By Harim Peiris

(Published in Groundviews on 13th May 2020)

The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant shutdown of social and community life has meant that the political debate and dialogue in Sri Lanka, has moved from more traditional forms of communications, to exclusively electronic and especially social media platforms. Of these, the electronic media’s reach is universal in Sri Lanka, with almost every one of Sri Lanka’s four million households either owning a TV set or having ready access to one, though not entirely being news and current affairs TV junkies. However, phone penetration in Sri Lanka is also nearly universal, our twenty million people accounting for more than twenty-one million phone connections and the resultant internet penetration through mobile devises is also likely to be quite high, at least for the use of basic data applications like Whatsapp. The effectiveness of electronic and social media exclusively for the nation’s political dialogue has been tested during the past two months and has shown some ability to communicate ideas with political traction within society.

This is unsurprising because social media provide very effective in both the 2015 and the 2019 presidential elections. In the 2015 election, the unsuccessful Mahinda Rajapakse campaign dominated every form of media space and coverage except for social media, which was the only level playing field by its very nature and which was largely supportive of the ultimately successful Maithripala Sirisena challenge to the then Rajapakse Administration. Similarly, in the run up to the 2019 presidential election, social media was dominated by sentiments supportive of the successful candidacy of the ultimate winner in that election. More recently though with Parliament dissolved on March 2nd 2020, the opposition has had to rely solely on electronic and social media and to their credit, despite the obvious and natural national pre-occupation with preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic within the country, socio-political issues have been raised in the electronic and social media and effectively championed.

The most obvious and dominant issue is unsurprisingly, regarding the now dissolved parliament, the re-summoning of which, the Opposition has championed entirely via the electronic and social media. That this pressure was being felt at the highest levels, was demonstrated by the fact that the President felt obliged to do a media interview and explain his reasons for not doing so. The Prime Minister followed with his own concession in that regard, by summoning all two hundred and twenty five members of the 8th Parliament of Sri Lanka for a meeting at Temple Trees, which olive leaf was only grasped by the Tamil National Alliance, its parliamentarians coming from all parts of the North and East for the meeting and following up the same at the PM’s request with another meeting later the same day at his residence. The other political parties, including the main opposition SJB, the UNP and the JVP all boycotted the meeting.

The corollary of that issue has been the date of holding, parliamentary elections, the opposition claiming with considerable merit, that a free and fair election is not currently possible under Covid-19 preventive social distancing measures. Moreover, the period of not having a functioning legislature is exceeding the maximum period of three months and is, prima facie a violation of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. The constitutional arguments are due to be argued in the most appropriate and effective forum for the same, the Supreme Court of the Republic, with leave to proceed granted to petitioners, including Mr. Ranjith Maduma Bandara, General Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Opposition Leader, Sajith Premadasa and former Ministers Patali Champika Ranawaka and Kumara Welgama, the latter two filing a joint petition. Support for the petitions and oral arguments are scheduled to be made next week on the 18th and 19th of May. In an interesting development, in recognition of the independence of the Election Commission and its own conflict of interests, the Attorney General has informed the Supreme Court, that the AG’s Department cannot appear for the Election Commission in the said case, resulting in the Commission having to retain private counsel. This also highlights the inherent conflict of interests which arises from the Attorney General (AG) being simultaneously the chief law officer of the State and the chief legal advisor to the Government, often interpreted and practiced by AGs, as being the chief legal advisor to the executive. It is pertinent to note that during the October 2018 constitutional crisis when Speaker Karu Jayasuriya wrote to the then Attorney General seeking his views on the legality of the President’s actions in dissolving parliament before four and a half years of its five year term had been completed, that the then Attorney General declined to advise the Speaker. Similarly, it is quite likely that in Court, the Attorney General on behalf of the Head of Government and the Election Commission may take divergent positions regarding the issues.

The rule of law argument for Sri Lanka is quite simple. We are politically, a functioning if somewhat challenged democratic society. Our democratic norms and freedoms are important to who we are as a nation state. The fight against Covid-19 cannot and indeed should not be permitted to be a rationale for a weakening of our democratic norms and freedoms. The most successful fights against the spread of the Corona virus has been by democratic states and its opposite, namely authoritarianism, lack of transparency and limited government accountability, such as in China has actually exacerbated the crisis. The Sri Lankan State needs all the three arms of the state, namely the executive, the judiciary and the legislature functioning to ensure that we are a society governed by law or a civilized nation under the rule of law.  The executive arm of government, in any nation always finds being held accountable to a legislature to be somewhat of an irritant but it is a staple in any civilized society, except in absolute monarchies of which there are now, only a handful in the world.

