Very soon the so called common
opposition (podu vipakshaya) will have to display paid advertisements in the
media calling application for a “common candidate” for the post of President of
the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka. True to the international
character of the "common opposition” the advertisement could appear in the
“international media” as well. There are so many “international politicians” who
would lose their jobs in the year 2014, and assuming that the Sri Lankan
Presidential elections would be held late this year or early next year some of them
could apply. The applications would probably have to be directed to the
leadership council (nayakathva mandalaya) of the common opposition, which could
be expected to be formed in due course well in time to entertain applications. (Sometimes
I wonder whether Ravana also had a leadership council of ten people as he is
often referred to as Dasis- ten heads). Of course the question would arise as
to whether foreigners who are not citizens of Sri Lanka could apply for the
job. However, the government, I am sure would corporate with the opposition to
bring in legislation to help those jobless politicians from abroad. In any
event some of the leaders of the oppositions parties are not different from
foreigners as they do not seem to understand the psyche of the common man
especially of the Sinhala hoi polloi, and the President Rajapakse might first
respond by saying no new legislation is necessary as already there are
foreigners contesting at various elections in Sri Lanka.
It is not only the “common opposition”
that would be interested in the advertisement. The “intellectuals’, NGO
personalities, the various high commissions and embassies in Sri Lanka
representing other countries would also be interested for various reasons.
Unlike USA, Sri Lanka respects the officials in the embassies and high
commissions of other countries in Sri Lanka the Sri Lankan Police or any other
authority would not question these officials after removing their clothes.
Incidentally no human rights organization or women organization in Sri Lanka
appears to have protested against the mishandling of the naked body of the
Indian female diplomat by male officials in uniform in USA. It may be that
there is no Darusman Report, which these organizations could base their
protests on, nor Videos that have been released to the media by Chanel 4, but
only some photographs purported to be released to the “international” by a non
Indian. In the absence of such reliable reports and video footage, and of
course foreign exchange, it is understandable that the champions of human
rights in Sri Lanka are silent on this issue.
Karu Jayasuriya, the great companion of
Sajith Premadasa goes to the extent of explaining to the media that the “common
candidate” of the “common opposition” could be from the UNP with precise logic
and thinking. He should be thanked for this explanation as many people would have
begun to think that the “common opposition” does not constitute the UNP as most
of the UNP MPs are now in the UPFA, and many others are thinking of supporting
Mahinda Chinthana. On the other hand
Kary Jayasuriya may be thinking of nominating Sajith Premadasa as the candidate
of the “common opposition” and helping the latter to lose the election thus
saving Ranil Wickremesinghe to fight another day. However, Ranil would have become an
octogenarian on that day but he could take solace from the fact that his uncle
J R Jayawardane was not the youngest to become the President of the country.
In any event Karu Jayasuriya should
explain as to why the UNP could not go it alone. Even if a common candidate
could be found ultimately there would be many outside the “common opposition” ,
and nobody would be able to prevent at least a few of them running for
Presidency thus splitting the anti Rajapakse regime votes in the words of Ranil
Wickremesinghe. The UNP may be the United National Party but not a
nationalistic party. In the absence of an SLFP, D S Senanayake could be
projected as a nationalistic leader, and to a certain extent Dudley Senanayake
as well, especially against the left parties that dreamt of the international
“proletariat revolution”. The left parties were able to attract the Jathika
Balavegaya during the colonial period as they appeared to fight for
independence, but after the formation of the SLFP, and especially after the
SLFP adopted Sinhala only policy the support by these forces to the left
parties began to lean away, making the left parties left out for all purposes.
The SLFP has nationalistic credentials
and under the leadership of President Rajapakse, it has turned out to be the
party that respects the Sinhala opinion following the examples set by the
Bandaranaikes. S W R D Bandaranaike
could be called a man who bowed down to public opinion as a democrat, and not
somebody who attempted to push his policies through the throats of the people.
The present President of the country is only following the Bandaranaikes as
could be seen from his actions. As we have said very often, Sinhala nationalism
is bottom up and the leaders of the SLFP know how to maintain the party as the
party of Sinhala nationalism.
There are many names that have been
mentioned as the “common candidate” for the forthcoming Presidential elections.
These are only day dreams of “intellectuals” who have no understanding of the Sinhala
people. Ven. Maduluwae Sobhitha Thero appeared to be a popular candidate among
the NGO and other “intellectuals” but the Sinhala Buddhists have never had a
Bhikku as the king of the country. There have been few instances where ex
Bhikkus had become kings, and if the Ven. Thero was interested in becoming the
Presidential candidate he would have had to become a lay person according to
Sinhala Buddhist tradition. The “intellectuals” having had no knowledge of the
Sinhala Buddhist traditions would have wanted to clung to the “sivuru pota” to
defeat Mahinda Rajapakse. Sarath Fonseka cannot be used again as the
Presidential candidate as he failed last time by millions of vote. With the
white flag (sudu kodi) story is bound to come up if he becomes the Presidential
candidate, and he will have to explain how he had been freed from alleged war
crimes. He was the commander of the Army during the last two weeks of the
humanitarian operations whether he was in the country or not and why the west
is interested only in the scalps of Rajapakses is a question that has to be
answered by him.
Chandrika Kumaratunga was imported by
some people with vested interests to contest J R Jayawardane and to establish a
federal state forgetting that Sinhala nationalism is bottom up and not top
down. Chandrika Kumaratunga did not know the Bandaranaike policies and her
concept of democracy was pushing down her policies through the throats of the
policies. The “intellectuals” and the other NGO pundits also thought that a
federal state could be established through the wife of the leader of the
Mahajana Party. However, to the dismay of these “intellectuals” and the pundits
the Sinhala nationalist movement (Jathika Vyaparaya) was able to defeat all their
plans and Chandrika Kumaratunga was driven into political wilderness. Mangala
Samaraweera who has no future in politics except in the leadership council of
the UNP that itself is being driven into same wilderness as Chandrika
Kumaratunga, could continue to throw parties at his Gorakana residence reciting
“Raja ho ma ho ganga ho” by the Bolgoda lake (Panadura ganga).
What the opposition common or uncommon
does not understand is that single issues such as abolishing the presidency are
not going to win the Sinhala masses which is the main balawegaya (force) in the
country that opposes colonialism. There was a time when the intellectuals and
the pundits tried to force their view that without the Tamil vote no party can
come into power. However these views have been changed by the Sinhala Jathika
Vyaparaya and no non nationalistic party can come into power after the defeat
of the LTTE.
Nalin De Silva
10-01-2014
