With the swearing-in of the popularly-elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister, an ugly chapter in Sri Lanka’s democratic history has come to end. That the disruption was caused by the incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena on account of his differences with Wickremesinghe makes the nearly two-month long assault on democracy all the more regrettable. Sirisena not only sacked Wickremeshinghe most arbitrarily but equally arbitrarily he swore in his place the defeated former PM Mahindra Rajapaksa. Sirisena’s Freedom Patry and Wickremesinghe’s United National Party had teamed up to defeat Rajapaksa in the last election.
Wickremesinghe’s dismissal had led to popular outrage. When his hand-picked prime minister failed to prove his majority, he dissolved parliament. The apex court then intervened and restored the old house. Soon Wickremesinghe proved that he still enjoyed majority support. Having publicly promised that he would never again install Wickremesinghe as prime minister, Sirisena was forced to swallow the bitter pill and follow the order of the Supreme Court. Democracy was rescued from a frontal assault thanks to the courageous intervention of the Supreme Court. Ordinary Sri Lankans too needed to be congratulated for protesting the constitutional outrage committed by President Sirisena. Hopefully, Sirisena would not again let his personal pique to wreck the constitutional order.
