Mahinda Rajapakse: the 13th amendment and his tryst with destiny
Posted on September 1st, 2014
ByMario Perera, Kadawata
We Asians believe in the cyclic nature of life and events. It would seem that Mahinda R has done his full circle. Yet there does not appear to be anyone who can dethrone him at this juncture and that because of his apparent commitment to a Unitary (and not United) Sri Lanka and all it entails. No one else has those credentials. Mahinda’s international leanings for all apparent purposes are totally different from those of the UNP. The fear of betrayal is far less with Mahinda than with all others. This is Mahinda’s saving grace.
However a nation’s past is no respecter of persons and comes back to plague everyone. The UNP dug its own grave a long time ago. Ranil indulged in antics with Prabharakan, cutting and chopping SL with scalpels and know-how placed in his hands by the Wild West. That the West is wild was zoomed in before the eyes of all recently than ever before. The USA showed its real wild colours during the Ferguson event and England is now known as the greatest breeder of Islamic Terrorists, one of them even decapitating another of their American allies before video cameras. As for France, it was recently reported that one of six Frenchmen support Muslim terrorists. So much for these hypocritical virulent supporters of ‘human rights’. What they ultimately did was to promote terrorism from behind their see through shield of ‘human rights’.
Back home the head lines these days are full of the TNA congratulating and back patting themselves snugly at Modi’s guarantees regarding Tamil autonomy. They boast of Modi’s unstinting support for obtaining for them the 13A + more. So what SL sowed with the JR-Rajiv Agreement has never ceased to haunt us even though the matter was shelved a very long time ago. There are reasons for Modi’s willingness to project himself into the international limelight. A wave of discontent seems appearing on the horizons for Modi. It was all talk and show blitz at the beginning but no action after. Relations with Pakistan have deteriorated since the warm embrace between him and his Pakistani counterpart. The Kasmir issue has cropped up once again with a vengeance with both armies firing at each other across established frontiers. So also the border issue with China. In India itself Hindutva is claiming its due submerging the rest.
People who talk a lot are expected to deliver fast. But Modi is behind time considering the intensity of his empty rhetoric and mumblings that were promises. With discontent within the home borders, what else can he do but focus his attention on matters of no concern for him. The so called Tamil issue which seemed of no concern to the BJP considering that Tamil Nadu was thrown out of the electoral equation now serves him as foil to redeem himself by pushing his bulk around somewhere, and where better than in someone else’s backyard..
As for MR, his vociferous cries of SL for all, where everyone can settle anywhere he or she wishes has proved to be all smoke with no fire. The bone of contention the 13A which he wrested into his hands by vanquishing Prabha and could have thrown away in the dustbin of history has now been thrown instead into the arena with the carnivorous TNA hovering and growling over it with the protective shadow of Modi looming behind. The stitch in time was never executed by MR. Now it has multiplied into the symbolic nine.
MR’s tactics was to show the world his concern for the North and its people, the Tamils. Most of his borrowing and spending were to reconstruct and beautify the North as a gesture of appeasement to a vanquished group. In comparison the South, meaning the rest of the country, received step motherly treatment. Yet as a mature politician who had ‘blooded’ under so many regimes he should have known better. With his extravagant spending for the North he was doing with brick and cement, what Prabha was trying to do with gun and grenade. Now the truth has zoomed before his eyes with Modi getting ready to tie his hands behind his back while the TNA prepares to cut his neck before video cameras. He might one day have to tell the TNA what Caesar told his erstwhile protégé: et tu Brute! (yours is the worst cut of all O Brutus).
One will recall how certain sections of our intelligentsia beamed with glee at Modi’s victory especially when he strutted on the victory scene seemingly with good will to all his independent and sovereign neighbours (what a laugh!) and ill will to none. Now with that platform appearing to have cracks he is clutching on to branches (no not the olive ones) tendered to him by the ever ready Tamil politicians of this counry’s North. MR’s labours to appease the un-appeasable Tamils have blown a fuse and were in vain. He forgot what his grand mother taught him so many years ago that… charcoal even when washed with milk will never change its colour.
