In an exclusive conversation with Padma Rao Sundarji for The Times of India on Friday, Sri Lanka ’s interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe , 75, who will contest today’s election to Sri Lanka’s highest office, spoke confidently of how he is the best man to further steer Sri Lanka on the path to full recovery after its terrible economic crisis of 2022, when rioters and vandalizers brought a government down and burnt Wickremesinghe’s private home and his precious collection of books in his library, to the ground.
Q: President Wickremesinghe, Colombo is abuzz with slogans about the three candidates leading in opinion polls ahead of tommorrow’s presidential election . Marxist-Leninist Anura Kumara Dissanayake (aka “AKD”), represents ‘revolution from the bottom,” you represent “continuity” and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa represents a mix and is therewith a ‘change with continuity’. What else makes you stand apart from your two main contenders, in an election with a total of 38 names on the ballot list?
RW: I represent those who are prepared to stay back and fight. Anura and Sajith represent those who are willing to shirk their responsibility. It is not a question of bottom to top, but about who was willing to take on responsibility in 2022. I was not the leader of an opposition. I was not the leader of a party. I was a single individual. I took over because the others were unwilling to. I became president when nobody else was willing to be president. So, what I represent is the ability to confront challenges and overcome them. What they represent is the wilingness to run away.
Q: The party founded by the Rajapaksas, the Sri Lanka People’s Party ( SLPP )supported you at the time and later withdrew support to field their own candidate, 38-year old Namal Rajapaksa. The SLPP has a strong presence in parliament. If parliament is dissolved – as usually follows a presidential election in Sri Lanka – fresh elections held, and the SLPP is re-elected with a parliamentary majority, will you work with them again?
RW: A president has to decide whether to dissolve parliament or not, and it is a matter to be discussed after the presidential poll result is out. The SLPP is currently split into three groups: one crossed over to Sajith, the other has gone along with Namal Rajapaksa and the largest number supports my candidature. I am prepared to work with everyone, provided they are willing to follow the policies we initiate. But much will depend on the combinations and numbers after this presidential poll. Some candidates contesting tommorrow poll have said they are going to dissolve parliament immediately, others have said they are only going to change the Prime Minister and then dissolve parliament. It won’t happen in 24 hours, but in the coming 3-4 days, some decision has to be taken, because the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Sri Lanka in 2 weeks. By then, there has to be a clear decision on whether Sri Lanka will go for parliamentary elections or not.Those elections will then throw up a new PM.
Q: There are rumours of Namal as the next PM, that you may even work together with Sajith Premadasa, your bête noire, who broke away from your United National Party (UNP) to form his own party, which is the largest in the opposition today….
RW: I told you, I am willing to work with anyone, even Sajith, once a new parliament is elected. Will Sajith work with me?
Q: There are many development projects and investments by India in Sri Lanka. Analysts in India say that a land bridge between the two countries is in the offing and a ‘done deal’. Are all these really projects Sri Lanka badly needs? Or do they chiefly serve to indulge India’s need for strategic space in Sri Lanka, despite concerns raised by Sri Lankan activists and citizens against some of them?
RW: On the land bridge, yes, there are certainly ecological concerns. But India is doing a feasibility study. Until that is done, there won’t be much output from Sri Lanka. Still, Sri Lanka and India have to work together on economic issues. The Vision Statement put out by myself and PM Narendra Modi contains references to that. One of the areas we have identified is renewable energy. And since India is willing to buy Sri Lanka’s renewable energy, it is natural that some of India’s entrepreneurs will want to invest in Sri Lanka.
Q: But earlier this week, your opponent AKD said that a $442-million wind power project by Adani Green Energy in Mannar and Pooneryn in northern Sri Lanka is ‘corrupt’ and will be cancelled, if he is elected president. Are you also taking a second look at the project?
RW: There is an ongoing court case against that project. So we will have to study it at the time the audit is given. Other than that, I don’t see any need to be changing anything. We must get all ongoing projects off the ground as fast as possible, to create jobs.
