Our fate is decided today, let's have perspective
It's a piece of real estate. One third the size of Sri Lanka -- but it’s a piece of land. South of Sri Lanka, we know that this estate does not bring us anything in terms of bounty; no coconuts from up there, not even a few onions as it used to be. But, it's a paralyzing liability. We line up troops to secure its borders, we almost pawn out future generations to keep it intact.

Are we prepared to annihilate ourselves for the sakes of this national heirloom? Today, we will know, we are told. We have to await the arrival of -- in terms of its gravity -- the near Papal pronouncement on our fate by Velupillai Prabhakaran, supremeo, decider of all fates, giver of life and death in this country.

It’s all for the sake of this one liability - - the north and the east of our land. As a nation, we can be likened to men who cannot control their bladder movements. They are wet when they do not want to be, we are at war when we do not want to be.

Will a Rajapakse government within its first ten days have the reality of war at its doorstep? Probably not. In one way, it's all the sabre rattling that's killing us. Sri Lanka's viability as a country for international journalists is if this nation produces headlines, sound bytes and video clips.

The hardline label that is being fixed on to the new President's shirt therefore has more to do with headlines. International journalists want catchy ones. Some of the catchiest ones in today's media game have to do with saying that politicians have become warlike, that they are hawks and hardliners. After Rajapakse was elected, the LTTE therefore did not have to raise a finger. When the North east vote was boycotted, and Rajapakse was elected winner, the LTTE's work was done by the international media which has given the Tiger leader and his men more publicity that they could have had if they hired the best public relations con artistes of this world.

All of which goes to prove it once more. In the north and the east, we are dealing with a piece of land. It is as bad a liability as a piece of fallow real estate which gives us nothing except big bills for its upkeep. Why aren't we selling it off?

But yet, our national psyche is sourced around the myth of this land, the protection of which we are told is the fountainhead of Sinhala pride. Entire election stories are woven around it. The rationale for our very existence is filtered through the legends associated with the upkeep of this huge liability.

Thirty years from now, when grainy pictures are sold of the 2005 presidential election, we will have men who wore shawls around their necks standing around , looking pleased about their victory, as they should be. It's the Bandaranaike revolution in miniature repeated in the 21st century multi media.

This story is separate from the other story that is associated with this piece of land. Rajapakse was able to win the Sri Lankan elections after having nailed down and boarded the Bandaranaike myth. This is a stupendous achievement. It's not just a log cabin to President's house story but one of epic proportions in terms of the political theater it has generated.

But, all of it is being coloured by the fact that there is another story; the story that has to do with people not being allowed to vote in the other part of the country that is a liability to us. Mahinda Rajapakse's inspirational victory is being barracked with some fairness in some quarters because it strictly did not happen if the Northeastern votes are taken into account.

Which is one more reason to say that this piece of land I'm talking about is a liability which does not allow us to conduct our affairs, and retain our own narratives the way they should be.

Rajapakse's own fight with the Bandaranaikes mimicked the ongoing struggle that this country's poor and unkempt hordes lead every day with the Colombo centric upper crust who look at problems with their blinkered Colombo centric glasses. Rajapakse's final usurpation of the Bandaranaikes from the Bandaranaike-party was the outline sketch for the larger class struggle which was symbolically won at these elections.
Now, as if to prove that this story has the utility of a classic to it, there is a rearguard that has also appeared.

Sometimes, this rearguard can assert itself, and that's the problem.
Shades of this rearguard are comic, for instance the fact that Chandrika Bandaranaike wants to come back to parliament as backbencher - - as it has been quipped, to join the 'mulberry group' against Rajapakse.
To the comic fallout can be added the fact that there is a whole book-binder of an apology made for Ranil Wickremesinghe from all of the opportunistic tracts that are being written on his behalf. This serial loser is being supported by vested interests that do not want to face upto the fact that he led the so many lakhs of minorities who voted for him down the drainpipe.

They say so many minorities braved the LTTE's deathly-stare to vote for Wickremesinghe, and that he should not stand down because they are waiting to hold his hand. It's the other way about. Wickremesinghe let these minorities down, because a proper leader will not depend on the minorities alone, but will know how to carry the minority vote and run with it and win the election with something from the majority voters as well.

Like everybody else, the minority wants a winner who is expected to do the possible which is to win both Sinhala and Tamil votes -- not do the impossible and win with Tamil votes only. Wickremesinghe could not do that. He had outlived his usefulness. In actual fact, they are trying to see whether he has finally outlived his uselessness -- and is ready, improbably, at the tail end of his political career to be useful. How do they live in such hope all the time, when Wickremesinghe manages unerringly all the time to dash their hopes -- unless of course they are closet progressives, fifth-columnists who see Wickremesinghe's continued leadership as the UNP's surest way to the grave??

But, the rearguard ambles-on, fifth columnists or not. When Maithripala Sirisena went with a request to the ex-president Kumaratunge to have her signature on a piece of paper nominating Dallas Allahaperuma for the seat of the departed Lakshman Kadirgamar, Mangala Samaraweera was witness. Kumaratunge scoffed, and said "what nonsense that seat is for me.'' She stood like the rock of Gibraltar against any reason.

How does this happen to one of the most democratic and progressive leaders this country has had in years? It’s as if she has been possessed by the force -- the force of the rearguard, the striking back of the empire of aliens, foreign interests and NGOs. Sooner she extricates herself from that particular soup, the less she will look like one teary petulant tomato.

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