The Anura Kumara Dissanayake-led National People’s Power (NPP) won an unexpectedly large victory in the elections held on November 14 in Sri Lanka. This is a huge victory for the NPP in parliament. This is the largest upheaval since the conservative United National Party won a big victory in 1977 going from 17 to 140 seats in the then 168 seat parliament. It is also remarkable that the NPP was able to win 152 out of 160 parliamentary constituencies in the country. This victory is also the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Sri Lankan parliament. The National People’s Power has succeeded in defeating the United National Party and surpassing the victory achieved by Bandaranaike, founder of the SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party), who become prime minister after winning a landslide in 1956, which went down in history as a huge achievement.
The National People’s Power has succeeded in completely wiping out the traditional parties that have ruled Sri Lanka since independence in 1948. It is remarkable that the traditional capitalist parties, including the United National Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, which divided and ruled Sri Lanka for the last 76 years, were removed from the political landscape.
This situation is not limited to the south of Sri Lanka and extends to changing the political pattern of the north-east and Hill country. The NPP was able to use the strong opposition that existed among the Tamil people in the north towards the right-wing Tamil politicians, including Sumanthiran and others. In the recent past, whenever Tamil people had given hope of meager relief as a result of the capitalist crisis, they have voted for capitalist parties who repressed their rights. This time they went as far as to cast their vote to NPP forgetting the recent activities of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)- a main component of the NPP – that are based on Sinhalese racist politics and which strongly opposed Tamil’s rights. The same situation can be seen in the Hill country. The majority of the plantation workers voted against the pro-capitalist traditional politics that was maintained by, mainly, the Thondaman family for more than seven decades. The Batticaloa district was the only district that did not follow the same developments. One of the factors that contributed to this was the ethnic tension that existed in the area that had a polarizing effect. In the recent past, we have seen various mass actions of Tamils in the east, including the ‘P2P’ march from Pottuvil to Jaffna. However, the policy of Anura Kumara, of offering small concessions regarding the national question, without guaranteeing the basic nationality rights of the Tamil people beyond the 13th constitutional amendment, will not resolve the Tamils’ demands. The national question will be a major issue ahead.
The relatively low turnout of 69 percent is also a significant factor in analyzing the election results. It can be inferred that many people were not interested in voting due to the bankruptcy of the opposition, which accepted defeat even before the election. It is noteworthy that NPP managed to get 68 lakh (6,863,186), 61.56 percent of the votes cast and that 31 percent, 5,932,510, of the total number of registered voters abstained from voting. However, the fact that the NPP was able to achieve such a victory shows how people are now rejecting the old conservative politics.
This transformation decisively started during the 2022 ‘Gota Go Go’ mass struggle. The two main slogans emphasized were that the all 225 MPs in the parliament should be sent home and that the corrupt politics that had ruled the country for 76 years should be ended. As a result of the Aragalya (struggle) movement, the Rajapaksa family had to step down from power. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who accidentally became the president to fill that gap, pushed back the struggle. His cover up of the old regime and its dictatorial policies also added to the mounting opposition. With this background, in the face of the rising public opposition across the country, the National People’s Power came to the public stage as a new political force, and the main force behind it was the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). They not only demonstrated that they were no longer associated with any kind of socialism, but also publicly assured that they would continue the neo-liberal political process including the IMF Program.
Now the presidential and parliamentary elections are over, and the National People’s Power has emerged as the winner and formed the new government. People are waiting to see how they will fulfill the promises made during the election period; abolish the executive presidency and bring the necessary constitutional amendments to elect a member of parliament who is accountable to the people, draft a new constitution, revise the agreement made by Ranil with the International Monetary Fund, lower VAT taxes, increase workers’ wages immediately, bringing down the cost of living, offer solutions to the national question, release all political prisoners, repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and all other repressive laws. Prosecution of politicians who are accused of fraud and corruption and the recovery of money that they have deposited in foreign countries is also a key demand. Other promises include allocating six percent of the budget allocation to education, and stopping the sale of all public assets to foreign capitalists.
The elections resulted in the NPP receiving parliamentary power beyond measure. Therefore, there is no room for them to avoid taking radical measures or to make excuses by saying that they alone cannot fulfill the demands.
So far, the National People’s Power made no effort to fulfill the above promises in the short period of 45 days that it was in power after the presidential election. By examining how they managed the government in that short period of time, the future path of them can be determined. Anura Kumara publicly said that he would change the “debt agreement ” made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a solution to the deep economic crisis that Sri Lanka is facing. But the first thing he did after assuming the presidency was to blatantly break that promise. This is enough to understand the direction of Anura Kumara’s new government. By declaring that they will work according to the agreement made between Ranil and IMF for another two years, they have betrayed their promises already. Moreover, the appointment of Duminda Hulangamuwa, who was an economic advisor of former President Gotabaya, as the NPP President Anura Kumara’s economic advisor, is another signal in the direction of betrayal. As well as this, “Hans” Wijayasuriya, the head of Asia’s second-largest telecommunications company, was appointed on 1 November 2024 as the Chief Advisor to the President on Digital Economy by Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Hans Wijesuriya is a major shareholder in Malaysia’s Dialog Company. By keeping these figures in these positions shows Anura Kumara’s surrender to capitalist interests.
The National People’s Power government has also started to work closely with the main institutions of the capitalist class, the Employers’ Federation of Sri Lanka and the Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. This shows how they are prepared to collaborate with the capitalist institutions and their representatives.
Following this path, Anura Kumara’s government will fail to carry out the fundamental social reforms they promised, except for superficial efforts to show that it is a “corruption-free government”. The majority of all the appointments made by President Anura Kumara are those bureaucrats related to the previous regimes.
In fact, with its current actions, the NPP government continues to maintain the neoliberal market economy and this will not meet the expectations of the working class and poor, and corruption, which is an inherent feature of the capitalist system, will not be eradicated. It is impossible to expect solutions from this government regarding corruption. During the corrupt rule of the Rajapaksas the JVP was part of the government.
The expectation of a far-reaching solution by Anura Kumara to the national question, who opposed the establishment of even provincial councils through the 13th constitutional amendment, will not materialise, despite the NPP getting a significant number of votes from the Tamils.
Given all this, to win the demands of the working class, it will be necessary to enter into agitations and strike actions in the future. For that, it is essential to organize the working class as a united force and to take action.
Avoiding petty sectarianism, the union leaders should agree on a minimum common work programme, with a struggle platform, and take steps to unite all forces around it.
Although the election symbol of Anura Kumara’s National People’s Power is a compass that is supposed to show the correct directions to take. In reality, from the point of view of the working class and poor, the NPP’s policies are in large part directionless. Those who voted for the NPP will come to see this and, as they see that the NPP government is not meeting their demands, will be moved to take further mass actions to win their social, economic and democratic needs.
