{"id":105138,"date":"2020-08-01T15:25:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T22:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105138"},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:07:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T23:07:17","slug":"leadership-in-the-right-hands-is-the-only-way-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/01\/leadership-in-the-right-hands-is-the-only-way-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership in the right hands is the only way out"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
Two news items published in the prestigious New York Times tell the harrowing tale of what has happened to the USA in the ceaseless deterioration of conditions under the Covid-19 pandemic.  News item 1: The U.S. coronavirus caseload, the world\u2019s biggest, passed four million on Thursday. (23\/7). The numbers of daily hospitalizations and deaths were also on the rise.  <\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
Public health experts have warned that the actual number of people infected is far higher than the number of reported cases, and could be up to 13 times as high in some regions<\/a>. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n \n \n \n \n California and Texas are among\n the states setting daily records for new infections. More than 143,000\n people have died in the U.S., according to a Times database.\u201d (NYT \u2013 July\n 24th,<\/sup>  2020)\n  \n News\n item 2:<\/strong> After a survey of the global reaction to the way America\n has handled the pandemic, NYT reported:\n \n \n \n \n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

A Singaporean is in disbelief to learn of the\nnumber of Americans who lost their jobs to the pandemic. His government, by\ncomparison, subsidized up to 75 percent of citizens\u2019 lost wages. A German\nwoman, who could have been slapped with a hefty fine had she violated social\ndistancing mandates, is astonished to see photos of Florida\u2019s beach parties. A\nSouth Korean woman compares her nation\u2019s phone booth testing sites to America\u2019s\nbungling version. What does a Senegalese man feel when he sees mass graves in the\nStates?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two reports highlight the abysmal\nmismanagement of the pandemic in USA. Sri Lanka, on the contrary, has won\nplaudits from WHO and leading lights of the international community for the way\nit has managed the pandemic without letting it run wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has the pandemic in the world\u2019s greatest\npower ended in colossal avoidable tragedies? And why has Sri Lanka succeeded in\ncontrolling it? What has caused the difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer: Leadership.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It is the quality of leadership that makes all\nthe difference in a crisis situation. The pandemic has proved that President\nDonald Trump is not only a danger to humanity but a fraud. It is his quackery\nand refusal to face the grim and scientific realities that are a threat to\nAmerican lives and the global economy. The only silver lining is that the rise\nof the victims of the pandemic has resulted in a commensurate plummeting of\nTrump\u2019s popularity ratings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As opposed to this misguided disaster, the\nleadership of the Rajapaksas, despite all the drawbacks, has risen to meet the\ngreat challenges of our times rescuing it from the jaws of defeat. Leadership\nmust be judged by the victories scored at a nation\u2019s most perilous moments. It\nis the Rajapaksas quality of leadership that made all the difference at\nNandikadal. It is the quality of leadership that saved the nation from the\nbrink of being sold out to the combined anti-Sinhala-Buddhist forces on\nNovember 19, 2019. It is the determined and dynamic leadership that fought the\ninvisible virus and saved the nation from the pandemic. It is their\noverwhelming and convincing victories that has forced their detractors to bat\non the back foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rajapaksas\u2019\ngrip on the nation was demonstrated when the Rajapakses lost to Yahapalanaya in\n2015. They lost the polls but bus loads streaming from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all corners of the\nnation flooded the precincts of Medamulana. The Rajapaksas lost in January but\nthe Mahinda Sulanga\u201d held in Nugegoda in February was packed with the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

