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As things stand at this volatile hour on the shifting sands of Lankan politics, reports indicate that Mahinda Rajapaksa will soon be boarding the UPFA bus having obtained his season ticket to travel courtesy of President Sirisena. And no doubt, his loyal cheering squad of political groupies will be accompanying this senior and once foremost citizen on the southern expressway to keep him company and to carry his baggage of prime ministerial hopes.

News of confirmation of his economy seat and his imminent upgrading to Prime Class on board the UPFA Express came on Friday afternoon when UPFA’s General Secretary issued a press statement to the effect that at a meeting presided over by President Sirisena, the UPFA had decided to grant nomination to Rajapaksa.

It came just hours after the nation had heaved a sigh of relief on Friday morning when it appeared that President Maithripala Sirisena, whatever his initial inclinations may have been, had finally decided to close the UPFA door to the defeated former president’s ambitious plans to return to the political stage, brazenly bearing the party’s sheaf of betel and, with studied impudence, ignoring the all important reality that the Lankan public had firmly kicked him out of it.

Chandrika: Counter strike foiled

But since the president had not closed the door as believed earlier, but had kept it ajar, despite Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s valiant attempt to firmly kick it shut and possibly double lock the door to keep the chastity of the party securely intact, are we now witnessing not merely the third coming of Rajapaksa drawn by his corruption laden train of mules but also the imminent departure in disgrace of Maithripala Sirisena from the people’s hearts, bereft of their trust?

With Friday’s formal announcement that the President has endorsed Mahinda Rajapaksa’s nomination and possibly the nominations of the rest of the bandwagon as well to contest under the UPFA banner, will the question be now asked whether Maithripala Sirisena has transgressed his covenant with the public and betrayed the promises blared from stage to stage, from town to town during his election campaign to cleanse Lanka of jobbery and to ensure that the much decried rogue pack that support Mahinda Rajapaksa are brought to justice?

Instead of bringing them to trial as he had promised he would, Maithripala Sirisena, as elected president of Lanka, is now in danger of being seen by the public as lending a helping hand to bring them to power on the back of their Medamulana messiah Mahinda who, granted new lease of political life, is now free to hold tenure over the nation’s destiny once again.

Maithripala: Buckles under pressure

For Mahinda it will be the much vaunted beginning at every end. For Maithripala it may well mean the fitting beginning of the end. Six million ballots cast on January 8 for Maithripala with such great expectations that he would herald a new sublime dawn for Lanka, may now turn overnight to spikes to nail him to the cross of betrayal on the charge that he had not fathomed reality staring him in the face, not heeded the rumbling public outrage and not yielded before Chandrika’s righteous wrath at the very repugnant thought of offering the betel to Mahinda.

Not even three weeks ago, on June 17, SLFP Vice president and cabinet spokesman, Minister Rajitha Senaratne, declared at the weekly cabinet press briefing that let alone naming Mahinda Rajapaksa as SLFP’s prime ministerial candidate, President Sirisena had refused to give him nomination as an UPFA candidate to contest the forthcoming elections. Furthermore Senaratne announced the President had refused to appoint Rajapaksa through the National List to parliament either. The gates, it appeared, had been locked and, for good measure, doubly bolted.

Two days later, on June 19, breaking his silence on the vexed issue that had dominated the national agenda, President Sirisena himself declared to a group of senior Rajapaksa loyalists that he could not nominate Rajapaksa as UPFA’s prime ministerial candidate because he had been rejected by the people for running a lawless and corrupt government.

Mahinda: Gains upperhand

“How do you expect me to nominate Mahinda as our prime ministerial candidate when the vast majority of people have voted against him?for not adhering to?good governance, rule of law and?the unprecedented corruption that prevailed under his rule,” the president had asked. He had also explained that he had been elected to office on a pledge to re-establish democratic governance, enforce the rule of law and eliminate the massive?corruption that had occurred during Rajapaksa’s watch.

The same reasons put forth by the President for not naming Rajapaksa as the prime ministerial candidate would stand in good stead for not granting him nomination. Though the premiership of government is the gift of the President and, even with the new 19th Amendment to the Constitution, his to make at his sole direction, recent events show how adroit use of power play can tilt the presidential hand even against his will and better judgement.

If Mahinda Rajapaksa could have played such a damning role in the now defunct parliament, if he could have influenced the tide of parliamentary affairs whilst not even being a member of it, if he, who has always played the player and not the game, could have manipulated the actions of his loyal coterie and made them do his bidding whilst being out of power and out of parliament, how much more damage can he wreck if he is granted the chance to take his seat of residence in the House?

It does not call for great powers of prophecy to predict that entry into parliament as a mere backbencher would be but a stepping stone to the front row Prime Minister’s seat, with an automatic guaranteed one month lease as acting president of Lanka in the event of a sudden death in the presidential office or if an impeachment resolution is successfully passed against President Sirisena.

All this is of course on the basis that the SLFP wins the August 17 elections. The clamour for Mahinda Rajapaksa to be named as prime ministerial candidate and now the hullabaloo over getting the nomination at least to contest the polls, presumes that the SLFP will beat the UNP hands down, especially if Mahinda is aboard. To Mahinda’s sycophants, only if he is aboard.
This is a presumption Mahinda loyalists have maintained as if it were a gospel truth, so self evident that it hardly needs any inquiry. They even regard the slightest doubt expressed even unwittingly on this sacrosanct premise as a despicable slight that tantamount to blasphemy.

According to Wimal and the other haloed saints of Mahinda, former president Rajapaksa won 5,768,090 votes on January 8. This number is an immortal figure as unchanging and eternal as a catholic’s immortal soul. Nothing touches it, nothing can be taken away from it, nothing. Nothing can shrink it.

Not even the shocking revelations of the extent of the corruption heap that Rajapaksa lorded over for nine years concealed by a muffled media and unprobed by docile law enforcement agencies, have done anything to lessen the number by one digit. Not even the scandalous revelations only now coming to light of the vast extravagance and profligacy of the Mahinda years, the reckless squander of the public wealth the Mahinda chinthanaya authorised and gave licence to expend, have reduced the magic static number 5,768,090 by even one jot. As the saints hold these damaging information the public were not privy to when they voted on January 8 for Mahinda would not influence the mind of the voter and thus will not have any effect on the deposited sum of votes.

It remains intact, and can be depended upon to stay as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. This treasure trove of votes, unlike secret offshore bank accounts, is easily identifiable and is spread across the length and breadth of this island mass in equal proportion and available not only to Mahinda Rajapaksa personally, but in equal measure to every candidate contesting the elections from the party that boasts Mahinda as its prime ministerial candidate. And so the premise reaches its unavoidable conclusion: With such a deposit of votes available for everyone to dip in and help themselves to the bonanza, how can any party or individual beneficiary fail to win at the hustings?

And to the question, ‘who says so?’ they have the ready answer. The voices. The voices whisper to them, they say. Like the voice of the Divine whisper to the mystic sage or the voices of restless spirits resound at tumbler talking sessions, the ragbag creations in the Rajapaksa designer collection claim the Vox Populi, the voice of the people speak to them and convey their craving to see the return of their fallen idol. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself is a diviner of the people’s pulse through this clairvoyant medium and ever since he lost has been repeatedly saying, “I will come when the people tell me”, “I will climb aboard the stage when the people decide”, and, addressing his Medamulana meeting on Wednesday, announced that he would be contesting because the people had asked him to do so.

From the highfaluting Wimal Weerawansa down to that tail wagging Gammanpila, all aboard the Rajapaksa bandwagon have been blowing this same signature toot every time they sound the horn. They have successfully created the illusion that there is a massive unprecedented surge of public support to their Godfather. With great theatrics designed to heighten the suspense and dramatic effect, they have staged their tragic drama without their Hamlet who only popped in for a brief moment at the Matara rally to wave to the crowds from the fort’s ramparts.

They have vilified every law enforcing agency and personally defamed the bribery commissioner; labelled every criminal investigation into the plunder of public property as political witch-hunts and every legal arrest made in its pursuance as an act of revenge. They have succeeded in their efforts to turn their negative debacle into a positive challenge and conjured an insubstantial oasis in the barren desert of their defeat. The facade thus erected will also now include the bonhomie image of a deeply united SLFP in the belief that the public, whom they consider as suckers, will fall prey to their ploys.

SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said on Thursday that he and other senior party members are trying their best to bring unity to the party by trying to accommodate Rajapaksa within the party. “We are doing so not by considering what is best for ourselves personally, but for what is best for the party.” Has he given any thought for what is best for the country?

Does he honestly think that a seeming show of unity achieved by forcing the hand of President Sirisena will fool the public to believe that all is well with the SLFP and that Maithri and Mahinda are the best of chums now, are the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of the SLFP who are so frightened of a ‘black as a tar barrel’ UNP victory that they have ‘quite forgotten their quarrel’?

It’s a bubble waiting to be burst. The August 17 poll may provide the pin, when the great Lankan public will hold in their hands the right to get the government they truly deserve. Until then, with the former president lusting a return to power and the incumbent president unsure of his ground and turned a prisoner in the hands of those whom he vowed to send to prison, the disillusioned voter must perforce remain as the hapless betel nut caught betwixt the political giraya’s cracking blades.