The Criminality of a Leader

By Anura Gunasekera

If an armed group emerges from my home after a long discussion with me and, immediately thereafter, proceeds to attack a group of unarmed people in very close proximity, and to destroy their property, I should be the first person the police needs to take in for questioning. However, it took almost three weeks after the event for the police to question Mahinda Rajapaksa , former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, over the May 9 attack on the unarmed protesters just outside his gates. In my view, he is as responsible for the mayhem that took place at Galle Face thereafter, and the violence at several locations across the country which followed, just as if he had personally directed the events. As MP Sumanthiran commented soon after the event, a view subsequently endorsed by many individuals and representative groups, Mahinda Rajapaksa should have been arrested immediately for inciting civil disobedience

The Galle Face protest was always peaceful, controlled, and at times quite innovative and amusing. The participants passionately articulated a series of demands which were being echoed with equal enthusiasm by other groups right across the country, except perhaps in the far North. There was never even the faintest threat that the protest would turn violent. The real significance of Gotagogama and Mynagogama was that both combined to reflect a focal point for a different Sri Lanka, without political, racial and religious animosity, the harsh features in the ugly face of the Sri Lankan polity since independence. To all decent citizens it represented a more moral Sri Lankan society. Perhaps I am being both romantic and optimistic but that is how I wish to view it. It is on this fragile utopia that the inspired thugs unleashed their violence.

Despite his easy camaraderie, hail-fellow-well-met persona and the diligently cultivated rustic appeal, Mahinda Rajapksa is fascist to the core. Unlike his younger sibling, the present president, who does not pretend to be anything other than the despot that he is, and to that extent is sincere, Mahinda is a total hypocrite. The day before the unleashing of the May 9 mayhem, he paid homage at the Sri Maha Bodhi, the site most sacred to the Buddhists of this country, and at other significant sites in Anuradhapura. It is the kind of public piety, patently false, practiced comfortably by fascist rulers, heads of crime families and political charlatans, who see no moral conflict in prayer in the evening and the orchestrating of violence next morning.

Just a few hours after the Galle Face incident, the venerable Omalpe Sobhitha thero, in a media interview, flanked by his eminence, Cardinal Malcom Ranjith and another leading Buddhist thero, encapsulated this dissonance, this behavioural incongruity, this hypocrisy, with deadly accuracy; roughly translated, what he said is as follows; I have reproduced the relevant segments as the venerable thero denudes Mahinda Rajapaksa’s public persona and exposes it in all its ugly detail;

Quote-“Yesterday, dressed in white, having worshipped at the “Atamasthana” with flowers and promised to do many good deeds, this is what he did on returning to his official residence. We have exposed his false piety before but people did not believe us. Perhaps now the Mahanayakes will realize that this man’s devotion is a sham. Whilst projecting a Buddhist attitude, love for the country and for the nation, what he engages in are anti-national and anti-religious actions. This individual’s conduct is not only anti-Buddhist but goes against all civilized belief. We feel ashamed that the chief priests of those sacred places accompanied this devotee, as if to provide him with security. However, what the chief prelate of Malwatte said is that he would not admit any of these people in to any one of his temples.

What is absolutely clear is that the people are peaceful but the government is fascist. To the list of despotic, cruel rulers, such as Hitler and Pol Pot, renowned for their tyrannical governance, the name that is added from Sri Lanka is that of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Today, we experienced one example of that tyranny. As his eminence the Cardinal said today, from time to time, previously, we have seen examples of the above. For this outrage conducted in broad daylight, in public view and before the international media, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa must take first responsibility.

This murderous group was deployed after being invited to and dined in his house, with liquor produced by ethanol manufacturers. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has responded to these protesters, who have conducted themselves peacefully for over a month, with thugs unleashed by him. However, the younger brother cannot escape censure by thrusting the entire blame on the elder brother. What is absolutely clear now is that this terrorism is not to be confined to Galle Face or the neighbourhood of Temple Trees, but that the intention is to create bloodshed across the entirety of Sri Lanka and, thus, to retain hold on power. Therefore, we would like to tell them quite clearly, that this attempt to replicate Hitler, or Pol Pot, will be unsuccessful. Irrespective of wherever else in the world it has happened, the peace loving people of this country will not permit the elder brother and the younger brother, and their cohorts, to replicate the Pol Pot example in this country.

