The ‘lion of Ruhuna’; roars replaced by a mewling cry for sympathy
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It is a pity that former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not abide by his own injunction that, ‘a politician who is not bound by feelings for the people can never become a peoples’ leader,’ when Sri Lanka was led by the nose down the ruinous path of racism, majoritarianism and finally bankruptcy under the leadership of the ‘kurahan’ coloured shawl wearing ‘Rajapaksas of Giruwapattuwa.’
A profiteering family company in the guise of Government
The former President was voicing anger following a dramatically choreographed departure from his official residence in Colombo last week after the passage of the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Act, No 18 of 2025. As Mr Rajapaksa contemplated this rancorous reversal of fortunes while receiving visitors at the family home in Tangalle and talked about a ‘politics of vengeance,’ he has confessed to have been ‘surprised’ at the eviction. ‘I am prepared to confront this,’ he is reported to have said.
But the roars of the ‘Lion of Ruhuna’ from which the Rajapaksas have descended, seemingly have been reduced to mewling cries of a kitten for sympathy. For rather than talking of ‘peoples’ leaders’, he must ask himself as to whether he thought of the ‘feelings of the people’ when he and his family ran this country (excruciatingly badly) like a profiteering family company? That was by way of grossly enriching themselves at the expense of the state coffers and the ‘people’ about whom he talks now.
That enrichment has rebounded most particularly on the once Rajapaksa adoring supplicants of the Deep South as their children starved in the wake of the worst economic crisis to hit Sri Lanka since independence. That was after multiple disasters of leadership were inflicted on the nation by his brother, the unlamented Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who had once declared in 2019/2020 that he would instill the ‘Kurahan State’, proclaiming himself as the leader of the nation’s ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ as he took oaths in front of the Ruwanveli Seya no less.
Stage set for a perversion of the ‘Aragalaya’ call
The fact that the shadow of the statue of King Dutugemunu, a leader so vastly different from corrupt and racist leaders of modern Sri Lanka, loomed large over this newly elected President so loudly proclaiming his bigoted ethnically majoritarian stamp, clearly did not make a whit of difference. This so-called ‘war hero’ elevated to the prestige of a national leader through devilish posturing of his Manchurian minders, was undeniably the worst of Sri Lanka’s post-independence Presidents.
That was the singularly asinine leadership foisted on the nation as Rajapaksa loyalists bowed and scraped to the ‘kings’ who had ‘won the war.’ Without this idiocy, the ‘Aragalaya’ (peoples’ struggle) of 2022 would never have happened leading to such extreme manifestations of popular anger as the burning of the Rajapaksa mausoleum in Hambantota. In turn, the fleeing Rajapaksas handed the reins of State over to an elite-driven leadership of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Effectively the stage was well set for the ‘Aragalaya’ chant to be cleverly twisted to its political advantage by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led National Peoples’ Power (NPP). That peculiarly fatalistic cycle is now complete with the election of the NPP Government on an ‘unprecedented’ mandate last year bolstered by former Rajapaksa voters flocking en masse to a bewitchingly tempting banner of ‘System Change.’
Mr Rajapaksa must listen to his ‘still, small voice’
But like Plato’s fabled Gyges Ring and predictably so, the seduction of the powerful Executive Presidency has the NPP firmly in its thrall. The prosecutorial push to put ‘political rogues’ (their opponents) into jail coupled with enormously popular moves such as the repeal of entitlements of former Presidents have kept the JVP-NPP combine afloat. But for how long will that political buoyancy continue? Governance reform is seemingly going in the opposite direction with the planned undermining of the Constitutional Council and independent commissions.
That has been aggravated by a shadowy party leadership effectively substituting itself for an elected political leadership. Meanwhile ambitious promises of bolstering a fragile economy are yet confined to paper as confusion is worse confounded by inexperience in the affairs of State. The Government is moreover floundering in a morass of its making as the ‘elite versus non-elite’ distinction breaks down with NPP front-liners struggling to justify the amassing of extraordinary wealth as reflected in the now compulsory releasing of assets declarations.
But to return to the cruel fate of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the still small voice in his ear needs to tell him to preserve the remnants of his dignity. That is even more so given the ridiculous visits of lackeys, priests and sundry rogues (disgracing the offices that they once held) to rant on the ‘wrong treatment’ meted out to the former President. Such undignified outbursts of individuals who have long disgraced themselves in the public eye only draw derisive contempt from the public as well should be the case.
Raw political butchery of the Rajapaksa years
That does Mr Rajapaksa no favours quite apart from what comes across as blatantly orchestrated moves to evoke public sympathy. As the seasoned politician that he was, he should surely realise that this is very different to a genuine outpouring of public affection. The time is also now long past for the former President to trumpet his ‘activist credentials’. That is to portray himself as leading the Pada Yatra against the United National Party *UNP)’s repression of JVP cadre in the second Southern insurrection.
But the point is that Mr Rajapaksa himself, once the lawyer who insisted on going to Geneva to ‘speak out’ against the UNP killings, was responsible for even worse human rights atrocities committed under his leadership as President. At least the UNP had the proverbial fig leaf of ‘quelling an armed insurrection’ (late 1980’s-early 1990’s) to take cover but that is lacking in regard to yet unresolved killings of editors, journalists, dissenters and public figures including a popular ruggerite during the Rajapaksa years.
Put simply, this was raw political butchery by an authoritarian regime purely for the purpose of preserving power, akin to Chile’s Pinochet and countless other dictators, the likes of which Sri Lanka had not seen before. So the former President’s call to speak out against the ‘politics of vengeance’ is not as easy as that. Certainly the arrest and summary remanding of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe over a nonsensically contrived allegation of wasting public funds on a transit detour to the United Kingdom while returning from state visits overseas, was an undeniable ‘own goal’ of the Government.
‘Privileges’ are not part of ‘people’s sovereignty’
That made even Mr Wickremesinghe’s detractors (such as this columnist) question the juvenile explanations offered by the NPP such as saying that ‘he should have been in jail fifty years ago.’ That may well be the case but if so, put Mr Wickremesinghe to jail on those counts not on an airily tossed up charge that reeks of political mala fide. Even so, the eviction of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is a different case altogether.
As the Supreme Court rightly held in its Special Determination on the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Act, No 18 of 2025, the original Act of 1986 was ‘standalone’ legislation. As such, that law was entirely unconnected to Article 36 of the Constitution pertaining to ‘pensions’ of former Presidents determined by Parliament. What Machiavellian mind limited the constitutional provision to securing Presidential pensions but conferred extended privileges such as a residence, monthly allowances, and official transport under a mere statute?
That needs little guessing. Whatever that may be, there is no justification to say (as lawyers appearing against the Bill tried to do), that such extended privileges are part of the constitutionally enshrined ‘peoples’ sovereignty.’
It is a relief that the Supreme Court dismissed that argument with force.
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