{"id":95366,"date":"2019-11-18T22:56:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T04:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95366"},"modified":"2019-11-18T15:55:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T22:55:16","slug":"the-rejection-of-ranils-rip-off-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/18\/the-rejection-of-ranils-rip-off-reign\/","title":{"rendered":"The rejection of Ranil\u2019s rip-off reign"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Ranil\nWickremesinghe reached the peak of his power on January 8, 2015.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he was\nneither the prime minister nor the president. But he  had the power to\nmake things happen. It can be argued that he had the world at his feet because\nhe represented the promising moral force of the day. With that power he held\nhis future and the future of the nation in his hands. Led by Ven. Maduluwawe\nSobitha, the respected moral spearhead of the time, surrounded by NGOs and\ncivil society, backed the West and India, boosted by the grass root forces\ndisillusioned with the Rajapaksa regime, hailed by the minorities, welcomed by\nthe business community, he had all the power he needed to make the difference\u201d\nhe promised, particularly with a newly elected President who was puttee in his\npalms. It was the greatest hour of his long career as the leader of the\nUNP.  Gifted with a pliable President who could be easily pressured to\nfollow his instructions he had the power to achieve whatever he wanted <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, the\nonly exceptions were Dudley Senanayake who swept the polls on the sympathy vote\nof his father\u2019s death and J. R. Jayewardene in 1978 who sailed into power (5\/6th<\/sup>\nmajority in Parliament) on the crest of the anti-Sirima-Marxist wave. Ranil had\nequal, if not greater power, to revitalise the nation  and raise the\npolitical culture to higher levels. More than the political victory he had the\ngoodwill of the all the well-meaning reformists who expected him to give\nleadership to a radical change in the corrupt political culture and fulfil his\nmoral duty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In politics\nthe moral power is far superior to the power of guns. In fact, guns used to\nenforce moral power are superior to guns fired to suppress risen forces of\nmorality. All great revolutions that  changed the course of history were\nmoral forces that won against the mighty guns of corrupt and decadent states.\nHistory invariably validates guns used to protect and enforce political\nmorality. Ayotollah Khomeni overthrew the powerful police state of Shah in Iran\nwith tapes issued from his exile in Paris. When Mao said that power comes out\nof the barrel of a gun he failed to mention that his bullets were packed with\nthe additional power of a superior moral force that was targeting the\ndegenerate and  crumbling feudal forces of Chiang Kai-Shek. The guns of\npro-West, corrupt and anti-national guns of Chiang Kai-Shek failed because\nMao\u2019s guns  were cleaned to target, with moral accuracy, the evil forces\ndestined  to die sooner than later.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marxism was\nonly a secondary ideology which was understood and used as a political tool to\ndirect the operations at the ground level by the top echelons of the party. At\nanother  level it was the intellectual weapon used to combat the ruling\nevils of the decadent state. Conquering  the mind was as important as\nconquering territory. Ideology was the trigger to fire the guns of morality.\nThe vast masses who followed Mao were inspired and guided by the moral essence\nthat percolated down to  them from theoretical Marxism.   Mao\nbecame the brightest  star of the East because he represented a new\npolitical morality.  His Long March was to  achieve moral goals and\nhis soldiers worked with the toiling masses to ease their suffering. The\nChinese masses bonded with the new work ethic of the soldiers more than with\nMao\u2019s abstract theories. In short, the power that packed the punch into his\nguns was the moral force contained in Marxism. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morality\ncomes in various guises. Marxist morality dominated the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury. Gandhism was another. Whatever the ideology it is moral content\nthat  shines  through, like the Star of Bethlehem, to lead men.\nGandhi is the better example because his fire power consisted purely of\nnon-violent morality. The power of morality reached its full height in the\nperson of Gandhi. All advances in history has been to reach the higher levels\nof morality. