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. “He’s 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.

The Last King of Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna