40th commemoration of D. A. Rajapaksa on November 7:

Rajapaksa tradition and the Mahinda Chintana

by Prof. Wiswa Warnapala, Minister of Higher Education

In all emergent States, the political leadership, which played a significant role in the nationalist struggle against colonial domination, was faced with the challenge of coming to terms with the new situation of the post-colonial State.

The political leadership, which made use of the traditional symbols and authority to mobilise people to fight colonialism, has to face a situation where they, with the limited resources at their disposal, are expected to arouse continuous public interest in a wide variety of complex political and social issues, and this is necessary to mobilise support for their political programs.

Secondly, they, as the emerging leaders of the new State, need to acquire and maintain power, for which popular support among the citizenry needs to be generated, and this could be effectively done through a quick understanding and identification of the political, social and economic issues affecting the people.

Economic issues

One who can immediately identify with such fundamental issues is certain to emerge as the leader who is capable of generating support for a cause of action which, in the end, would pave the way for him to reach the national political leadership.

The traditional political and social institutions, including those social structures, need to be utilised to understand the relevance of the immediate social and economic issues in the immediate environment, from which the emerging leader has to derive inspiration.

In Sri Lanka, there were leaders who, by articulating local issues of significance and making use of the traditional institutions, managed to enter the national political stage; D. A. Rajapaksa, though a local provincial politician with a comparable popular acceptance, was able to emerge as a leader in the province because of the fact that he, as many a politician in Sri Lanka, was able to identify with the major issues of the day, which primarily impinged on the social and economic problems of a people who suffered due to both social oppression and economic backwardness.

Hambantota district, which included Giruwa and Magam Pattus, was a backward district which, during colonial times, remained neglected and the social and economic status of the province came to be highlighted in Leonard Woolf's writings, and his Village in the Jungle and Christopher Ondatjee's Woolf in Ceylon are two works which described the nature of the suffering of the poor peasantry in the area.

D. A. Rajapaksa, who imbibed socialist ideas through an understanding of the suffering of the oppressed peasantry, saw the plight and the exploitation of the peasantry and advocated the need for public policies to ameliorate the conditions of the peasant, who through chena cultivation in an environment dominated by thick jungle, struggled day and night to eke out an existence.

Peasantry

The arid climate, the jungle, the jungle ecology and the social backwardness interfered with the lives of the peasantry who, for their own emancipation and livelihood, was looking for a leadership that is capable of understanding the nature of their struggle for a living.

It was in this economic and social scenario that D. A. Rajapaksa representing the peasantry of the Giruwapattuwa, entered the political arena, and he was guided by the need to ameliorate the conditions of the peasantry; every available opportunity was seized to articulate the burning social and economic issues affecting them, and it was this background and experience in the Hambantota district, with its own backwardness and jungle ecology, which created a strong political base for the Rajapaksas who, due to their commitment to safeguard the needs and right of the backward peasantry, were successful in maintaining this base for three generations of theirs.

This, in my view, provides ample testimony to the fact that Rajapaksa contributed a great deal to the social and political transformation of the area and it was this commitment, made in the thirties, forties and fifties, is now a popular public policy posture for the complete economic transformation of the district.

With the introduction of the adults suffrage in 1931, there emerged a group of politicians who, making use of the traditional sources of influence, entered politics by articulating the grievances of the common masses; D. A. and D. M. Rajapaksas came within this category, and they, while articulating the grievances of the peasantry, looked at issues from the point of view of the people, and this aspect of the politics of the senior Rajapaksas helped all Rajapaksas to build and maintain a strong political base in the district, which, despite the passage of time, still remains a formidable political base, which at the last Presidential poll as well, came to the assistance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well.

In most of our districts, where aristocratic elements dominated the political and social life, leaders emerged primarily on the basis of the articulation of the aspirations of the common man; Dr. N. M. Perera in the Three Korale, Philip Gunawardene in the Hapitigam Korale and Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe in the Matara District, used the same methods and techniques to articulate and mobilise the peasantry to dethrone those citadels of aristocratic political dominance.

The political and social power of the aristocracy was broken and the peasantry, who remained oppressed for ages, was given the opportunity to assert themselves, and a new political culture came into being with a plethora of realistic socialistic slogans.

D. A. Rajapaksa, though could not be brought exclusively within this analysis, was yet another social revolutionary who, extending enormous sympathy to the oppressed peasantry of his own district, came to be motivated by some kind of idealism to champion their cause with vigour and vitality. The need to espouse their cause and the need for immediate amelioration of their economic and social conditions, made them arch enemies of both colonialism and imperialism.

Colonial oppression

They were opposed to both colonial oppression and imperialistic domination, and the nationalism originated in ancient Ruhuna probably reinforced it. Inspirational guidance came from the ancient heritage of the place.

They, unlike others, obtained first hand experience of the nature of colonial oppression, and was this which motivated them to align themselves with the anti-imperialistic forces of the thirties and forties.

As Leonard Woolf explained in his diaries, this was a district where people depended on dry agriculture which, as in ancient times, depended on irrigation.

Irrigation, which, in fact, was the basis of the ancient civilisation, came to be neglected during the British period, and the general neglect led to the impoverishment of the peasantry. They experienced near-famines in the region.