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 8,\n2015 Ranil won because he was backed by the superior moral force led by Ven.\nSobitha. Ranil acquired power by hanging on to the moral force represented by\nthe Sangha. There was no one in the civil society, NGOs or in the political\narena who could win the confidence of the people searching desperately for\nmoral leadership other than Ven. Sobitha. Overnight the vilified Sangha became\nthe saviours. Even the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist NGOs were following the yellow\nrobes. It was the moral force of the Sangha that legitimised the other\nSinhala-Buddhist symbol of the time, Maithripala Sirisena. Ranil, who was not\nacceptable to the people, rode into power by hanging on to the Sinhala-Buddhist\nbandwagon. Clearly, Sinhala-Buddhism represents the power of a moral force that\nhas revitalised and bonded the nation particularly in times of peril. The\nvictory of Gota should be read as the triumph of the Sinhala-Buddhist ethic\nrising once again to rescue the nation from the perils and evils of alien\nforces.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleansing the\nnation with the Sinhala-Buddhist principles has been a repetitive theme that\nruns, like clockwork, throughout its  history. It happened in 2015 too\nwhen Ranil came into power. Empowered by the Sinhala-Buddhist political ethics\nthe people expected Ranil to be a moral leader who could create history by\ncreating a new and clean political culture. His duty was to be a\ncourageous  and reliable reformer without alienating the moral base of the\nnation. The people were willing to go along with him believing that he would\nperform his duties as Mr. Clean\u201d. And he had the  power at the time to\nrevive  the nation. His power was so great that he could even become Prime\nMinister without a majority in Parliament. He insisted in ousting the\nlegitimate Prime Minister, Dimuthu Jayawardena, who was occupying the prime\nministerial chair. Under Ranil\u2019s  pressure the much beholden and obliging\nnew President, Maithripala Sirisena, caved in.  Ranil could even force the\nhands of the President and import Arjuna Mahendra, a Singaporean con-man to\nhead the Central Bank when there were more competent and experienced locals who\ncould have served the nation with integrity, competency and dignity. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil was at\na point where he could verily say that he was the lord of what he surveyed even\nthough he was neither the prime Minister nor the president.  He was then\nthe uncrowned king of the new moral force that was expected to take the nation\ninto higher levels of peace, prosperity and unity free from corruption. But he\nthrew it away with ideological myopia, congenital inability to understand the\nfundamental forces that were throwing the nation unmanageably from one crisis\nto another and sheer cussedness with which he manipulated his henchman and\nvictims to achieve his personal agenda, filled with greed to hang on to\npower  even if it means betraying  the nation. With his short-sighted\nself-deception, which assumed that he was the superior intellectual in a\ncesspool of ignorant mediocrities, he rode all the way cockily into his own\nnemesis. Ignorance to him was bliss. He dug his own grave. He  paved the\npath to November 16th<\/sup> and he has to lie in it now. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he did\nduring his tenure as leader to his own Party and the nation is unforgiveable.\nHe grabbed all the power available and dragged both the Party and the nation\ninto the lowest imaginable depths of corruption, destruction, and despair. He\nrevelled in posing as the solution to the nation\u2019s problems. Drunk with his\nself-righteous and self-defeating superiority complex, he refused to believe\nthat he was the cause of the problems. He was, in fact, the bane of the nation.\nIt has taken a thundering slap from the people for him to realise that he no\nlonger has the credibility, even among his loyal supporters, to lead the Party.\nHaving failed 30 times at the polls what can he offer the Party or the nation?\nAt last the nation can get rid of him for good. The nation can now hopefully\nlook forward to find its way to a new era without the  negative forces\ngenerated consistently by the most unwanted man in politics. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil\u2019s biggest failure is his intellectual and moral\ninability to grasp the dynamics of politics that rule the nation at grass root\nlevels. He lives in an airy-fairy world of his own. Take, for instance, his\nrecent role in the Party at its most critical time of selecting the\npresidential candidate.  