Q: Sri Lanka is member of China’s Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI). In March 2024, Sri Lanka’s external debt totalled 55.4 billion USD. China is your largest creditor. There have been frequent visits by China’s navy in the guise of ‘research vessels’ to Sri Lankan waters, some years ago, even nuclear submarines ‘dropped’ into Sri Lanka. Indian analysts say there are only two reasons China is in Sri Lanka: to entrap your country in debt and, by establishing military presence in the Indian Ocean, to threaten India’s security. How are you going to address India’s concerns ?
RW: We don’t see the BRI as a threat to India as far as what we are doing is concerned. But we have always said even before, that there are security concerns, they should be addressed by us, and that we must discuss with India and decide how to tackle them.
Q: The BRI stands discredited in many other member countries. Is there new thinking on your BRI partnership in Sri Lanka too? In light of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, can you pull out or cancel it? Or is that not possible anymore?
RW: We don’t see a problem with BRI and it won’t create a problem for India either.
Q: Sri Lanka wants to join BRICS. Are there any other global / Indo-Pacific groupings that interest Sri Lanka at the moment?
RW: We are in BIMSTEC and we have applied to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP ). Asia is now becoming an economic bloc. BRICS signifies the emergence of a non-western group and we should get involved in it. This is a reality of global politics today.
Q: All the groupings you mention include China. Are you not looking to join others that exclude that country?
RW: These are not military, but commercial and political organizations. In any case, what’s the problem? I mean are we to leave the UN because China is in it? Why, even India is there in BRICS along with China, in fact they started it, not us!
Q: The Tamils of North and East Sri Lanka are miffed with you because you promised them a committee, new statutes, etc. just last year, but have not delivered. A faction under former Jaffna CM Justice CV Wigneswaran has even floated its own independent Tamil candidate in the presidential poll, for the first time in the history of Sinhala-majority Sri Lanka. They say that now, nothing less than a referendum among Tamils of the North and East will do to decide their future. They don’t even want the 13th amendment co-authored by India 38 years ago, any more.
RW: Wigneswaran is a good friend of mine. They know what I am going to do there, but we could not get it enacted as law, before this election. Their floating a Tamil candidate has more to do with their Tamil parties and not with me. It’s not a problem. In my manifesto, I have already described how we are going to implement the 13th Amendment, and so far, all parties have agreed.
Q: There is a very large, influential Tamil diaspora in influential western countries. Many are your donor nations. Aren’t you worried that their Tamil citizens will now urge them to twist Sri Lanka’s arm over its debt, in exchange for certain demands in the North and East of Sri Lanka?
RW: So far, those issues have not come up. I don’t think the Tamil diaspora has that much influence in most places. In Canada perhaps, but not in Europe. I think even western countries have realized that there is a limit to diaspora politics. In Sri Lanka itself and other than some small, extreme groups, the bulk of the Tamil diaspora is interested in what’s happening here and contributing.
Q: The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has given you some respite by rolling forward a repeated Resolution on ‘accountability’ for alleged genocide by the Sri Lankan armed forces at the end of the civil war in 2009 and on thousands of ‘disappearances’ in Sri Lanka. How are you addressing those concerns?
RW: We have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission law, which will be enacted. That will take care of accountability. We have implemented other mechanisms too. But all we have said is that accountability comes within the framework of Sri Lanka’s jurisdictions, and Sri Lankan judges. We have no problems if others want to come in as observers -we are open to that. But the final decision has to be made by our judges.
Q: Analysts in Western donor nations say that you may be the right person to ensure continuity, since you have put into place reforms at the risk of your own political position in Sri Lanka. But they fear you will be unable to control corruption,which has contributed substantially to Sri Lanka going broke.
RW: Corruption is an issue everywhere. There is no country that is free of corruption. What we need is a good system. So I have asked the IMF itself to put forth a proposal on how to tackle it. In my 2 years as president, my function was to get the economy going and to reduce the burden on the people. I have done that. These other issues will come next.
Q: From 2005 to 2024 and even at times when there was relative stability here, a frequent parole during every presidential election in Sri Lanka has been a “vote for change”. Is this a faultline in the Sri Lankan psyche?
RW: “Vote for change” is a new slogan here. It replaced the old one which used to be “abolish the executive presidency”. They have nothing else to say, so they make up slogans. It has been counterproductive each time. When we go by slogans to win our elections, we don’t really perform.
