A family awaits in the wings

“I can’t understand why they had to fight a conventional war. Prabhakaran could have gone underground. If I was the leader of the LTTE, I would have gone underground and I would have been in the jungles, fighting a guerrilla fight – Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an interview with Editor of the Hindu, 8 July 2009

The day after Prabhakaran’s death, a triumphant President Mahinda Rajapaksa affixed his signature on a new Rs. 1,000 currency note that depicts his moustachioed, shawl-draped self, both arms raised high in symbolic acknowledgment of the gratitude, accolades and adoration of a grateful nation. The reverse had soldiers raising the Lion flag on regained territory that was near replica of the US Marine Corps memorial based on the acclaimed photograph by Joe Rosenthal of Marines landing on Iowa Jima

We are back in Rajarata. Anuradhapura was an impressive amphitheatre demonstrating the determination of a family to reclaim their kingdom. History is a set of lies agreed upon, said Napoleon Bonaparte. That is not quite accurate. Perhaps it could be true about how history determines the roles of victors and vanquished in wars. 

Prabhakaran died on 19 May 2009. The day after on 20 May, a triumphant President Mahinda Rajapaksa affixed his signature on a new Rs. 1,000 currency note that depicts his moustachioed, shawl-draped self, both arms raised high in symbolic acknowledgment of the gratitude, accolades and adoration of a grateful nation. 

The reverse had soldiers raising the Lion flag on regained territory that was near replica of the US Marine Corps memorial based on the acclaimed photograph by Joe Rosenthal of Marines landing on Iowa Jima. [At Anuradhapura on Thursday he made a no-so-subtle admonishment of the nation for their ingratitude of 8 January.]

The Central Bank at the time confirmed that the “decision to issue such a commemorative note was taken immediately after the completion of the humanitarian operations on 19 May 2009”.

Most successful political hoax

Thus commenced the single most successful political hoax in our history – the making of a parvenu patriot. His remarkable political success was due to his phenomenal ability to silence dissent by methods, good bad and absolutely ugly. He earned and deserves his success of turning myth to history. His statecraft was as good as that of Napoleon another usurper who crowned himself. There are only two levers that move men. Fear and self-interest. 

History after all “is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”

On Friday 17 July, the ex-President launched his return bid with the theme ‘a new life to the country and a new beginning’.

Lest we forget, we who did not agree with the affable autocrat, lived in fear. We collectively surrendered our capacity for analysis of events. Fear paralysed our will to resist. Until 8 January denial was mandatory. It is only in the past six months that we dared to speak of what frightens us.

Dismantling of false history

The looming threat of a return of the brutal ‘Bodhisattva’ makes dismantling of false history a national imperative. While playing poker with Packer, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in the post-war five years, rewrote history both modern and medieval.

He developed a ‘patriotism’ that excluded the inconvenient as propaganda of the enemy. He assigned the task of sugar-coating the ‘tragic’ and the ‘terrible’ to a new breed of Buddhist preachers who set up urban temples that served ‘take away’ morals. The electronic media was creatively exploited to extend the despotic regime’s control over its people. The semi-literate were seduced. The literate were either ridiculed or coaxed in to acceptance of Mahinda’s ‘sanitised truth.’ 

The political charlatans who wrote their own laws, undermined judicial decisions of the few judges who defied executive intimidation, now promise a new country and a new beginning. The divisive language of ‘us’ and ‘them’ is again crawling in to mainstream politics. That danger, lurking round the corner, makes it essential that the ‘Brutal Bodhisattva’ is deconstructed.

As conceded by himself in the interview with the Editor of the Hindu, Mahinda did not win the war. Prabhakaran lost the war. 

Fortune’s favourite 

Of all leaders of independent Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is clearly fortune’s favourite. Four Presidents – J.R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa, Chandrika Kumaratunga and D. B. Wijetunge – were confronted by a Prabhakaran who was demanding a piece of territory. 

President Rajapaksa confronted a Prabhakaran who was defending a territory with international monitors playing referee. That explains President Rajapaksa’s quandary as to why Prabhakaran was ready to fight a trench war instead of the shadow war of a guerrilla.

It was also the good fortune of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to have contested the presidency when a wide swathe of territory was under the effective control of an implacable terrorist who preferred him as against his opponent. 

The interview given to the Hindu is available in the public domain. That he was satisfied with the detailed report is evident from the fact that soon after the interview, the eminent Indian scribe earned the ‘Sri Lanka Rathna’.

Wars can be won or lost for a variety of reasons. The Americans lost the war not in Vietnam but in the streets of Washington. General Giap – the Red Napoleon – says as much in his memoirs. 

The much-maligned Ceasefire Agreement gave the Tiger leader the illusion that he was indeed in command of some real estate. Prabhakaran had not read General Giap. After the victory at Dien Bien Phu, Giap observed, “A strong rear is always the decisive factor for victory in a revolutionary war.”

This writer has many reservations about Ranil Wickremesinghe. The CFA may have been deeply flawed. Yet, it is the Ceasefire Agreement of Ranil Wickremesinghe that entrapped him in a situation where he had no ‘strong rear’.

The Ram interview published by the Hindu in three parts makes interesting reading. There is a revealing intervention during the interview by Lalith Weeratunga.

Says the Secretary to the President: “When in April 2006, when they tried to assassinate the Army Commander, the President said – this was in the next room – ‘as a deterrent, just one round of bombing, then stop it.’”

The great redeemer and warrior President tells Ram: “Yes, I said: ‘Just go once.’ We were very careful. We did our best to find a way out through talks.”

Quintessential tragic hero 

Mahinda Rajapaksa did not win the war. He stumbled on to a victory. The interview he gave the Editor of the Hindu was long before he realised the full enormity of the prize that lady Fortuna had favoured him with. When the Opposition decided to field the General against him in 2010, he realised the true worth of the prize. He then jailed the General. 

Mahinda Rajapaksa is the quintessential tragic hero. He must understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions. This nation cannot afford yet another decade of conflict to appease the power lust of a family that awaits in the wings.