He must have been aware that  he  has\nbeen categorised as the most rejected figure in politics.. He has been a stark\ncontrast to Mahinda Rajapaksa who is still the most popular figure in\ncontemporary politics. But he fancied that he could lead an election campaign\nto defeat Gota Rajapaksa, a war winning hero who was perceived as the best\nguarantor of security for the nation \u2013 a nation traumatised by the Easter\nSunday bombers. Everyone except the blind followers of Ranil knew that pigs\nhave a  better chance of flying to moon than Ranil winning the presidency.\nElections  results have proved it. The UNP hierarchy who knew this fatal\nflaw had to fight tooth and nail to reject him as a born loser. Ranil\u2019s\ninsistence on grabbing the nomination as a presidential candidate was insane.\nIt damaged the image of the party as a viable force to lead the nation.. Once\nagain it is the personal ambition of Ranil that ruined the chances of even\nscoring some runs at the electoral crease. It sent the wrong message to the\nelectorate. A divided party, fighting bitterly to slaughter each other, cannot\nexpect the nation to believe that they are capable of providing security or\nleading the nation. In fact, Ranil killed Sajith before the nation savaged him\non November 16. In the end Sajith had to pay for Rail\u2019s sins. Sajith did his\nutmost  to whitewash Ranil\u2019s sins with his rhetoric But no one \nbelieved him. Even his appointment of Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka as\nhis  Defence Minister was a flop. The people opted for Gota as the\nguarantor of their security. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In hindsight it is obvious that Ranil had divided the\nParty beyond repair. It was a divided Party that sat to launch Sajith\u2019s\nmanifesto in Kandy. Ranil, the leader, was not even given the opportunity to\nsay one word on the manifesto. Instead the Mangala-Sajith combo, the new\nleadership, invited Victor Ivan, the JVP bomb-maker who began his career in\njournalism determined to destroy Sajith\u2019s father, President Premadasa. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The signs of\nUNP\u2019s decline  and impending fall was clear at the Kandy launch of\nSajith\u2019s manifesto. The UNP had fallen from the moral heights of Ven. Sobitha\nto a bomb-maker who produced weapons of mass destruction that killed hundreds\nof innocent civilians. Ranil was made to sit on a chair on the floor while\nVictor Ivan was invited to the stage to deliver the key-note speech. And what\ndid Victor Ivan do? He refused to speak on the manifesto \u2013 the most important\nsubject required to raise the image of the UNP in the eyes of the nation.\nInstead he rambled on, spinning yarns about the need for constitution-making\nwhich was the most sensitive issue that angered the nation. The rejection of\nthis issue was confirmed on November 16th<\/sup>. Constitution-making was\nwrapped in the 13 demands put forward by the TNA to the  presidential\ncandidates. Gota had wisely rejected it in toto. However, the hand-picked\npundit of the UNP gets up on the party\u2019s most  critical day and indirectly\nlauds the 13 demands  which were focused on constitution-making. Oddly\nenough, Ranil, the most committed proponent of constitution-making to appease\nthe minorities, was demoted to a chair on the floor of the Kandy launch.\n It was obvious that the UNP had gone to pieces. There was no pragmatic or\nviable centre to hold it together. A leaderless, pointless, worthless Party was\nheading blindly to November 16 \u2013 the day of reckoning. The in-fighting within\nthe Party was worsened by the lack of an alterna     \ntive and credible leadership that could win the hearts and the minds of\nthe critical voters who had waited patiently to get even with the Ranil-led\nregime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massive\nswing indicates clearly that the nation was biding its time to cut the neck of\nRanil\u2019s regime with the sharp edge of their lengthy ballot papers. And they did\nit in right royal style, peacefully and decisively, leaving no doubt in\nanyone\u2019s mind that they can\u2019t fooled by bogus  theoreticians in the civil\nsociety, NGOs,  or even the vacillating and partisan Mahanayakes of\nMalwatte who had lost their moral compass. The people\u2019s reply was loud and\nclear. And the besieged nation is settling down again hoping  that a\nchange of regime is going to bring at least a clean administration. The new Sinhala-Buddhist\nethic was defined by Gota when he took his oaths \u2013 not at the traditional\nMalwatte \u2013 but at Ruwanweli Seya in Anuradhapura. He went  back to his\nroots that ran all the way to the  epic period of history written by\nDutugemunu. The symbolism and its meaning rang deep in the hearts of the\nthreatened Sinhala-Buddhists. