Rajapaksa’s Retreat: Temporary Truce or Political Imposture?

Photography courtesy International Business Times

• by Dayapala Thiranagama 
• - on 03/01/2016 

The active politician is a creator, an initiator: but he is neither creates from nothing nor does he move in the turbid void of his own desires and dreams. He bases himself on effective reality but what is this effective reality?

– Antonio Gramsci, Prison Note Books, 2007,pp.172.

The unexpected defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential elections was followed by a second defeat in the parliamentary elections. Despite these successive defeats, Rajapaksa shows no signs of giving up. He has effectively become an opposition leader outside of Parliament. Reduced political or moral authority has left his confidence unshaken. Rajapaksa and his supporters have sought refuge in a dangerous brand of Sinhalese supremacist ideology, which places them above the law, above democracy and above a multicultural pluralist Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa initially made public statements that he would retire from active politics after he was defeated last year – but he did not retire. He and his supporters keep on spreading communal hatred and upholding communal views through their propaganda meetings as well as the national media every day, a freedom they denied to other parties and individuals when they were in power.  In this way they reshape and strengthen their basic political message that Sri Lanka should not have a framework of devolved power and the Tamil community should learn to live with the Sinhala majority. They stand opposed to the reformist project of the new Government that aims to make Sri Lanka a modern nation with a pluralist democracy. Will Rajapaksa and his supporters succeed in their dreams to frustrate the government and if so under what conditions and at what political cost?

This article attempts to answer the question posed by Gramsci in the above quote   on the issue of effective reality in party building, looking at Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attempts to regain political power.

Gramsci identifies three basic elements that are necessary for a successful party building: ‘mass element’, ‘principal cohesive element’ and ‘the intermediary element, which articulates the first with the second and maintains contact between them not only physically but also morally and intellectually’ (Prison Note Books, 2007,pp.172-173). This article aims to analyze to what extent these elements are present in the process of party building in the so-called joint opposition endeavor to form a party, and be capable of developing a functional organizational structure and win state power in the country.

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