By Vishwamithra –

“I know of nothing more valuable, when it comes to the all-important virtue of authenticity, than simply being who you are.” ~ Anonymous

Politics is an unwritten contract between the people and those who wish to rule them. In a democracy, that contract becomes activated, as far as the ruled is concerned, at periodically held elections but continues through the tenure of office for the ruler. The essential difference being that the ruler could break that contract many times so long as he remains in office as the ruler. However, in a non-democratic system, that contract could end once the rulers are enthroned. In a democracy, a monarchy or a dictatorship, whatever the system of governance is, the fundamental constitution of governance and the dynamic relationship between the ruler and the ruled cannot be sacrificed for short gains. Governments fall, dictatorships run amok and monarchs dethrone when that dynamic kinship comes to a halt; such incidents are aflush in history. In fact, history books and their crowded chapters, more often than not, repeat such unpleasant tales one after the other and we have willy nilly chosen to disregard them as serious.

Nevertheless, clever and wiser leaders have prevailed over others, not necessarily in being able to be holding on to power, but in the annals of intense memories in men’s hearts and minds. Those leaders who had really mattered as harbingers, ultimate deliverers and protectors of well-being of their fellowmen, historians have burnt extra midnight oil  to pen the untold stories of those great men and women. Human spirit that has sustained the entire story of man on earth has been immensely successful in maintaining a dynamic equilibrium that has not been disturbed so far. Had it failed, I would not be writing these very words today. It’s as obvious and clear as it ever could be.

As each era of men and women pass their torch to the next, fresh faces with fresher ideas and ideals ascend that tall ladder of human story-telling. Today, in Sri Lanka, we as one nation confront an unequal episode in our own story as one single nation. The fast-approaching Presidential Election has captured the country’s attention; its nuanced underlining and enormous significance in regard to the path the new President would take in order to adjust and apply corrective measures would undoubtedly continue at least for the next five to six weeks; it would cause anxieties beyond one’s patience and tolerance. Anxiety, the number one enemy of any politician, would be the order of the day, until the people line up to the polling booth, come September 21, 2024.

The field is getting increasingly murky; its character is being defined in terms of who is crossing over from which party to what candidate. Ranil Wickremesinghe is in a mad rush to approach the Pohottuwa-parliamentarians to endorse him; little does he realize that those charlatans who have  rushed to join the incumbent President are all identified with a very dishonorable tag- corruption. Prasanna Ranatunga, Rohitha Abeygonawardana, Vaijra Abeywardana, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and CM Chandrasena are not loved by the general masses anymore. As a matter of fact, they are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They have been universally condemned by them. Wickremesinghe is being surrounded and shrouded by the A grade culprits who have been alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst financial frauds in the past couple of decades. Some have been found guilty by the court system and one does not comprehend how they could even enter parliament, the so-called Temple of People’s Choice.

In other words, there are only two parties led by two leaders who will be serious contestants in the forthcoming Presidential Elections. Sajith ‘Gotadasa’ and Anura Kumara Dissanayake would have the field to themselves and the battle would be hard and extremely close and competitive.

One might have not realized how close, in character, style and demeanor, Sajith Premadasa has been close to the now dethroned President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Gotabaya ran away form his Army uniform during the most intense phase of the war against the Liberation Tigers Tamil Elam and other Tamil militant fighting units. He settled down in America and when his elder brother Mahinda became President, came back to the country and became the Secretary of Defense. He became accustomed to the machinery of power by ‘accident of birth’. If he was just another man, not related to the ruling family, nobody would have heard of him as Gotahaya Rajapaksa. That is the wonder of being an ‘accident-of-birth-politician’.

But everything changed when Gotabaya became the nominee of the Rajapaksa party- Pohottuwa. A well equipped and managed ‘Viyathmaga‘ operation became the vehicle by which Gotabaya attained the office of Executive President. Under enormous pressure, on the hand from the Covid crisis and followed by the unprecedented economic collapse on the other, his exit from power signaled the usual characteristics of a very brittle and weak man. The cosmetics could not shroud a skeleton underneath

Sajith ‘Gotadasa’, ironically resembles Gotabaya in the most uncanny fashion and demeanor.  ‘Gotadasa’ landed in Sri Lanka after his father, President R Premadasa was killed; he became the UNP organizer for the Hambantota electorate and never won the seat in any one of the elections held.  His entry into parliament was entirely owing to the Proportional Representation (PR system). The UNP never secured a majority of votes in Hambantota district. Having launched an inner battle to oust Ranil Wickremasinghe from the leadership and failed because he never was willing to take the fight to the end, Gotadasa chose to breakaway from the UNP and form his own party. The birth of Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) became a reality thanks mainly to some very dedicated group of Ex-UNPers who joined Gotadasa.

Now he, Gotadasa, representing the SJB, is the main contender to AKD from the NPP. He has been cosmetically far more advanced than any other politician in the country today. He has adopted this from his late father. R Premadasa was all along his traverse to the top managed to rewrite his own history. Being born to a very humble beginning, R Premadasa literally changed the beginnings of his life story. Premadasa was a product of his own lies and cosmetic disposition. What he could not enjoy as a child in life, he went berserk after assuming power, and was a total slave to occult and astrological maneuverings. The father seemed to have bequeathed the son, Gotadasa, all these esoteric habits and life-demeanor to the son and the son seems to have adopted all, embracing them lock, stock and barrel, in all earnestness.

Similarities are many and differences are hardly any; Gotadasa comes closest  to the ousted President, Gotabhaya. If Ranil is called Ranil Rajapaksa, the people ask why not call Sajith by a borrowed part of the name of his own soulmate’s- Gotadasa.

On the other side of the aisle stands Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD). Unlike Gotadasa, AKD is not running away from his beginnings. He says openly, in fact, at public meetings, that his father was a laborer in the Surveyor’s Department while the mother was a housewife, the family living in the most dire conditions in the arid zone, in Thambuththegama; he attended Thambuththegama Central School, while Gotadasa was a student at Royal College, Colombo and then London, UK for his oft-stated higher studies. After qualifying as the first student from Thambuththegama Central, AKD entered Peradeniya University and later transferred to Kelaniya University from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Physics. A man of the soil who has not forgotten the soil, its taste, nature and value, AKD is now on the national platform.

That soil has nurtured him; that dry humid air has nourished him; that hard and  challenging life has enriched him so that he could lead the people with whom he is very much at home, in every which way one can think of.

The Presidential Election could be be contested by many other contestants; yet when all chips are down and in the final analysis, it is a binary choice for the voting citizenry. AKD or Gotadasa; a sharp and clear battle between authenticity and cosmetics.

*The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com