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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Advent of the native son Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake The last week has been awash with Mahinda Rajapakse. Ranging from newspaper pages to wall posters (still the cheapest and most popular method of communication) the image of the Prime Minister has dominated the national imagination. Even the ranks of Tuscany have cheered him although being compelled to say that his nomination has been granted only grudgingly. It has even been discovered that he has a first name called Percy. So PM Rajapakse, the PM, is now the presidential candidate of the United People's Freedom Alliance. The question before the national electorate is whether PM Rajapakse PM will become the president of Sri Lanka. The nomination of Mahinda Rajapakse as presidential candidate has been described in certain quarters as the end of the Bandaranaike era in Sri Lankan politics. But this is too facile for one gets entrapped in dynastic politics. Those who want to create dynasties can speak of the Senanayakes, Bandaranaikes and the Jayawardene - Wickremasinghes. But perhaps the point about Mahinda Rajapakse is that he comes from a family which distinguished itself in Southern Sri Lanka without ever bragging that they were a dynasty in the eyes of the Establishment. If the Senanayakes of Bothale and the Bandaranaikes of Attanagalla considered themselves natural inheritors of the post - Independence political legacy, the Rajapakses of Hambantota were no less heirs of the same tradition. It is part of political folklore that Mahinda Rajapakse's father the late D.A. Rajapakse crossed the floor of Parliament with S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike even without being consulted by him. Mahinda Rajapakse's adolescence and young adulthood was spent in the shadow of not only his father but also his two uncles George Rajapakse and Lakshman Rajapakse who were also formidable politicians of the district. George Rajapakse, who was a Royalist cricketer and a lawyer, was one of the most polished parliamentarians and died quite prematurely as Minister of Fisheries in Mrs. Bandaranaike's 1970 government. If George Rajapakse was polished and stylish Lakshman Rajapakse, who was M.P. for Hambantota was rumbustious and bucolic and there is no doubt that Mahinda Rajapakse profited by his association with these two outstanding uncles. In fact once in conversation with this writer and the late Kumar Ponnambalam Mahinda Rajapakse recalled that the last wish of Lakshman Rajapakse was that his body should be taken to all the villages of his electorate and that he should be given a grand funeral. Politics was in Mahinda Rajapakse's blood and he would not have got a better apprenticeship than at 'Srawasti,' the hostel for MPs where Mahinda used to occupy his father's room, his father being the Deputy Speaker of Parliament at the time. From there he used to go to school at Thurstan College which was walking distance. In 1970 when the United Front Government of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike swept to power Mahinda Rajapakse was the youngest MP and in keeping with tradition he was given the privilege of moving the vote of thanks to the then Governor General William Gopallawa for making the Speech from The Throne. As a MP he studied law and although defeated in the 1977 General Election which was a debacle for the SLFP and the Left movement he emerged as one of the most charismatic leaders of the SLFP at a time of that party's retreat. At a time of division and crisis in the SLFP Mahinda Rajapakse evolved some of the most innovative methods of resurrecting the party. He led the Pada Yathra from Colombo to Kataragama and was in the vanguard of the Janaghosha where he blew a horn and told all motorists to blow their horns in protest against the then government. Perhaps Mahinda Rajapakse's greatest asset is that he is not saddled with the elitism of the Colombo Establishment. As a man from the South and a Thurstanite he need not flaunt urban credentials. However, the Colombo Establishment whether grudgingly or not will now have to take account of this native son. President Kumaratunga, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe and the prime ministerial candidate Mr. Anura Bandaranaike have played together at Rosmead Place when Mr. Bandaranaike was Prime Minister and when Mr. Wickremasinghe's father was Managing Director of Lake House. Mr. Rajapakse may not belong to the same circle but the coming confrontation between the Southern Son and the heir to the Bandaranaike legacy on one side and the UNP leader and former Prime Minister on the other is bound to create headlines for days to come. |
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