The so called Tamil issue is not an issue within the country. It is the platform for Indian hegemony, power and domination. That ambition is as old as the hills. When Sir John insisted on maintaining English military bases here, Nehru questioned the wisdom of that move. Sir John in his typical straight forward style told him: what if India decides to invade us? Nehru’s reply was a guarded one. He answered: what nonsense John that will not happen as long as I am there. Of course Nehru thought his dynastic rule will never end. Little did he realize that his own daughter would contradict him.
Subramanian Swamy sounded a different note. He decried the Tamil attitude of the TNA as a hare running to the Indian fox for support. He reminded them that Sri Lankan issues must be solved within the confines of the ‘Independent and sovereign State’ that Sri Lanka is. He even gave Sri Lanka the assurance that he was speaking as the mouth piece of Modi. The 13A, he said was of no consequence to India. But his is a voice crying in the wilderness. He is nowhere near the helm of power and what he said was as writ in water. Swamy’s statements are now being contradicted by no other than Modi himself. Swamy seems to have made himself into the joker of the BJP pack.
For MR the game is up. The noose is drawing nearer and nearer. The electoral execution platform (not necessarily Uva) is looming ahead. Indeed the Titanic that he was when he kissed the soil of Mother Lanka has begun to sink. All the roads and highways that he has built now, in spite of their obvious utility, will soon be considered as white elephants by an over burdened and impoverished population. If they held up the MR titanic it was in the hope that he would lay the so called ‘Tamil issue’ to rest once and for all with the crucifixion and burial of Very Rev,Father S.J.Emmanuel’s Jesus Christ alias Prabha. But MR has turned into the unwilling ally of Emmanuel by acting the Holy Spirit part in resurrecting the dead Jesus by his incapacity or unwillingness to throw away the magic Tamil wand of the 13A.
MR forgot the price the Sinhala nation paid for its independence by eliminating the scourge of Tamil separatist ambitions. MR has wittingly or unwittingly helped them to regroup. The blood of the preponderantly Sinhala youth spilled on Lanka’s soil will, in a not so far future, cry out for vengeance. That blood that once eliminated Prabha will see to it that his apparent conqueror himself is eliminated. That now invisible blood has been transformed into the hand that has begun writing on the wall…in blood red letters. Those words are full of foreboding for MR. They tell him: your days are numbered.
Anybody who has visited the north recently would vividly remember the monument to the Hasalaka warrior who with grenades in his hands protected by the supporting fire of a comrade fearlessly ran towards the fast approaching massive Tamil bulldozer charged with explosives to blow up that entire army camp and destroy all the lives it sheltered. He made the ultimate sacrifice by jumping into the open turret blowing himself up with everyone and everything within. He terrorized the terrorists. The army now mounts a 24 hour emotionally charged vigil by the statue of their comrade. What is the army but the Sinhala youth mounting vigil over the unitary mother country which they are officially and legally empowered to protect? If MR fails, which now appears to be the more likely scenario , the army, must rise against MR and crush him as it did Prabhakaran.
Much as I would like to desist from penning this final thought it is nevertheless bursting out. We all know where the vacillations of SWRD led him to. History could repeat itself, especially considering that this particular facet of history is pivoting on the same axis. I am reminded of the words Martin Scorsese puts into the mouth of the Saint Paul of his film: The Last Temptation. Saint Paul tells Jesus who is fleeing from accomplishing his mission: If I have to kill you to save the world, I will kill you. The LTTE replaced the word ‘world’ with ‘ealam’ and did away with many. Titles, name, positions, prestige and fame counted fore nothing and were not even weighed in the balance. Let us hope that the word ‘world’ will not have to be replaced with ‘the Sinhala Buddhist Nation’.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
September 1st, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Well said Mario.
NEVER say or write anything to please ANYONE. Anyone means anyone. Truth doesn’t give a f* about friendships, loyalties, popularity, etc.
Sadly, SLs can’t handle the truth. SLs think truth is docile, harmless, do-good, etc.
Who made TNA (LTTE) the KINGS of the north? MR.
Sinhala Buddhist captive voters should NOT go behind MR like a canine biting a bone. Stop it. The bone has NO meat to eat. The meat has been eaten by the boss who tossed it to you!
September 1st, 2014 at 3:13 pm
“The army now mounts a 24 hour emotionally charged vigil by the statue of their comrade.”
An emotionally charged truth revelation by Mario.
Thanks Mario. We are in debt to you too.
“What is the army but the Sinhala youth mounting vigil over the unitary mother country which they are officially and legally empowered to protect? ”
MR is insulting them already. The FOOL will be blown to pieces by LTTE soon.
September 1st, 2014 at 3:41 pm
I really cannot comprehend and understand why people are speaking of “Minority Issues” now slowly and very cunningly edited as “Tamil Issues”. What are these, viz. “Minority Issues” or “Tamil Issues”? Do we really know what those are and have we made any attempt to “discover” and “dispose” those without any delay. This “beggar’s wound” has been created by us in allowing “communal based” political parties to spring up and give “recognition” by registering those and allowing them to contest at elections. All the political leaders and parties must take the blame for it, because they rely heavily to establish governments with these minority party representatives elected to Legislature through communal voting. One thing must be made clear. We should not allow any “political parties” to represent at the Legislature on a communal basis and to fulfill an agenda relating to them. All must be based on a NATIONAL basis and if they are to contest at elections of any type every party must comply with “National” requirements and must be representative of the Nation as a whole.
Now it is useless pressuring and asking MR to do away with 13th. He has committed to implement it in so many ways. That is why India, even now under a different leadership asking MR to negotiate and come to a settlement with TNA – “Minority Representative”. Can MR back off from that “request” that will be converted to a “demand” some time later. He (MR) is caught by the neck and it is a matter of time that “strangle hold” will come. I do not think he (MR) will for ever be able to rely on the “election winning” mode to get himself out of that neck tightening rope which now he wears round his shoulders. He cannot blame anyone else other than himself and his troubles are mostly due to not adhering to the Buddha’s Teaching: “Asevanacha Balanag. All those “Balayas” surrounding him have put him in trouble already and there is no escape for him. He has failed to identify the very many “JUDAS” in his company on whom he has placed utmost trust. It is a matter of time.
September 1st, 2014 at 4:04 pm
MR is not a Sinhala Buddhist.
How many of the 5 precepts he is keeping ?
September 1st, 2014 at 4:08 pm
He is breaking all 5 and his prime minister is going beyond that.
September 1st, 2014 at 5:04 pm
“Now it is useless pressuring and asking MR to do away with 13th. He has committed to implement it in so many ways.”
Complete BUNKUM!
MR is committed to SERVE THE PEOPLE FIRST, not Endia.
Look what the 13 amendment is doing to SL.
NPC and EPC councillors petition the UNHRC against SL claiming genocide!!
IF LAW is implemented against them, the NPC collapses. And Oh! MR is AGAINST it. MR wants his beloved NPC to continue. PC councillors know this very well and they violate the law AT WILL.
Either 13 amendment goes. Or MR goes. Or BOTH go.
Next presidential election will be tough. MR will have to choose between his DYNASTY or 13 amendment.
September 1st, 2014 at 5:56 pm
Lorenzo: Pl. read my comment carefully and I am sure you will agree with me, when I say “It is useless pressuring and asking MR to do away with the 13th”. I am certain that he will not do it and also cannot do it, because of his utter foolishness in making various statements and commitments publicly and officially. In that sense, I too agree with you “BOTH GO”.
September 1st, 2014 at 7:58 pm
Douglas,
I have a BET with Nanda (he refuses to accept it) that IF MR scraps 13, I would cut half a finger. I’m that certain MR will NOT scrap 13.
But IF MR can be trapped to a situation where he has to CHOOSE between his DYNASTY and 13, he will choose his dynasty and SCRAP 13.
You have to understand MR.