It is rather obvious that the election to the ninth Parliament of Sri Lanka, also needs to be held in a manner that does not endanger the public health. The constitutional and legal arguments in that regard would be made and heard in the apex court of Sri Lanka next week. But Sri Lanka in its fight against the spread of Covid-19 cannot and should not weaken the rule of law and / or its democratic rights and freedoms. It is unnecessary and very unwise to do so.

By Harim Peiris

(Published in Groundviews on 27th April 2020)

Even for a country that coped with and ended a near thirty year long civil war, the Covid-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge, not merely in the area of public health, but also economically of a magnitude that has the potential to cause significant social upheaval. The backbone of Sri Lanka’s economy has been our expatriate worker remittances, tourism and the apparel industry. The global nature of the Covid-19 epidemic, styled a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), would mean that even after an end to the lock downs not just in Sri Lanka, but also in host countries for our expatriate workers, tourist originating nations and the apparel markets of the USA and the EU, the continuation of social distancing guidelines, virus spread mitigating measures and economic disruption may well cause these industries to not pick up to levels seen in prior years, at least for quite a while. This means serious economic pain and unemployment in Sri Lanka, resulting in social tensions.

As April 25th, the scheduled date for the parliamentary elections, declared with the proclamation dissolving parliament, came and went, the Elections Commission provisionally differed the election to 20th June 2020 and giving every indicator that public health authorities and the Covid-19 pandemic situation rather than any other factor would determine the date of holding the election.  In that context, a looming constitutional conundrum has arisen, as pointed out, late last month, by the Elections Commission to the Secretary to the President. In those now well-known missives, the independent Elections Commission (EC)  brought to the attention of the Secretary to the President, that relevant legislation required that Parliament must be convened three months after dissolution, i.e. by 2nd June, subsequent to the 2nd of March dissolution and the public health situation did not permit the conduct of a parliamentary election before this date. The EC recommended seeking the opinion of the Supreme Court regarding the situation. Even as this article is being penned, there are attempts at persuading the government to withdraw the gazette, which prematurely dissolved parliament and to reconvene the same, to enable all the three arms of the Sri Lankan State, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, to function effectively to create a unified non-partisan national response to a truly national, apolitical public health and economic challenge. The constitutional and legal provisions of the arguments regarding the dissolution of parliament, the absence of an approved budget, the violation of the approved debt ceiling, amid other legal issues could be better discussed in a different forum and may well end up decided by the Superior Courts, as indeed the constitutional issues of the October 2018 constitutional revolution was decided and resolved judicially.

However, this article seeks to examine some of the public policy and governance, as opposed to the legal issues, arising from the premature dissolution of parliament and the absence of a functioning legislature during this period of the national fight against the Covid-19. Firstly history, political science and common sense teaches us that facing a common enemy is best done in a united manner, as a common front and together, rather than divided, in factions and in a polarized manner. Accordingly, it would be wise for the government to seek to include the opposition parties and create some bi-partisan consensus on dealing with this very non-political public health issue and its economic and social fall out. A process best done in through the august assembly of Parliament.

On the contrary, the SLPP Administration, having recently won an election in November last year and with every confidence of winning the forthcoming parliamentary election, perceives little or no need for either any opposition cooperation or support. There is little love lost or trust reposed in their political opponents. When the idea of re-summoning parliament and seeking to extend the vote on account, if not pass a budget and other measures aimed at regularizing public finance beyond end April 2020, were first mooted, there were concerns in the highest echelons of the Government, that its minority status in parliament would make it vulnerable when seeking parliamentary approval and possibly open it up to defeat on a money bill and be ousted from office in the legislature. The SLPP had not forgotten the lessons of October 2018, where its minority Administration, sworn in by then President Sirisena, twice consecutively lost motions of no confidence in Parliament.