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npsephological numbers stunned the political pundits and the UNP leaders who\nbelieved that the majority could not win without the minority. Gota\u2019s victory\nrewrote the political equation that was accepted as the truth written in stone.\nThe anti-Sinhala-Buddhist intellectuals and academics must revisit their fake\ntheories and reconsider their spurious assumptions of the  grass root\nforces that determines national politics. For instance, they must reconsider\nwho won and  who lost. If they can drop their inane prejudices they will\nrealise that it was not Sajith who was defeated. It was Ranil. Sajith was faced\nwith an uphill task, battling to wipe out the evil memories of Ranil and present\na new face to the public. But the public knew that Sajith was merely the mask\nhiding Ranil\u2019s anti-national, anti-majority, pro-West, corrupt regime.  He\nmade a desperate bid to distance himself from Ranil. But not all the gewgaws,\nlollipops and tampons of the world could save him from going down the\ntoilet.  Predictably, in his desperate bid to win, Sajith too swallowed\nRanil\u2019s calculation that the minorities could save him. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alliances\nmade by Ranil with the minorities boomeranged on Sajith. The more Ranil got\ncloser to the minorities the more it threatened the security of the\nmajority.  The demonised majority reacted en masse to defend their\ncherished heritage and their way of life from the arrogant minorities who\nassumed that they could make the majority dance to their naga salam<\/em>. \nRanil fell for that line and danced all the way to November 16 believing that\nthe Northern drumbeat would do the trick for him. The people refused to trust\nthe man  behind Sajith\u2019s mask. With a silent stroke  of the pen the\nvoters cut the neck of the selected protector of the nation, Field Marshal\nSarath Fonseka. There was no one to protect the protector when he  lost\nhis Kelaniya seat. Chandrika Bandaranaiake who came flying in on a rescue\nmission could not win her seat to save Ranil. Even the Presidential candidate\ncould not win his seat in Hambantota. To change the metaphor, this lot put all\ntheir eggs in the minority basket. And the majority rejected them. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asath Sally\nboasted of the power of the 30 per cent minority that could teach a lesson to\nthe majority. Make no mistake: It was the Sinhala forces threatened by the\nminorities in the North and the East that triumphed on November 16. It was a\nclear cut power struggle between the minority and the majority. This  election\nturned out to be the most defining event since  Nandikadal. Nandikadal was\nwon with bullets. Novmber 16th<\/sup> was won with ballots. Both were led\nby Gota. The nationalist forces that swept Gotabaya into power is not confined\nto Sri Lanka. It is the force that is sweeping the globe. Though it is an\nodious comparison, it is the Sri Lankan version of Make America Great again\u201d.\nSimilar corresponding forces dominates global politics in the post-Cold War\nera. Easter Sunday highlighted the peril in which the nation is haunted by\nminorities resorting to violence. Running against the trend, Ranil ganged up\nwith the minorities. This alliance with the minorities became his first\nand  last defence line. But it boomeranged. The Sinhala voters rallied as\none united force to reject Ranil\u2019s formula for peaceful co-existence. The\nSinhala forces that saved the minorities from the fascist tyranny of the Tamil\nPol Pot at Nandikadal define peacefully and democratically once again the \nparameters within which the minorities can co-exist in a shared society with\nequal rights to all. The minorities ganged up to dictate politics to the\nmajority. It was this threat to the majority that kept  the numbers\nticking for Gota as results tumbled down on live  telecasts. Except \nfor  a brief moment or two, the consistent 50+vote never left Gota as the\nresults captured the emerging  polling trend on the screen. There were no\nprizes for the runner-up. The winner took it all. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the\nsideline, Victor Ivan, the new guru of the UNP, was theorising that Sajith has\nbehind him the thousands of beneficiaries who  were recipients of his\nvisionary father\u2019s (1) poverty alleviation through  samurdhi<\/em>, (2)\nhouse-building on a national scale (3) decentralising bureaucratic power\nand  taking it to the grassroots through gam-udawas<\/em>, (4)\ncreating  jobs by incentivising  businessmen to take garment\nfactories to the villages , etc. President Premadasa also peoplised\u201d the UNP\nby taking it away from Kurunduwatte to Kehelwatte. But Ranil reversed it. He\ntook it to his new haven in Kollu\u201d-pitiya, which is  next door to\nKurunduwatte. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his \ndelusional way Ranil also ran after Geoege Soros, the Hungarian billionaire,\nhoping he would  rush to save him with investments. He  joined the\nIDU \u2013 the exclusive club  of white, Christian, Western leaders \u2013 hoping\n that the Western entrepreneurs would flock in their hundreds and\nthousands with investments to save him. In the end, the collective actions of\nhis allies in the West and in the North helped him only to go gurgling down the\ndrain. It must  be  conceded that Sajith in  his own flamboyant\nstyle tried to reclaim his father\u2019s heritage. But there is more  to the\nshaping of historic events than a slick tongue, theatrics on the  stage\nand packing the Galle Face space with bussed Bandas bought with buth<\/em>\npackets. The expected crowds predicted by Victor Ivan did not turn up at the\npolling  booths. As usual his cock-eyed theories went down his anatomical\npipes like the beer he sips. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gota\u2019s second\nvictory against the anti-national forces is as great as his first victory in\ndefeating the invincible\u201d Tamil Tiger terrorists. The battle lines were drawsn\nclearly between the nation and the anti-national forces. If Sajith won it would\nhave taken the nation in the same direction as Ranil. Despite all his\nchest-beating bravado Sajith was  a mere ventriloquist for Ranil. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gota was won\nthis war because the Sinhala people rallied behind him to fight the battles\nagainst the anti-nationla forces. When his brother and mentor returns as Prime\nMinister they will collectively capture the ower that was denied in the 19th<\/sup>\nAmendment. Ranil has been hoisted by his own petard. He designed the 19th<\/sup>\nto strengthen  his prime minieterial hand because he feared that  he\ncould never bythe president. The irony is that al Ranil\u2019s labours have ended in\nconsolidating  the power of the Rajapaksas. Jointly they both have\nanother  chance to act unitedly to overcome all the obstacles placed in\nthe 19th<\/sup> Amendment. The coming events will mock the\nconstitutional-makers who were straining every muscle to curtail the\npowers  of the presidency by increasing the powers of the prime minister.\nBut when the President\u2019s brother is also  his mentor what obstacle can\nstand in his way to do override the 19th<\/sup> Amendment? Soon Gota will have\nall the powers except making man a woman, and vice versa. Together they will\nhave unlimited power to achieve what they failed to fulfil in their first run. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gota cannot\ndo what Ranil do to the nation: betray the interests of the people with immoral\npolitics and anti-national betrayals. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gota owes\neverything to the Sinhala people. And the Sinhala-Buddhists, he must remember,\nnever failed to protect the minorities and give them security and prosperity at\nall times, even when they were persecuted by their own leaders or  the\nforeigners. For instance, the Muslims will remember that when Sankili\nethnically cleansed Jaffna, partly by throwing pig\u2019s heads into  their\nwells, and when Prabhakaran persecuted and chased the Muslims out  of\nJaffna within 24 hours it was the Sinhala south that gave refuge to them. He\nwill also  remember the Sinhala people can protect the minorities as long\nas long as they live under the protective umbrella of the democratic,\nsovereign, undivided state and not if they fall under the separate rule of\nfascist Tamil or Sinhala Pol Pots. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no\ndoubt that the two war-winning brothers will be back again after the next\nParliamentary elections. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, of course, will be another story for\nanother  day. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Ranil Wickremesinghe reached the peak of his power on January 8, 2015.  Then he was neither the prime minister nor the president. But he  had the power to make things happen. It can be argued that he had the world at his feet because he represented the promising moral force of […]<\/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-95366","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\/95366","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=95366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}