Sunday Times 2
Only Gota and Mahinda can reveal the truth on political conspiracies
View(s):Moves for the resurrection of the Lotus Bud Party (Pohottuwa) of the Rajapaksas are already under way.
Stories about international conspiracies even involving superpowers are many to exculpate former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who abdicated his power without a word to his constituents. Gotabaya is projected as an innocent, well intentioned man who fell victim to this conspiracy.
Explanation has also not been forthcoming from the political patriarch of the Lotus Bud Party (Pohottuwa), Mahinda Rajapaksa who swept the polls in 2020, after brother Gotabaya’s victory, polling 59 percent of the votes and 145 seats in parliament and was the Prime Minister. Gotabaya, his propagandists still keep reminding us, polled 52.25 percent of the votes cast. He polled 6.9 million votes, we are told.
Before considering the international conspiracies which are as entertaining as the best-selling thrillers of well-known writers, it would be logical to call upon both brothers– President and Prime Minister– for their reasons on why they quit office without ‘even telling the mat they were sleeping on’ (Paduratawath kiyanne nethuwa) as the Sinhala aphorism goes.
The party and government spokesman for the Ranil-Rajapaksa regime, Bandula Gunawardene has come out with a sketchy description of an ‘international conspiracy’ while claiming that the Sri Lanka media had failed to expose the conspiracy against his Lotus party regime hatched by the aragalaya.
Never mind if the government media spokesman arrived at ‘the truth’ one year after the event. He should also go back to the time Gotabaya was mapping out his strategy to win the presidential election. There was the much publicised manifesto under the grandiose heading: ‘Visions of Prosperity (Saubagya Dekma)’ in which it was said that these visions of prosperity were formulated after detailed research conducted by his think tanks like Vyath Maga.
Whatever happened to these visions after the 19th Amendment with which he vested himself with executive powers that no Sri Lankan leader has had ? Did Gota, the former Lt. Col of the Sri Lankan army drop proposals of his think tanks and imagined he was viewing a military parade where those in uniforms react spontaneously like zombies to commands barked out at them. Those on parade, in his vision may have appeared to be the citizens of Sri Lanka. When he told an audience of provincial administrators that they need not wait for administrative orders to come down to them through official channels but the pronouncements he made to them verbally were sufficient, he appeared to be like that Corporal of the Kaiser’s army on becoming the leader of the Nazi Socialist Party, ranting away.
And what happened to the Lotus Bud party visionary, Mahinda Rajapaksa with his Mahinda Chintanaya who was his Prime Minister? He went along with his brother all the way, taking along other family members who held key cabinet portfolios, till the day of reckoning.
Answers to these questions are needed from the mouths of the two horses who galloped Lanka into disaster, not the vague theory of Bandula Gunawardene, which is hard to discern.
Why did the former Lt.Col. who was not known to be slow on the draw, as was evident at the Rathipaswela shooting, not order a crackdown on a group of unarmed protestors disturbing him at the Presidential Secretariat for weeks? Why did he not retaliate when his private residence was besieged and the President’s House overrun by the masses and finally flee the country to apparently nowhere?
Was there a crack in the unity of the Rajapaksa family that led to its downfall?
Are brothers Rajapaksa now no longer united? How come they are united to keep the family party intact?
Are the brothers Rajapaksa at loggerheads and demanding that Gota be made the scapegoat?
Why did his loyal army not move to his rescue when besieged and why was the loyal ‘War Winning General’ in the Land of Hanuman and not at home at this most critical moment?
Did intervention of foreign powers result in his debacle?
These are questions which both the former President and former Prime Minister are committed to provide answers to the millions who voted for them to make real their Visions of Prosperity before attempting to stage a political resurrection.