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Despite Wickremesinghe’s arrest, Sri Lanka’s politics is stuck in its old loop

Former president Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested for misuse of public funds, but opposition leaders have opted to grandstand rather than press for reform

By Marlon Ariyasinghe
Ranil Wickremesinghe surrounded by police and lawyers coming out of the courtroom after being arrested for misusing state fun
Former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe is arrested over misuse of state funds in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 22 August, 2025. The entire old guard in Sri Lankan politics have voiced support for Wickremesinghe, downplaying the charges. What they seem to miss is that Sri Lanka’s political culture has shifted.
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In a first for Sri Lanka, a former president is under arrest in connection with misuse of state funds. On 22 August, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court ordered the arrest and remand of Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations that he used public funds on a two-day personal visit to the United Kingdom in September 2023.

The move jolted the country’s political circles. Sri Lanka’s major political leaders appeared at the court in a show of support for Wickremesinghe, including the former president Maithripala Sirisena as well as the parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, the son and heir apparent of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Another former president, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, also chimed in, stating that the arrest was a serious threat to democracy. Sajith Premadasa, presently the leader of the opposition and head of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), visited Wickremesinghe at the prison hospital where he was admitted soon after his arrest, as did former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Premadasa and Sirisena have long had public run-ins with Wickremesinghe. Premadasa’s split from Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) badly weakened the once-grand outfit, and Sirisena − who once governed with Wickremesinghe − famously removed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in Sri Lanka’s 2018 constitutional coup, replacing him with his arch rival (at the time, at least), Mahinda Rajapaksa. Yet Rajapaksa and his Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) backed Wickremesinghe when Sri Lanka’s parliament − not the electorate − elected him executive president in 2022, soon after Mahinda’s brother Gotabaya was forced to flee the country after mass protests amid a calamitous economic crisis.

Now, the entire old guard – Premadasa, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sirisena, Bandaranaike and others – have voiced support for Wickremesinghe. A couple of days after the arrest, opposition forces united against the government led by president Anura Kumara Dissanayake under the motto “Let’s defeat the constitutional dictatorship,” with current and former parliamentarians expressing solidarity with Wickremesinghe.