Avoid politicization and rights violations

Opinion surveys, Sri Lanka’s substitute for statistically accurate opinion polls supposedly shows very high approval ratings for the government’s response to the covid-19 epidemic. In fact, this is unsurprising, since the social distancing measures via a currently five week and increasing curfew has indeed been “flattening our curve” and the only real criticism of the government is that it dissolved parliament despite the looming virus pandemic and delayed the start of the fight against Covid-19 by quite a bit to accommodate the dissolution of parliament and the acceptance of nominations for the general elections on 19th March, with the curfew being declared the very next day on the 20th.  The question being asked from government leaders around the world, is also relevant in Sri Lanka, which is why were not these measures taken earlier, when the pandemic warnings were clear to national authorities, though not to the general public.

Leader of the Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader Sajith Premadasa has called on the government to not politicize the distribution of relief supplies, including the Rupees five thousand relief payment to needy families, resulting from the fact that local government politicians mostly from the governing SLPP have been included in the committees nominated to decide on beneficiaries. A hitherto unheard-of practice in the distribution of relief supplies from the Government in times of national emergency. This in a situation where to the contrary, the opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) controlled local councils in the North have been prevented by the Government through the Governor, in even using their own funds to provide relief for their constituencies. A measure that has been widely criticized in the North. Additionally, the Opposition has raised issue about the alleged harassment of social media activists and the detention of an Attorney at Law amid alleged serious due process lapses on the part of the relevant authorities.  These are issues best avoided when facing a crucial national challenge. One in which we are all better served, if we face it together, to more effectively deal with the issues. The approach in international diplomacy and global problem solving of consultation, cooperation and collaboration, would just as effectively serve us domestically as well as internationally.

By Harim Peiris

(Published in Groundviews on 09th April 2020)

As Sri Lanka heads towards completing nearly a month of lockdown, with first the special public holiday route adopted from 16th March and then curfew from 20th March onwards, there are emerging a set of medium to long term issues, in addition to the short term measures being adopted to “flatten the curve” or reduce and stretch out the time of the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the country. The immediate short-term measures recommended by the health authorities and eventually adopted by the Government, perhaps after some hesitation, has certainly resulted in the spread of the Covid-19 virus being contained in Sri Lanka. However, as it becomes clearer now that the risk of the spread of the virus of epidemic proportions, will be around and not actually totally abate, until a vaccine and other new medical therapies and treatments are found, there are some emerging medium-term governance and longer-term economic issues which are emerging and have been flagged by the relevant parties concerned.

Last week, the Chairman of the Elections Commission wrote to the Secretary to the President, effectively the head of the civil service, to appraise His Excellency the President, that a general election to Parliament could not be held as per his gazette notification of March 2nd, prematurely dissolving the Parliament of Sri Lanka, four and a half years into its five-year term. Hard on the heels of this missive from the Elections Commission, several smaller political party leaders, have called for the recall by the President of his gazette notification on the grounds that the state of public health does not allow for the mass socialization and internal migration which a general election necessarily entails. In the alternate others have called for summoning of the dissolved parliament as permitted in the Constitution, for the purpose of a national emergency. The rationale for the recall of Parliament or the rescinding of the gazette dissolving parliament, is that Parliament has a further period in its term and the early dissolution was a discretionary political move, a presidential prerogative under the constitution after the lapse of four and a half years after a parliamentary election, but now impractical under the existing public health situation and hence should be withdrawn, as it is impractical and not implementable.

Several analysts and government voices have argued that the government is handling the Coronavirus situation satisfactorily and there is no need to summon parliament. However, several compelling arguments to the contrary exist. Firstly Sri Lanka, like any other civilized nation on earth, is not fighting the virus with its constitution suspended and under an emergency. Other civilized nations in the world have not done so either. This global pandemic is being fought by nations as civilized societies under the rule of law. Accordingly, under law basic and crucial public finance issues exist. It is a well-founded principle in most democratic governance norms, including in Sri Lanka, that the control of public finance, through the approval of the annual state budget and the oversight of government expenditure by the executive is done by the legislature, in the tradition of the separation of powers and the checks and balances, inherent and essential in a democratic society under law.