He was a human rights clown UNTIL he saw LTTE’s threat to his DYNASTY in 2006. Until then he tried to APPEASE tigers and survive (with Mahajara’s presents and NGO presents). The moment he realized his DYNASTY will be DOOMED by the LTTE, he got down to action.
“BOTH GO” is not an option. It is what will happen IF MR keeps 13 and TNA (LTTE) uses it to attack SL.
TNA action is giving MR backside jitters. GENOCIDE is a serious charge. JUST when MR thought Pee-Illey left UNHRC, TNA PC councillors write to UNHRC and howl genocide. TNA is actually doing SL a favor by showing to MR how dangerous 13 is.
September 2nd, 2014 at 5:31 am
Lorenzo,
Your bet is with Ananda-USA. I am against cutting fingers. Your 1/4 finger not worth of wasting on MR’s bayagulla mind.
I believe GR will be good. I am sure MR will never tough 13A , he cannot , because all this Morons depend on it.
September 2nd, 2014 at 5:38 am
Champika is saying “Energy Mafia” is worse than Prabha.
I believe MR collecting money from this Mafia. Therefore MR is worse than Prabha, if we trust Champika.
“With his extravagant spending for the North he was doing with brick and cement, what Prabha was trying to do with gun and grenade.” – mario
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:17 am
Again India is attempting to put pressure on Sri Lanka on an extremely sensitive domestic issue. The implications of amendment 13 can be summed up by the desperate circumstances that facilitated its creation.
It was under heavy duress that Colombo agreed with India to even create this amendment. It was during the height of war and it failed to achieve its objective. A nation who is at war and is grabbing at any straw to solve the escalating violence of the Indian sponsored LTTE who then comes in to draft an amendment that legitimizes most of what Prabhakaran wanted is by itself despicable on the part of India
To now force Sri Lanka to adopt that amendment in full and even go further is down right cruel. To bully a small nation like Sri Lanka to the whims of Chennai is Brutal and vicious on the part of New Delhi.
To add salt to the wound this same BJP wants to eliminate article 370 that gives the Indian state of Kashmir similar rights embodied in amendment 13. The BJP wants the same thing that Colombo wants regarding the integrity of a nation but that same BJP will not allow Colombo to share in that same objective. Instead she wants Colombo to do exactly the opposite of what the BJP wants to do with the Indian state of Kashmir.
It is beyond an insult that Sri Lanka has to put up with this act of bullying. No wonder the relationship with Pakistan and India is now in one of its worst times. Pakistan will not put up with the double talk of New Delhi and neither should Sri Lanka.
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:19 am
I agree to it.
As long as 13th amendment is alive, Sri lanka will not escape, what TNA doing and UNHCR -war crimes.
They are doing these things in order to get full 13th amendment.
So, the best thing is to abrogate 13th amendment.
IF not make it only three provinces Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya.
September 2nd, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Energy thing is getting out of hand. CEB secretary had signed an agreement with China WITHOUT the minister knowing it!!!
But we have to take what Ranawaka says on energy with a pinch of salt. He LOST this BIG ministry. As a politician he has a GRUDGE.
“only three provinces Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya”
I agree with this with some CHANGES. In this set up EVERY province will have a Sinhala majority. NO threat to SL. But best is to SCRAP 13 amendment as it NEVER brought peace as intended.
September 2nd, 2014 at 2:24 pm
Now there is a legal problem. Election commissioner CAN REJECT MR’s nomination papers according to UNP MP Wijethasa.
IF this happens, MR will be without ANY option. He can do whatever but cannot do anything after the close of nominations. Run-nill will EASILY become the president. Some NGOs say USA, TGTE are willing to give MILLIONS to EC to take this action! He is a good man but still a fallible human.
To be on the safe side, GR should also file nominations from a new SLFP group. IF MR contests, quietly leave. If not become a serious presidential candidate. There is a third benefit. He can demand MR to do GOOD before surrendering his candidacy.
Greedy MR did just ONE THING with his 2/3 power – 18 amendment. That too now coming to bite him!