HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
As Anura Kumara Dissanayake took oaths as the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka on 23 September, the nation was left to wonder what the future holds.
The president was elected following a historic second round of counting preferential votes and his meteoric rise to the highest seat in the land came against a backdrop of a divided opposition, so much so that nearly 58 percent of the votes cast on 21 September were for others – viz. the leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa (nearly 33%) and the sitting president Ranil Wickremesinghe (slightly over 17%) among others (around 8%).
Indeed, people from all walks of life in urban centres and beyond chose to let bygones be bygones (prime among them being two insurrections that the new president’s party unleashed in the 1970s and ’80s), ostensibly embracing Dissanayake’s promise to end corruption as well as relieve the poor in particular of their economic suffering.
For the sake of our precious nation and future generations, the hope now is that the winner and his team will walk the talk on corruption, and that they’re capable of safeguarding a bruised economy, which was painstakingly healed from the depths of bankruptcy by his predecessor.
The new president’s first words when he was sworn in offers some food for thought on this score: “I am not a magician. I am an ordinary citizen of Sri Lanka… There are things I know and don’t know. “
If there is a silver lining in what will be a period of ‘wait and see’ ahead of the next (general) election, it is that LMD’s 30 year long campaign to ‘Stop Corruption’ will take on a new and refreshed meaning; not only among our politicians but also the people, businesspeople, and even the local and foreign investor communities.
The time has come!