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by Prof. Wiswa Warnapala, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs

In modern societies which emerged out of colonial domination, the old society rested on a stable foundation of traditional authority and social structures, and modernity brought with it a modern sector, based upon contact with the West and modern education.

It was via this route that most of the leaders of the newly independent nations reached the national political stage. With modernisation, there emerged a modern elite with a radically different outlook from that of the traditional elite, and a competition developed among these sectors for leadership.

The most important fact which needs to be highlighted is the need to combine the influences of both these sectors and find an acceptable route to national political leadership. One who combines both and one who establishes a link to the traditional leadership and the major factors of the traditional social and political setting is certain to succeed in obtaining an entry to the national political leadership.

If the national political stage is not made available, the particular leader, who successfully uses and articulates these factors, is certain to become an influential local politician whose solid local base is utilised for triumphant political achievements.

It was in this kind of background and scenario that Rajapakses of Giruwapattuwa of ancient fame, entered the political arena, and it was their commitment, achievements and the role which laid the foundation, for that matter a solid foundation for another Rajapaksa to reach the national political stage in order to provide Sri Lanka with a new kind of popular political leadership that is capable of enthusing the people for meaningful political action.

In all dynamic situations of political change, it is the pantheon of leaders, both at the local and national level, who contribute to both political modernisation and social transformation.

In the thirties, with the arrival of mass-oriented politics associated with the grant of adult suffrage in 1931, the leading families, in the respective districts, relying on their traditional sources of influence and power, entered the political arena with a view to representing the interests and grievances of the people.

In the absence of political parties, such leaders relied heavily on their personal, family and other traditional resources for support; but there were such leaders who, while making use of such resources, constructed links with the ordinary masses by articulating their grievances and needs.

Rajapakses fell into this category of leaders. Who always looked at issues from the point of view of the needs and aspirations of the ordinary people.

Landed gentry

In many a part of this country, there emerged such leaders who could successfully articulate the grievances of the common man, though such grievances were of local character. Dr. S. A. Wickramasinghe of the Matara district, Philip Gunawardene of the Hapitigam Korale, Dr. N. M. Perera of the Thun Korale and Rajapakses in the Giruwa Pattuwa in the Hambantota district were such men who, despite the arrogance and opposition of the then powerful landed gentry, wanted to articulate and mobilize the people for meaningful political action and changes.

Hambantota district, which, in fact, became the formidable political base of the Rajapaksas, was a backward district which remained in that form due to neglect by the imperialists who could not immediately exploit its resources for the benefit of imperialism.

It would be interesting to recall What Leonard Woolf said of the Hambantota district when he served as its AGA in the period 1908 to 1911. The people in the district were poor, though their ancestors were the people who built the ancient settlements which later became the seats of power of powerful kings of ancient Sri Lanka.

This district, which, in total extant, was 1013 sq. miles, comprised three divisions - West Giruwa pattuwa, East Giruwa pattuwa and Magam pattu and each of this functioned under a Mudaliyar who was the traditional chief of the area.

The population of the district in 1911 stood at 110,508 people and it was an agricultural district where the livelihood of the people depended on agriculture, the maintenance of which, again, depended on a network of irrigation works.

Leonard Woolf wrote, after nearly fifty years, that one result has been that the kind of village life described by me in the diaries and in The Village in the Jungle is ceasing or perhaps has already ceased to exist. At any rate the changes are great in a district like Hambantota.

The poverty stricken villages in the jungle, the Beddegama of my time, have almost ceased to exist. It was in this kind of background of poverty and neglect of the Hambantota villages that Rajapakses, both D. M. Rajapakse and D. A. Rajapakse entered the political arena with the prime objective of ameliorating the conditions of the oppressed peasantry of the ancient lands of Hambantota.

It was some kind of idealism plus a sense of belief in the peasantry which motivated them to take to politics and champion their cause.

It was the neglect of the down-trodden peasantry which made them champions of the peasantry and it was their commitment to fight for their emancipation which made them arch enemies of colonialism and imperialism. In many parts of the world, the socialisation of leaders to such causes and movements made them nationalists espousing the cause of emancipation of the exploited.

Significantly, many a anti-imperialist came from the South, and it was due to the historical nationalist foundations of the region and the attitude of the imperialists to the oppression of the people, both socially and economically.

Untiring efforts

These leaders, whose base was in the agricultural population, were able to emerge as the elected representatives of the people through the adult suffrage. 1931 was a significant milestone in the political awakening of Sri Lanka and it signalled the collapse of the hereditary political leadership; thought it began in 1931, the real collapse began several decades later.

