{"id":105543,"date":"2020-08-15T16:16:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T23:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105543"},"modified":"2020-08-15T16:17:04","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T23:17:04","slug":"what-happened-on-august-5-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/15\/what-happened-on-august-5-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened on August 5, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

    \nMine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Gerard\nManly Hopkins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After zig-zagging under the pressures of multiple inimical forces, evolving history has once again returned to its traditional Centre to reclaim its roots. From the thirties, the Marxists struggled to take the nation through parliamentary\/electoral manoeuvres, and sometimes through brutal violence, to a socialist paradise. The nation rejected the false prophets and returned to its traditional democratic, pragmatic Centre governed by the Sinhala-Buddhists. From the forties, the mono-ethnic extremists of the North launched a movement to take a part of the nation to an ethnic enclave. After the longest war, the nation bounced back to the democratic Centre of the Sinhala-Buddhists. In the meantime, a group of Right-wing fascists in uniform attempted to stage a coup. That too was nipped in the bud with the democratic Centre winning again. In the last attempt, a mish-mash of alien and the deracinated forces fought relentlessly and collectively to drag the nation away from its roots to a neo-liberal camp driven by Western dogmas. But it came crashing down in one big heap on August 5, 2020, like the mountain of garbage at Meetotamulla, burying those who dumped all their muck into it. All of them paid heavily for trying to drag history away from it roots. The last bastion of the corrupt and the decadent forces that stood in the way was the die-hard Right-wing citadel of Colombo. When that too came thundering down it brought down the last anachronistic panjandrum of the\u00a0ancien regime,\u00a0Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was hanging on to his crumbling fortress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fall of Colombo marks the\nbeginning of a new era. It is more than the loss of numbers, or the traditional\nbase of the UNP held firmly since its inception. It is the supreme symbol of\nthe collapse of the Right-wing along with its leader. The Left went to pieces\nafter J. R. Jayewardene swept the polls in 1977. The Right sank to its lowest\ndepths on August 5 when the Rajapaksas won the unwinnable\u201d 2\/3rd <\/sup>in\n2020, after winning the unwinnable war\u201d in 2009 at Nandikadal and the equally\nthreatening war against Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never has this happened ever\nbefore to the Right that stood solidly unshakeable like Sri Pada. Even in 1956\nwhen the UNP fell to its lowest, Sir. John Kotelawela, the then leader,\nretained his Dodangaslanda seat. The UNP survived as a national institution and\nas a people-based organisation, despite facing massive assaults from the Left\nand the Sinhala-Buddhist forces. It never lost its political network, or the\nrespect it gained from the Founding Fathers of independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1956 Sir. John at least had the\nopportunity to cross the floor and shake the hands of his rival, S. W. R. D.\nBandaranaike, congratulating him on his victory, and retire with some dignity\nto his farm in Kent, UK. Ranil, on the other hand, goes home kicked out of\nParliament unceremoniously by the people. He paid the ultimate price for\ndismissing the aspirations of the people with his neo-liberalism which had no\nroots in the hearts or minds of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He delighted in being the King of\nthe bastardized Western political culture sold to him by NGOs and Western\nembassies. Quite cynically, believing in his own imported ideology, he turned a\nblind eye \u2013 not to mention a deaf ear \u2013 to the forces that were cutting the\nground under his feet. Neither the alien forces nor their intellectual\nside-kicks in academia and hangers-on, had the power to move the grassroot\nforces that were vital for his survival. Brushing aside the factors that\nmatter, Ranil opted to live in his ideological bubble and when it burst on August\n5th<\/sup> he hit the dirt for the last time. Yesterday\u2019s rooster\nbecame a feather-duster overnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Senanayakes it was\npresident Ranasinghe Premadasa who peoplised\u201d the Party. He led the Party with\nhis down-to-earth Kehelwatte philosophy brewed by bare-foot foot-ballers. But\nfrom November 8, 1994 \u2013 and for the next 25 years, eight months and 23 days —\nthe Party was hijacked by the trousered Kurunduwatte cricketers, most of them\nfrom Royal College, whose neo-liberalism, linked to the International\nDemocratic Union (IDU), did their level best to drag the nation away from it\nroots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 5, 2020 was Sri Lanka\u2019s\nBastille Day when a regime disconnected with the people was thrown out, lock,\nstock and barrel. It was the equivalent of the humiliating routing of the Tamil\nRight-wing Vellalas on May 19, 2009 at Nandikadal. It was 1956\u201d all over again\nwith a lesser breed of Alzheimeric mediocrities repeating history for the\numpteenth time. What surged on August 5th<\/sup> was a total rejection\nof the decadent