Both the former Finance and State Finance ministers, Mangala Samaraweera and Eran Wickramaratne respectively have highlighted variously, the need to extend the Vote on Account passed by the new SLPP Administration upon its assumption of office, raise the debt ceiling to continue borrowing and also create a legal basis for various public safety measures being adopted including the ongoing curfew, which is a “police curfew” rather than a nationally declared one possible under several laws, but which would then require parliament’s concurrence. In real politic terms, complicating matters for the government, is that it is a minority government in Parliament, popular in the country through its mandate in last November’s presidential election, but cautious almost pessimistic about its ability to get Parliamentary approval for any of its initiatives. However, a legal limbo over state finance does not augur well for our long-term attractiveness as an investment destination, our international credit ratings and ability to tap global financial markets. Sri-Lanka will require to tap global financial markets to refinance that portion of its public debt maturing in 2020, a not inconsiderable Billion dollars or so and in an environment when global recession may occur.

Of more immediate concern though, as the lockdown curfew continues in the most densely populated of Sri Lanka’s districts namely the Colombo, Gampaha, Kandy, Jaffna and Kalutara districts, is the livelihood and income requirements of the self-employed and the casual laborer, mostly found in the populated urban areas of the above districts. The government proposes a Rupees five thousand a month stipend or supplies of that value to them, which relief has not yet commenced and the adequacy of which for say a typical family of four or more, is questionable. In the medium term, managing the economy, especially on the production and supply side becomes crucial, especially given our skewed income distribution in society. Quite quickly the urban poor can become destitute and vulnerable, with food security and scarcity an issue. The pressure on Sri Lanka’s exchange rate has also been acute, with the Sri Lankan Rupee depreciating over eight percent since end Feb to mid-April. In the medium term, there is a need to move from complete lockdown, to a partial lockdown and then life style changes to maintain social distancing until the threat of a fresh outbreak of the virus recedes through new medical treatments, therapies and vaccines. The complex and challenging governance issues facing us, during these unprecedented times, is best dealt with in a bi-partisan manner, with consultation and consensus.

By Harim Peiris

(Published in the Island & Groundviews on 23rd March 2020)

Nominations for the parliamentary elections of 2020 closed late last week and barely an hour after the close of nominations, the Elections Commission made its widely expected announcement that the poll would be postponed until the threat to public health through the rapid potential spread of the Covid-19 or Coronavirus has been contained. How long that would take is anybody’s guess, though the experience in China, the nation where it all began, seemed to indicate that a period of two to three months was needed to contain the worst threat and gear public health systems to deal with the epidemic over a longer term basis. End May is currently referred to as the earliest possible date when the elections could be held, with June or July a more prudent and likely time frame.

Politically the ruling party was keen to see the election happen sooner rather than later, the President informing his SAARC counterparts in a conference call prior to the close of nominations that the elections would proceed, while to the contrary Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa called for the postponement of the elections, stating that public health and safety was paramount, rather than elections and should be ensured before the polls. The JVP and the TNA, respectively the third and fourth largest political parties in the country, after the two main blocks, echoed similar sentiments. The Elections Commission concurred. Given that the electoral process requires a mass domestic human migration or movement of people and that campaigning makes social distancing impossible, the decision of the Elections Commission was inevitable. Perhaps in hindsight the hasty dissolution of parliament when Covid-19 was known as a global pandemic was unwise.

The SLPP and the SLFP unite while the SJB and UNP fail to do so

 The most notable feature of the election nominations now concluded, is that the SLPP was able to draw the vast majority of the SLFP into its ranks, baring its Kalutara strongman Kumara Welgama, who formed the new SLFP and joined Sajith Premadasa and the SJB. The SLFP will contest the elections together with the SLPP in 18 districts with the exception of four districts with sizable minority voters, where it will contest under its own ‘hand’ symbol. Perhaps, acknowledging the futility of seeking to persuade minority voters to vote for the SLPP. In recognition of the same, the SLPP is not contesting in the Jaffna district, having received single digits levels of support there in the presidential elections and that was when its EPDP allies were campaigning for it. For the parliamentary polls the EPDP is going it alone and its leader Douglas Devananda is likely to mobiliSe the EPDP’s customary voter base and retain his seat in Parliament.

