PROBLEM OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE - II
Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse will now have to fight it out with Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe in December 2005, and not in 2006 as Ms. Kumaratunga would have liked. However, as the elections will be held in 2005, Mr. Rajapakse is at an advantage as the damage that Ms. Kumaratunga could have done is now reduced. Since last Friday, when the Supreme Court judgment was delivered, Ms. Kumaratunga does not carry much weight either in the "government" or in the party. However, she is still the President with the power to dissolve the Parliament, and the SLFP MPs would think twice before they take any action that would displease her. In any event she will go into the history as the single individual who did the most damage to the SLFP, since it was founded by her father.
It is unfortunate that the so called intellectuals in the party, some of whom are from the central schools, after having received a western education both at school and the universities here and abroad, were in the bandwagon of Ms. Kumaratunga when she transformed the SLFP into a SLMP, of course, with the assistance given by the western countries. Sri Lanka is a different country even when compared to the other in the region, as we have the most imitative political leaders as well as the "intellectuals". However, it is in Sri Lanka a transport service that had been nationalised, then privatised could be at least partially "nationalised" again, in effect partially reestablishing the SLTB. In a world which is said to be postmodern (postmodernism is something that exists only in the minds of those who think of themselves as postmodernists), and where private enterprise is the order of the day, the Sri Lankans, at least the Sinhalas, still clamour for nationalized transport, health sector, state owned school system etc. Education, health and transport are the most important sectors, as they draw the attention of almost all in the country, unlike any other sector, and no wonder that the Sinhalas whose culture is influenced by Buddhism rather than by Marxism, would want "peoples" ownership in these sectors.
This is something that Mr. Rajapakse's advisors, some of whom are from the UNP while some others are supporters of much discredited PTOMS, will not understand. The world bank will not approve the sentiments of the Sinhalas in the above three areas, and some of those "know all" types would even advise Mr. Rajapakse not to talk of the SLTB and the free education, as those topics would only alienate the western countries. However, it is unlikely that Mr. Rajapakse with a "socialist" background would listen to them. What Mr. Rajapakse would probably not understand is that the sentiments of the Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists in respect of those areas do not have much to do with the western ideas of socialism that were imported by the early day Marxists. Free education or education for all, free health services or health services for all and transport provided by state at a reasonable cost could be derived from a theory of (Sinhala) Buddhist Economics, not the so called Buddhist Economics of Schumacher, without borrowing any ideas from western socialism. The ancient Sinhala people enjoyed free education as well as free health services long before Marxes, St. Simons and Furiors were born. Incidentally Mr. Kannangara who was instrumental in introducing free education was not a "socialist" as such.
However, the socialist Mahinda Rajapakse may not like to associate himself with Sinhala Buddhist economics, as he would think that the socialist ideas of Fourier's and Marxes, whether "unscientific" or "scientific" are objective and independent of any culture. He will not be able to find out from the "intellectuals" surrounding him that these western ideas of "socialism" are based on a "Catholic" Chinthanaya and are not value free. No knowledge is created independent of a culture, but all the western knowledge is presented as objective, value free and universal, whereas the other knowledges are described as local, traditional etc., and are thus either "devalued" or painted as racist, religious or sectarian. This is part of colonialism associated with knowledge, and invariably the so called educated people in Asia and Africa are the most colonised in a sense, and it could be said that the uneducated people in Asia and Africa are not as much colonised. Sri Lanka is an exception where most of the people having had some education at least up to the fifth grade, and thus being introduced to some kind of western knowledge, unconsciously have other values and ideas that they imbibe from the Sinhala Buddhist culture. However, in order to account for their attitudes they superficially tend to think that western ideas are already there in the ancient texts, without realising that the "socialism" of the west is about collecting individuals into a group, while Sinhala Buddhist concept of "common property" is based on the identification of the society as a whole.
Mr. Rajapakse will have the greatest problem in coming to terms with the concept of a "nation" as he would be advised by the "think tanks" that we are in the process of nation building imitating what their masters and mistresses in the west say. The "think tanks" are very thing in their "thinking", if they think at all, and would never admit that the Sinhala nation was established long before western modernity and capitalism, during the rein of Pandukabhaya. The problem that the country faces today is not that of building a nation, but bringing in the "minorities" introduced by the Dutch and the British to live with the Sinhalas, recognising the due place of Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country. The western social sciences that attempts to follow the model of western physics is not even capable of defining concepts as "exactly" as in the latter subject area. Nation is not a concept that can be defined as, say for example, electromagnetic field, and the western sociologists and political scientists could argue eternally whether there are nations on the earth. As a result works such as "unmaking of the nation" are published, and with the imitating "intellectuals" grabbing these ideas, people such as Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, who are advised by them get into difficulties.
The problem of Mr. Rajapakse is the advise that he is given by the "intellectuals" who are merely the spokespersons of the western countries. They may claim to be that they are against the capitalism as practiced in those countries, but as mentioned earlier even the "socialism" that is preached is something that is created in the west. The so called ethnic problem is defined in terms of western concepts, and invariably the "solutions" too are formulated in the west.
The "intellectuals" would be counting on the "minority" vote, and drafting the manifesto of Mr. Rajapakse in order to attract as many "minorities" as possible. The majority of the "minority" vote especially of the elite would go to Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe unless the TNA decides to field a candidate of their own. The up country Tamil vote would be decided mainly by Mr. Thondaman and there too in general the UNP is stronger. Though Mr. Rajapakse may attract the Muslim vote to a certain extent, he cannot win unless he gets the support of the JVP. There may be some in the SLFP who would want Mr. Rajapakse to lose the elections and they would object to forming an alliance with the JVP on one pretext or the other.
The results of the last general elections gives a clear indication of what would happen at the next presidential elections. The UNP enjoys a bigger block vote than the SLFP, and if the SLFP is to win, it must attract the JVP vote as well. Mr. Rajapakse cannot maintain a silence on the Tamil racist problem and expect to win the presidential elections. He should have a policy different to that of Mr.Wickremesinghe as well as of Ms. Kumaratunga. He could win only if he is able to attract the nationalists forces and in order to do that he must have a policy that recognizes the due place of the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country.
Mr. Rajapakse has to have some understanding with the JVP, even going against the wish of Ms. Kumaratunga who may not want Mr. Rajapakse to win, and the advisors who think that Mr. Thondaman has more votes than the JVP would prove themselves to be wrong in the end. When the SLFP and the JVP enter into some kind of Sandhanaya it is not only the SLFP and JVP supporters who would vote for the alliance. Most of the floating vote that Mr. Rajapakse badly needs would be attracted to such Sandhanaya.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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