President Mahinda Rajapaksa – a Victim of King Kavan Tissa’s Curse

Sri Lankan pundits, Indian pundits and international pundits will pull their hairs and come out with some arrant nonsense on why a confident President Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the January 8^th presidential election to his former pal and deserter Maithiripala Sirisena. I have no doubt that all will ignore the black curse of King Kavan Tissa (or Kaka Vanna Tissa) of Ruhuna. The name itself projects, that this king was of crow colored. (kaka – crow; vanna – color). Here is my quick take on it. He was the father of illustrious Tamil conqueror King Dutugemunu, about whose military record many Sinhalese rulers wish to be compared. The last one was Mahinda Rajapaksa.

When his son Dutugemunu was itching for a war with the wise ruler of Anuradhapura, a Tamil king Ellala (or Elara), King Kavan Tissa warned him. According to the author of Mahavamsa chronicle, “When his son Dutugemunu announced ‘I will make war upon the Damilas’, King Kavan Tissa forbade him saying, ‘The region on this side of the [Mahaganga] river is enough.’ [Mahavamsa, ch. 24, line 4]. History tells us, that in his vanity, King Dutugemunu fought with the old King Elara and defeated the latter in a duel conducted on mounted elephant. History also tells us that for all his military records and services to Buddhism, King Dutugemunu also died a disappointed man.

For those who are interested in the January 8^th Presidential election results, I provide the following numbers. Maithripala Sirisena received 6,217,162 votes (51.28%) polled. The vanquished President Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to receive 5,768,090 votes (47.58%) polled. The vote difference was 449,072.

Here are the district wise numbers, for 22 districts. I begin with the Tamil population dominant districts, which are only 5 out of 22.

Jaffna: Sirisena – 252,574 (74.4%), Rajapaksa – 74,454 (21.85%)

Vanni: Sirisena – 141,417 (78.47%), Rajapaksa – 34,377 (19.07%)

Trincomalee: Sirisena – 140,338 (71.84%), Rajapaksa – 52,111 (26.67%)

Batticaloa: Sirisena – 209,422 (81.62%), Rajapaksa – 41,631 (16.22%)

Digamadulla (Amparai): Sirisena – 233,360 (65.22%), Rajapaksa – 121,027(33.82%)

As one could easily see, the vote margin between Sirisena and Rajapaksa in these five districts was 566,284. Sirisena’s ultimate vote margin of 449,072 is included in this 566,284 vote difference. If Mahinda Rajapaksa had used his brains and not listened to his Tamil sycophants (like Douglas Devananda) or LTTE traitors (likes of Karuna, Pillaiyan and K.P.) and not alienated the Tamil voters in the North and East of the island, he could have almost equaled his vote share (say in the margin of 40-45%) to that of Sirisena, and enjoyed the third presidential term which he yearned for. This is why, I mention that Mr. Rajapaksa was a victim of King Kavan Tissa’s curse.

Mr. Rajapaksa and his coterie were so drunk with power that they had completely forgotten the fact that the miniscule victory margin of less than 200,000 votes he received over Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe in his 2005 Presidential election, was due to the Tamil boycott called by LTTE’s leader V. Prabhakaran. Mr. Rajapaksa and his coterie, in their grandiose triumphalism schemes since 2009, also forgot the fine deeds of King Dutugemunu’s magnanimity to his vanquished opponent Tamil king Elara.

Mahinda Rajapaksa (May 2014)

To complete the voting details of remaining 17 districts, first I provide 7 districts which voted for Sirisena over Rajapaksa. These are,

Polonnaruwa: Sirisena – 147,974 votes, Rajapaksa – 105,640 votes.

Badulla: Sirisena – 249,524 votes, Rajapaksa – 249,243 votes.

Nuwara Eliya: Sirisena – 272,605 votes, Rajapaksa – 145,339 votes.

Kandy: Sirisena – 466,994 votes, Rajapaksa – 378,585 votes.

Puttalam: Sirisena – 202, 073 votes, Rajapaksa – 197,751 votes.

Gampaha: Sirisena – 669,007 votes, Rajapaksa – 664,347 votes.

Colombo: Sirisena – 725,073 votes, Rajapaksa – 562,614 votes.

In these 7 districts, one could see how the votes polled between Sirisena and Rajapaksa were almost equally split in Badulla, Puttalam and Gampaha districts.

In the remaining 10 districts, Rajapaksa polled more than his deserter Sirisena, as follows. I list the votes polled by Sirisena first for consistency and because he was the ultimate winner in this contest.

Anuradhapura: Sirisena – 238,407 votes, Rajapaksa – 281,161 votes.

Matale: Sirisena – 145,928 votes, Rajapaksa – 158,880 votes.

Kurunegala: Sirisena – 476,602 votes, Rajapaksa – 556,868 votes.

Kegalle: Sirisena – 252,503 votes, Rajapaksa – 278,130 votes.

Kalutara: Sirisena – 349,404 votes, Rajapaksa – 395,890 votes.

Ratnapura: Sirisena – 292,514 votes, Rajapaksa – 379,053 votes.

Moneragala: Sirisena – 105,276 votes, Rajapaksa – 172,74 votes.

Galle: Sirisena – 293,994 votes, Rajapaksa – 377,126 votes.

Matara: Sirisena – 212,435 votes, Rajapaksa – 297,823 votes.

Hambantota: Sirisena – 138,708 votes, Rajapaksa – 243,295 votes.

On a personal note, I also feel a sense of loss in Mr. Rajapaksa’s defeat; for the sole reason that the anti-Tamil deeds of he, his sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, his coterie (Dayan Jayatilleke, Rohan Gunaratna, K.P. etc.) and his Tamil sycophants (Narasimhan Ram, Subramanian Swamy, V. Anandasangaree, Douglas Devananda and Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole), had stimulated my thoughts to contribute to this website for more than nine years. Now, I have to learn something new about the new President Maithiripala Sirisena!

One is tempted to repeat Shakespeare’s lines for Marc Antony, “O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.” [Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 1, lines 149-151]