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The Last King of Sri Lanka

Jun 28, 2015 1:56:41 PM

Rajapaksa

has

plans

to

contest in the parliamentary election of 2015. Many argue this is an attempt to regain his Presidency. A
valid concern: if Rajapaksa runs for Parliament and is by chance elected Prime Minister, he is one gun shot
away from becoming President again. This has to be his agenda, and I will explain why.
by Thisuri Wanniarachchi

( June 28, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I first


met President Rajapaksa when I was 11 years old. I had won a national short story
competition and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs had taken me and several other
winners to Temple Trees to see the President. He was a rare and skilled politician. He
knew the game and he played it very well. He had a clever way of making people feel
comfortable around him. He patted our heads spoke to us for a long time; asked us
about school and home. We were infatuated. He had us hooked. The other kids and I
would go home and tell our friends and family what a great man he was. He was
simple, loving, almost god-like. Hes like a father, not a President, the kid from
Mahiyangana who was the winner of the Sinhala short story category said on our way
out. Little did we know, that was all politics. Politics was all PR and propaganda; and
Rajapaksa knew this very well.
I met him again when I was sixteen, when I won the State Award for the Best Novel of
the year. By then I had read many books on democracy and governance, and I was
starting to realize what Rajapaksa was up to. He was playing us. He was satisfying his
electorates in every way he could, and ignoring the rest of his duties. By 2012 at least
30% of the people had noticed this, with the way he treated General Fonseka and his

supporters, and by 2013 40% of the people were talking about the growing nepotism.
By 2014, he had resorted to creating internal conflict within religious communities to
distract the people from the economic menace that the country was in due to
mishandling of state resources; bad move on his part, and his opposition grew to 5055%. His propaganda was no longer effective and come 2015 elections, he is
defeated.
Although Sri Lanka was declared an electoral democracy in 1948, Rajapaksas
political propaganda referred to him as the king of Sri Lanka. His henchman, locally
renowned historian and artist Jackson Anthony even went a step further to tweak Sri
Lankas history to tie up the Rajapaksas to King Suddhodhana of India, Lord Buddhas
father[1]. According to Jackson Anthony the Rajapaksas werent just royalty; they were
holy. But as the 2015 elections came closer, and the poll predictions and the public
support went further away from him, Rajapaksa showed his true colors. In his
campaign concluding speeches, he asked his people to vote for him because he was
the known devil. This post explores the life and leadership of a rare holy devil:
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the last king of Sri Lanka.
Illegitimacy.
Rajapaksa came to power in 2005 in an inhumanly rigged in election. An alleged
political deal with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, (also known as LTTE, the
separatist terrorist group that led the 30 year civil war in Sri Lanka) stopped the warstruck citizens of Northern Sri Lanka from voting. On Election Day, bombs were set off
at polling stations. LTTE motorcades roamed the streets, watching out. Vehicles that
attempted to transport voters were set on fire. The few who were rebellious enough to
still go to the polling stations were assaulted, sometimes killed. In Jaffna, the heart of
the North, a youth activist was beaten to death in the Hindu College grounds. One
man who voted had his inked finger cut off, clarifying the message to the others. With
his voter base lying majorly in the islands ethnic minorities, all the voters who were
suppressed from voting in the North were supporters of candidate Ranil
Wickremesinghe and his more conciliatory stance on the ethnic issue (as opposed to
Rajapaksas militarist- solution) Mahinda Rajapaksa suffocated the lion of Sri Lankan
democracy and made a red carpet out of its leather to make his illegitimate entrance to
leadership with a 50.2% majority victory. His extensive plan for the next three years,
brings a military solution to end Sri Lankas 30 year civil war. Rajapaksa runs for a
second term immediately after the military victory, and has a landslide win thanks to
the nationalist citizens elated over the end of the war.
Early Life and Political Career
Percy Mahendra (Mahinda) Rajapaksa was born to a prominent political family in
Southern Sri Lanka. His uncle D.M. Rajapaksa began the family trend of wearing the
earthy brown shawl that represents kurakkan (finger millet,) cultivation of which makes
the livelihood of most his electorate. Rajapaksa studied at Richmond College in
Southern Sri Lanka and later moved to Nalanda and Thurston more prominent city
schools in Colombo. Mahinda Rajapaksa is also a talented actor who played roles in

several Sinhala movies, skills acquired from which came to his benefit later in his
political career. Following his fathers death in 1967, Rajapaksa is replaced as the
SLFP candidate for the Beliatta constituency and was elected to the Parliament of Sri
Lanka in 1970 as the youngest Member of Parliament at just 24 years old. In 1994
Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed the Minister of Labor under the incumbent
president Chandrika Bandayanaike Kumaratunge. When he lost is position in the
government in United National Partys sweeping victory in 2002, he was appointed the
leader of the opposition. Following the General Elections of 2004, Rajapaksa is
appointed the 13th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and also the Minister of Highways.
Corruption, media- repression and violence
The deadly tsunami of 2004 hit Sri Lanka during Rajapaksas time as the Minister of
Highways and Prime Minister. There are many strong allegations of tsunami aid
embezzlement by the Rajapaksas, allegations which would very well explain
Rajapaksas very expensive political campaign (and alleged rigging deal with the
LTTE) in the following year. The Golden Wave by Michele Gamburd speaks very
descriptively of the debate of the Rs. 83 Million of Tsunami aid that Rajapaksa
transferred to three private bank accounts of his. In Sri Lanka, however, these
conversations have been very cleverly hidden away. Rajapaksa being a militaristic
leader often used the power of forces as self-defense mechanism. Rajapaksa had the
media on his hook. The Sunday Leader was one of the few media sources that was
fearless enough to question Rajapaksas extremely unethical and suspicious way of
handling the tsunami aid. The Sunday Leader questioned Rajapaksas Helping
Hambanthota project which he claimed he was using the international aid funds for. It
questioned why the aid meant for the entire countries rehabilitation was scheduled to
be used only in Hambanthota, why the aid was transferred to private accounts, and
why the signatories of the accounts were not government officials. Although the other
local media corporations succumbed to Rajapaksas oppression, The Sunday Leader
continued to speak of Rajapaksa and his administrations allegations of corruption.
Before long, the editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickremethunga was brutally
murdered by four armed assassins riding motorcycles who broke into his vehicle
breaking its window and shooting him in broad daylight amidst (high security zone)
Colombos traffic. Lasantha is one of many journalists who have been killed, abducted
or reported missing during the reign of the Rajapaksa regime. Almost all active
mainstream media outlets that criticized the Rajapaksa regime were banned and
attacked (Capital Maharaja, the countrys leading private media corporation was once
burnt to the ground, invaded and attacked by 15 masked gunmen who destroyed their
equipment another time)
From Democratic Socialist to Competitive Authoritarian
During his time as president Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to successfully transition
Sri Lanka from a democratic socialist republic to a competitive authoritarian regime.
Competitive authoritarian regimes are civilian regimes in which democratic public
institutions exist and are generally viewed as the main means of gaining power, and

those in power use their power abusively to gain an advantage over citizens, often
creating elite capture. Those in power in competitive authoritarian regimes have
executive power over legislatures. Civil liberties including free and fair elections, the
right to criticize the government are violated. Elected leaders of the Rajapaksa regime
did not have the real authority or control. In his last year as president Rajapaksa
resorted to promoting government driven internal insurgency by funding ethnic clashes
between the Sinhalese and Muslims. He believed that this would reactivate his Sinhala
extremist nationalist voter base.
Nepotism too was large defining element of the Rajapaksa Regime. Two of
Rajapaksas brothers held key executive branch posts as defense secretary and the
minister of economic development, while a third brother was the speaker of
Parliament.
The Last Act
After almost a decade as President, Rajapaksa was overthrown from his position in
the 2015 election reaffirming the power of the people and the dominance of civil
society. While the people are the most significant element of a nations politics it is
important to identify the role of leaders and their methods of convincing the people of
their vision. Some do this through well-constructed, organized political propaganda,
others do it through a genuine exemplary lifestyle and personality. Most do it through a
balance of both of these methods. However being a political figure merely driven
through political propaganda is exhausting and often hits a dead-end after a while.
Rajapaksa was a product of well thoughtout political propaganda.
Efforts of Reincarnation
Rajapaksa has plans to contest in the parliamentary election of 2015. Many argue this
is an attempt to regain his Presidency. A valid concern: if Rajapaksa runs for
Parliament and is by chance elected Prime Minister, he is one gun shot away from
becoming President again. This has to be his agenda, and I will explain why.
A retired president is entitled to the same privileges as a cabinet minister, i.e. he is
entitled to:
A residence of his choice
Equal protection/ security as a Cabinet Minister.
Ninety seven thousand five hundred rupees monthly allowance scheme.
Official office and staff
A bulletproof official car and security vehicles
Fuel Allowance
State sponsorship to pursue invitations from foreign governments.
As of right now, about 30% of The countrys voter-base is for the SLF and another
30% is for the UNP another 8-15% is committed to supporting other parties [2]. If
Rajapaksa is to pursue his dream to be Prime Minister he has to contest either from
SLFP or UNP, if not the chances of his appointment as PM are statistically little to nil.
When I see people blindly support Mahinda Rajapaksa, despite his corruption, racism

and selfish unethical way of life, I understand it to some extent, because at one point
in my life I was blind to it too. It is easy to be misled. Ive realized that a lot of the time
when people are scared of democracy, it is because they have seldom been exposed
to it in their lifetime. What we can learn from the story of Rajapaksa is that when
nations are vulnerable due to many reasons ranging from conflict to low standards of
education, it is easy for its people to be manipulated by political propaganda. Moving
forward we need to make sure that lessons are learned and the same mistakes arent
repeated.
[1] http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2014/04/buddhism-sinhala-buddhism-andrajapaksa.html
[2] Welikumbura, Ceylon.net
Thisuri Wanniarachchi is the author of two novels Colombo Streets (2009) and The
Terrorists Daughter (2014). She is one of the youngest authors in the world to write a
local bestseller. She is the youngest nominee to the prestigious International Writers
Program of the University of Iowa and the the youngest State Literary Award winner in
Sri Lanka. Read more on her at thisuriwanniarachchi.com
Posted by Thavam

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