{"id":237,"date":"2011-09-24T21:51:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T21:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=237"},"modified":"2011-09-24T21:51:41","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T21:51:41","slug":"rajapaksa-a-centrist-and-a-bonapartist-balancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-a-centrist-and-a-bonapartist-balancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajapaksa a centrist and a Bonapartist balancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Dyan Jayatilleka –<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dyan<\/p><\/div>\n

Though my political approval of and personal liking for Mahinda Rajapaksa, (certainly in relation to his competitors and immediate predecessors) are shared by nine out of ten Sri Lankan citizens (according to the Gallup poll), it is not nice to be alone in one\u2019s analysis and evaluation, among one\u2019s own social stratum, the intelligentsia, especially the English-speaking and writing urban intelligentsia.<\/p>\n

Therefore it is a good feeling when you discover that your views coincide with someone who stands above the fray, and cannot but evoke respect from all rational people. Nicest of all, is when the public personage with whose views your own coincide, has achieved a status and recognition that is truly global.
\nMy perspectives on Mahinda Rajapaksa, his administration, Sri Lankan politics and the issue of accountability and international pressure have been denounced by political partisans of almost all sides. The Tamil Diaspora accuses me of Sinhala chauvinism or neo-nationalism (as Taraki put it). The Sinhala chauvinists accuse me of being Eelamist because I support provincial devolution. The Left accuses me of having sold out to the Right. The Right accuses me of a dangerous Left radicalism in international affairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajapaksa a centrist and a Bonapartist balancer<\/p><\/div>\n

The liberals who support international calls for boycotts and accountability hearings will never forgive my defense of Sri Lanka\u2019s sovereignty in Geneva, May 2009. The Sinhala hardliners will never forgive me for my advocacy of provincial level devolution.
\nThe dogmatic Left regards Mahinda Rajapaksa as a Rightist. The cosmopolitan liberals and Diaspora Tamil lobbyists consider him the chief representative of the Sinhala Buddhist Right, without whose patronage that Right would not exist. The Human Rights constituency sees Mahinda Rajapaksa as the most authoritarian, autocratic and possibly fascist element in Lankan politics, and the main danger to democracy.\u00a0 I consider Mahinda Rajapaksa a centrist and a Bonapartist balancer.
\nIt is gratifying, in this context, to note that Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, at the time Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, had arrived at almost the same conclusions, and expressed them way back in 2009 to the US Ambassador.
\nThe Cardinal can hardly be accused of being a Sinhala Buddhist chauvinist. Even if one modifies the charge to one of Sinhala chauvinism, it is hardly credible that the world\u2019s oldest and most far-flung transnational organization, a fount of \u2018universality\u2019, would choose a Sinhala chauvinist, representing under 20 million people, as one of the youngest cardinals in the world, and as the only Asian in the electoral college that finally chooses the Pope.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, had arrived at almost the same conclusions<\/p><\/div>\n

