NEED TO KNOW

All or Nothing

SRI LANKA

The People’s Liberation Front (JVP) in Sri Lanka was founded as a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist political party. Today, however, the JVP under the leadership of presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake has become the island’s most powerful anti-establishment force.

And on Sept. 21, when voters go to the polls to choose their next president, it’s possible that for the first time in years, it’ll be an outsider like Dissanayake.

That’s because many Sri Lankans are sick and tired of their political elites in the aftermath of the so-called “Aragalaya” – the civil unrest and political crisis that gripped Sri Lanka in July 2022 following its economic collapse, which led to the ousting of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

“Widespread public discontent over corruption, economic hardships and nepotism among the ruling elite provided potent fuel for the public mobilization that overthrew Rajapaksa,” explained World Politics Review, adding that parliament’s elevation of current President Ranil Wickremesinghe disillusioned many voters who perceived the leader as a continuation of Rajapaksa’s regime.

Aragalaya activists, in contrast, were seeking a “system change.”

Dissanayake is running against the system. His opponents include Wickremesinge, who is the nephew of the late President JR Jayewardene; Namal Rajapaksa, the son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and nephew of ousted ex-President Rajapaksa; and Sajith Premadasa, the son of another former president, Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Namal Rajapaksa says he’s running because he’s passionate about helping Sri Lanka and wants to clear his besmirched family’s name, wrote the Associated Press. He might also be concerned about an unfriendly head of state who might not protect his family from investigations and subsequent prosecutions into the many alleged corrupt schemes that benefitted them while they ran the government.

Dissanayake doesn’t have that baggage. “I see he is honest in attempting to change the system,” political analyst Gamini Viyangoda told Al Jazeera. “When he says he’d close the doors to corruption, I believe he means it. Whether he’d manage to do it or not is another matter, but I haven’t seen this genuineness in any other political leader.”

Sajith Premadasa, who leads the opposition in parliament, has already signaled his willingness to go after elites like the Rajapaksa family. He has vowed to renegotiate the country’s agreements with the International Monetary Fund to make sure the rich pay taxes while the poor receive more aid.

Interestingly, no women are running for president, noted Reuters. The country set a 25 percent quota for female lawmakers to make their legislature more gender-balanced, but women are still hard to come by in political positions.

Some parts of the system don’t want to change, commentators say. But the election may force it.

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