The poverty-stricken villages in the district which came to be described in the Village in the Jungle, showed the nature of the backwardness of the area.

It was in this background of neglect and poverty that both DM and DA Rajapaksa entered the political arena with the prime objective of alleviating the poverty of the oppressed peasantry in the area.

It was in 1936 that DM entered the portals of the legislature, and he, as his brother in the subsequent period, made use of the woes of the peasantry to emerge as advocates of the emancipation of the peasantry.

Giruwapattu, which comprised twelve thousand small hamlets and villages, due to the impact of the jungle ecology, suffered; they managed their lives with kurakkan, which, in the end, became the symbol of emancipation of the oppressed peasantry.

Rural sector

The speeches inside the State Council indicated that the line of thinking was to emancipate the peasantry and the same commitment came to be displayed by D. A. Rajapaksa as well when he entered Parliament as the elected representative of Beliatta, which he contested as a member of the Sinhala Maha Sabha which was precursor of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

This was a political organisation which, again, focused its attention on the issues of the peasantry and it, subsequently, created the base for the formation of the SLFP, the main constituency of which, as subsequent history amply demonstrated, was the rural sector of the country.

By this time, Rajapaksas have begun to dominate the politics of the Hambantota district, and a formidable mass base had been created largely on the basis of their commitment to articulate the grievances of the oppressed peasantry.

Two things dominated their political thinking; one was the need to emancipate the peasantry and the other was to rejuvenate the self-sufficient village economy. In an area which is affected by the jungle economy, these issues were important as they impinged on social and economic problems of the day.

People were suffering due to the failure to mobilise the available resources and they have been exploited by the forces of the traditional aristocracy as well as the forces of imperialism.

Even the second layer of the traditional aristocracy and its potentates were exploiters in this region. It was in this background of neglect and exploitation that the Rajapaksas were able to identify themselves with the immediate needs, grievances and interests of the down-trodden peasantry, and they, in addition, aligned themselves with the emerging nationalist and progressive forces of the country.

It was this scenario which gave Mahinda Rajapaksa a unique role in history, and the fund of goodwill, which Rajapaksas built for more than half a century, paid immense political dividends at the last Presidential poll.

He inherited the experience and commitment of his elders, and he, as his elders, always thought in terms of the emancipation of the peasantry and the re-surpection of the ancient glory of the village.

He saw the need to tap the social and economic potential of the Sri Lankan village which, since the colonial days, has been exploited by various forces.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, deriving inspiration from this heritage and the Rajapaksa political tradition which recognised the peasantry as the live-wire of social and economic transformation, rightly inherited this political legacy, and it was via this route that he reached national political stage, and Mahinda Chintana - the realistic package of economic and social policies - evidently demonstrated his commitment to the amelioration of the conditions of the rural peasantry of Sri Lanka.

Political posture

The central concept in this compendium of policies was the need to change the economic and social environment of the village; in other words, he focused on the need to improve the infra-structure of the village and it was his concerned view, obtained primarily on the basis of his own experience among the rural poor, that the economic and social development of the country could be accelerated through a massive program of rural reconstruction.

In relation to this political posture of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, one can say that he remained loyal to his elders and to those causes they championed in the thirties and forties, and he, on the basis of that perception, wanted the introduction of public policies to rejuvenate the village. This line of thinking is in keeping with the tradition of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which derived energy and strength from the rural Sri Lanka.

The history, as anticipated by the genuine supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party who still derive inspiration from the rural peasantry, has assigned him a unique political role, according to which President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the elected Head of State, is expected to bring about a complete transformation on the rural sector.

Emphasis

Therefore, he, unlike his predecessors, has rightly focused on the development of the village and its infra-structure and today all development programs have been devised in such a way so as to bring about this transformation as a way of accelerating the process of economic development.

In other words, the emphasis is on the development of rural productive forces, and it is through such a transformation that the exploitation of the rural economy by the urban economy could be prevented. Development strategies need to change in favour of the rural economy.

Therefore the Mahinda Chintana, with its numerous programs focusing on the development of the infra-structure of the village, is the basis for a fundamental change in the rural economy of Sri Lanka, and it is through this formula that his political base could be further strengthened.

A development strategy based on the needs of the rural economy has been formulated on the basis of the Mahinda Chintana and those programs, if properly implemented, is certain to lay the foundation for an accelerated form of social and economic development in the country.

The development strategy, based on the need to transform the rural economy into a productive sector, shows that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, influenced by the experience of his elders, has rightly understood where the political power lies; it was the rural Sri Lanka which gave him the mandate to emerge as the national leader with a vision of his own for the 21st century.

He, as the ancient rulers of Ruhuna, has been assigned a historical task, the central element of which is to provide leadership to a new kind of political change, under which the political dynasticism has disappeared into the limbo of history.

In other words, a new kind of political awakening has been inaugurated where dynasticism has been replaced with democracy. Mahinda Rajapaksa's singular historic political achievement was the replacement of dynastic politics with democratic politics, and this remarkable achievement of his, which is a twenty first century phenomenon needs to be further consolidated.

Yet another important achievement of his is that he was instrumental in destroying the foundation of elective feudalism in Sri Lanka.