loyalists flocking\nto ensure the return of the Rajapaksas. This was a unique political experience\nfor a party that had lost. Though they lost to the organised force of the\nanti-national front \u2013 the minorities, NGOs, alienated civil society, Western\nagencies, etc., all of which were spearheaded by the symbolic Buddhist icon, Madoluwawe\nSobitha Thero — the people never abandoned the Rajapaksas. They never forgot\nthat it was their leadership that paved the way to defeat the invincible\u201d\nTamil fascist terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this issue of leadership, the obvious is to\ncompare the response of the electorate to the leadership of the Yahapalanaya.\nNeither the people nor the party loyalists have shown a similar attachment to\nthe leaders of the discredited Yahapalanaya. It is the failure of the\nYahapalanaya leadership that brought the regime right down to rock bottom. They\nhad not left behind any memorable victories for the people to energise their\npolitical passions and yearn for their return. Every big move they made\nboomeranged on them. Whether in foreign policy (Resolution 30\/1 betraying the\nsoldiers at Geneva), or whether in making R. Sampanthan the leader of a party\nwith 16 MPs the Leader of the opposition in a House of 225, whether in\nimporting a foreigner from Singapore to rob the nation\u2019s Central Bank, or\nwhether in manipulating the Parliament to change the constitution \u2013 a demand to\nsatisfy only the minorities \u2013 the Yahapalana regime failed to provide a\nleadership that could win the nation\u2019s gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of all these, the divided leadership in\nthe Yahapalanaya regime, with the President and the Prime Minister pulling in\ntwo different directions, could never have given a united and constructive\nleadership. After the Yahapalanaya regime hit nadir there was no space to go\ndown any further.  After the fall of the kakistocracy of the Yahapalana\nmanipulators, their successors can only go up. The success of the battle\nagainst Coronavid-19 is indicative of the leaders in power to grapple with\ncrises with the least fuss or mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, President Gotabaya is in the middle\nof his fourth war. First ended in Nandikadal. Second, on November 19th<\/sup> 2019\nby saving the nation from the anti-national and alien forces. Third, was in\nCovid-19 battlefield \u2013 and still advancing. Fourth, is the war on underworld\ndrug dealers.  The reports indicate that he is winning that too. Compared\nto that of President Dutarte\u2019s battle with the underworld to eliminate the drug\nmenace President Gotabaya\u2019s methodology is progressing with a smooth\nefficiency, using the appropriate dose of force, to apprehend the drug dealers\nwithout the shoot-at-sight tactics of Dutarte. The fifth, undoubtedly the most\nmenacing, is coming over the global horizon and it is looming large. It\u2019s, of\ncourse, the dark clouds of the economy. That battle will begin in all its\ncomplexities and challenges after August 5th<\/sup> when the new\nParliament assembles to define the next phase of our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another distinguishing factor.\nPresident Gotabaya is a result-oriented, hands-on activist determined to make a\ndifference. He does not govern by passing the buck to committees whose findings\nare never read by the leaders who appoint them. In the meantime, he is waging a\nwar against an obstructive and lethargic bureaucracy. Every failure of the\nbureaucracy is reflected on the regime wielding power. Refining the bureaucracy\nto serve the needs of the people particularly in developing countries is a\nmassive task. There are plenty of theories on how to make the bureaucratic\nLeviathan work but none has worked so meaningfully as President Ranasinghe\nPremadasa taking the state machinery to the people instead of the people coming\nto the fat cats, or President Gotabaya going down to the basement to make the\nsystem deliver the services to the neglected people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the distinguishing\ncharacteristics of President Gotabaya\u2019s style of governance. In the main, he\nhas run the state so far almost single-handedly without a Parliament to either\nback him or oppose him. The coming election will clear this anomaly, one way or\nanother. With a fragmented and disoriented Opposition in total disarray the\nprediction is that he will win that battle at the polls too. Then he will be\nwell entrenched in power to govern with an iron fist covered in a velvet glove.\nThere is no alternative to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The path ahead for President Gotabaya is cut\nout for him in the economic and political success stories of South East Asia\nhistory. Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and even China and Japan tell the same\nstory: success came out of a little bit of dictatorship. Forging consensus with\na touch of dictatorship \u2013 mark you, only with a touch of dictatorship a\nla<\/strong> the much-admired Lee Kwan Yew \u2013 has proved to be a prime condition\nfor growth and stability. Both go hand in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka right now is positioned at this critical\nintersection to go down the Singaporean path if it is to achieve success. The\ntime has come for a leader to take the monster by the scruff of its neck and\ngive it a good shake-up. A good example is the unwinnable war\u201d declared by the\nTamil leadership at Vadukoddai in May 1976. It ended in May 2009 only because\nthere was a leadership to tackle it head-on. Otherwise we would be still\nlistening to our political pun(k)dits preaching to us on what should be done to\nappease the monster to end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inevitability of reinforcing and\nconsolidating the Centre \u2013 there is nothing left in the Left, Right or North as\nan alternative — the anti-national pun(k)dits are reduced to fear-mongering.\nNot knowing what to do, particularly with the disillusioned electorate\nrebelling and rejecting their analyses and remedies, they have withdrawn into\ntheir intellectual cubicles predicting doom and gloom. Unable to find solid\narguments against the most effective Centrist leadership that has produced\ntangible results they have been reduced to the mean role of doubting Thomases.\nThey are screaming that the dictatorship has come already. However, they are\nnot even sure of that. They end up by saying that time will tell\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take just three of them who project themselves\nas well informed pundits: Prof. Kumar David, Prof. Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan,\nand my colleague, Sarath de Alwis. The first two are obsessed, as usual, with\nthe yellow robes\u201d. Sarath is obsessed with a yellow jacket\u201d worn by a female\ncanvasser who is pleading the cause of the Sinhala-Buddhists and\nCatholics.  All three of them are blind to the yellow shawl that covers\nModi\u2019s India from the top of Himalayas to the tip end of the Southern coast, or\nhis counterpart in Sri Lanka, C. V. Wigneswaran. Jaffna too is covered in the\nyellow manufactured, marketed, and distributed by Wigneswaran. They accept the\nTamil yellow as a fundamental right of the minority. They are worried only when\nthe  majority uses it. They are agitated only when the Sinhala-Buddhists\nwear it. Then the yellow to them becomes what a red rag is to a bull. They come\ncharging like wounded bulls in a ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ranting against the lady in a yellow jacket, my friend Sarath seems\nto be unaware that our women have been doing what the yellow-jacketed canvasser\nhad been doing down the ages wearing not a yellow but a white jacket. What\u2019s\nthe difference in colour if the message is the same? Does toothpaste\nwrapped in different colours loose its essence, eh Sarath? He\nconcludes, somewhat sorrowfully, saying: And we must live with the lady in the\nsaffron blouse in the video clip and her candidate.\u201d Why is he so upset about\nthe lady in yellow only now? Haven\u2019t we been living with these ladies from the\ntime Mahinda Thero landed at Mihintale, eh Sarath?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nmore telling is his admission that there is no alternative to President\nGotabaya. In making a rational assessment\u201d he concedes: Gotabaya is a very\npopular product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis a strong conviction amongst a large swathe of the populace that President\nGotabaya Rajapaksa will take the right call for the country.\u201d He also dismisses the\nRight-wing of Sajith and the Left-wingers too confirming that there is no\nalternative to President Gotabaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in the same breath he\nmoans: I think they (the people) are wrong. That is my opinion. I cannot\nprove them wrong. Only time will tell.\u201d Even the other two\npun(k)dits are in the same boat. They can\u2019t prove that they are right. But they\nthink that the end of the world is about to happen though they are not sure. In\nthe end they conclude with the their refrain: only time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nare worried about the militarisation\u201d and the nation heading towards a\ndictatorship. The two professors are most concerned about the Rajapaksa regime\nending in a dictatorship. Take the case of academic Sarvan who has been a\nconsistent Tamil chauvinist pretending to be a defender of human rights when,\nin his spare time, he has been manufacturing justifications to protect and\nperpetuate the Tamil fascist de facto state of Prabhakaran. What are his\nacademic credentials worth when he churns out threadbare concoctions like this:\nAt present, Sri Lanka has a democratic, more precisely and honestly, a\nmajoritarian form of government.