Waiting for Gota, Sajith (and some others)

First, the stale news: the Pohottuwa swept Elpitiya repeating the local government election sweep last January. And now, the much better news. Sirisena the second worst president we ever had is not re-contesting.  The very worst was Chandrika, who helped create the LTTE ministate, and who was one of the sponsors for Sirisena’s first bid. Strong contrast to her anticolonial parents. And all this was occurring while the current regime has lost legitimacy.

First, the stale news: the Pohottuwa swept Elpitiya repeating the local government election sweep last January. And now, the much better news. Sirisena the second worst president we ever had is not re-contesting.  The very worst was Chandrika, who helped create the LTTE ministate, and who was one of the sponsors for Sirisena’s first bid. Strong contrast to her anticolonial parents. And all this was occurring while the current regime has lost legitimacy.

The loss of legitimacy

The loss of legitimacy was illustrated by the wave of strikes bringing the country to a virtual standstill. It was further exemplified by both the former Inspector General of Police and former Defence Secretary being under remand custody. Further, illustrating the death spiral was dropping economic growth nearing the low figures after the LTTE attack on the airport. At its beginning, the current regime had talked down the post-war high growth as bogus and eroded the economy’s legitimacy and was now reaping the results.

All this breakdown had begun with the unprincipled Sirisena who had once called MR a ‘Real Maharaja’, but who overnight knifed MR and became his presidential opponent. Sirisena declared that the MR family owned helicopters, a son had bought a horse from Buckingham Palace which he flew to Nuwara Eliya and another owned expensive Lamborghinis. All were total lies. There were indeed many flaws with the MR regime, but after nearly 5 years, no judicial convictions have resulted. Their key prosecutor Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe was caught on a recording admitting to a political witch hunt. She was promptly interdicted from her office.

Sirisena’s behaviour as a servile but ineffective Western puppet was seen when visiting the UK, he proudly declared that the British Queen had shaken hands with him without gloves. I have seen the British Queen twice at near quarters when two close relatives met her, and she shakes hands without gloves. On the same visit, Sirisena again slavishly exulted that then British PM Cameron had come to his car to greet him. But UK Prime Ministers always come to the car of a visiting head of state. Sirisena, however, forgot to boast that as he was leaving Cameron’s office, the producer of the film on alleged war atrocities screamed that Sirisena was then the acting Defence Minister. And, Sirisena’s government incredibly moved a human rights motion against Sri Lanka. But he is not contesting now.

Also not contesting is the chauvinist TNA; contesting is the Saudi linked sharia chauvinist Rishad Bathiudeeen. Other minority voters are supporting national parties including the increasingly non-chauvinist estate Tamil parties. Leaders of all these minority parties, however, speak fluent Sinhala and have residences around Colombo.

Not contesting after paying the deposit was Welgama with his opposition to Gotabhaya. Not contesting was Chamal Rajapakse, the spare wheel for the Rajapakses. Not contesting was Nagananda with his interesting Utubes, but his application rejected indicating his administrative, and therefore, presidential potential.

The two serious contenders are Gotabhaya and Sajith with possibly the JVP leader and a former Army commander Mahesh Senanayake skimming some votes.

Mahesh Senanayake and Anura Kumara Dissanayake

The alleged nonpartisan Gen. Mahesh Senanayake has questions swirling around him. One was that as head of the Army he had not prevented the Islamic attacks on churches, but he gave no believable answer. More importantly was his former employer after he left Sri Lanka namely the National Air Cargo. Googling this company reveals deep connections with the US military. There were also connections of his group with Sarvodaya which in cahoots with the Norwegians had illegally settled in the Vanni those Indians being sent back to India under the Sirima-Shastri Pact. These became the last soldiers of the LTTE.

The JVP had a failed one-day revolution in 1971 with, from the second day their cadres imprisoned or killed. They however then, had an important foreign policy clause on Indian expansionism. When the latter became a reality during the JR regime, the JVP launched their second revolt. An Indian source reported then, that initially before the revolt became very violent, the JVP had considerable support among the Sinhalese. The JVP lost tens of thousands of their cadres in their opposition to the Provincial Councils and the 13^th Amendment. But today, it accepts unthinkingly both, essentially Indian sub imperialism’s reach into the country. One of their current supporters is Jayampathy Wickramaratne who wants more power for the fictional traditional homelands, against which very cause, the JVP lost tens of thousands.

