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A deeply pervasive argument is being trotted out by some Opposition parliamentarians that the coming together of political parties opposed to the National People’s Power (NPP) Government is akin to the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, China and the United States and other nations of the ‘free world’ uniting to stop the advances of Nazi Germany.

 Right-wing parties promising to protect democracy

This is as laughable as it is a woefully mistaken reading of history. The Allied powers leveraged their combined forces during World War II, despite clear ideological and strategic differences, to prevent Adolf Hitler’s particularly repugnant form of fascism spreading across the globe. In contrast, at least where the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) of the Rajapaksas and its ill-bred political satellites are concerned, the logic is entirely the converse.

To put the matter bluntly, these are flag bearers of an equally repugnant brand of right wing Sinhala Buddhist extremism. That brand was proudly paraded for decades by the Rajapaksa family which fashioned a once immensely successful political project on the same lines. Its well-scrubbed scion is now (unconvincingly) masquerading as the ‘protector of democracy’ holding forth on governing politicians disregarding court orders.

There are other parties wearing that disreputable right wing mantle more discreetly such as the Sarvajana Balaya Party led by an entrepreneur and onetime staunch Rajapaksa loyalist. It was to him that extremist dregs of the SLPP flocked when ignominiously thrown out of power by the ‘peoples’ uprising’ in 2022. These dregs included a racist member of former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s ‘Vipathmaga’ (to correct the title).

Those responsible for poisoning the national blood stream

Cutting his political teeth on those same credentials, he was the first person who cast stones (along with certain police officers and hospital staff of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, at a senior (Muslim) gynaecologist, claiming that he had ‘sterilised Buddhist women’ Years later, as the courts found the claim to be of no merit, poisonous communal hatred had already seeped even deeper into the national blood stream.

This was the basic ethos of the Rajapaksa regime and its offshoots. These were the political forces which (unscientifically) forbade the Muslims to bury their dead during the covid-19 pandemic. Their proclamation was that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country in which the minorities are ‘allowed’ to live as long as they ‘behave themselves.’ It is this toxic nationalism that brought the country to its knees in the name of ‘heroes who won the war.’

That was by subjugating the Tamil minority with the ‘war heroes’ acting like robber barons, turning corruption into a fine art and smuggling ill-gotten gains out of the country. Finally the shameful stigma of bankruptcy was stamped on the national forehead through a deadly combination of incompetent and venal leadership. That shame has yet not been erased.

Preposterous champions of democracy

Are these supposed to be the future ‘champions of democracy’ in Sri Lanka? This is as preposterous a claim as can ever be. But the Rajapaksa-allied parties joining hands is scarcely to be surprised at. What is more problematic are signs of a wider opposition joining this nefarious group of political wolves masquerading as democratic sheep, to borrow from that classic Biblical warning not to be misled.

Media reports last week were to the effect that the ‘joint opposition’ is planning a rally to be held next month to ’combat the serious erosion of the rule of law’ (the Sunday Times, October 19th, 2025). Supposedly this will include the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) as well as its parent United National Party (UNP). If so, this will assuredly not rebound to the credit of either the SJB or the UNP, it may be forewarned.

Let us say that all is forgiven if not quite forgotten regarding the crafty manoeuvres practiced by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to make sure that the political chips would fall even a fraction short for the SJB in the 2024 Presidential Elections.  But extending that cover of ‘uniting together to protect democracy’ will not work in respect of the communalistic and racist SLPP and its satellites.

A perilous game if there ever was one

The SJB must surely learn a salutary lesson from the way that it crucified itself in the eyes of the electorate by accepting ‘rejects’ from the Rajapaksa camp in last year’s parliamentary polls. Certainly the lamentably juvenile if not creepingly authoritarian governance ‘style’ of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led NPP Government has to be forcefully critiqued where it deserves to be. Its feet must be held to the metaphorical political fire when it needs to be.

But this is not to say that outrageous claims of discredited opposition parliamentarians should be swallowed wholesale. The fact that erstwhile flag bearers of war mongering ideology have not reformed is well borne out by the ceaseless utterances of a perpetually grinning attorney-member of the ‘Pivithuru Hela Urumaya’ who was lately under a cloud for making ‘offensive’ remarks.

These were alleged to offend Section 3(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act, No 56 of 2007 and Section 120 of the Penal Code. Immediately following news reports in that regard, the entire battalion of the SLPP and allied forces rose up in defence, lambasting the ‘unfair’ and ‘arbitrary’ use of the ICCPR Act against ‘free speech.’ It was as if the SLPP was waking up to the ICCPR Act for the first time, eyes blinking like a new born baby.

Political ironies at play

To the contrary, the ICCPR had been used to prohibit the freedom of speech and expression most particularly under the Rajapaksa regime that the ICCPR Act. That was by threatening, jailing and intimidating journalists, activists, poets and comedians at the hands of loyal police officers obedient to the whip of the Rajapaksas being cracked. Have we forgotten all of this? Most assuredly, that is not the case.

In fact, apart from dutifully reiterating the principle that the ICCPR Act must not be abused even in regard to one’s worst enemy, witnessing the alarm of Rajapaksa politicians when faced with such an eventuality is sweet poetic justice. There are other ironies at play. These garrulous politicians were silent when the Rajapaksas were robbing the state coffers blind in broad daylight.

It is therefore immeasurably rich that they are warning government parliamentarians that they could face prosecution for ‘diverting’ specific allowances (office, fuel, transport, telephone etc earmarked for specific purposes), to the JVP/NPP party fund. True, such ‘diversion’ is concerning if it is shown that, in fact, the parliamentarians concerned had refrained from engaging in their official functions/duties.

Sinhala Buddhist extremism on the march again

Even so, to have these irregularities pointed to by Rajapaksa satellites is farcical to say the least. This is where the danger lies. In the NPP Government not having the political savvy to comprehend and handle the Rajapaksa Deep State and in the absence of a forceful and democratic political alternative, the fear is that the gates of communalism and racism will be opened wide once more.

For there is little doubt that the forces of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism are on the march again, aided and enabled by a loyal media waiting to come into its own again. Hysteria by the extremist camp over the NPP’s appointment of a ‘Muslim’ Deputy Minister of Religious and Cultural Affairs bears this out very well. Mere gobbling by Cabinet spokespersons ‘not to worry and not to bring up unwanted issues’ is little deterrent.

The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. In Sri Lanka’s case, we can add that this road is paved with little good intentions and a whole lot of stupidity plus political chicanery.