After hiatus, Rajapaksa brothers set to dominate Sri Lanka again
One brother is considered a shoo-in for the job of Sri Lanka’s president in elections this weekend and another is eyeing the prime minister’s post when that election becomes due early next year.
Two other brothers are political strategists for their Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party and one of them is considering a shot at becoming the speaker in parliament. Three men of the family’s next generation are also in politics.
The Rajapaksas, best known for the brutal defeat of separatist Tamil rebels and then drawing Sri Lanka into China’s orbit when the West and India shunned the Indian Ocean island, are back at the center of the nation’s deeply divisive politics and it is stoking fear.
While there are no formal opinion polls, former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the hot favorite to win the presidential election this Saturday. His chief opponent Sajith Premadasa, a government minister, is seen to be trailing.
Gotabaya led the operations against the Tamil Tigers when his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president. Gotabaya has faced lawsuits in Sri Lanka and in the United States over allegations of staged killings of Tamil separatists, critics and journalists during the war.
Both brothers deny the allegations as part of a Western conspiracy to interfere in the island nation of 22 million that sits astride vital shipping lanes and has long been a tinder-box of tensions between the dominant Sinhalese Buddhists and minority ethnic Tamils. In recent months, Sinhalese hardliners have also targeted the tiny Muslim community.
Mahinda lost the 2015 presidential election to a cabinet colleague who turned against him – Maithripala Sirisena. After his ouster, the family’s fortunes fell into decline.
But Easter Sunday bombings on hotels and churches, in which more than 250 people were killed, derailed Sirisena’s presidency, and he has announced he will not contest this year. The attacks, claimed by Islamic State, have rekindled support for the Rajapaksas and their brand of Sinhalese nationalism.
Mahinda is barred from running for president again, and is on the stump for Gotabaya, bringing an affable touch to the campaign against the rather gruff manner of his brother, more known for his military machismo.
Another brother, Basil, handles the party finances and striking deals with rival groups while a fourth brother and former speaker, Chamal, campaigns in the family borough in the south of the island.
FAMILY PROSPECTS
Mahinda, who is currently leader of the opposition in parliament, is the obvious choice for prime minister when parliamentary elections are held early next year, said Keheliya Rambukwella, spokesman for the Gotabaya campaign.
Chamal Rajapaksa would be the choice for parliament speaker, a position he has previously held, political experts say. In all, seven members of the family are involved in politics, and some of the others could also end up in parliament.
“We are going to see family rule again, and all the excesses that came up with it the last time,” said Health Minister Rajitha Senarathne, who is opposed to the Rajapaksas. “They will suppress all dissent.”
In a front page editorial, the state-run Sunday Observer said it was “afraid” of a Gotabaya presidency and appealed to voters to make the “right choice.”
“A wrong choice will send the country hurtling toward authoritarianism and iron-fisted rule,” it said.
Gotabaya’s spokesman dismissed warnings of family rule, saying the candidate was quite clear merit will be only consideration for top political jobs.
“When Gotabaya comes to power he will appoint people with qualification to the positions, irrespective of their ties to him,” Rambukwella said.
On the campaign, Gotabaya has been uncompromising about the need to strengthen security, repeatedly raising the circumstances that led to the Easter Sunday attacks.
At a campaign rally in Wellawaye in central Sri Lanka Gotabaya said during his time as defense secretary, he had raised special military and intelligence units to tackle extremism, drug trafficking networks and the underworld. These cells had since been weakened, he said.
“There can be no higher priority than national security,” he said.
(Reuters)
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Still better than in the USA.
Indra,
I wouldn’t compare our resplendent Island with US or UK or any other foreign country.
I LOVE my land and I LOVE our land.
The only way forward is to register a massive victrory for Mr GR which will make our LAND a fountain of eternal prosperity.
Dear Esmee de Silva, I cant agree with you more. With out any doubt Gota is the front runner. Yaha palanaya ruled the country by selling our assets and raising Taxes. We do not need a president who got to know daily events through media.
Dear Amarakoon,
I love your comments.
Let Yahapalana become a bad dream, a smelly dream, that is best forgotten.
On 17 Nov 2019, Veeraya GR will be our leader, our leader for 10 years.
The land will flow with milk and honey, fountains of justice and discipline.
The Kurakkan satakaya will fly high; the Lion of Ruhuna’s family will have their fingers in every pie.
But, we will all be a happy people Amarakoon, can’t wait for dawn of 17 Nov 2019.
Amarakoon, are you returning to enjoy this new land?
Dear David Bloomdel, Thank you. ‘Yaha Palanay’ will not be forgotten. People like Managala samaraweera should be tried for treason. People who neglected the security alerts in Easter bombing should be charged. There will be immediate stop to systematic destroying of Buddhist archaeological sites. Unnecessary taxes such as Carbon Tax, Mobile call tax, etc will be removed. There will be an inquiry for the controlled detention of Kosgama Amunion dump. Then down-sizing the security forces. Selling and dumping of military hardware. Why YP did this? Arjuna Mahendran has to be brought to SL to face justice. State intelligence service should be strengthened. Rajapakse’s will have their hands in every pie. This is the last chance Rajapakse’s will get. Hope they have learnt from the mistakes. SL foreign police will be not be driven by foreigners. In famous new constitution should be put in the drained and flushed. But the pie should be equally distributed to all the folks in SL. I do not have to return to my motherland. I am right there my friend.
Dear Amarakoon,
That was a moving response to my blog in the last moments where our beloved Nation is about to take off on a trajectory the will beat Elon Musk
Elon is preparing for commercial journeys to Mars while GR has locally bred scientists and intellectuals of the calibre of Anil Cabraal and Nalaka Godahewa in Viyath Maga who can beat Elon’s objectives upside down.
Of course, we should be a tax-free nation as said by our great future leader, Mr GR.
Instead of paying taxes, citizens should pay directly for the services offered by the efficient GR Govt. Like patients should pay GMOA Doctors a million Rs for a consultation in a Govt Hospital. GMOA Boss Padeniya will hit the moon !!!
Arjuna Mahendran, please Amarakoon, leave him alone; understand dementia is progressing rapidly and soon he will not know his name. Karma, Amarakoon, karma.
The Sons of the Lion of Ruhuna should have their fingers in every pie; only way to drive the Nation towrds prosperity; this is definitely not the last chance for the R’s; the boys are now married and soon, successors will be born.
Constitution?? our Nation does not need a Constitution similar to the UK which is governed on an ‘unwritten constitution’.
As long as Government is with the R Family, i do not need Constitution and Parliament and Cabinet; as long as the R Family is ruling, I can sleep well daily after a couple of shots of Gal A.
Amarakoon, is it cold in Melbourne?
Even if land is not going to flow with ‘milk and honey’ we have to be happy with having national security again and thereto attached personal security for all of us!
This security is an inalienable right of every citizen in whatever nation they live in and in our case with GR holding the reins, we can be assured the terrorism cancers erupting from Islamist extremists and again-becoming-active LTTE separatists will get the required ‘radiation’ treatment! And, that scenario is a far cry from where we are at today as we personally, and our nation’s economy, took a grievous body-blow on Easter Sunday – all because these Yahapalanaya jokers seemed not to know, or cared even if they knew, what national security was all about! Simply – Let us not talk about developing our nation when we may not have our nation in the first place! p.s. A fragmented island along racial and religious communal lines, with all kinds of endless territorial and sovereignty claims/wars, in not what I call ‘our nation.’