Nor can the Cardinal be accused of being less than intelligent. Lack of intelligence is not a shortcoming that even the worst enemies of the Catholic Church would accuse it of, and with its high premium on training, we may readily conclude that a young Cardinal must be a very smart person indeed, with solid scholarly credentials and considerably wide and diverse experience.
\nThe Catholic Church being the sole social institution that cuts across Sri Lanka\u2019s ethnic divide, or that social institution which transcends it most, it could be said that it is suitably positioned to articulate an inclusive Sri Lankan identity and ideology.
\nFurthermore, a high ranking\u00a0 official of the Church, the most globalised and multicultural of institutions, is likely to provide a truly global and comparative perspective, and is least likely to provide a parochial one. It is against this backdrop that we must read Cardinal Ranjith\u2019s reading of Sri Lanka\u2019s politics, or more precisely, the US Ambassador\u2019s reading of Cardinal Ranjith\u2019s reading.
\nWikiLeaks tells the tale. According to Ambassador Butenis\u2019 Oct 2009 cable, the perpscetive of the Archbishop, in summary was as follows:
\n\u201cSUMMARY: Roman Catholic Archbishop Ranjith told\u00a0ambassador that pushing the GSL too hard on the war crimes\u00a0accountability issue now could destabilize Sri Lankan\u00a0democracy and would set back the cause of human rights.\u00a0 He\u00a0reasoned that weakening the Rajapaksas \u2014 who despite their\u00a0public image were relative moderates in the Sri Lankan polity\u00a0\u2013 could backfire.\u00a0 Moreover, if Sri Lanka were denied\u00a0GSP-plus or the U.S. were to enact strong economic sanctions,\u00a0leading to a sharp downturn in the economy, Sri Lanka could\u00a0suffer revolution from the right or a coup by the military, which now had a very strong position in society.
\nAmbassador\u00a0countered that this was an interesting perspective, but if\u00a0the Rajapaksas were in fact moderates, they needed to show\u00a0it.\u00a0 END SUMMARY\u00a0\u00bb.
\nThe cable says that \u201cIn a September 30 introductory meeting with Ambassador\u00a0and Pol Chief, Roman Catholic Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith\u00a0recounted the recent political evolution of Sri Lanka, of\u00a0which he has been both an astute observer and important\u00a0participant, and described the role of the Church in society.\u00a0He noted that while he himself was a Singhalese, he was very\u00a0sympathetic to the plight of Tamils, who had suffered greatly\u00a0from pogroms and discrimination by the majority and from the\u00a0disastrous results of LTTE separatist ideology.\u00a0 He explained\u00a0that the Church had played a key role in brokering talks\u00a0between the GSL and the LTTE over the years, including the\u00a02002 cease-fire agreement.\u00a0 After the war, the church was\u00a0advocating publicly for the release of IDPs and other\u00a0controversial positions.\u00a0 This had led to criticism from the\u00a0Buddhist right and even death threats against the archbishop\u00a0himself.\u00a0 This was the opposite of the leading role in\u00a0reconciliation the archbishop believed Buddhists should have\u00a0been playing years ago.
\nDespite this criticism, the archbishop said he\u00a0believed President Rajapaksa personally was a good man and in\u00a0the constellation of Sri Lankan politics was a relative\u00a0moderate (he reminded us that Rajapaksa used to attend human\u00a0rights meetings in Europe as an opposition MP).\u00a0 Rajapaksa\u00a0and his brothers were under great pressure from the\u00a0Singhalese Buddhist right, and any show of what would be\u00a0perceived as weakness before the international community\u00a0could result in their losing ground to much more extreme\u00a0elements.\u00a0 Indeed, he argued that if something happened to\u00a0the president there would be \u201cchaos\u201d in Sri Lanka.
\nThis led to the archbishop addressing directly the\u00a0question of war crimes accountability.\u00a0 He said \u201cmy\u00a0suggestion is, in order to strengthen democracy in Sri Lanka,\u00a0don\u2019t push accountability now.\u201d\u00a0 He reasoned that weakening\u00a0the Rajapaksas could backfire.\u00a0 Moreover, if Sri Lanka were\u00a0denied GSP-plus or the U.S. were to enact strong economic\u00a0sanctions, leading to a sharp downturn in the economy,\u00a0 Sri\u00a0Lanka \u2014 where democracy was not strong now \u2014 could suffer\u00a0revolution from the right or a coup by the military, which\u00a0currently had a very strong position in society.\u00a0 The\u00a0archbishop said this was why he had recently come out\u00a0publicly in favor of extending GSP-plus to Sri Lanka, despite\u00a0the GSL\u2019s many human rights problems.\u00a0 Ambassador countered\u00a0that this was a very interesting perspective, but if the\u00a0Rajapaksas were in fact moderates, they needed to show it in\u00a0at least a few ways.\u00a0 The archbishop said this was the challenge that he had been working on \u2014 how to get the\u00a0president not to worry only about the \u201cforces lurking beneath\u00a0him\u201d and to act as a moderate.\u00a0 He told the president it was\u00a0important to work with Tamil leaders on reconciliation and to\u00a0invite the diaspora to help re-build the economy.\u00a0 \u201cThe\u00a0Rajapaksas will come and go,\u201d the archbishop opined, \u201cbut the\u00a0Tamils will always be here.\u201d \u2019 ( Wikileaks FILE, Oct 2, 2009)
\nAmbassador Butenis\u2019 concluding comment to her bosses in Washington DC bears repetition:
\n\u201cArchbishop Ranjith purportedly is respected by the\u00a0pope and served as papal nuncio in Indonesia.\u00a0 He also\u00a0commands considerable authority in Sri Lanka \u2014 despite his\u00a0problems with the Buddhist right \u2014 and has a good\u00a0relationship with the president (whose wife is Catholic).\u00a0 It\u00a0is certainly true that the president is under great pressure\u00a0from the Singhalese Buddhist right.\u00a0 It is also arguable that\u00a0the international community\u2019s pushing too hard on\u00a0accountability could backfire.\u201d
\nTwo things that senior clerics know about are ideologies and to evaluate and judge the character of men. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith characterises Mahinda Rajapaksa as essentially \u201ca good man\u201d and \u201ca relative moderate in the constellation of Sri Lanka\u2019s politics\u201d. This should surely be taken into account.<\/p>\n

Related links;\u00a0http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/2011\/09\/21\/wikileaks-files-mahinada-rajapaksa-is-a-%E2%80%9Cchristian%E2%80%9D-says-archbishop\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":1567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27],"tags":[1144,1134,1135,1171,1185,1132,1172],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-dimocracy","tag-human-rights","tag-mahinda-rajapakse","tag-malcolm-ranjith","tag-patricia-a-butenis","tag-sri-lanka","tag-us-embassy-cables"],"yoast_head":"\nRajapaksa a centrist and a Bonapartist balancer - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-a-centrist-and-a-bonapartist-balancer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rajapaksa a centrist and a Bonapartist balancer - 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