It is in the main opposition block, that negotiations, shuttle talks and even direct discussions between Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and his erstwhile political leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe failed to persuade the latter, that rather like his political mentor and uncle former president JR Jayawardena, who graciously, if not entirely willingly, conceded the Party leadership to Premadasa Senior, that he should follow suit and do likewise in this instance. Instead he has chosen, rather like Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s immortalized poem, to do the charge of the light brigade and for the UNP to contest elections in all districts, with most incumbent UNP MPs and all their political allies, including the JHU, the SLMC and the TPA contesting as part of the SJB. Just as senior British military officers in the Crimean war had not internalized the reality of heavy artillery in open warfare and still believed in the horse- mounted cavalry charge of yesteryear, the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe seems convinced that it is not the political personas, policies and promise, but the party brand, history and most strangely the party symbol which carry weight with voters. The experience of the SLFP vis-a-vis the SLPP, the TULF vis a vis the TNA, all point to the contrary. Even more concretely, the political acumen of the UNP’s junior partner parties are the most accurate bell weather regarding which way the political winds are blowing and the UNP has been unable to persuade a single ally to contest alongside it. All are with the SJB and its leader Sajith Premadasa. In fact except in Colombo where the UNP is likely to ensure the election of both Ravi Karunanayake and Ranil Wickramasinghe himself as well as in Gampaha, it is hard to see in which other districts the UNP can end up anything other than a distant fourth behind the SLPP, the SJB and the JVP and thereby generally fail to secure a seat. It may pick up a single national list seat as well. The SJB also has the advantage of the presidential elections which was a massive political coming out party for the young Premadasa. He is generally believed in opposition circles to have acquitted himself quite well in that process. It is a gross error on the part of Ranil Wickremasinghe’s advisors to believe that the younger Premadasa will politically decline rather like then Field Marshall (the General) Sarath Fonseka did after his own unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2010. Sarath Fonseka was an outsider to the UNP as well as inexperienced in politics and it showed up both during the 2010 campaign and thereafter. On the contrary Sajith Premadasa has spent 20 years in Parliament, a little less than half that time in Government, comes deep from within the UNP, with a generational heritage of leadership in that party, accomplished a self-made rise to the top rungs of the party, successfully wrested the presidential election nomination away from his leader and post-election weaned away all the political allies away from the UNP to his wider SJB opposition alliance.

Putting politics and elections very much on the back burner, Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans will focus on their public health challenge and overcoming the global Covid-19 pandemic within Sri Lanka’s borders and recovering from a battered economy in the context of a global slowdown, before focusing on electing the next Parliament of Sri Lanka.

By Harim Peiris

(Published in the Island on 03rd March 2020)

A successful challenge to the SLPP led Rajapaksa Administration will require the coming together of the disparate forces arraigned against its largely mono ethno-religious political constituency and its singular interests.

Even as Parliament is dissolved on the night of March 2nd to pave the way for parliamentary elections in April, dominating the news, is the formation of the main opposition political force, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) headed by Sajith Premadasa. The former housing minister and UNP Deputy Leader, garnered a respectable forty two percent (42%) of the national vote, in his unsuccessful bid to do the near impossible and halt the demise and bring about the reelection of the hopelessly fractious and consequently ineffective Yahapalana Administration at last year’s presidential election. Consequently, the political mantle of the leadership of the non-Rajapakse political forces in the country, including the office of the Leader of the Opposition fell upon Mr. Premadasa. These did not come to Mr. Premadasa by default but through the conscious decision of the opposition political forces in the country, who see in Mr. Premadasa, the most viable and likely democratic alternative to the SLPP led Rajapakse Administration.

