THE PROBLEM OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE - I
Apparently a committee consisting of some "intellectuals" is drafting the policy document of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse in preparation for the presidential elections. An important member of the committee is a "professional" who was with the UNP until very recently. These committees are usually vetoed by the politicians but the poverty of the "intellectuals" is such that they do not have the courage to impose conditions on the politicians before they undertake to do some work for the latter. In any event what is interesting is that a "professional" from the UNP has also been appointed to a committee which is looking for ways and means to win the elections rather than coming out with a policy document with nationalistic policies to defeat not only the Tamil racist terrorist LTTE, but the western Christian modernity behind it.
The problem with the SLFP is that the NGO funded missionaries have been able to brainwash some of the ministers, MPs and other "organisers" to believe that the party has to address the so called minorities to win elections. This does not mean that these missionaries are a capable lot who could argue a case convincingly. It so happened that during the period that saw the SLFP changing its policies Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga was made the leader of the party by the western agencies. The SLFP, as we have said so often, is no more a SLFP, but a Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP). It is mainly due to the policies of Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga who was never a blue blooded SLFPer. The party formed by her late husband was anti Sinhala Buddhist to the core. The late Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar was one of the few leaders in the SLFP who knew the policies of the party, and the history of the country in spite of the education he received.
The SLFP though established as a liberal party became the part of Sinhalathva within two to three years of its formation. People such as late Mr. L. H. Mettananda, a former principle of Ananda Vidyalaya and Dharmaraja Vidyalaya, were responsible for this change. Mr. Bandaranaike came back from Oxford with liberal ideas, and was not familiar with the history of the country. In the twenties when he stood for a federal constitution for the country, he wanted a separate "state" for the so called Kandyan Provinces. His history of the Sri Lanka was confined to that of the British period or at most to what the liberal British thought as the history of the country. Anybody who knew the history of the country would not have thought of the "Kandyan Sinhalas" as a separate "race" distinct from the "Low country Sinhalas". This was a division that was introduced by the British, and the so called up country was mainly that part of the Sinhala kingdom that had not come under the British until 1815.
However, Mr. Bandaranaike was prepared to change his views either from conviction or due to other reasons, and gave up completely his ideas on federalism. The Tamils in Sri Lanka are not confined to the northern and the eastern provinces of Sri Lanka nor the population of those two provinces consisted mainly of Tamils. This is true especially in the case of the eastern province and there are no historical or archaeological reasons to combine these two provinces into one, and establish a federal state. If at present the population of the Jaffna peninsula is restricted to the Tamils only it is due to the ethnic cleansing policies of the Tamil racists. There is Tamil racism in this country and not Sinhala Chauvinism as the western Christian countries, some of which are Christian states by constitution, and their paid agents take pains to establish by crooked arguments. It is the Sinhalas who are debarred from settling down in Jaffna merely because they are Sinhalas and not the other way around in respect of the other districts.
Ms. Kumaratunga who thinks of herself as an enlightened person proclaims proudly that her parents and the SLFP were in the wrong vis-à-vis Tamil racism. Contrary to what she says, Mr. Bandaranaike did not do anything wrong in making Sinhala the only official language in the country or withdrawing the Bandaranaike Chelvanayakam (B-C) pact. Ms. Kumaratunga could ask the Norwegians how many languages are spoken in their country, and of which how many are official languages in that part of the world. India could be a pseudo federal state as the "states" are mostly populated by one ethnic group, and that particular ethnic group is mostly confined to that particular "state". In spite of many ethnic groups speaking number of languages and dialects, India has no multiple official languages. It has to be emphasised that, at present, unlike in Sri Lanka Tamil is not an official language in India.
If the B-C pact with provisions for two or more "rata sabhas" to join with each other, and with land coming under the "rata sabhas", was implemented a federal state and a confederation would have been formed thirty years ago. Mr.Bandaranaike after listening to the Maha Sangha who are the custodians of the nation, as had been throughout history, in spite of some western sociologists (white as well as local) arguing under the opium of Marxism (Historical materialism that tries to follow the model of Physics would have been thrown into the dustbin of history had more Physicists, not those Sri Lankan Marxist Physicists who know only the nineteenth century Physics and the Physiologists who can only talk of Physics, studied it), that it is only a recent political phenomenon, dropped the whole idea. Interestingly some of the sociologists are contradicted by similar third rate sociologists who try to tell us that the "monks" (There are no monks nor priests in Buddha Sasana. These sociologists who cannot think beyond their western sociological noses rely on western concepts to describe Sasana. When would all these "intellectuals" who have not constructed a single concept or a theory in their life times understand that knowledge is relative to the culture, the sense organs and the mind.) played the role of kings even in the past. Both these views of the western sociologists are wrong but they would not realise that they contradict each other, as consistency has never been one of their strong points.
As far as Ms. Kumaratunga is concerned Solheim and the Norwegians, and not the Maha Sangha, are the custodians of the nation. The Norwegian Prime Minister who is not only a Lutheran priest, but a member of a Christian fundamentalist "fellowship" is now the custodian of Buddha Sasana a la the present SLFP. (Where are those sociologists and political scientists who claim that the western states are secular ?) The party has come down so much the cabinet ministers do not know whether they are coming or going, as they have to watch the comings and goings of the Solheims. Only a person of the calibre of Mr. Kadirgamar could tell the Norwegians now and then that they were not the custodians of the country. Hardly a week could not pass since Mr. Kadirgamar was assassinated by the LTTE, the so called government of Ms. Kumaratunga is talking of resuming negotiations with the LTTE in Oslo, what a place to be in with a Lutheran priest as the Prime Minister (incidentally the word minister has a Christian origin), on maintaining the "ceasefire agreement". The Norwegians try tell us that by agreeing to have talks with the "government" the LTTE has done a great service! The CFA as we have maintained is a license given to the LTTE to kill as they wish, and what the Norwegians and the other westerners want is to extend the life of this agreement of betrayal. Clearly the LTTE and the Norwegians are worried that after the murder of Mr. Kadirgamar the "government" would abrogate the CFA, under pressure. It is clear that the west is applying pressure on Ms. Kumaratunga not to give in to the "Sinhala extremists", but continue to give all the facilities and protection to the killers of her able foreign minister. It is a well known secret that Mr. Kadirgamar did not see eye to eye with the President on many matters relating to Norwegian interferences and PTOMS, and Ms. Kumaratunga could not completely be cleared of some of the media attacks on the former. Apparently some material on these attacks to the press had been provided by the President's house.
The SLFP has been ruined by Ms. Kumaratunga. The party even with a weak candidate such as Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe cannot expect to win even if they get a substantial amount of the Tamil and Muslim vote, unless they attract the Sinhala vote substantially. The pundits in the committee on policy draft for Mr. Rajapakse may not understand this, as they rely on old formulae supplied to them by the NGO "pundits".
(To be continued)
Professor Nalin de Silva
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