politics by the overwhelming spirit and power of the\ndeterminative forces of history that had shaped the destiny of the nation down\nthe ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again August 5th<\/sup> proved\nthe massive power of the Sinhala-Buddhists to go to the brink and regain their\nlost heritage. Once again it proved that the Sinhala-Buddhists can muster, even\nat the eleventh hour, the necessary political clout, with or without the\nminorities, to determine their path in evolving history as they did in the\npast. In the post-colonial period Dudley Senanayake, Mrs. Sirimavo\nBandaranaike, J. R. Jayewardene, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and Mahinda Rajapaksa\nhave proved that the power of the Sinhala-Buddhist forces to rise from the\ndepths of despair to the heights of glory. Their power has been proved with the\nballot and also with the bullet. This is not triumphalism of the\nSinhala-Buddhists. This is what is written in history of our time. Ranil failed\nbecause his immoral regime committed the other heinous crime of trying to\nhijack history and park it in the backyard of Jehan Perera and Pakiasothy\nSaravanamuttu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also the moment of\nrenewal. History sometimes acts like a vacuum cleaner. From time to time\nnations need a powerful force to suck the muck out of the political system.\nAugust 5th<\/sup> was a critical date on which the nation was\nbalancing between Ranil\u2019s regime rigged by rorts and the Rajapaksas promising a\nnew beginning. The subterranean historical forces of the day came, in the nick\nof time, as the cleanser to regenerate the nation and restore the values robbed\nRanil\u2019s regime. One of his biggest crimes was to let the robber barons run\nriot. In every which way he lost the moral base on which power is won and\nretained. Politics, after all, is all about morality. Those who undermine\nmorality lose authority and legitimacy to rule. The life span of immoral\nregimes is very short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 5th<\/sup> was the\nday the people went to the cleaners. It was also the day a new political map\nwas drawn by the people with their little crosses at the polling booths. They\ndeclared, in no uncertain terms, that the power lies with the central force of\nhistory and not in the peripheral hands of the Johnnies-come-lately. And that\nCentre has been captured comprehensively by the Rajapaksa brothers. Today there\nis no Right, no Left nor is there the North as we knew it. There is only the\nCentre held by the Rajapaksas and it has been entrusted with untrammelled power\nby the people to shape the next stage of evolving history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who whittled\naway the enlightened national values, the image and the integrity of the Grand\nOld Party of giants each day he occupied the chair of leadership, should take\nfull responsibility for the massacre of the UNPers on August 5. For 26 years \u2013\ngive or take a few days — he was very clever at manipulating the chess pieces\nat the top for his own survival and glory. But he never had the common touch or\nsense to be a leader of the people. He never had his feet on the ground. He was\nhoisted by his own petard. Eventually he became a victim of his own manoeuvres.\nThe Bond Scam, the Easter Sunday attack, the 19th<\/sup> Amendment\nthat kept him swinging in the air like a rope round his neck, changing the\nconstitution to enthrone the minorities at the expense of the majority, \nthe betrayal in Geneva, the abuses of parliamentary procedures and privileges\nto cover-up his sins and keep him in power etc., were all his creations which\naccumulated, one by one, to reduce his image to that of a chained monkey\ndancing to the tune of his organ-grinders in the West. On top of all this, the\nmighty forces of history, resisting his moves to drag the nation away from its\nroots, came down on him a ton of bricks and pulverised him and his irrelevant\nand alien ideology to smithereens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will also be remembered as the\nfounder of social distancing\u201d that kept the people away from the Party. He\nnever understood the dynamic swings of politics, or how emerging forces\ndetermined the shape, form and direction of unfolding events, or even how to\nread the plain visible signs that were telling him to go. The more he was told\nto go the more he dug deep into his set refusing to go. How could he understand\npolitics when he couldn\u2019t understand the meaning of an election? Each time he\nlost an election \u2013 at least one for each year of his stewardship \u2013 he was made\nto believe that it was an expression of the indispensability of his leadership.\nHe acted as if he could override the will of the people with his government run\nby do-nothing committees that took him nowhere. It took a direct kick in his\npants for him to realise that the people do not want him anymore. The\nunceremonious eviction from Parliament by the people will be the badge he will\ncarry for the rest of his life. It is a sad ending for a man who assumed that\nhe knew everything that needs to be known in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a long time for the\nmessage to sink in. Now it seems that the message has sunk in. He goes to live\non a Parliamentary pension which he should, rightfully, give it back to the\npeople for leaving them with a legacy that is empty as his political\ncareer.  