A broad alliance

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), literally meaning the national peace force, is a rather quixotic though entirely appropriate name for a political alliance in a polarized and deeply divided society. A political force which in peace, brings together (as its name suggests), a wide range of political opinion and interests, ranging from the Sinhala nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), to the ethnic minority parties of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Tamil Peoples Alliance (TPA) and including such socialist parties as the United Left Front (ULF). The nature of the SJB’s composition, including as it does, Sinhala nationalists and ethnic minority parties, contain the contours and outlines of the political alliance which will eventually be needed in 2024 to mount an effective challenge to the newly elected SLPP Administration. It is particularly significant, because contrary to the claim to be inclusive and heterogenous, the SLPP still largely draws its support from Sri Lanka’s majority ethno-religious community, with little attraction outside of it. A case in point, is the voting patten of the largely Sinhala but Catholic Christian Negombo electorate, where Mr. Premadasa won 53% to 38% and the adjacent but albeit more religiously diverse Wattala electorate which he also won more narrowly by 47% to 46%. This in the Gampaha district which was overall won handsomely by his opponent 59% to 34%. So, the Sinhala but Roman Catholic / Christian Negombo, bucked the trend in the largely Sinhala south, to support Sajith Premadasa. This should also be salutary to some elements of the Roman Catholic Church, which regrettably and notwithstanding the 2019 electoral cycle, threw numerous brickbats, perhaps justifiably so, in the context of the Easter Sunday attacks, at the then Yahapalana Administration, only to find its bastion of Negombo voting for the Yahapalana standard bearer, showing a healthy political disconnect between the basilica and the electorate. Roman Catholic Christian majority Mannar District voted 85% to 10% in favor of Sajith Premadasa. It is also a recognition that in the aftermath of the dastardly Easter bomb attack, that then Minister Sajith Premadasa was quick to demonstrate decisive political leadership, not only visiting all three bombed churches, including the Pentecostal and largely ethnically Tamil, Zion Church in Batticalo but also visited the mosques the North Western Province, which were opportunistically attacked with impunity and damaged in the mini pogrom which followed the said attacks. He was quick to dispense reconstruction funds through the common amenities section of his housing ministry budget for the reconstruction of the damaged places of religious worship, both Roman Catholic, non-RC Christian and Muslim. Truly a national peace force and a force for peace.

The SJB though currently in political opposition, presents an inclusive and civic alternative to what is a dominant, majoritarian and exclusivist view of Sri Lanka. A successful challenge to the SLPP led Rajapaksa Administration will require the coming together of the disparate forces arraigned against its largely mono ethno-religious political constituency and its singular interests. Similar to the rainbow coalition which dislodged a deeply entrenched and populist, previous Rajapaksa Administration in 2015. It doesn’t require a particularly astute political scientist or a sophisticated political analysis, to recognize that the parliamentary elections of April 2020, will not result in a reversal of the manner in which Sri Lankan the public voted in the November 2019 presidential election. In fact, a significant decrease in voter turnout among opposition supporters, the usual trend following an electoral defeat, especially in the more rural electorates, is likely to result in a significantly greater public mandate for the SLPP. Providing the interesting phenomena, that Mahinda Rajapaksa leading the parliamentary elections for the SLPP will get a bigger mandate through a higher percentage of the popular vote, than President Gotabaya Rajapaksa did at last November’s presidential poll.

A non-event regarding the JSB symbol

The current imbroglio regarding the electoral symbol of the SJB is a storm in a tea cup. The real issue is political support and this is largely with Mr. Premadasa. What matters is policies and political personalities and not symbols. In all this the younger opposition leader is ahead. The dispute over the symbol is reminiscent of the internecine conflict over the presidential candidature last year. The UNP and then opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe kept insisting until the eleventh hour that he will be the presidential candidate and then had the nomination wrested from him, by the political realities of the wishes of the political forces comprising the opposition. Those same realities resulted in him having to concede the position of leader of the opposition to his younger deputy, Mr. Premadasa, when his attempt to stay on as Prime Minister under the newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapakse was unsuccessful. Mostly due to the immediate resignation, once the election results were known of key members of his Government, including then Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who insisted on stepping aside gracefully and respecting the wishes of the people reflected in the clear mandate given to the SLPP. The vast majority of the UNP’s active politicians, like its key allies are supporters of Sajith Premadasa. This support is not personal but political. Sajith Premadasa increased the share of the UNP voter base from the dismal 24% it polled in the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Saba local government election in October 2019 to considerably more nationally one month later. However, there is no reason why Mr. Wickremesinghe cannot like his erstwhile partner in government, former President Maithripala Sirisena now ensconced as Chairman of the SLPP led alliance, be accommodated as Chairman of the SJB, be promised space and facilities at the Opposition Leader’s office at Marcus Fernando Mawatha and in parliament and be given pride of place in representing the UNP in its membership meetings, dealings and activities with the International Democratic Union (IDU), all roles for which Mr. Wickremesinghe is ideally suited. A graceful promotion upstairs for him, rather like iconic Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike became a non-executive senior in the SLFP, in favor of her daughter, former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 1993/94. A united UNP within the Jathika Samagi Balawegaya (JSB) will provide the best bet for the highest possible opposition representation in the 9th Parliament of the Republic of Sri Lanka, to be elected in April 2020.