Mahinda Rajapakse - Common man's President Premil RATNAYAKE President Rajapaksa shares a light moment with children. His charisma is prodigious; the individuality inspires the multitude and what characterizes President Mahinda Rajapakse is his down-to-earth pragmatism and his easy style of identifying himself with the common man especially in the rural village. So the sobriquet " the common man's President." His love for the commoner is equally reciprocated - people love him because they see their image reflected in him in great measure. It is more than a blind adoration - it is an affection born out of realism. The realism of the great masses that brushes everything aside to hail him as an undisputed emancipator of the Sri Lanka people who delivered them from the vicious clutches of terrorism. No leader before him was able to match such a claim. The war was dragging on and the country was in despair until Mahinda Rajapakse made his charismatic appearance. The verdict of the people is loud and clear - "Whatever the polemics may be, he won the war and liberated us. This alone is enough to worship him." Since entering politics and parliament in 1970 as a political rookie there was the long and lonely wait. It would have demoralized any man with less character. Mahinda Rajapakse infused as he was with intrepid southern blood bore the long wait with fortitude. He had a tough streak - in the by-election of Mulkirigala in 1976 in which his uncle Lakshman Rajapakse was contesting. He told us fearlessly that he could take any man for a duel. He was a very young doughty fighter. Like J.R.Jayewardene he had to wait in the wings until his time came. JRJ had to wait for fifty years. Mahinda Rajapakse did not have to wait that long. Meanwhile he learnt the vicissitudes of political life and its intrigues especially under Chandrika Kumaratunga when he was her Prime Minister. It was tough going for the young politician but he weathered all much to the chagrin and amazement of the first woman president. That tenure under Kumaratunga must have served Mahinda Rajapakse as a night-school tutelage; it taught him to endure and also acquire political cunning. His great impetus was the triumph over Tiger terrorism - it propelled him to be resolute unequivocally to clean the debris left by the mad mayhem and begin the making of a new nation anew. It was a stupendous challenge that no other leader had ever been called to meet. With extraordinary courage he embarked on his ambitious program to re-build the nation while nursing and healing the wounds that scarred it. Challenge The challenge was formidable for he was also assailed by brickbats, veiled threats, personal attacks and sinister innuendo. But Mahinda Rajapakse remained unperturbed. It is not difficult to face criticism when one knows and is convinced that what he is doing is the correct thing and what must be done for the greater good of the people of the country. The challenge was formidable for he was also assailed by brickbats, veiled threats, personal attacks and sinister innuendo. But Mahinda Rajapakse remained unperturbed. It is not difficult to face criticism when one knows and is convinced that what he is doing is the correct thing and what must be done for the greater good of the people of the country. A great leader does not sway by mob rhetoric and does not veer away from a chosen path that is designed to lead the people to a new, promised land. But of course to travel such a course needs guts, a plenty of it. And Mahinda Rajapakse has them in good measure He is also lucky to have a family political background with which the people are familiar with and also approve. Winning a war is basically a military exercise, but rehabilitation of people who suffered and tending the heroes who made the victory possible is quite another mundane affair. To combine these two effectively and meaningfully requires not only great resolve but shrewd intelligence. Mahinda Rajapakse has unflinchingly taken over the job. He has been placed in an unenviable position. He has to face not only diluted and often malicious criticism at home, but also internationally in various spheres calculatd to bring his government into disrepute over fictitious allegations authored by vested interests irked by his lonely battle that tamed the terrorists. It is as if these foreign agents of disruption are angered by the unprecedented success of Mahina Rajapakse's fight against terrorism. It is also paradoxical - on one hand they express utter condemnation of terrorism and want it wiped out, but on the other resent Sri Lanka's historic victory over terrorist forces. Are these foreign lackeys naïve or are they behind some sinister plot to undermine the Sri Lanka government as a whole and Mahinda Rajapakse personally in this serious matter. Fortunately sanity has prevailed in the majority of foreign countries who have backed and continue to back the regime of Mahinda Rajapakse. While foreign nations have grown in their tremendous support for Sri Lanka, tragically there are local elements who seem at variance with the policy of the government. Mahinda Rajapakse does not represent the elite and the rich of Sri Lanka. He has reached the zenith of politics working his way up from grass root level. His commonness is not tolerated in those elitist circles. They lament that one of their members was not in the seat of the Presidency and did not defeat the terrorists. The defeat was unexpected and still seems like a wild dream. How did this country bumpkin achieve such a victory ? The Tigers may have been fooled or they were just an ordinary bunch of unprofessional soldiers! No credit to the valiant men who fought the ruthless war in which many of them laid down their lives. It was perhaps a freak these great sons of Lanka scoffed. Nobody here or abroad thought that Sri Lanka or Mahinda Rajapakse would accomplish such a great feat.We remember how J.R.Jayewardene philosophized over the terrorist problem. He was cynically terse and laconic : "It will end some day !" Such was the thinking at the time not only in the mind of a former President but also the great majority of people in Sri Lanka. Then it happened. A man with the courage of his convictions became the President and the war was won. If there was no Mahinda Rajapakse perhaps we would not have won the war. There would have been only futile talks in the Wanni brokered by the Norwegians or by some other western nation. Finally the common man's President won the game. His critics must now eat their words.