\u201d Which democracy is not a majoritarian\n(meaning ethnic) form of government? Is France formed by Occitanians or\nCorsicans? Is England formed by a majority of Scots and Welsh? Was Barack Obama\nelected because he was a black or because he was whiter than the whites? Would\nhe have been elected if he like Louis Farrakhan, the Black separatist, demanded\na separate state for the blacks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwill stop with one more quote: Socialism forms links, makes common cause, with\nworkers from other groups, both within and outside the country.\u201d Tut! Tut,\nProfessori! Can you tell us how many links the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia\nmade under Stalin with his fellow Slavs, let alone the workers of the\nworld?  And where are they now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof.\nKumar David is an outdated, old fashioned Marxist who comes out with some gems\nfrom time to time. However, I am sad to say that from time to time he too falls\ninto the category he has condemned: the Tamil leadership he branded as\ncongenital idiots\u201d. Now he is most concerned about the Rajapaksa state\ntrending, according to him, towards an authoritarian regime. And he cites a\nstring of militarised states that had gone to pot. Like all pun(k)dits\npontificating in the commentariat he skips the most relevant example created by\nthe  Tamils: the de facto state of the Tamil Pol Pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmost relevant example for comparison should have been a relativistic assessment\nof the only state created by the Tamils in the post-colonial period with that\nof the Sinhaltistsa state\u201d, as branded by the Tamil federalists \/ separatists.\nThe pro-Tamil pun(k)dits avoid that because it negates all their arguments\nabout the Sinhala majoritarian state\u201d which has been a democracy with all its\ninfirmities. The failure of the Tamil federalists \/ separatists to establish a\ndemocratic state, respecting human rights in any form, at least to their own\npeople, condemns the Tamil political culture as an extension of its past\nsubhuman Vellala culture that dominated the peninsula from feudal times. It is\nnot in the nature of traditional history for the Vellala oppressors, suppressors\nand persecutors to produce benign and compassionate adherents of human rights.\nVelupillai Prabahakaran belongs to the fascist Vellala culture. He was the\nfirst born child  of the Tamil Vellala ideology that was enshrined in the\nVadukoddai Resolution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Kumar David should know that the Sinhala state\u201d fought\nthe longest barbaric war unleased by the Tamil leadership within a democratic\nframework (1) providing food and essentials to a rebel-held territory \u2013 the\nonly of its kind according to David Feng of UNICEF \u2013 and (2) even giving\nprotection to those Tamils persecuted and hunted by the de facto Tamil state.\nBesides, he should know that it was the Rajapaksas who liberated the Tamils\nfrom their Pol Pot. And the whole nation, like any other nation, has the right\nto celebrate the ending of the curse of a 33-year-old war that leads naturally\nto stability, peace and democracy which the Tamil state could not provide its\nown people. Frustrated by the defeat the pro-Tamil pun(k)dits called it\ntriumphalism\u201d. What would Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu and his ilk done if the\nboot was on the other foot? Would they have gone into mourning and apologising\nfor the crimes they committed to their own people let alone the Muslims and the\nSinhalese?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the available evidence the choice for the nation \nis between leaders who have proved their worth and those who have failed to\ndeliver peace, stability and progress. The argument that militarisation\u201d would\nlead to dictatorship deserves another chapter. But the record so far proves\nthat the fascist forces of the Right and the Left that ventured to impose their\ndictatorial regimes have failed. Rohana Wijeweera, Prabhakaran, Zaharan and the\nRight-wingers that  that came from the barracks ended in disaster.\nDemocracy is well rooted in the soil. And no mature political leader will ever\ndare to do what Prabhakaran did to the Tamil people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Two news items published in the prestigious New York Times tell the harrowing tale of what has happened to the USA in the ceaseless deterioration of conditions under the Covid-19 pandemic.  News item 1: The U.S. coronavirus caseload, the world\u2019s biggest, passed four million on Thursday. (23\/7). The numbers of daily hospitalizations and deaths were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}