‘With thieves…’
‘Thieves and lies…’
‘Carithe horu aran…’
‘A new thief is needed…’
‘There is no way without thieves…’
This wave of political drama became popular in Sri Lanka after the 2015 presidential election. The reason was simple: the dominant political slogan of that election was the promise to catch thieves.
“Catching thieves” became a popular slogan in Sri Lankan politics through former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s Movement for a Free and Just Society and its leader, Sobitha Thero. Subsequently, a number of organisations, including Puravisa Balaya, joined this movement. Its objective was to field a common candidate against corruption in the 2015 presidential election—specifically against the alleged theft and thuggery of the Rajapaksa family.
In 2015, the UNP, Sarath Fonseka’s party, and the JVP joined this movement. SLFP Secretary Maithripala Sirisena broke away from the government and emerged as the common candidate, accompanied by several powerful ministers from the Rajapaksa administration. Maithripala and these ministers declared that they had defected in opposition to the thefts of the Rajapaksa family. They ridiculed the Rajapaksas, describing them as a “ring of thieves”. The public believed these claims and elected Maithripala as President. Ranil Wickremesinghe was entrusted with forming the government, which came to be known as the good governance government.
The public expected this government to catch thieves. Consequently, the ministerial portfolio that attracted more public attention than even the Prime Minister or Finance Minister was the Ministry of Justice, which was seen as responsible for delivering justice against corruption.
Maithripala and Ranil appointed Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, a former Chairman of the Bar Association and a lawyer, as Minister of Justice. Wijeyadasa had previously resigned from the government in 2006 while serving as Chairman of the Parliamentary COPE Committee, in order to investigate corruption involving former UNP ministers who later joined the Rajapaksa camp. There was widespread public opinion that Wijeyadasa was well suited to lead the government’s most popular and central project—catching thieves.
However, before long, senior government figures such as Sarath Fonseka, Champika Ranawaka, and Rajitha Senaratne accused Wijeyadasa of striking deals with the Rajapaksas and sabotaging corruption investigations. A key reason for these accusations was the investigation into the Avant Garde company, which owned a floating armoury. Fonseka, Champika, and Rajitha publicly alleged that Wijeyadasa had undermined investigations by the Attorney General’s Department due to his friendship with the chairman of Avant Garde.
It was during this period that Sobitha Thero—the originator of the “catch thieves” slogan—raised a powerful voice that shook the government. He warned that the government would fail to catch thieves and insisted that “the plate must be struck while the stove is hot”. Civil society organisations, including Citizens’ Power, launched protests demanding Wijeyadasa’s removal as Justice Minister. Wijeyadasa, in turn, began openly confronting ministers and civil society groups who criticised him.
President Maithripala was reluctant to remove Wijeyadasa, largely due to their close personal relationship. Wijeyadasa had also secured Maithripala’s favour by pursuing investigations into bond allegations involving Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ravi Karunanayake at the President’s request.
Nevertheless, the UNP Working Committee eventually decided to remove Wijeyadasa from the post of Justice Minister, publicly stating that he was sabotaging the mandate to catch thieves. Faced with pressure from the UNP and the civil society organisations that had brought the government to power, Maithripala relented. He removed Wijeyadasa not only from the Ministry of Justice but from all ministerial positions.
Wijeyadasa then crossed over to the opposition and began exposing the government’s shortcomings. Ironically, the man appointed to catch thieves ultimately aligned himself with the very Rajapaksas who had been branded as thieves. Wijeyadasa was removed in August 2017. At the local government elections held on 10 February 2018, the government that had promised to catch thieves suffered a crushing defeat, while the Rajapaksas—whom it had accused of theft—won a resounding victory.
The primary reason for the government’s defeat was precisely this failure. The government had blatantly violated its promise to catch thieves and had turned the issue into a political spectacle.
When civil society organisations led by Sobitha Thero and Karu Jayasuriya raised the slogan of catching thieves against the Rajapaksa government—which had demonstrated its power by imprisoning Sarath Fonseka and impeaching Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake—Maithripala and the ministers who later defected were still defending the Rajapaksas. Having emerged as a common candidate at the last moment, Maithripala and his allies appropriated Sobitha Thero’s slogan.
A similar pattern unfolded in 2024. The struggle to punish those responsible for bankrupting the country in 2022 was initially driven by frontline workers and social media activists. The JVP joined later. Ultimately, however, the JVP appropriated the slogan of punishing thieves from the original protest movement.
As in 2015, Anura Kumara Dissanayake became President in 2024 and the JVP came to power. The most prominent and politically significant ministry in the new government was once again the Ministry of Justice—the ministry tasked with catching thieves. Just as Wijeyadasa had been appointed in 2015, Anura appointed Harshana Nanayakkara as Minister of Justice, despite his roots in traditional politics and a well-established political family background.
The problem with Wijeyadasa had been that, although he broke away from the Rajapaksa family, he maintained close relationships with their business associates and ministers. Harshana’s background has raised similar concerns. His father was a prominent figure in the People’s Party and opposed the JVP during the 1988–89 period, aligning instead with Vijaya Kumaratunga and leftist leaders. One of his uncles, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, served as a minister under the Rajapaksa government, while another, Hemakumara Nanayakkara, was a leading figure in a UNP administration.
Today, the same accusations levelled against Wijeyadasa after 2015—that the government has failed to catch thieves—are being directed at Harshana. These criticisms are now coming from the younger social media activists who helped propel the JVP to power.
The mandate given to the 2015 government to catch thieves was relatively weak. Maithripala Sirisena won the presidential election largely through minority votes. Although Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated, he retained the majority of Sinhala Buddhist votes.
At the 2015 general election, Ranil Wickremesinghe failed to secure 113 seats, winning only 106. Moreover, his administration was a coalition government, while the President belonged to the opposition party.
By contrast, Anura and the JVP were granted a two-thirds parliamentary majority, defeating all former MPs and ministers. In Anura’s own words, the people delivered a “shattered opposition”. By comparison, the Maithripala–Ranil government faced a strong and organised opposition.
The 2015 government was not brought down by the Rajapaksa family alone, but by the growing belief that the very forces which brought it to power would ultimately fail to catch thieves.
“Was it not this slogan—rather than the opposition—that brought the government down?”
