Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Retired Secretary to PM Sirimavo Banmdaranayaka Ex-President SLAS (1991-94) and President Mahanuwara Sinhala Baudha Jestha Purawesiyange Sanvidhanaya
I apologize to my readers for deviating from the above Headline in this article as I wish to discuss few important issues where President Mahinda Rajapaksa erred between 2010 and 2015 as they have a direct bearing on the post-2015 political ramifications in this country including those faced by the Present President which will be discussed in the essays that will follow.
In the wake of the 2009 war victory, people expected President MR to take some historic decisions like,
1) The abolition of the curse that is the 13th Amendment and Provincial Councils imposed under the provisions of the JR/Rajiv Accord of 29th July 1987 at gunpoint by India and passed by Parliament illegitimately under coercion and using MPP as hostages to destroy the territorial integrity and political stability of this Island nation and make it a part of the Indian subcontinent as they have been dreaming from the days of Rama, with the final objective of erasing the Sinhala Buddhist civilization from the face of this planet Earth.
2) Abolition of the Rajiv/JR Accord of July 29th 1987, so that the following treacherous, illegal and undemocratic decisions taken under the Accord will automatically be null and void
a) Declaration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces as the Traditional Tamil Homeland (never existed in the history of this Island Nation)
b) Accepting of Tamil as an Official Language in the whole country (again illegal, undemocratic, and treacherous as Tamil had never been the official language of this country’s 2500 history or even in India where 70 million Tamils live)
c) All Citizenship is given over an affidavit to all Indians living in Sri Lanka on the appointed date including illicit immigrants (kallathonese) violating all accepted legal procedures followed by any country in granting citizenship to foreigners.
d)The power to merge two or more Provinces, the Kavutillyan intrigue imposed by India to merge the NP first EP and CP, Sab and Uva later as the next step of taking over Sri Lanka.
e) Above all the 13th Amendment proposed by it
3) The Abolition of the National list that has killed the spirit of representative democracy in this country that opened a back door for Party leaders to bring their henchmen numbering another 29 persons as MP to Parliament, by a Constitutional Amendment bypassing the legal process of electing MPP and thereby also increasing the 196 to 225, adding a further burden to the national coffer just to add more privileges to {Party leaders to consolidate their power in Parliament)
4) Consolidation of the war victory on the ground like what
Dutugemunu and Vijayaba 1st did after the wars against the Chola invaders
5 Abolition of Political Parties based on Ethnicity, Religion and region agitating separation leading the way to disintegration of the Island
6 Restore the name of the country ‘Sinhale” as it was the name of the country that was ceded to the British Empire in 1815 (as it had been there from the inception of the history of this country)
7 Abolishing the District MP system by reintroducing the former Electorate-based MP system and also the proportional representation and the preferential voting system to make elections more democratic and simple.
8 Abolition of Multi-Member Electorate system as that tends to polarize minority communities
9 Increase 5 % to12 % for a Political Party introduce by President Premadasa which again discriminates against the majority and hinders social integration and reconciliation He could have done all these things without any problem as he had a 2/3 majority in the house and the Executive Power as the President Above all he had the support of the majority in the country
A Big Tragedy
But it is a big tragedy none of these great expectations of the Sinhala Buddhists were fulfilled.
Instead, he held the Northern Provincial Council election and paved the way for extremist communalists like Vignesvaran to start a vigorous pro-devolution, anti-Sinhala, anti- Buddhist, anti-government and pro-separation agenda. He also spent over 75 % of the national budget on infrastructure development in the North and the East expecting to win over the Tamil votes like the proverbial fox that followed a goat expecting its dangling testicles to drop to satisfy its hunger and finally got killed with a kick from the goat. In the same way, you know what happened to MR in 2015.
Had he listened to wiser advice and taken the correct decisions as given above at the correct time he would have been the leader of this country for life. The people would have made him even their King giving new life to our 2500-year-old tradition.
I made an analysis of this national tragedy in my article ‘Where Mahinda Rajapaksa went wrong” published in Lankaweb 24.2. 2016.
MR’s problem was, first, I opine he overestimated his war victory and mixed up his development priorities. Also either he had no wise advisors or he desists from such advice, for reasons known only to him. Neither he nor his so-called advisors had any acumen or the vision of statecraft of that level. He also paid less priority to the aspirations of the Sinhala Buddhists and paid more attention to Tamil and Muslim people. One such classic example was making Rauf Hakeem the Minister of Justice and everybody knows the damages he did to the entire judicial system by meddling with it to promote his community.
These were the reasons why a historic war victory of a nation ended up as a tragic abortion due to the follies of a leader where both the mother and the child got finally succumbed to death. Most leaders run blind when they get power. I do not know whether that was his problem as well. He had the 2/3 in Parliament and the whole nation (except the extremist Tamils and Muslims) acclaimed him almost as a king. But, sadly he did not know that the priorities he has selected and the advisors hanging around him have made him a King wearing new clothes. Unfortunately, there was not even a tiny tot by the wayside to shout Mum look the King is going naked’ I feel very sorry for his predicament as well as that befell my motherland in 2015. In spite of all this personally, I still like him as a populist leader.
Isn’t it the same story repeating now with President Gotabhaya as well? If Gotabhaya, on whom 6.9 m people had so much hope is also going to be inflicted with the same malady, finding a remedy to rescue this nation will be another Covid 19 operation.
(The next article of this series will appear soon in this column as part 111)