By Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada.

Jehan Perera, writing in the Island on 19th November says that the expectation was that neither of the two leading candidates, i.e., Gotabhaya and Sajith, would get a clear mandate, and hence a second preference re-count will be needed. Several urban political Pandits like Kumar David had suggested that while the first preference should be given to the JVP candidate, the second preference should be given to Sajith. This time the  JVP has not claimed that the election results are a mere computer Jilmart”.

Most of us do NOT get our nourishment, drinks and pocket money from the Colombo cocktail circuit and from foreign-funded  NGO accounts. We knew that the JVP candidate will loose even his deposit and that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will go over the 50% mark with ease.

Jehan Perera’s analysis, as usual, is based on the simplistic race-based projection of election outcomes, while holding in common with the Marxist writers that the Rajapaksas are synonymous with a brutal end to the war and fascist suppression of opposition. The Marxist political pundits are quite amnesic about the brutality of the end justifies even the bloodiest Bolshevik means” philosophy of their peers who have given the world a majority of Pol-Pot style dictators. Furthermore, these individuals have always been ready to write off the collaborationist pro-LTTE politics of the TNA, while pushing for  peace-talks” at any cost with terrorist Tigers and bashing the terrible Sinhala-Buddhists.

However, having been in power for nearly five years, all those who executed the regime change have none of their allegations proved in court. The JVP and Hela Urumaya” leaders were the most vociferous with their allegations against the Rajapaksas.  The Marxists pundits have found themselves in the same camp as the Western Capitalist powers and the strongly racist Tamil diaspora in their hatred of the Rajapaksas for different reasons. The West hated the Rajapaksas for not being subservient to them, while the Diaspora opposed them as they knew that as long as the Rajapaksas were in power, their plans for a separatist regime in the merged North-East will never come to fruition.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s electoral vote was no surprise to anyone who saw the Elpitiya vote. Take the Elpitiya percentages of votes going to the SLPP, UNP, and JVP, and add most of the North and East votes to the credit of the UNP after readjusting to a 100% total, and you get approximately what Gotabhaya has actually got.

So, how was this election result in a surprise to the political pundits?

Remember that these Pundits, the  Western Military strategists as well as the UNP leaders held that the war against Prabhakaran is unwinnable”, and that claims of victories in Alimankada (Elephant pass in the North) must be about some skirmishes in Paamankada (a Colombo suburb)?  After the war was over, the Center for Policy Alternatives,  as well as Yasmin Sooka’s outfit, claimed that the IDP camps were concentration camps and that the IDPs will never be resettled. The MacKenzie Institute, a Canadian Think Tank, was the first to reject these claims and being without substance.

Gotabhaya, during his tenure as the Defence secretary, proved, contrary to the claims of experts, that the war was winnable,. During his tenure as the head of the Urban Development Authority, he proved that an ugly and smelly city full of slums and undisciplined drivers could be tamed and made into the prettiest and cleanest city in South-East Asia. The Yahapalanaya” returned it back to its grim state. Now,  in securing his presidential bid, Gotabhaya has disproved the myth that no candidate can become president of Sri Lanka if the minorities are not with the candidate.

The whole point is, only a minority of the Tamil minority lives in the North and the East. A major part of the Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans lives among the Sinhalese. The old ethnic live-apart” political program launched by the Vellalar upper-crust Colombo-Tamil-Nationalist lawyers led by Chelvanayagam,  re-affirmed at Vaddukkoddai (aka Batakotte”), they fought for over thirty years, and resuscitated by the TNA, finds little resonance with the ordinary voter, be he Sinhalese or Tamil. They were appalled to see individuals like Mervyn de Silva, Sajin Vas Goonawardena and others, previously cast in black by the UNP itself, appearing on Sajith’s electoral platforms.  

The people wanted a good manager who will provide the stability, the administrative reconstruction, and facilities needed for the people to do what ordinary people do – the least of which is haggling over OruMitta” and Ekeeya constitutions”  for over 4 years while they do not even have their everyday material needs.