By Vishwamithra –

“If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.” ~ Julius Caesar

Assassination of politicians is not alien to history. In fact, assassination of leaders, politicians or other social leaders who seemed to have mattered in the sustenance or development of society, has made human history more readable and a keen student of the subject would undeniably seek to find answers to this basic human folly, physically eliminating a rival, right throughout our intellectual endeavors. Whether we would ever come upon an everlasting resolution is wild guess which could be as stupid as one is allowed in one’s meaningless progress, personal or public.

Assassination, whether in the field of politics or other arenas of human endeavor, is no strange feature. Many a historian has penned many an interpretation as to the causes and effects of such assassinations or attempts at assassination. When one says attempts of assassination, of course, we are talking about failed attempts. Going back to Siddhartha Gautama Buddha’s time, Devadatta, Prince Siddhartha’s own cousin, made more than a few times to assassinate his royal rival, while Siddhartha was in his prime of youthhood. According to popular Buddhism, for Prince Devadatta, his cousin Prince Siddhartha was the focus of envy, hatred and consequently the ultimate prey to be eliminated from the face of earth. All attempts made by Devadatta failed. Well that is as per the popular belief of millions of Buddhists who proclaim Buddhism as their religion.              

When it comes to political assassination, Shakespeare has immortalized the assassination of Julius Caesar in the most lyrical and poetic fashion and written into history a marvelous piece literature which even today is being studied by students who select ‘English’ as a subject for their undergraduate or graduate studies. Julius Caesar’s assassination was, in so far as the assassins were concerned, a successful one. Numerous quotes and poetic richness of Shakespeare crowd the corridors of English literature to the envy of literature of other language passages.

Nevertheless, assassination of one’s enemies, whether especially outside the ‘war fronts’, still continues to enthrall many a student of matters that define and shape societal advance from one era to another.

Sri Lanka is not devoid of this human folly. Not that Sri Lankan societal development had been otherwise clean and pure. The most famous political assassination one’s immediate attention is drawn to is that of SWRD Bandaranaike‘s assassination by one of the members of the Buddhist clergy- the order Buddha is supposed to have established in order to spread his non-violent, middle of the road (Madyama Prati Pradawa) and compassionate, all-embracing message of the most wonderful philosophy the world has ever been blessed to be bestowed upon. Bandaranaike’s enemies sought to extract revenge and they recruited the right one- a member of the Buddhist Order who was primarily responsible for engineering a political campaign that placed him on the Throne.

It is history’s strange irony that such episodes take place and the writers, who had been pondering about the rights and wrongs as if those writers had been way above the fray, pen their thoughts, analyses and false philosophies for readers to read and pundits to again write about. Following the Bandaranaike assassination, there were many more killings of our politicians and all those were executed on broad streets. Lalith Athulathmudali, R Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake were three leaders of the United National Party at the time of their demise. All three had contributed to the development of the country well above the rest of the other UNP Ministers and leaders. But there is a stark difference among these assassinations and that of Bandaranaike: While Bandaranaike’s assassination was thoroughly investigated and the culprits were brought before the chair of justice and justice was pronounced. Somarama, who was found guilty was executed and co-conspirators, Buddharakkhita and Jayawardene were sent to prison for life. There were no inquiries for the assassination of the other three. Dissanayake, Premadasa and Athulathmudali.

History has been unkind to the ones left to spend their lives after the death of their loved ones. In the same vein, one simply cannot argue with history. Modern day assassinations or attempts at assassination are many and especially in the underdeveloped world, as the so-called developed world choose to refer to many Asian, African, Latina American and Eastern European countries as.

But an attempt or assassination of an American President always steals the world headlines. The self-proclaimed leader of the world, the richest economic power and the most dreaded military force, cannot afford to leave the safety and security of their political leaders, either the President or who is running to be President in the random hands of ordinary security details. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the darling of the free world at the time was brutally gunned down by a very ordinary assassin in 1963. Thereafter, an attempt at Ronald Reagan, the then US President. On March 30, 1981, President of the United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinkley Jr in Washington, D.C. However, Hinkley’s motive was proven to be purely personal, not political at all.

On July 13, 2024, while speaking at a well-attended rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump was shot at and once again proved to be a failed attempt at political assassination. Donald Trump is not a good man. Yet his entry into politics has carved out a new, not a fresh, chapter in American politics. Deeply entrenched in identity politics and appealing to the base instincts of white nationalism (a kinder phrase for white supremacy), Trump has unleashed a most destructive mindset in the American drama and his appeal to those who are enthralled by the ‘wild west’ portrayed by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood cannot be understated. Instead of embracing the future, those Trump supporters have chosen to traverse back to the past; they indulge in the fantasies of a society in which the Blacks were still slaves and the Chinese were fruit pickers.

Their refusal to enter into a socially sophisticated and philosophically advanced social platform has caused tremendous fissures in the American milieu. The difference between the Republican Party supporters and Liberal-minded folks has opened up a never shrinking gulf between the two mindsets. On the brink of this social paradigm sits the most dastardly-minded super rich class. They have become the the fundamental cogs of the machine that rolls only one way- more profits for the rich and more tax cuts for the ultra-rich. It is a vicious cycle of political malpractice.

The Democratic Party is not without such sins either. Yet, the messaging by those who believe in a more liberal disposition of life’s vagaries, its unrelenting demands on attempts at perfection do seem to be falling on duck’s back. I dare say that the liberal mind is much more expansive and all-embracing when it matters in the most crucial circumstances of human survival. The close mindsets of conservatives tend to foreclose human development and suppress the advance of human chapter in the universe. It is not a good gestural.

Donald Trump, willy nilly, has provided a platform to those extreme elements in American society. In order to garb himself with Presidential robes, Trump would not hesitate to sell his grandmother’s dentures. Never has ever been apparent in American Presidential politics such avarice for power, such greed for prestige and such pursuit of falsehood.

By being a victim of a gunshot in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, Donald Trump has effectively become a victim of his own vitriol, of his own pursuit of polarizing politics. It’s still too early to surmise as to the motive of the dead assassin. I’m sure a thorough investigation would ensue and the elements that point to the direction, motive, the machinations of the failed assassin would come out for everyone to assimilate.

This precisely is the difference between a country like Sri Lanka and the United States of America. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is totally independent of the US administration and government. It will investigate and produce a report for all to see and digest. Leave alone an assassination of Gamini Dissanayake, Athulathmudali and R. Premadasa, the government is yet to release any reports on the assassinate of Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Trump may be reaping his own seeds but Sri Lanka cannot be looked like a banana republic or an African country that is looking to be still in the Neanderthal stage of intellectual and political development.

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