Sri Lanka: Appointing Wickremesinghe as PM won't solve anything

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President Gotabaya appoints Wickremesinghe as prime minister after weeks of mass protests, strikes and general strikes in Sri Lanka

Serge Jordan International Socialist Road

(This article was first published on May 15, 2022)

After weeks of mass protests, strikes and general strikes in Sri Lanka, coupled with a violent attack by pro-authority armed thugs on the protest village "Gota Go Gama" in central Colombo earlier this week, leading to a surge of anger against the country's ruling elite, That prompted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to appoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister on Thursday to replace Gotabaya's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa - under pressure from the mass movement, plus several Thousands of angry protesters stormed his official residence, and Mahinda resigned on Monday, escorting the military from the capital.

The traditional right-wing United National Party was all but wiped out in the last general election in August 2020, and its leader Wickremesinghe is the party's only remaining MP. He didn't even get his parliamentary seat by winning in his own constituency, but by proportional representation. Under Sri Lanka's proportional representation system, some parliamentary seats are allocated based on the total number of votes each party receives. A five-time prime minister, Wickremesinghe is lauded in bourgeois and Western imperialist circles for his ability to govern, but he has little political credibility and authority among Sri Lanka's working and impoverished masses.

The point is that Wickremesinghe also has close ties to the Rajapaksa family and the Sri Lankan military who are accused of mass atrocities against ethnic Tamils, for which he categorically rejects all responsibility. He has defended state officials in the past, refused to hand them over to the International Criminal Court, and even claimed he "saved Mahinda from the electric chair". He favoured continued militarisation measures in the northern and eastern provinces of Tamil, as well as the dominance of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in the country, and vowed to ensure Buddhism would continue to have a "prime" place in the island nation's constitution.

On economic issues, Wickremesinghe is a typical free market player. Its party, the United National Party, has collapsed, but the party's neoliberal policies in Sri Lanka over the past few decades have also laid the groundwork for the current economic catastrophe. Wickremesinghe was a minister during the government of the country's second president, Jayawardene, when Jayawardene's government crushed the historic general strike of 1980. Wickremesinghe, a staunch supporter of the International Monetary Fund, has single-handedly created the country's exploitative free-trade zone, and for weeks has chanted the need for further cuts in public spending, further increases in fuel prices and other draconian announcements. austerity measures. The Chinese government has made little secret of its reservations about his appointment because he is more pro-American than his recently forced resignation predecessor.

Foreign creditors, international diplomats and the Sri Lankan business community have all expressed cautious hope. They hope that after the major events earlier in the week, the massive military deployment and the appointment of a "new" prime minister, the political situation can stabilize, Sri Lanka can secure IMF assistance, the government can drive the masses out of the streets and workers can Can return to work.

This is just wishful thinking. Resentment against the Rajapaksa family spread across the country. The masses will not be satisfied with the government's facelift in the midst of an economic catastrophe. While the regime may have bought itself a brief respite, it is widely believed that any decision made by the Gotabayas is merely a ploy to preserve their "family treasure" and free their ruling dynasty from crime , looting and corruption allegations.

Wickremesingham's value is too weak for a weakened incumbent president to even guarantee the formation of a government with a parliamentary majority; if he manages to create a minority government, it is unlikely to be sustained. He has few supporters other than the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Opposition parties and MPs are under intense pressure to oppose any arrangement for the hated Gotabaya to remain president. Many of the regime's loyalists have seen their luxury villas and cars burned to ashes, which may act as a deterrent, warning them against the ambiguity of Gotabaya's own tailor-made government - which he has made up his mind. The idea is to have four members of his own party join the government. Like most opposition parties, the largest congressional opposition party, Unity People Power (Samagi Jana Balawegaya, abbreviated SJB, a party that split from Wickremesinghe's United National Party in 2020) also insists that unless Gotabaya Step down or it will not join the interim government - however the SJB is also a pro-capitalist party, following IMF policies like Wickremesinghe and making it clear that the party as a "responsible opposition" will Support the new government's efforts to deal with the crisis.

After the massive failure of the Rajapaksa regime's attempt to suppress the mass uprising, the reinvented bourgeois mainstream politicians will now try to control the movement through a "carrot and stick" approach. The authorities have appointed a committee to "ensure the protection" (should read "back to the old politics") protest village scene, and this committee includes the mayor of Colombo as well as police and military representatives! Wickremesinghe had called for the perpetrators of the attack on the protest village to be apprehended, but now he is under the command of the younger brother of the culprit, and the only arrests so far are the dozens who fought back against the attack in self-defence. youth.

The heroic movement of Sri Lankan workers, poor and young people should have no confidence in Wickremesinghe, nor in any government cobbled together from above. There must be a struggle for class independence - the only language the ruling class is forced to understand. Undoubtedly, if the unions were all out to threaten an unrestricted "Hartal" (i.e. a general general strike accompanied by a small business strike), rather than at the last minute, as they had already done, Gotabaya and his His political career has come to an end.

The masses should fight in their workplaces, factories, communities, villages and farms to put this threat of a general strike into action until Gotabaya goes out (#GotaGoHome) and the whole system goes into history with it until. To avoid the hijacking of mass struggles, to resist militarization and all attacks on democratic rights, and to aim the struggle for a rapid improvement of living conditions, the masses should form their own local committees for action, strikes and self-defense, and link these committees across the country. The mass movement should be independent of all pro-capitalist and chauvinist parties, in order to fight for a future in which all communities are free from fear of violence and oppression — a socialist future — in which the island’s wealth is democratically produced, controlled and planned according to social needs. - and struggle.