Raja brothers Part III
Posted on December 31st, 2014
H. L. D. Mahindapala
Karl Marx must have instinctively anticipated characters like Ranil Wickremesinghe and Chandrika Bandaranaike to appear from time to time when he wrote that history repeat itself, first as a tragedy then as a comedy. If Don Juan Dharmapala and Dona Catherina of the Portuguese period were tragic figures their successors, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Chandrika Bandaranaike in our time, re-emerged as comic characters reenacting a drama of betrayal for which they will be branded for ever and ever in the history books.
It is the absurdity of their politics that make them comic characters. For instance, can you find anything more comic than Chandrika Bandaranaike claiming that she won 75% of the war? No one wins wars/matches by scoring only 75% of the victories. If she remembers her simple arithmetic she should know by now that the failure to win the balance 25% means that the enemy still has not only ample fire-power but also the deadly capability to counter-attack and win. In a war either you win 100% or stagnate in a no-win situation until the war ends in a decisive victory for one side or another.
It is like pregnancy. You can’t produce a 100% child with 75% pregnancy, can you? Taking her own example, what would have been shape of her children if she produced her children when she was only 75% pregnant? It is her political nadagams ended in offering Velupillai Prabhakaran the north and the east for ten years without election. It has convinced the public not to expect anything other than this kind of inanity from a blathering bimbo like CBK.
As stated earlier, the Rajapakses blundered. Who in history has not committed blunders? In fact history, on the whole, can be considered as one big blunder. Humanity has this tendency to get out of one hole only to fall into another. What is looming large in the horizon of contemporary history is the threat of humanity coming out of holes with a greater capacity to destroy each other. Considering the WMDs at the disposal of insane leaders there is the possibility of the next hole being the last.
In a sense, history is like the Hydra-headed monster: when heroes cut off one head victoriously another hundred crops in the same place. There is no end to troubles in history. Humanity has this tendency to fall into deep holes and struggle for decades – sometimes even centuries – to get out of it. It is showing the path to get out of the blunders of history that make leaders great.
Heroism is also defined by the scale of threats faced by heroes. The greater the threat greater the heroism. Of all the threats faced by the nation none was more menacing than the threat of Tamil separatism. It is the enormity of threat faced by the nation – coming both from external and internal forces – that makes the Rajapakse brothers the greatest in our time.
President Ranasinghe Premadasa crushed the fascist terrorist of the south. President Mahinda Rajapakse liquidated the LTTE of the north – the deadliest terrorist of the world. Both fought the northern and southern terrorist within a democratic framework which makes their victories far superior to the temporary gains of the Tamil separatists under the fascist terror of Prabhakaran. Of the two major wars against the northern and southern terrorist forces President Rajapakse stands tall, head and shoulders above any other leader who had fought to save the nation.
History will be kinder to the Rajapakse brothers than the contemporaries. The historical distance, far removed from the animated passions and the acrimonious prejudices of our time, lends greater objectivity to judge with wiser hindsight. Also those sitting in judgment in the future will be in an advantageous position to draw and understand the meaning of our confusing and controversial time in a calm and dispassionate environment. Being beneficiaries of the sacrifices of the contemporaries the meaning they derive would be different and filled with insights not visible to us because we are too close to the complex mass of events befuddling our vision. They will also be influenced by the additional factor of yearning for the glories of the days gone by – a factor, which is always romanticized by the living as a sacred space that stir and stimulate their imagination to escape from the dreary and painful present.
Generations to come will look back with pride and proclaim : once, in the first decades of the 21st century, there was a leader who was greater than all others who fought to a finish to reclaim and restore the pride, glory and honour of a nation that was lost to the enemies. When everybody else failed and surrendered to what they called the invincible enemy” he alone took up the challenge and gave the leadership to lift the nation from the depths of despair.
