{"id":51661,"date":"2016-02-01T18:05:10","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=51661"},"modified":"2016-02-01T11:01:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T18:01:44","slug":"what-mahinda-should-learn-from-chandrika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/01\/what-mahinda-should-learn-from-chandrika\/","title":{"rendered":"What Mahinda Should Learn From Chandrika"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Politics turned ruthless after 1977. Scores of political opponents have been killed, assaulted, imprisoned and otherwise harmed since then. What\u2019s more worrying is the support these vengeful acts get from a section of the society. There is always a justification for any political act of revenge. Vengeful politics is here to stay. What matters is how a brave politician must not be swayed by it. Mahinda has heaps to learn from his predecessor Chandrika. Although she almost completely changed after winning the election in 1994, her conduct prior to that belittles even the bravest men in Lankan politics (none left today for obvious reasons). Mahinda requires the courage and braveness of Chandrika (before 1994) to overcome the manyfold inhumane acts of the government. He should form his own party and eventually subjugate the SLFP completely without being cowed down by revengeful acts. It is his courageous response people look up to at this moment. If he collapses into cowardice just to save his son from prison by betraying the massive political movement ready to stand behind him, he is not a worthy leader.<\/p>\n

UNP Took Away Her Father and Husband<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chandrika suffered much more than any other politician in this country. However, instead of collapsing at the feet of her tormentors, she took them on boldly at a time when her young children needed her most. She was just 14 when her father was assassinated and she was 42 years old when her husband was gunned down. Both acts were done by UNP aligned individuals with a political agenda. Before assassination, SWRD Bandaranaike was subjected to ridicule and deprivation by the UNP. His policies were disrupted and he was threatened. Following his death, Chandrika\u2019s family was harassed. Certain media personnel ridiculed them in what can be described as uncivilised ways.<\/p>\n

After 1977 harassment of her and her family increased. Her mother\u2019s legitimate rights were denied by the UNP. Their ancestral properties were robbed. Chandrika\u2019s husband was arrested over bogus charges. He was needlessly tortured, harassed and confined. Many attempts were made to poison his food while in prison. When all these failed to stop her husband, UNP government assassinated him. UNP government in early 1990s harassed and deprived her children from entering popular government schools.<\/p>\n

When faced with these inhumane acts, one has two options \u2013 collapse at the feet of tormentors or fight them continuously. Chandrika chose the latter. Although she lived outside the country for 2 years fearing for her life, she came back in 1992 to take charge of People\u2019s Alliance to steer it to victory in 1994.<\/p>\n

UNP State Terror Killed More Sinhala People than the War<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamil separatist war killed about 31,000 Sinhala soldiers and civilians. However, the 1988-94 UNP state terror killed more than that. It was Chandrika who saved people from UNP state terror in 1994 much the same way Mahinda saved them in 2009. Time gradually erased both from the minds of the people as both started appeasing Tamils in the second term in office.<\/p>\n

When Chandrika re-entered politics in a more aggressive form in 1992, the nation was under state terror like Cambodia\u2019s Polpot regime. Many attempts were made on her life. Not even government MPs knew what would happen to them if they turned against the government. Some were killed. At least four (4) UNP parliamentarians had their own private militias. Though stripped of these old militias, some of them are still around. It took great courage to stand up against the government in early 1990s than today.<\/p>\n

Courage, Not Cowardice Turned Fortunes of the SLFP<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

From 1977 to 1992, the SLFP leadership followed a cowardly approach to the UNP regime. They were happy with their pockets of power and didn\u2019t want to risk the wrath of the state terror machine. SLFP as a surrendered entity to the UNP was on a path of self-destruction. SLFP leadership thought they can ride back to power comfortably as the UNP regime was doing one wrong after another. However, people trusted the wrongful yet bold UNP regime more than the righteous but cowardly SLFP.<\/p>\n

Chandrika worked against the SLFP which affected the political fortunes of the SLFP badly. By 1992, she had convinced the SLFP leadership that it cannot defeat the UNP without her support. While some senior SLFPers (including her brother) strongly disagreed, most SLFP members saw no future in a divided political camp. However, party leadership was denied to her.<\/p>\n

Unlike her predecessors, she was not half-hearted in her criticism of the UNP. She bashed the UNP regime, its corruption and state terror without holding back. She threatened to cancel UNP regime\u2019s crooked deals with international agencies and boldly revealed names of state terrorists and crooks. She even vowed to publicly lash named corrupt politicians and officials. It was unprecedented in Lankan politics and people started to listen. She dramatized vividly all the ills plaguing the country. People realized she could fight the UNP than wave white flags as SLFP leaders used to do. Her courage inspired hitherto silent SLFP MPs. Unlike today\u2019s political leaders, she didn\u2019t hide behind others to attack the government. She was at the forefront of it.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Must Form Own Party and Forge Own Diplomatic Relations<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The real reason to arrest and harass his family members is to force him out of politics and prevent him from forging a new party. He can easily save his family by retiring from politics or remaining silent within the UPFA (as he did for most part since January 2015). However, people expect more from him. In fact, his family expects more from him. The truth is even if he agrees to the dictates of the government, his family members will not be spared. There are many in the government, Tamil community and even the international community that are after their blood. The best way to tame them is to form a new party.<\/p>\n

A new party will divide the traditional SLFP camp which will strengthen the UNP. However, in the long term, it forces the SLFP to look for a leader who can bring them more votes and seats. As Sirisena is unable to do so, party stalwarts will force him to come to terms with the reality or leave. This is what happened to Sirima in 1992. Now is the perfect time as losing provincial council or local government elections doesn\u2019t affect the party very much. However, losing two national elections due in 2019 and 2021 will devastate the SLFP.<\/p>\n

Chandrika was cleaver to form an understanding with powerful groups the UNP regime had to fear. These included a business empire that was very influential with the then UNP president, and India. By forming these links, she ensured the UNP regime would not try to irk powerful entities. Similarly, Mahinda should forge close ties with Chinese and Pakistani agencies to ensure the present pro-Indian regime will not risk adverse consequences. Mahinda will have to offer military, economic and political concessions in order to come to an understanding. These have the added advantage of realigning Sri Lanka to its Middle Path and non-aligned policy. Today Sri Lanka has become an unfortunate Indian military colony.<\/p>\n

If he fails in this regard, people will leave him and either flock around new hope or allow the UNP regime to continue. Unlike the Nugegoda Movement, Mahinda will not be able to jump the queue into leadership subsequently. He has to put his life on the line to make a powerful political force and save his family. He cannot operate behind younger politicians.<\/p>\n

Although Mahinda differs from Chandrika on policy and company he keeps, the former president has heaps to learn from his adversarial predecessor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Politics turned ruthless after 1977. Scores of political opponents have been killed, assaulted, imprisoned and otherwise harmed since then. What\u2019s more worrying is the support these vengeful acts get from a section of the society. There is always a justification for any political act of revenge. Vengeful politics is here to stay. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51661","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=51661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}