by Tisaranee Gunasekara
“There is something in human history like retribution; and it is a rule of historical retribution that its instrument be forged not by the offended but by the offender himself.”
Marx (The Indian Revolt)
( November 21, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The original Mahinda Chinthana Manifesto was launched with much fanfare in 2005. The theme song of that event referred to Candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa as a ‘King who believed in equality’.
Eight years later, with painful hindsight, it is easy to realise that that monarchical reference - together with the title of the Manifesto (the first time any Lankan leader named his/her election manifesto after him/herself) - constituted the first tentative steps in the country’s descent from a flawed democracy to a patrimonial oligarchy. At that moment, the lyrics and the title seemed just an example of infantile but essentially harmless self aggrandisement many Lankan politicians are lamentably addicted to.