Denigrators of the Rajapakses will not be even a footnote in history when the time comes to review our time. We have come through the most exciting period in history. Or shall I say, come through the most interesting times”, in the Chinese sense. Future generations will look back in wonder and marvel at the way we fought our way through the toughest crises and succeeded in saving ourselves from the follies of our short-sighted and self-serving leaders who had neither the vision nor the guts to lead the nation to victory. The need of the hour was to find a committed leader when all others had failed. The arrival of the Rajapakse on this dark and dismal scene was like a beacon of light thrown across the night seas to light the way to the ship of state tossing in choppy seas surrounded by deadly rocks.
There is a world of difference between sitting in Parliament for a few years and going to sit in the pages of history for the rest of time. The My-3-gang” may go to sit in Parliament till the end of April 2015 or even for two years from January 8, 2015, riding on bogus promises that they cannot fulfill. But the Rajapakses, whether they win or not, have already earned a place to sit in the glorious pages of history of history forever.
Whether the contemporaries agree or not, whether they acclaim it or not, every bit of history from now on will flow through the gates opened by the Rajapakses, whether it be Mavi Aru or the passage through Thoppigala in times of the war, and move forward on the roads built by them in times of peace. Undoubtedly the trucks and railways will transport economics, peace, reconciliation, and prosperity if there is continuity and stability.
More than the material goods and services the most significant post-Nandikadal factor would be the flow of history that will run down the highways and byways that the Rajapakses have built. It is the human traffic, carrying their new hopes with them, that will move en masse to change the historical landscape forever. The total impact of our politics will be felt, evaluated and recorded fully in history that is yet to be written. We are driven now only by partial and partisan politics. But once history distils contemporary politics and delivers the essence of our time to future generations the overall impact and the meaning of our times will be more enlighteneds and liberating. It is something that no one can take way from the Rajapakses.
History written far away from the severely critical times is always generous to the contemporary achievers partly because those who dwell in the havens of the future have a more comprehensive view of the unfolding events and partly because they have the luxury of assessing us as the beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by their ancestors. At that distance they are free from the ideological shackles of our time or personal grievances to make judgments that are relevant to them. Distance lends not only beauty to sight but also throw new light to enhance the meaning of their existence. As beneficiaries of the legacies bestowed on them by contemporary sacrifices they are bound to look back on our times as a heroic age that fought to save their inheritance.
Take, for instance, the example of how the contemporaries of D. S. Senanayake and President Ranasinghe Premadasa viewed these two leaders. In their day and age they were vilified, excoriated and condemned mercilessly as reactionaries, agents of comprador imperialism, or authoritarian leaders on their way to become dictators, suppressing the fundamental rights of the people. But in a public opinion survey held not so long ago the nation picked D. S. Senanayake as the No.1, President Premadasa as No.2 and President. Quite stunningly, the poll also picked Mahinda Rajapakse as No.3.
There is, no doubt, that President Mahinda Rajapakse has earned his place in history. Even his opponents have conceded that place somewhat grudgingly. But the final glory is yet to come. It will be written indelibly by those who will inherit the benefits of his incomparable achievements
December 30th, 2014 at 5:40 pm
Sirisena is just a coolie of Chandrika, Chandrika is the puppet of Emperor of India like her father SWRD. All money coming from India pumped through Western countries. India wants to dominate the Indian ocean and the African continent. It wants a subservient Sri Lanka. It already got Mauritius. Who is coming as the Chief Election monitor former president of Guyana Bharat Jagdio an Indian colonial parasite from Guyana. Who came as an election monitor in 2005 one Mr Cooke an Indian vermin from Australia most probably an agent of the Third Eye. Guyana got millions of dollars Indian money given by Norway during Bharat’s government.
December 30th, 2014 at 6:18 pm
SIRISENA IS THE LAP DOG OF A STINKY,STINKY PUSSY.WHEN THE HONEY MOON IS OVER, SIRISENA WILL BE PICKING CRUMBS FROM STINKY PUSSYS TABLE. HE KNEW THAT THIS IS COMING FOR HIM<,,,TRY TO BE HAPPY with what is due to you.