By W. Vishnu Gupta –

W. Vishnu Gupta

74 years of curse laced with conspiracies

The final attempt has been made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on May 12, 2022, to resuscitate despotism, which has been condemned to death by a vast majority of people in Sri Lanka. The President seems to have hatched another conspiracy to install a man equally unpopular with the voters as the 26^th Prime Minister of the country. Ranil Wickremesinghe is a well-known schemer in Sri Lankan politics, he mastered this family trait while Studying in The University of Ceylon, Colombo Campus with the help of similar minded batchmates and tested his wanton aptitudes against those who opposed his views in the student unions. Since then, Ranil has become one of the great minds of political conspiracy in the country surpassing his maternal uncle JRJ’s capabilities. Conventionally, the political conspiracies are well hidden from the citizens by very few families with the help of perverted democracy in the country. The most prominent among them are Bandaranaikes, Ranil/Jayewardenes, Premadasas and Rajapaksas. It proves only a perverted democracy can assign a man or woman who could not win a single parliamentary seat in the general election to the position of The Prime Minister. What a travesty, the twitter post sent by Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has become a pariah says it all.  

“Congratulations to the newly-appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. I wish you all the best as you navigate in these troubled times,”

The above message carries the hallmark of a political conspiracy, Rajapaksas and Ranil, the remnants of the dying breed of despotism have made the final move to extend their rein on power and obstruct and delay the entry of constitutionalism that enables the Sri Lankans to realize their individuality. Most probably, Chandrika Bandaranaike would have advised her friend Ranil on this political escapade indirectly with the ultimate objective of making him the next President. Because, one day prior to the move made by Gotabaya, she discusses the option of how to replace the President after appointing a new Prime Minister in a television interview, what a coincidence. The citizens have not forgotten yet, how this shrewd politician with the help of other co-conspirators, Ranil and Rajitha convinced Maithripala Sirisena to quit SLFP and contest against Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Presidential election of 2014. Her goal at that time was to make Ranil, the Prime Minister, with executive powers making the President powerless or an executive highly incapacitated through a convoluted and compromised set of twisted constitutional mumbo jumbo. Chandrika’s interference and condescending approach in politics is somewhat baffling, she always claims it is in her blood, obviously no one can dispute that, however, even the historians will not be able to determine how much damage she has done to deny our rights under true democracy and constitutionalism.   

The curse of 74 years is laced with a trail of political conspiracies in Sri Lanka, and they started with two families namely SWRDB and JRJ. Since 1948 the country has witnessed many political conspiracies hatched by SWRDB and JRJ, both were driven by the desire to rule the country or to claim “the pound of flesh” for themselves. During succeeding years their family members seem to have perfected the art of political conspiracies in Sri Lanka and with the emergence another political family, Rajapaksas who learned the tactics of SWRDB, and JRJ came to fore in the late 1990’s. These three families and their proxies (Premadasa and Sirisena) have ruled Sri Lanka 61 years since 1948, other 13 years were ruled by Hon. D.S.Senanayake, Hon. Dudley Senanayake and Hon. Sir John Kotelawala. The admirable conduct of Senanayakes and Sir John Kotelawala and the honest motives of their nation building exercises irrespective of demographic characteristics of the citizens, especially, ethnicity and religion were praiseworthy. Moreover, they never left room for corruption and immoral political gimmicks such as development of perverted constitution that drains the wealth, assets and debilitate the nation. On the other hand,  It was well known, the schemers SWRDB and JRJ have been full active since 1948 with their own deviant political moves to undermine Senanayakes to gain political upper hand, through abhorrent policies such as Sinhala only and anti-Christian rhetoric.

Just like the curse of 74 years, the origin of political conspiracies can be traced back to late 1930s. They were driven by few crafty elite families living in Colombo and favored by their British masters, none of them, mostly those who arrived from Kerala or from Malayali origin in India were interested in the rights of ordinary citizens of the country. There interests lied in the confines of retaining power of the government either “by hook or by crook” and controlling the wealth of the country. The roots of despotism and kleptocracy can be found in these few families and they connivingly recruited and nurtured few outsiders to feed and sustain this abhorrent form of government. One of the recruits was D.A.Rajapaksa, an unassuming man engaged in paddy farming in the Hambantota district, and he was enlisted and nurtured by SWRDB under the controversial ‘Pancha Maha Balawegaya’, to represent the paddy farming community in Beliatta area. Later his second son Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa entered the parliament from the same constituency and ended-up being the most successful autocrat who thrived under kleptocracy until May 9^th, 2022. It will be a tragic irony if we must witness Gotabaya, the fourth son of DAR, and Ranil, nephew of JR as pallbearers carries the “coffin of despotism” draped in the “flag of kleptocracy” to its final burial very soon.  

Futile attempt to continue Despotism

The initial response to this unjust move of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by a handful of diplomats in Colombo and few felicitations so far received by Ranil are untimely and disdainful. It appears that the main alien nations consumed by Geostrategy prefer Sri Lanka to be controlled by their favorite henchmen and our country remains a despotic state forever. Unfortunately, they have failed to grasp, that majority Sri Lankans do not agree with the appointment of Ranil, a remnant of the despotic forces and by rushing to embrace and welcome this undemocratic move of President Gotabaya, their hidden interests in our nation’s geopolitical importance have been exposed. They should have waited at least few days or weeks to see whether Ranil-Rajapaksa deal can survive the first constitutional test in the legislature. The nonviolent protesters have categorically refused to accept Ranil-Rajapaksa deal, and so far, majority of the legislators have expressed their opposition to Ranil’s appointment, and therefore, it confirms that Gotabaya’s exit is inevitable.  It is no longer a case of “Probable exit VS Inevitable exit” in management theory, by compelling Ranil to accept the Premiership, Rajapaksas and perhaps their alien backers have made a cardinal mistake. It may hasten the exit of Gotabaya and sealing the end of 74 years of curse and end despotism. Judging by the response of citizens, it is INEVITABLE. Ranil and Rajapaksas may not roam the corridors of power in Sri Lanka for too long, and hopefully, the executive and legislative branches of the government will be filled by those who respect constitutionalism. Hence, in this hour of need, the international community, especially those with truly democratic traditions ought to support the Sri Lankans yearning for constitutionalism to manage the affairs of the state of Sri Lanka.