Mahinda Rajapaksa, A Bankrupt Country & Fifty Years Of Politics

By Ravi Perera –MAY 19, 2022

Ravi Perera

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” – Abraham Lincoln

The half a century long political career of Mahinda Rajapaksa has ended in infamy, a fugitive hiding from a people sorely wronged by a political culture of which he was a most visible representation.

During these five decades, Mahinda has held nearly every position a people’s representative could hold: Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister, President and Leader of Opposition. Generally, an extraordinarily lengthy public career, taken with the many positions occupied, including the Presidency of the country, would point to an exceptional personality. Not so in Sri Lanka apparently. It is his commonness which is celebrated, there is nothing distinguishing him. We look in vain for the exemplar, the visionary or the intellectual in Mahinda Rajapaksa.

What stands out in him is the opposite, the pedestrian, the commonplace, playing to the gallery and the blatant promotion of his own family. However, for those craving patronage, Mahinda provided a ready path. Positions, recognition, avenues to earn money and other trinkets he was generous with (at State expense). There were many who craved these baubles. He had no interest in the moral upliftment or the broad intellectual development of the people. An awakened nation would be to his disadvantage. Now in thrall of the politician, the people’s lowest common denominator was his playground. Mahinda knew what ticks in this society, what a more thoughtful person will find objectionable, he was at ease with. He climbed the greasy pole not on the strength of his character or skill: it was a career built on patience, cunning and posturing.

Even among a gang of thieves, the gang leader must possess some quality that elevates him. There must be an explanation for his emergence. The stamina to nurse his rural constituency for this length of time is perhaps one. Many other political veterans have chosen the easier path of the national list, which our constitution conveniently allows. Mahinda also had the good fortune to see his career peak at a time when the overall quality of leadership in the country was going down-hill.

A leader gets assessed relative to his immediate rivals. Gone were the Dudley Senanayakes, SWRD Bandaranaikes, JR Jayewardenes, NM Pereras and the Pieter Keunemans. Primarily, Mahinda gets compared to his contemporaries like Chandrika Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena. Chandrika is a two term president, while Ranil had been prime minister several times now. In most democratic countries, such reappointments would be uncommon, therefore admirable. Not in Sri Lanka, a few names have been appearing and reappearing in high positions from 1948. This recurrence of a handful of persons as leaders of the country only emphasises something everybody knows; an empty society, hopelessly diseased.

It is difficult to see history being kind to either Ranil or Chandrika, perhaps a foot note on what could have been. Given the opportunities continually offered to them both, their impact on this nation’s story is negligible. They may have meant well, but as commonly said, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. On the issue of the Northern terrorism, they both got things totally wrong, as events later proved.

The LTTE, formidable as well as ruthless, were terrorising the whole country, holding a substantial part of the land in an iron grip. To take the battle to them was a gamble, weak nations do not always have complete autonomy in such things. Neighbouring countries as well as powerful nations often interfere. A war effort can ruin the economy of a poor country. Once committed, Mahinda did not waver on his stance on the war on the terrorist group.

It was a gamble that paid dividends. In May 2009, after a tough battle, our armed forces triumphed over the implacable LTTE. The LTTE rhetoric was not mere bluster, many of them fought to the last, dying with the gun still in their hands. After nearly three decades of intermittent fighting, peace dawned, the rejoicing was spontaneous.

At long last, the country was united and peaceful. The economy was free to function.

This was the moment to repair a damaged land and the broken hearts. A great man was needed. Mahinda Rajapaksa is not a great man.

In our living memory there has been only one war. There are nations that have fought dozens of wars in the last hundred years, against other redoubtable nations, even world-wide wars. Winston Churchill did not claim that he won the war on his own, nor did Bernard Montgomery vie to become a Prime Minister. Nations with long experiences of wars understand them, are better equipped to view them in perspective, with more realism, and less bombast.

War efforts demand a national effort and the sacrifices of thousands. In our war, the heaviest burdens were carried by the common people, it was their children who were killed and maimed on both sides. No one man or one group can claim all the credit for a war victory. Only a philistine will do that.

With the war ended, before long, the true nature of the Mahinda Rajapaksa rule emerged. The era of unsolicited bids had begun. Now crowding the corridors of power were a new set of men, oddments and weirdos, with crude ways and sleazy methods. Governance was equated to patronage and skulduggery.

Airports were built to which no aeroplane flew, ports were made only to crumbled under the debt burden, while our existing national airline was haemorrhaging money, a second airline (named after the President!) was launched. Highways anywhere are expensive projects, apparently on the basis of construction cost per Kilometre, our highways are the most expensive in the world! The latest news is that an Australian health care company said to be involved in a hospital project in South Sri Lanka had paid a large sum of money to an offshore bank account linked to a Sri Lankan businessman with close connections to the centre of power in this country. The hospital is government owned.

Being related to the President’s family was qualification enough to hold any job. His relatives landed everywhere, especially in diplomatic postings. This anything goes culture, spurred adventurers and encouraged misadventures. A politically active accountant ended up in the chair of the Governor of the Central Bank, a crucial position with regard to the country’s economic wellbeing as well as its financial decorum. The sitting Chief Justice was removed in what was in all but name a constitutional lynching. The accuser was the ruling party and the hearing was dominated by them. Many an MP could barely conceal their glee at the anguish of the forlorn lady judge, battling odds she could never beat. After the ‘verdict’, fireworks were lit near the Parliament, while delirious supporters boiled ‘kiribath’ in front of the Chief Justice’s bungalow; a most ungracious act of further intimidation of the fallen judge.

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