That is the crisis that brought us here. So we have to change that. It’s a flaw in Sri Lankan politics, not in our psyche.
(Padma Rao Sundarji is a veteran foreign correspondent and author of “Sri Lanka: The New Country”, HarperCollins 2015)
Q: President Wickremesinghe, Colombo is abuzz with slogans about the three candidates leading in opinion polls ahead of tommorrow’s presidential election . Marxist-Leninist Anura Kumara Dissanayake (aka “AKD”), represents ‘revolution from the bottom,” you represent “continuity” and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa represents a mix and is therewith a ‘change with continuity’. What else makes you stand apart from your two main contenders, in an election with a total of 38 names on the ballot list?
RW: I represent those who are prepared to stay back and fight. Anura and Sajith represent those who are willing to shirk their responsibility. It is not a question of bottom to top, but about who was willing to take on responsibility in 2022. I was not the leader of an opposition. I was not the leader of a party. I was a single individual. I took over because the others were unwilling to. I became president when nobody else was willing to be president. So, what I represent is the ability to confront challenges and overcome them. What they represent is the wilingness to run away.
Q: The party founded by the Rajapaksas, the Sri Lanka People’s Party ( SLPP )supported you at the time and later withdrew support to field their own candidate, 38-year old Namal Rajapaksa. The SLPP has a strong presence in parliament. If parliament is dissolved – as usually follows a presidential election in Sri Lanka – fresh elections held, and the SLPP is re-elected with a parliamentary majority, will you work with them again?
RW: A president has to decide whether to dissolve parliament or not, and it is a matter to be discussed after the presidential poll result is out. The SLPP is currently split into three groups: one crossed over to Sajith, the other has gone along with Namal Rajapaksa and the largest number supports my candidature. I am prepared to work with everyone, provided they are willing to follow the policies we initiate. But much will depend on the combinations and numbers after this presidential poll. Some candidates contesting tommorrow poll have said they are going to dissolve parliament immediately, others have said they are only going to change the Prime Minister and then dissolve parliament. It won’t happen in 24 hours, but in the coming 3-4 days, some decision has to be taken, because the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Sri Lanka in 2 weeks. By then, there has to be a clear decision on whether Sri Lanka will go for parliamentary elections or not.Those elections will then throw up a new PM.
Q: There are rumours of Namal as the next PM, that you may even work together with Sajith Premadasa, your bête noire, who broke away from your United National Party (UNP) to form his own party, which is the largest in the opposition today….
RW: I told you, I am willing to work with anyone, even Sajith, once a new parliament is elected. Will Sajith work with me?
Q: There are many development projects and investments by India in Sri Lanka. Analysts in India say that a land bridge between the two countries is in the offing and a ‘done deal’. Are all these really projects Sri Lanka badly needs? Or do they chiefly serve to indulge India’s need for strategic space in Sri Lanka, despite concerns raised by Sri Lankan activists and citizens against some of them?
RW: On the land bridge, yes, there are certainly ecological concerns. But India is doing a feasibility study. Until that is done, there won’t be much output from Sri Lanka. Still, Sri Lanka and India have to work together on economic issues. The Vision Statement put out by myself and PM Narendra Modi contains references to that. One of the areas we have identified is renewable energy. And since India is willing to buy Sri Lanka’s renewable energy, it is natural that some of India’s entrepreneurs will want to invest in Sri Lanka.
Q: But earlier this week, your opponent AKD said that a $442-million wind power project by Adani Green Energy in Mannar and Pooneryn in northern Sri Lanka is ‘corrupt’ and will be cancelled, if he is elected president. Are you also taking a second look at the project?
RW: There is an ongoing court case against that project. So we will have to study it at the time the audit is given. Other than that, I don’t see any need to be changing anything. We must get all ongoing projects off the ground as fast as possible, to create jobs.
Q: Sri Lanka is member of China’s Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI). In March 2024, Sri Lanka’s external debt totalled 55.4 billion USD. China is your largest creditor. There have been frequent visits by China’s navy in the guise of ‘research vessels’ to Sri Lankan waters, some years ago, even nuclear submarines ‘dropped’ into Sri Lanka. Indian analysts say there are only two reasons China is in Sri Lanka: to entrap your country in debt and, by establishing military presence in the Indian Ocean, to threaten India’s security. How are you going to address India’s concerns ?
RW: We don’t see the BRI as a threat to India as far as what we are doing is concerned. But we have always said even before, that there are security concerns, they should be addressed by us, and that we must discuss with India and decide how to tackle them.
Q: The BRI stands discredited in many other member countries. Is there new thinking on your BRI partnership in Sri Lanka too? In light of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, can you pull out or cancel it? Or is that not possible anymore?
RW: We don’t see a problem with BRI and it won’t create a problem for India either.
Q: Sri Lanka wants to join BRICS. Are there any other global / Indo-Pacific groupings that interest Sri Lanka at the moment?
RW: We are in BIMSTEC and we have applied to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP ). Asia is now becoming an economic bloc. BRICS signifies the emergence of a non-western group and we should get involved in it. This is a reality of global politics today.
Q: All the groupings you mention include China. Are you not looking to join others that exclude that country?
RW: These are not military, but commercial and political organizations. In any case, what’s the problem? I mean are we to leave the UN because China is in it? Why, even India is there in BRICS along with China, in fact they started it, not us!
Q: The Tamils of North and East Sri Lanka are miffed with you because you promised them a committee, new statutes, etc. just last year, but have not delivered. A faction under former Jaffna CM Justice CV Wigneswaran has even floated its own independent Tamil candidate in the presidential poll, for the first time in the history of Sinhala-majority Sri Lanka. They say that now, nothing less than a referendum among Tamils of the North and East will do to decide their future. They don’t even want the 13th amendment co-authored by India 38 years ago, any more.
RW: Wigneswaran is a good friend of mine. They know what I am going to do there, but we could not get it enacted as law, before this election. Their floating a Tamil candidate has more to do with their Tamil parties and not with me. It’s not a problem. In my manifesto, I have already described how we are going to implement the 13th Amendment, and so far, all parties have agreed.
Q: There is a very large, influential Tamil diaspora in influential western countries. Many are your donor nations. Aren’t you worried that their Tamil citizens will now urge them to twist Sri Lanka’s arm over its debt, in exchange for certain demands in the North and East of Sri Lanka?
RW: So far, those issues have not come up. I don’t think the Tamil diaspora has that much influence in most places. In Canada perhaps, but not in Europe. I think even western countries have realized that there is a limit to diaspora politics. In Sri Lanka itself and other than some small, extreme groups, the bulk of the Tamil diaspora is interested in what’s happening here and contributing.
Q: The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has given you some respite by rolling forward a repeated Resolution on ‘accountability’ for alleged genocide by the Sri Lankan armed forces at the end of the civil war in 2009 and on thousands of ‘disappearances’ in Sri Lanka. How are you addressing those concerns?
RW: We have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission law, which will be enacted. That will take care of accountability. We have implemented other mechanisms too. But all we have said is that accountability comes within the framework of Sri Lanka’s jurisdictions, and Sri Lankan judges. We have no problems if others want to come in as observers -we are open to that. But the final decision has to be made by our judges.
Q: Analysts in Western donor nations say that you may be the right person to ensure continuity, since you have put into place reforms at the risk of your own political position in Sri Lanka. But they fear you will be unable to control corruption,which has contributed substantially to Sri Lanka going broke.
RW: Corruption is an issue everywhere. There is no country that is free of corruption. What we need is a good system. So I have asked the IMF itself to put forth a proposal on how to tackle it. In my 2 years as president, my function was to get the economy going and to reduce the burden on the people. I have done that. These other issues will come next.
Q: From 2005 to 2024 and even at times when there was relative stability here, a frequent parole during every presidential election in Sri Lanka has been a “vote for change”. Is this a faultline in the Sri Lankan psyche?
RW: “Vote for change” is a new slogan here. It replaced the old one which used to be “abolish the executive presidency”. They have nothing else to say, so they make up slogans. It has been counterproductive each time. When we go by slogans to win our elections, we don’t really perform.
That is the crisis that brought us here. So we have to change that. It’s a flaw in Sri Lankan politics, not in our psyche.
(Padma Rao Sundarji is a veteran foreign correspondent and author of “Sri Lanka: The New Country”, HarperCollins 2015)
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