“Stripped with Thieves…”
“Thieves and Lies…”
“Mugged Character…”
“A New Thief Wanted…”
“Nothing Without Thieves…”
This was the wave of popular stage dramas that emerged in Sri Lanka after the 2015 Presidential Election. The reason was simple: “catching thieves” had become the most popular political slogan during that election.
It was former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s Movement for a Just and Fair Society, led byVen. Sobitha Thero, that elevated catching thieves into a dominant political rallying cry. Later, several organizations, including Purawesi Balaya, joined this movement. Its objective was to field a common candidate for the 2015 Presidential Election to stand against thieves—specifically against the alleged corruption and violence of the Rajapaksa family.
In 2015, the UNP, Sarath Fonseka’s party, and the JVP joined this movement. Maithripala Sirisena, then General Secretary of the SLFP, broke away from the government to become the common candidate, along with several powerful ministers from the Rajapaksa administration. Maithripala and those ministers declared that they defected in protest against Rajapaksa corruption. They repeatedly portrayed the Rajapaksa family as a criminal ring. The public believed these claims and elected Maithripala President, handing governance to Ranil Wickremesinghe. This administration was branded the ‘Yahapalana’ (good governance) government.
What the people expected from this government was clear: the arrest of thieves. As a result, the most publicly attractive and politically powerful portfolio—more than even Prime Minister or Finance Minister—became the Ministry of Justice, which was tasked with catching thieves.
Maithripala and Ranil appointed Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, former President of the Bar Association, as Minister of Justice. Wijeyadasa had previously left the government after probing corruption involving former UNP ministers who had joined the Rajapaksas in 2006, while serving as Chairman of the COPE Committee. The general consensus was that Wijeyadasa was ideally suited to lead the flagship project of the government—catching thieves.
However, before long, senior government figures such as Sarath Fonseka, Champika Ranawaka, and Rajitha Senaratne accused Wijeyadasa of cutting deals and sabotaging the anti-corruption drive. The main trigger for these accusations was the investigation into Avant Garde, the floating armoury company. Fonseka, Champika, and Rajitha publicly alleged that Wijeyadasa was suppressing investigations by the Attorney General’s Department due to his friendship with Avant Garde’s chairman.
At this point, Ven. Sobitha Thero, the architect of the ‘catch the thieves’ slogan, thundered that the government was failing to act—famously warning that “when the pan is hot, you must bake the bread.” Civil society groups, including Purawesi Balaya, demanded Wijeyadasa’s removal. Wijeyadasa, in turn, openly confronted both fellow ministers and civil organizations.
President Maithripala was reluctant to remove him, largely due to their close personal relationship. Wijeyadasa had earned Maithripala’s favour by pursuing investigations into the bond scam implicating Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ravi Karunanayake, at Maithripala’s behest.
Nevertheless, the UNP Working Committee eventually decided to remove Wijeyadasa as Justice Minister, declaring that he was obstructing the public mandate to catch thieves. Under pressure from the UNP and the very civil society groups that had brought the government to power, Maithripala could no longer remain silent. Wijeyadasa was removed not only from the Justice Ministry but from all ministerial posts. He crossed over to the opposition and launched attacks on the government—eventually joining the very Rajapaksas he had once branded as thieves.
Wijeyadasa was removed in August 2017. On 10February 2018, at the local government elections, the so-called thief-catching government suffered a crushing defeat, while the Rajapaksas—once labelled thieves—secured a resounding victory.
The reason for this defeat was simple: the government blatantly violated its promise to catch thieves and reduced anti-corruption into a mere political spectacle.
When civil society leaders like Sobitha Thero and Karu Jayasuriya raised the slogan against the Rajapaksa regime—then flaunting its power by imprisoning Sarath Fonseka and removing Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake—Maithripala and his group of ministers were actually defending the Rajapaksas. Only at the last moment did Maithripala defect as the common candidate, effectively hijacking Sobitha Thero’s slogan.
The same pattern repeated in 2024. Frontline Socialist activists and social media leaders initiated the struggle demanding punishment for those who bankrupted the country in 2022. The JVP joined later—but eventually appropriated the slogan.
As in 2015 Maithripala, Anura became President in 2024, and the JVP came to power. Once again, the most popular and pivotal ministry was the Justice Ministry. Just as Maithripala and Ranil handed that portfolio to Wijeyadasa, Anura entrusted it to Harshana Nanayakkara, a figure rooted in a traditional political family and conventional politics.
Wijeyadasa’s problem was his enduring friendships with Rajapaksa-era businessmen and ministers, despite breaking away from them politically. Harshana’s background is similarly complex: his father was a senior figure in the Mahajana Party who fought alongside Vijaya Kumaratunga and leftist leaders against the JVP in 1988–89. One of his uncles, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, was a former Rajapaksa minister; another, Hemakumara, was a prominent UNP figure.
Today, the same accusation levelled against Wijeyadasa after 2015—that he failed to catch thieves—is now being directed at Harshana, notably by the young social media activists who spearheaded the struggle that brought the JVP to power.
The 2015 government did not receive a strong mandate to catch thieves. Maithripala won largely through minority votes, while Mahinda Rajapaksa retained the majority of Sinhala-Buddhist votes. In the 2015 general election, Ranil failed to secure 113 seats, winning only 106, and governed through a coalition, with the President acting as leader.
In contrast, the people handed Anura and the JVP a two-thirds majority, decisively defeating all former ministers and MPs. In Anura’s own words, the people gave him a shattered opposition, whereas Maithripala and Ranil were given a strong one.
It was not the Rajapaksas who toppled the 2015 government, but the very organizations that brought it to power—crying out that the government had failed to catch thieves.
“Will it be that same cry—not the opposition—that brings down this government too…?”