Today the rebranded JVP does good work, especially exposing corruption. And instead of Marx in his inaugural meeting, the JVP leader Anura Kumara talked about Margaret Mead, a strange departure from the class struggle of Marx and the slogan “what is to be done” of Lenin. And one of their key advisors is a ‘post-modernist’ follower which rejects any macro history -Marx, Lenin as well as non-Marxist historians would be squirming. At an earlier period, the JVP had publications rejecting foreign funded NGOs. On their current platforms were lackeys of this NGOs’ form of Western imperialism. Its current electoral status is probably indicated by the Elpitiya results getting around 5%. It is today, definitely not the JVP that got 41 seats filling the nationalist vacuum created by Chandrika. All this leaves only Sajith and Gota as credible candidates.

Sajith Premadasa

Ranil had been trying to be the candidate and from all accounts in the alternative, pushing the speaker Karu Jayasooriya. I once thought highly of Jayasooriya till he brought foreign diplomats as observers to a local Parliamentary debate. The foreigners clearly took sides clapping at the results of this our internal issue seeming to confirm the belief that the yahapalanaya government was created by foreign forces.

In his inaugural, coming-out meeting held in Matara under the umbrella of his mentor Mangala Samaraweera, Sajith Premadasa spoke about not letting soldiers down and not using the Armed Forces for non-military activities. But his mentor Samaraweera was the very man who moved the motion against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in Geneva. Sajith’s declared advisor on national security Sarath Fonseka, reports say has been denied a visa to the US, presumably on allegations of war responsibilities (okay, note in parentheses that the US has committed major war crimes around the world). And, the initial rise of South Korea is attributed to using the military and in Egypt the armed forces are very much an economic force. Both Egypt and South Korea are key US allies.

Sajith evokes his father Premadasa. The latter was opposed to the Indian imposed 13^th Amendment based on a fictional history. With Premadasa opposing the Indian imposition was Gamini Dissanayake. Today, Sajith is silent on his father’s opposition to Indian sub imperialism. Neither is the son of Gamini Dissanayake who in Muallativu where the LTTE was finally defeated he recently declared that both land and police powers would be given. And in fact, there is valid legal reason to declare that the 13^th Amendment as null and void because it was done with Indian gunboats outside and with a frightened JR locking parliamentarian in a hotel till the Indian’s bill was passed. Premadasa senior is also known for the massive bloodletting during the JVP inspired armed struggle against the Indian imposition.

Premadasa senior and his Minister of Education Hamid appointed my wife (cofounder secretary of University Teachers for Human Rights UTHR and then Vice President of the Federation of University Teachers Associations FUTA) to a committee on student disappearances - a condition for the opening of the universities after 3 years of closure. And the figure of 60,000 being killed during the time was credible.

Gotabhaya, unlike Premadasa had a very easy nomination. Very popular for directing the war against the brutal LTTE and being nearly killed by a suicide bomber (Sarath Fonseka was the other target) his nomination was guaranteed by the family. It was, however, family control that led to MR being defeated last time. He had brought in the 18^th Amendment to continue his rule. And this centralised family system made the charges at the time of huge corruption believable, ultimately not proved in court. Surrounding the family then, were uninformed cronies like Sajin Vaas Gunawaradane who conducted foreign policy, the weakest link for MR. Sajin Vaas now issues videos against MR. Gota has perhaps tried to go the other way by his foray into a group of (uneven) advisors that might in the future transcend family control.

And what would be the possible election result. There would have been many opinion polls done by different political parties and of course by Western embassies and their local proxies the NGOs. I have no access to these. But there are indicators. There is the recent election at Elpitiya. And more importantly, there was the January local government elections after which the government dragged its feet on having further elections increasing its unpopularity. Major Western news outlets probably is a pointer. The Guardian and the Economist’s Intelligence Unit predict a victory for Gota. If he does win, it should only be the first step to a major overhaul of the country.

Dr Susantha Goonatilake PhD (Exeter) 
Fellow World Academy of Art and Science
Former General President Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science
Former President Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka