By H. L. D. Mahindapala Courtesy Ceylon Today

The massive swing against the UNP indicates clearly that the nation was biding its time to cut the neck of Ranil’s regime with the sharp edge of their lengthy ballot papers. And they did it in right royal style, peacefully and decisively, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that they can’t be fooled by bogus  theoreticians in civil society and NGOs who had lost their moral compass. The people’s reply was loud and clear. 

And the besieged nation is now settling down again hoping that a change of regime will at least bring them a clean administration. This is an indispensable factor for the survival of the new Rajapaksa regime. If Gota fails to achieve this he too will have to go home like Ranil.

The trust placed in Gota is to prevent the pollution of the political culture under his reign. Quite significantly, the Sinhala-Buddhist ethic was defined by Gota when he took his oaths – not at the traditional Malwatte – but at Ruwanweli Seya in Anuradhapura. He went  back to his roots that ran all the way to the  epic period of history written by Dutugemunu. The symbolism and its meaning resonated deeply in the hearts of the Sinhala-Buddhists threatened by the arrogant minorities. When, for instance, M. L. A. M. Hisbullah crowed that the Arab nations will come rushing to rescue the Muslims if the Sinhalese attack them, he was pushing the Sinhalese to unite against Muslim arrogance.

Voting clout

After Tamil extremism lost its military power at Nandikadal, the minorities were banking on their voting clout to dominate the nation. Their main aim was to gain through electoral politics what they could not gain militarily. Gota’s win on purely Sinhala-Buddhist votes, stunned the political pundits and the UNP leaders who believed that the majority could not win without the minority. 

Gota’s victory rewrote the political equation that was accepted by the intellectuals and the NGO pundits as the indelible truth written in stone. The anti-Sinhala-Buddhist intellectuals and academics must revisit their fake theories and reconsider their spurious assumptions of the grassroots forces that determine national politics.

 It is reasonable to assume now that the Rip Van Winkles in the majority community will rise as one, when they are driven to the brink. They may lie low for some time patiently. But when they are pushed against the wall they will rise to defend their heritage. They did so at Nandikadal when Prabakaran pushed the nation to the brink. 

And they have risen again to preserve their heritage, when Ranil was dragging the reluctant nation once again to reinforce his CFA (22 February 2002) through his ‘constitution-making’ – the ill-fated policy unwanted and rejected by the majority. With his CFA he was ever willing to hand over the nation’s territory to the bitter enemy of the nation. The mantra he was chanting then, together with the NGOs, was ‘confidence-building for peace’. 

He thought he would win the Nobel Prize for his CFA. But, neither the majority nor the minority fell for it. Ranil’s much-vaunted CFA, praised by him as his political masterpiece, exposed his stupidity: Prabakaran treated him like a fool by shooting Ranil’s peace formula to pieces.

This time it was Gota who saved the nation, when Ranil was about  to handover territory and powers through ‘Constitution-making’. It was the Number One item in Sajith’s manifesto launched in Kandy. The  Tamil Net corroborated it: “While one of the mainstream candidates, Sajith Premadasa, at least dropped the term ‘unitary’ and the phrase ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ in his election manifesto, Gotabaya Rajapaksa made it undoubtedly clear that genocidal Sri Lanka would remain unitary with the foremost place to Theravada Buddhism.”

 The keynote speaker, Victor Ivan spoke only on that and nothing else. Ranil, though silenced, was quite happy that Sajith was working his guts out to fulfil his original plan in the CFA. Both were dependent on Tamil votes and both were willing to sell the nation to win a handful of votes. 

They underestimated the power of the Sinhala-Buddhist vote and relied entirely on the minority votes. If they won, they would have argued that they got a mandate from the people to re-write the Constitution. It was Gota’s War II, fought with the ballot, that stopped Ranil’s move to hand over powers and territory to the Tamil extremists.

The post-Independent history is a stunning record of an Invisible Hand moving into place in the nick of time to save the nation from falling  into  the hands of its enemies. How else can one explain Prabakaran rejecting Ranil’s CFA and Chandrika Bandaranaike’s handing over of the North and East to Prabakaran for ten years without an election? If Prabakaran accepted any one of these two offers he would be ruling the roost today, constructing kovils in the two names – Ranil and CBK – for the Tamil to offer poojas whenever they run out of luck.

This Invisible Hand has thrown the predictions, the electoral mathematics and the punditry of our intellectuals into the dustbins. Ever since 1956, they have been labouring in seminars, forums, publications, academia and Media to undermine and diminish the power of Sinhala-Buddhists. But 16 November has proved the resilient power of the grassroots that guide the destiny of the nation.

Under Ranil, they were delighted that they were incorporated into his regime as stake-holders of the nation’s future, marginalising the Sinhala-Buddhists. He even was chuckling on the sidelines that his Ministers were ridiculing and belittling the Sangha. In the end, he was made to pay for the stupidity of his Ministers’ foul mouths.

Realistic assessment

A realistic assessment will confirm that  it was not Sajith who was defeated. It was Ranil. Sajith was faced with an uphill task, battling to wipe out the evil memories of Ranil and present a new face to the public. But the public knew that Sajith was merely the mask hiding Ranil’s anti-national, anti-majority, pro-West, corrupt regime.  He made a desperate bid to distance himself from Ranil. Predictably, in his desperate bid to win, Sajith too swallowed Ranil’s calculation that the minorities could save him. 

He signed secret agreements with Ranil, and Akila Kariyawasam, the Secretary of the UNP, to sell the nation to the Tamil separatists. But the people saw through it and refused to accept his rhetoric.

The alliances made by Ranil with the minorities boomeranged on Sajith. The more Ranil got closer to the minorities, the more it threatened the security of the majority.  The demonised majority reacted en masse to defend their cherished heritage and their way of life from the arrogant minorities who assumed that they could make the majority dance to their nagasalam.  Ranil fell for that line and danced all the way to 16 November believing that the Northern drumbeat would do the trick for him. The people refused to trust the man behind Sajith’s mask. 

With a silent stroke of the pen the voters cut the neck of the selected protector of the nation, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. There was no one to protect the protector when he lost his Kelaniya seat. Chandrika Bandaranaiake who came flying in on a rescue mission, could not win her seat to save Ranil. Even the Presidential candidate could not win his seat in Hambantota. To change the metaphor, this lot put all their eggs in the minority basket. And the majority rejected them.

Azath Sally boasted of the power of the 30 per cent minority that could teach a lesson to the majority. Make no mistake: It was the Sinhala-Buddhist forces, threatened by the minorities in the North and the East that triumphed on 16 November. It was a clear-cut power struggle between the minority and the majority. This  election turned out to be the most defining event since  Nandikadal. Nandikadal was won with bullets. 16 November was won with ballots. Both were led by Gota.

The nationalist forces that swept Gotabaya into power is not confined to Sri Lanka. It is the force that is sweeping the globe. Though it is an odious comparison, it is the Sri Lankan version of ‘Make America Great again’. 

Similar corresponding forces dominate global politics in the post-Cold War era. Easter Sunday highlighted the dangers haunting the nation. They have yet to learn that violence of all three communities – the JVP, Tamil Tigers and Zahrans – will not pay any dividends. In fact, violence will boomerang on the minorities.  Running against the trend, Ranil ganged up with the minorities. This alliance with the minorities became his first and last defence line. But, it boomeranged on him too. 

The Sinhala voters rallied as one united force to reject Ranil’s formula for peaceful co-existence. This is the election that taught Ranil at last that he cannot make the waves roll back according to his commands. He, his fellow-idiots in academia and NGOs, and the minorities must realise that they can go only thus far and no further. Ranil must learn that he can’t change 2500 years of history by buying MPs in Parliament.