It was in 1931 that a new leadership appeared on the scene, and D. M. Rajapakse, who was popularly known as the Lion of Ruhuna, was elected to the State Council in 1936; he dominated the politics of the period with his untiring efforts to improve the lot of the oppressed agricultural proletariat in the district of Hambantota.

Giruwa pattu alone had twelve thousand small hamlets, suffering due to the impact of the jungle ecology and the villagers managed their lives with kurakkan. In 1936 D. M. Rajapakse entered the fray and defeated V. S. de S. Wickremanayake, who was the winner in 1931; he was able to defeat him with a majority of 12,000 votes.

D. M. Rajapakse understood the grievances of the peasantry of Giruwa and Magam pattus and chose 'brown' as his colour and it was the colour of kurakkan, which, in effect, symbolised his overt commitment to the amelioration of the conditions of the peasantry.

In his speeches in the State Council, he always championed the cause of the peasantry of the Hambantota district. He in his short tenure in the State Council, worked in close collaboration with such stalwarts as Philip Gunawardene and Dr. N. M. Perera, and they, as an anti-imperialist 'troika', played a significant role in the State Council in championing the cause of the oppressed.

Though the people expected D. M. Rajapakse to play a major role in the struggle against imperialism, he died at the age of 45; D. A. Rajapakse who, by this time, had decided to espouse the causes for which his brother, D. M., stood, entered the by-election and he was elected uncontested for the Hambantota seat.

Under the Soulbury Constitution, a new parliamentary constituency, Beliatta was created and it was this seat which D. A. Rajapakse contested as a member of the Sinhala Maha Sabha which, though entered the Government of the UNP in 1947, maintained its individual identity as a political organisation which, subsequently, paved the way for the formation of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

It would be interesting at this stage to discuss the way in which Rajapaksas began to dominate the parliamentary politics of the Hambantota district. It was both DM and DA who laid the foundation for the Rajapakses to establish themselves as a formidable political force, and seven Rajapakses were able to win parliamentary constituencies in the district, and this is a record unparalleled in the parliamentary politics of Sri Lanka. The success was largely due to the fact that they were able to identify themselves with the poor peasantry of the district.

Yet another thing which needs to be noted is the fact that they always stood on the side of nationalism and anti-imperialism and progressive politics. This, in my view, provides Mahinda Rajapakse with an unique role which has been assigned by history, and he inherits a heritage from which he is certain to reach the national political leadership.

Destiny

This is a major political resource which he commands at this given point of time. Yet another political resource of Mahinda Rajapakse is the very historical fact that his father, D. A. Rajapakse, as a member of the Sinhala Maha Sabha and a close associate of the late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, was the first person to follow S. W. R. D. when he left the UNP Government to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1951, the formation of which was a political landmark in the history of this country.

Mahinda has rightly inherited this political legacy, and it was from this legacy that he is certain to inherit the national political leadership which has been destined for him at this given point of time. He came via a carefully chartered route, and he, within a period of four decades, remained loyal to his elders, to the causes they championed, and remained loyal to the party from the time he entered its fold.

He derived immense inspiration from this background, and it was on the basis of this major political resource that he is making debut for the Presidential seat of power in this country. Both DM and DA were associated with the Suriya Mal Movement, and they, during this period imbibed progressive political ideas and always championed the cause of the oppressed and the down-trodden peasantry.

It was in this background that D. A. Rajapakse entered the arena of parliamentary politics in 1947; he was elected the MP for Beliatta.

Through his association with the Sinhala Maha Sabha, he had already established a link with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike; it was this link which compelled him to resign from the UNP Government along with Bandaranaike in 1951 and provided the support of Giruwa and Magam pattus for the founding of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1951.

Since 1947, D. A. Rajapakse was able to retain this seat at four general elections and it demonstrated the nature of their popular base in the district and it was from this solid base from which seven Rajapakses were elected to the national legislature.

It could not be denied that this powerful political base came to be constructed during the political careers of both D. M. Rajapakse and D. A. Rajapakse; the latter became the Minister of Agriculture and Lands in 1959. Such were the forces which provided leadership to the 1956 political change, and its impact in the last fifty years came to be felt in areas of political activity and public policy.

Mahinda, deriving inspiration from both DM and DA Rajapakses, has now reached the national political stage to fulfil a historic political task as well as to provide leadership to a new kind of political change which occurs exactly fifty years after the historic political change of 1956.

It shows that history has assigned Mahinda Rajapakse a special historic role in the 21st century to take the country along a new path, and he, in meeting this challenge, is expected to remain loyal to those ideas which his illustrious father espoused and also to the historic social and political foundations of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

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