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The Four Faces of Mahinda Rajapakse

by Kandiah Mylvaganam

The President of Sri Lanka is sure to get first place if he were to contest for Best Actors’ Award. He is a master of playing to the tune of his audiences. He knows what each audience he addresses will want to hear. He is a brick to tell fabrications and either twist what he said or deny it totally afterwards – a true politician, eh? He says things so convincingly that even his enemy will believe him. He was so quiet and unheard of prior to the Presidential election campaign. He started showing his colours only when he climbed up on the election platforms before November 2005.  

Face No:1   When Rajapaksha addressed the masses asking for their votes, he eschewed racism without any restrictions. He promised the moon to the people. He knew what his audience would like to hear. The main theme was “I will never allow 'my' country to be divided; not even over my dead body.” (How he could do anything after he is dead is best known only to himself.) “I do not endorse the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe. I was not a party to it,” he would say. During the campaign, he said that he would tear that agreement up when he assumed office. We all know how he later succumbed to pressure when the West and India told him he could do no such thing. He said that the CFA was a plot conspired by the Norwegians to help the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to obtain Tamil Eelam. He would bring about a political solution within a unitary state and not a united state and not allow separation.

Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, he said, and Buddhism has to be safeguarded – from whom, only Mahinda  Rajapaksha will know. “I am for peace, but I will not tolerate terrorism and it would be crushed with all my  might,” he would say. The Lion flag symbolizes the Sinhala race and this race will be protected at all cost.

The ethnic problem, he said, is an internal problem and there is no need for foreign involvement into our internal affairs. By this he refered indirectly to the presence of the Norwegians and their role as facilitators in the peace process and to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). While addressing election meetings, the members of the Jathika Vimikthi Peramuna (JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) spewed raw racism while he was seated on the same platform and his silence amounted to his endorsement of those communal views.  

Face No: 2   This is a face he exhibits to the International Community. Here Rajapaksa portrays himself as a peace-loving person. When he addresses the diplomatic missions’ representatives, he says that he would go to any length to bring peace in this country. He has even said that he is prepared to talk to the leader of the LTTE V.Pirabakaran directly. (Whether Pirabakaran is prepared to talk to him is totally a different story). However, he does not state what he is going to talk about with Pirabakaran. So far he has not come out with any proposal of any kind for a solution to the national conflict.

In fairness to former President Chandrika Kumaratunge, I would say that at least she had a proposal that was widely published and must have had a grain of worth somewhere because it earned the wrath of the Sinhala Buddhist extremists, Even the United National Party (UNP) opposed her plan. Her plan was watered down with time because of this opposition and was eventually dropped.  

Rajapakse declares that he is prepared to give great devolution of powers to the Tamils. But what those powers are, no one knows. I wonder whether he himself knows. His statement is purely a masterminded eyewash.

Rajapaksa would point out to the international community that he has shown severe 'restraint' whenever the LTTE has provoked his government by their “terrorist” activities. He says that he has no animosity to any other religion or race and would point out to the fact that he is married to a Catholic. But it is an open fact that he married her because she was once the Beauty Queen of Sri Lanka. However, when he visited the Thiruvayoor temple in Kerala, South India, he declared his wife to be a Buddhist in order to gain entrance into the temple. He would point out that there are many Tamils who members of his party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Whenever Tamil civilians are killed, he appoints a commission to inquire into the matter, with the apparent intention of finding the truth and bringing the culprits to the courts. But so far not a single perpetrator has been arrested or brought to book.  

Face: 3   This face is for the intellectuals, the moderates, the progressive forces and the business community. He invites them for dinner at Temple Trees and tries to impress them that he is willing to compromise with the LTTE, but it is the JVP, the JHU and some extremists within the SLFP that are holding him back. But, he says he will very soon make theses extremists toe his line and a suitable solution for the ethnic problem would be found. He pretends that he is aware of the fact that the country is facing untold hardship and heavy financial losses due to this uncertain climate that is prevailing in Sri Lanka. And he reiterates to the audience that a war at all cost will be avoided as he is aware that it will be highly detrimental to the economy of the country. He will find a solution through 'peaceful dialogues' with the LTTE.

If that is true, one would like to ask why then has Rajapaksa appointed people like Kottakatheiya and Gothapaya Rajapaksha, who are well know for their strong communal views?

Face: 4   This is the True Face of President Mahinda Rajapaksha. He is a lion in sheep’s clothing. If anybody is under the impression that he is a moderate person and that the Buddhist Chauvinists who are his allies are pulling him towards them, they are sadly mistaken. His “Chintanas” - not the Mahinda Chindana he published before the Presidential election, but his real thoughts - are worse than those of the JVP or that of the JHU.

Rajapaksa w as proposed by the SLFP to contest the election, but he went with the rhetoric of a Unitary State, even though the SLFP has accepted Federalism in principle through the Oslo Communiqué to solve the ethnic problem. This alone will speak of the man’s mentality.

Rajapaksa is extremely good at playing to the gallery. When there was a vital conference that took place at the Bandaranaiyake Memorial Hall he did not attend it personally due to 'security reasons.' He addressed the audience from Temple Trees via electronic media. But when a bus was hit by two claymore devices not only did he jump into a helicopter and land at the site, but also provided another helicopter for both local and foreign journalists to cover the scene. (A BBC reporter was denied permission to cover the recent massacre at the Church in Pesalai and the close-range shooting of four fishermen.)

It was reported 65 people were killed by the claymore mine. That incident deserves condemnation of the highest degree. But in the Northeast where 65,000 (official figure, but the actual figure must be nearing 100,000) innocent Tamils have been killed since 1983, no President or a Prime Minister has ever expressed their condolences, let alone visited the site of an atrocity. Rajapaksa visited not only the site of the incident, but he also paid a visit to the hospital where the injured were quartered.

Rajapaksa did not stop with that. He has promised financial compensation to those affected by the incident. What compensation do the Tamils get when they are killed, their houses looted and their properties burnt? What he proclaimed or narrated loud and clear by his action is that the lives of the Sinhalese are worth more to the state than those of the Tamils.

One thing Rajapaksa failed to understand is that through his actions following this incident he has proclaimed to the world - without leaving room for even an iota of doubt - that he is the President of the Sinhalese only.  

Well done Mr.President  

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