We must mention that the venerable Mahanayake’s and his eminence the Cardinal have sounded a warning and given prior advice. As advised by the religious leaders, you must immediately resign from the Premiership. Constitutionally, the power of the president must be curbed and the presidential office re-scripted. This country must be governed peacefully and democratically. Religious leaders have proposed that the country be handed over to an independent, non -aligned, or even aligned, group of intellectuals. Your time is now finished. Mahinda Rajapaksa, we also saw robed fascists being involved in the same acts of terrorism. That is an insult to the robe in its entirety. It is an insult, not only to the ministry of Buddhism but also to the civilized world and to religious society…….. we are giving the final advice, the final command, to both elder and younger brother. Let go completely of power and create the environment for the nation to establish the governance of its choosing. The prime minister must resign immediately. Gotabaya Rajapakse, the younger brother who has permitted his elder brother to engage in terrorism, must also resign.”End of Quote.

The aftermath of the Galle Face violence was an eerie and frightening replication of the anti-Tamil riots of 1983, with buses being stopped by raging mobs, occupants assaulted and the vehicles burnt. Houses and places of businesses were set on fire, especially those belonging to Pohottuwa politicians, as well as those symbolic of the Rajapaksa dynasty. But, unlike in 1983, the violence was Sinhalese against Sinhalese, a Sinhala-Buddhist polity for so many years seduced by the Rajapaksas’ divisive rhetoric, turning on itself and frenziedly snapping at its own entrails like a gut-shot hyena. It was also the expression of the barely contained rage of a nation under siege, denied the essentials of daily life through the colossal mis-governance by the Rajapaksa family cabal.

The police were equally complicit in the mayhem at Galle Face, making less than feeble attempts to restrain the armed thugs from Temple Trees. How is it that the same force was able to prevent thousands of university students from entering parliament whilst, in numerous locations across the country over the last few weeks, they were also able to manage equally large, and equally angry, crowds? The police contempt for the judiciary has also been reflected in the studied indifference by the Inspector General of Police, to the instructions of the Attorney General to take action against DIG Deshabandu Tennekoon, who is alleged to have provided easy passage to the Galle Face attack squadron.

The attacks of arson against Pohottuwa politicians and their associates cannot be attributed to ordinary citizens, who have been spending hours each day at one queue or the other, waiting for cooking gas and fuel which does not arrive. They were clearly well organized and perhaps pre-planned. Another curious feature of those events was the submissiveness of the police, almost as if they were permitting the violence to escalate, enabling, at the appropriate stage, the conspicuous use of repressive counter action under the then operational state of emergency.

There were unconfirmed reports filtering through social media and other sources, that many of the thugs who attacked the protest sites had been detainees held in various institutions, in outstation locations, released temporarily for this purpose. Whether true or not, the fact is that they arrived at the protest site, armed with clubs and other blunt weapons, irrefutable proof of a pre-planned assault. The discovery of cartons full of cheap arrack bottles in some of the vehicles which accompanied this group, is proof that they were spiritually primed for the task that lay ahead. The fact that the leaders of this group consisted of regional heads of the Pohottuwa faction, who emerged from Temple Trees immediately after being wined and dined by Mahinda Rajapaksa and his leading associates, reinforces the conclusion of the their complicity.

The long political career of a vainglorious man, signposted by overwhelming political victories, ignominious rejection and defeat, miraculous resurgence, accusations of massive corruption and complicity in the intimidation of opponents, has come to an inglorious end. The Rajapaksa family project, nursed assiduously by Mahinda Rajapakse over the years, has been derailed. As things are today, Namal, the son so diligently groomed for greater things, might find it difficult to secure a “Grama Niladhari” appointment in a hamlet in Hambantota.

Whilst the Rajapaksa comet is disappearing in to the sun, the agony of the nation continues, inflamed by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s parting shot as it were. There is no justification, or condoning of civil violence, even as a response to tyranny, but the reality is that had the Rajapaksa brothers heeded the cry of an anguished nation and ceded power to create the space for a new governance, instead of listening to the echo of their own rhetoric, the tragic incidents of May 9 would not have taken place.

In his address to his loyalists at the Temple Trees convocation, minutes before they surged out in pursuit of his bidding, Mahinda Rajapaksa, at his actorish best, figuratively thumping his chest, assured the viewers and listeners of his dedication to the nation. It is the hypocrisy of this man, so cruelly exposed by the Ven Sobitha Thero, but so easily believed by the gullible Sinhala-Buddhist polity, which has brought our nation to this sorry pass. Such evil men must never be allowed access to positions of power. It is the Sinhala-Buddhist majority which gave them the license to pillage the nation, enthusiastically contributing to their own downfall. Perhaps the grim present provides a lesson that they will not forget in the future.

In conclusion, let me quote the last words that assassinated journalist, Lasantha Wickrematunge wrote, an eerily prescient epitaph for himself and , as recent events have now proved, an equally appropriate prediction for the final fate of Mahinda Rajapakse himself. ” in the name of patriotism you(Mahinda), have trampled human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other president before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child would have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of the citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish”