The Illusionist
By Shyamon Jayasinghe –June 16, 2015
Shyamon Jayasinghe
“Manipulation, fuelled with good intent, can be a blessing. But when used wickedly, it is the beginning of a magician’s karmic calamity.” ― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise
Watch him closely and with circumspection. Our former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, never goes and comes; he appears and disappears. It is the sorcerer’s or magician’s skill that he employs to good effect.Like the sorcerer, he concentrates on effect. Hirunika Premachandra, promising young female MP, in a recent Satana TV program perceptively characterised Mahinda Rajapaksa as an actor par excellence. She is dead right.
Throughout his rule Mahinda exhibited this characteristic and even now, while in opposition, he shows how adept he is at this magician’s game. Recall the images where Mahinda appeared in many public places with several shining gold rings on his fingers and the concealed hypnotising device known as the washee bole? On such occasions, Mahinda used to wave his hand in a spell-like fashion. Like Sai Baba, Mahinda Rajapaksa materialises.
Well, that defines the essence of the man who ruled Sri Lanka for ten long years and is now scheming a come-back to taste power, again. He never, ever took the real responsibilities of governance seriously. Mahinda had been a playboy in his youth running around, like his son Namal now, in cars. He found his way to be President of the country also in a pretty magical way, turning defeat by Ranil Wickremesinghe into victory for himself allegedly by winning over Prabhakran with a bribe. That he never governed with any professionalism is obvious to the plainest mind. Never caring about the quality of the men he chose as Ministers and about their capability in managing the portfolios he gave them, he rather preferred only their loyalty obtaining that voluntarily or by hook and crook. Unlike the less opulent authoritarian Premadasa before him, Mahinda cared little about monitoring his Ministers’ progress. Premadasa over-monitored and got into hot water. Not so, Rajapaksa; he didn’t give a damn about the progress and performance of his Ministers. Never spoke a word against corruption and waste.
