Putinization Has Been Stopped but Sri Lanka Needs a New Ideological Project
The possibility of the Rajapaksa-led opposition using Sinhalese communalism to unsettle and undermine the new government of moderates is actually very real
Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, walks past former President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his swearing-in ceremony in Colombo on August 21, 2015. Shortly after the brief ceremony, a section of opposition MPs loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP entered into a formal agreement with Wickremasinghe’s United National Party to work together. Credit: Ishara K.
BY ON
The most important consequence of Sri Lanka’s recent parliamentary election is that voters have prevented the Putinization of their country and its politics.
The August 17 election brought Ranil Wickremasinghe’s UNP-led coalition government back to power with an increased tally, though its 106 seats leaves it seven short of a majority in the 225-member parliament. It also prevented “strongman” Mahinda Rajapaksa from becoming prime minister in the style of Vladimir Putin. After two terms as Russia’s president, Putin became prime minister for one term in 2008, and then president after that. He continues to preside over a specific political order of autocratic authoritarianism that has taken hold in after the collapse of Gobrachev’s perestroika experiment.
BY ON The most important consequence of Sri Lanka’s recent parliamentary election is that voters have prevented the Putinization of their country and its politics.
The August 17 election brought Ranil Wickremasinghe’s UNP-led coalition government back to power with an increased tally, though its 106 seats leaves it seven short of a majority in the 225-member parliament. It also prevented “strongman” Mahinda Rajapaksa from becoming prime minister in the style of Vladimir Putin. After two terms as Russia’s president, Putin became prime minister for one term in 2008, and then president after that. He continues to preside over a specific political order of autocratic authoritarianism that has taken hold in after the collapse of Gobrachev’s perestroika experiment.