A leader is judged by the victories he\/she scores in time of\ncrises. Sadly, there isn\u2019t a single significant victory which stands to his\ncredit on the national stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History has been kind to him and\ngiven three chances to occupy the Prime Ministerial seat. Three chances to\nsolve the issues exploding in his face. He botched it each time he took the\nreins of power. For instance, the biggest threat to the nation was Velupillai\nPrabhakaran. When the time came he surrendered the national interests by\nsigning the Cease Fire Agreement (22\/2\/2002) with international guarantees\nwithout telling the President, the Parliament, his Party or the people.\nPrabhakaran treated it with contempt it deserved and left him twisting in the\nwinds of despair. Second, was his gigantic effort to change the Constitution,\nstarting with his futile 19th<\/sup> Amendment. Soon it will be wiped\nout of the statute book as it has failed to serve any man, woman or the LGBT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also hailed as Mr. Clean\u201d\nand the better economic manager. With the Bond scandal all that went down the\ndrain. He also went behind George Soros hoping that the patron of open society\nwould come to his rescue with massive investments. But Soros had no time for\nhim. Aiming to rope in the patronage of the Western investors he joined the\nInternational Democratic Union (IDU), the powerful club of the capitalist hub.\nHis membership did not help to get any favours from the IDU either. Lastly, in\na sacrificial ritual at UNHRC in Geneva, he offered to the West the heads of\nthe heroic soldiers who fought and won peace for all to enjoy normalcy, dignity\nand the democratic rights denied by the Tamil fascist regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the last straw that broke the\ncamel\u2019s back. Handing the soldiers to a foreign court to be tried on hear-say\nevidence cooked up by the Tamil lobby and NGOs questioned his loyalty to the\nnation. In handing over his soldiers to be tried by foreign judges was an act\nthat betrayed his confidence in the national judiciary. In other words, he was\ntelling the world and the nation that he had no faith in the local judiciary to\ndeliver justice on testable evidence. People in return paid him back by\ndeclaring no confidence in his role as leader of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public declaration of the will\nof the people was, perhaps, too harsh on him. But how can the people trust him\nto deliver justice when he, as a lawyer of the national legal system, has\nrejected the prime legal instrumentality of the nation, as unreliable, unworthy\nand untrustworthy means incapable of upholding the law fairly, independently\nand objectively? He has placed his trust in foreign judges and not ours!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anything, his career exposes\nhim as the only outstanding model that should be avoided in politics at any\ncost. No one can emulate his style or ideology and hope to win or retain power.\nHis idea of being a leader is to stand on the shore of politics and command the\nwaves rising from oceans of history to stop rolling. Long before him King\nCanute, pointing to the limitations of power, proved to his ministers that it\njust can\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something that the new leaders of\nthe UNP should learn is that it is not possible to take history out of\npolitics. If the new leadership hopes to gain credibility and acceptance it\nmust come back to the centre of history. Politics cannot drift too far away\nfrom history. Example: After 1956\u201d the alienated UNP went back to Dudley\nSenanayake \u2013 the accepted centre of history, the collective force evolving in\ntime to mould politics. As stated by Arnold Toynbee it is possible to turn the\nwheel of history only a wee bit at a time. It is not possible to turn it full\ncircle overnight. Nor is it possible to take what belongs to the majority, who\nwere the makers of history, and hand it over to the minority hoping that it\nwould be the magic formula to resolve majority-minority conflicts and tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, the decimated and the\ninexperienced leadership in the opposition now is no match for the seasoned\nbull-fighters in the ring. Sajith cannot go far out from the Centre to appease\nthe extremist demands of the minorities and at the same time win back the\nmajority that defected from the UNP. In any case, it is not possible at this\nstage to know for how long the unpredictable and opportunistic minorities will\nbe with him. There is only the Sinhala-Buddhist Centre that is in command right\nnow. The rest is chaos. They will take time to find their place and direction\nin the political compass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, we can say\nFarewell!\u201d to Ranil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all must wish him a better time\nin retirement than he had in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala      Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain \u2013 Gerard Manly Hopkins After zig-zagging under the pressures of multiple inimical forces, evolving history has once again returned to its traditional Centre to reclaim its roots. From the thirties, the Marxists struggled to take the nation through parliamentary\/electoral manoeuvres, and […]<\/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-105543","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\/105543","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=105543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}