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| Wednesday, 7 April 2004 |
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Mahinda Rajapakse: Completing a historic cycle by Ajith Samaranayake
For, as an old boy of Thurstan College who qualified as a lawyer from the Sri Lanka Law College he is clearly outside the charmed elitist circles of the big schools which had reduced Sri Lankan politics into a virtual Royal-Thomian match. (The fact that Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and President Kumaratunga were old girls of St. Bridget's Convent did not really matter because they were considered as either honorary Thomians or Royalists). If however Mahinda Rajapakse does not belong to the charmed circle of the big league schools he is no stranger to the political class which has inscribed itself in Sri Lanka's post-Independence political annals. For he belongs to the Rajapakse family of Hambantota which is perhaps only next in its charisma to the Bandaranaikes of Horagolla. In fact his elevation as Prime Minister under President Kumaratunga completes a historic cycle since it was his father D. A. Rajapkse who crossed over from the UNP with Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in a process which led to the formation of the SLFP, the first non-Marxist alternative in the immediate aftermath of post-Independence politics. How D. A. Rajapakse followed SWRD like his shadow in that historic crossing of the parliamentary Rubicon is now the stuff of political legend. Politics was in Mahinda Rajapakse's blood from his adolescence. He watched with wide-eyed admiration his uncles George and Lakshman Rajapakse dominating the political platform of his home province. George was the polished Royal-educated urban politician while Lakshman was the more earthy, rough-hewn rural figure and they were the perfect foil for each other and combined formed a political academy for the young Mahinda as he took his first steps in politics. Mahinda Rajapakse's appointment constitutes a generational change of guard since he first entered Parliament in May 1970 as the youngest Member of Parliament, a year before the JVP's Insurrection of April 1971. As the baby of the House it fell to him to propose the Vote of Thanks to the then Governor General when he opened the ceremonial sessions of Parliament. Now 34 years later Mahinda Rajapakse is the Prime Minister of a Government in which for the first time the JVP will be holding Cabinet office in another historic completion of a cycle. A broad fidelity to the ideals of the Left and a strong sense of patriotism have been the defining features of Rajapakse's personality. As the long standing President of the Sri Lanka-Palestine Friendship Society he is a personal friend of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and is able to garner the support of the Arab people to Sri Lanka's cause. Extremely soft spoken in private life he is a lion on the political platform. A deep seated sense of justice drove him to take up the numerous cases of human rights violations in the 1980s. At a time when the Opposition was dormant in the face of the juggernaut of a Leviathan State, Rajapakse organised and led such innovative features as the Pada Yatra and the Jana Gosha which acted as the tocsins of a heady struggle. The march from Colombo to Kataragama which he led was Sri Lanka's equivalent of the Long March. As Prime Minister of a government which the pundits have already dubbed a minority regime, Mahinda Rajapakse faces his destiny. This is nothing less than reconciling the forces of patriotism and youthful idealism, surely the dominant forces of our society and giving his stalwart support to the President in bringing about the historic compromise which alone will be able to resolve the National Question which has bedevilled Sri Lanka's politics for so long and bring about the social contract on which any process of nation building has to be founded. As the Government's main figure in Parliament, the arena of the coming political struggle, he faces a historic opportunity. |
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Produced by Lake House |
The new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse is a very much home-grown
politician and his induction into the highest echelons of the Sri Lankan
power structure also signals a change of the generational guard.
