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 21^st 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