The Sinhala forces that saved the minorities from the fascist tyranny of the Pol Pot at Nandikadal have risen again to define peacefully and democratically, the parameters within which the minorities could co-exist in a shared society with equal rights to all. Hiding behind the bogus claim of ‘reconciliation’ (which came only from the Sinhala side) the minorities ganged up to dictate politics to the majority. 

It was this threat to the majority that kept the numbers ticking for Gota as results tumbled down on live telecasts. Except for a brief moment or two, the consistent 50+vote never left Gota as the results captured the emerging  polling trend on the screen. There were no prizes for the runner-up. The winner took it all.

New guru

As for Sajith he was made to believe by Victor Ivan, the new guru of the UNP, that thousands were behind him. He was theorising that Sajith has behind him the thousands of beneficiaries who  were recipients of his visionary father’s (1) poverty alleviation through  samurdhi, (2) house-building on a national scale, (3) decentralising bureaucratic power and  taking it to the grassroots through gam-udawas, (4) creating  jobs by incentivising  businessmen to take garment factories to the villages , etc. President Premadasa also ‘peoplised’ the UNP by taking it away from Kurunduwatte to Kehelwatte. But Ranil reversed it. He took it to his new haven in Kollupitiya, which is next door to Kurunduwatte.

Delusional beliefs

Obsessed with his delusional beliefs, Ranil also ran after George Soros, the Hungarian billionaire, hoping he would rush to save him with investments. He joined the IDU – the exclusive club of white, Christian, Western leaders – hoping  that the Western entrepreneurs would flock in their hundreds and thousands with investments to save him. In the end, the collective actions of his allies in the West and in the North helped him only to go gurgling down the drain. 

It must be conceded that Sajith in  his own flamboyant style tried to reclaim his father’s heritage. But there is more  to the shaping of historic events than a slick tongue, theatrics on  stage and packing the Galle Face space with bussed Bandas bought with buth packets. The expected crowds predicted by Victor Ivan did not turn up at the polling booths. As usual, his theories went down.

Gota’s second victory against the anti-national forces is as great as his first victory in defeating the ‘invincible’ Tamil Tiger terrorists. The battle lines were drawn clearly between the nation and the anti-national forces. If Sajith won it would have taken the nation in the same direction as Ranil. Despite all his chest-beating bravado, Sajith was a mere ventriloquist for Ranil.

Gota won this war because the Sinhala people rallied behind him to fight the battles against the anti-national forces. When his brother and mentor return as Prime Minister, they will collectively capture the power that was denied in the 19th Amendment. Ranil has been hoisted by his own petard. 

He designed the 19th Amendment to strengthen his prime ministerial hand, because the Presidency was beyond his reach. The irony is that all Ranil’s labours have ended in consolidating the power of the Rajapaksas. Jointly they both have another chance to act jointly to overcome all the obstacles placed in the 19th Amendment. The coming events will mock the constitutional-makers who were straining every muscle to curtail the powers of the presidency by increasing the powers of the Prime Minister. 

But, when the President’s brother is also his mentor, what obstacle can stand in his way to override the 19th Amendment? Soon Gota will have all the powers except making a man a woman, and vice versa. Together they will have unlimited power to achieve what they failed to fulfil in their first run.

Gota cannot do what Ranil did to the nation: betray the interests of the people with immoral politics and anti-national betrayals.

Gota owes everything to the Sinhala people. And the Sinhala-Buddhists, he must remember, never failed to protect the minorities and give them security and prosperity at all times, even when they were persecuted by their own leaders or the foreigners. For instance, the Muslims will remember that when Sankili ethnically cleansed Jaffna, partly by throwing pig’s heads into their wells, and when Prabakaran persecuted and chased the Muslims out of Jaffna within 24 hours, it was the Sinhala South that gave refuge to them. He will also remember that the Sinhala people can protect the minorities as long as long as they live under the protective umbrella of the democratic, sovereign, undivided State and not if they fall under the separate rule of fascist Tamil or Sinhala Pol Pots.

War-winning brothers

There is no doubt that the two war-winning brothers will be back again after the next Parliamentary Elections. That, of course, will be another story for another day.