘what’ of Sajith should constitute the leadership material for the United National Party. It is clear that Sajith relies heavily on the Premadasa factor embedded in his name as he is the only son of the late President Ranasinghe Ranasinghe, the man who successfully spearheaded one of the most important individual revolutions in Sri Lankan politics, rising to presidency from the lowest rung of the society as far as the hierarchy of castes is concerned.
As a result of the revolution he spearheaded, the Premadasa factor became something that could make a huge impact on the mindset of the grassroots level of the society which constitutes a sizable proportion of the vote-base of Sri Lanka. Some of the rural empowerment programmes carried out by him benefited the poorest sections of the society to a great extent and that – despite the state sponsored violence unleashed by him during the dark era of 1989 – elevates him in the history as a leader who had a genuine intention towards serving the poor.
It is important to realize that the Premadasa factor alone is not enough for Sajith to rise to the leadership of the party. Apart from what he inherited from his father, it is interesting to see what he has cultivated over the past 20 years in his own capacity as a politician who represented the opposition for the most part of his political career.
Apart from his lackluster performance as a Deputy Minister of the United National Front government from 2001-2004, Sajith has not held national level responsibilities of any government since 1994. National level responsibilities, one might argue, would not play a decisive role in determining one’s rise to the leadership of a political body as the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike made inroads into power without holding any national level responsibility in any government.
The biggest obstacle to Sajith’s emergence as a national level leader is the parochialism he adopted as a politician, confining his activism mainly to the district he represented. He hardly raised his voice in an emphatic manner when it came to issues of national importance and maintained a stolid silence over the Tamil problem. Although he attempted to project himself as a ‘patriot’ vis-à-vis obtuse remarks by Ravi Karunanayake and Lakshman Kiriella over the achievements of the Army, Premadasa failed to impress the patriotic camp and his bona fides was always a question. Read More
