Why is Mahinda there?
The only soul to lose a presidential election was Mahinda. He happens to be the only defeated President who vied for the Premiership. He is also the only defeated President to become a Member of Parliament. Why is that? Because Mahinda doesn’t want to part with power and retire
by Upul Joseph Fernando
( September 9, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mahinda Rajapaksa’s re-entry to politics, Parliament and how he plans his political future is the discussion in diplomatic circles, while it’s the topic of the common talk in the town. India and United States views Mahinda’s return to active politics with suspicion, while China has pinned hopes on Mahinda. When Mahinda was defeated at the January presidential elections, he accepted defeat bowing to the people’s mandate given to Maithri and announced he would hand over the party leadership to Maithri. Hardly within a few days after his defeat, Mahinda reverted to say he was not defeated stating his defeat was a conspiracy. He said he never offered the party leadership to Maithri and Maithri grabbed it by force. Mahinda questioned as to how a man who deserted his party could be given the party leadership.
Mahinda who repeated that stance from temple to temple emerged to contest the general elections. He wanted to become the Prime Minister and head towards the Presidency by manipulating that process. Having got nominations, Mahinda boasted he would secure 117 seats in Parliament to be the Prime Minister. He also dreamt to gather the MPs supportive of him to form a new party to grab power. When Maithri decided to offer him nominations, Mahinda thought that his stars were turning brighter. In the end Mahinda only secured 95 seats in Parliament at the August general elections. The percentage was 42.38.
Mahinda is known as a war hero and his supporters viewed him as a king. It must be recalled that after President Premadasa was assassinated, octogenarian D.B. Wijetunga who succeeded him and who battled the Southern Province polls like a ‘battle on the rocks’ secured 94 seats in Parliament though the political breeze blew in favour of Chandrika Kumaratunga after a 17-year UNP rule. Even though Chandrika had that strong breeze in her favour, she could only secure 105 seats. The UNP vote base percentage was 44.09, while Chandrika’s People’s Alliance got 48.94.
J.R. Jayewardene
President Wijetunga who prevented a plunge of his party by getting 94 seats never wanted to remain the leadership. He never sought National List vacancies through the party. He retired and went home. J.R. Jayewardene is not a leader who got his party defeated or himself. After he retired he could have asked for a place from President Premadasa in the National List to become a senior minister. Instead he retired gracefully. He handed over the party to Premadasa as a victorious ex-President and Party Leader. When Chandrika retired and handed over the party to Mahinda, she could have sought an agreement with Mahinda for the National List vacancy created by the death of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. She went home as a victorious ex-President and Party Leader.
The only soul to lose a presidential election was Mahinda. He happens to be the only defeated President who vied for the Premiership. He is also the only defeated President to become a Member of Parliament. Why is that? Because Mahinda doesn’t want to part with power and retire. As he said he accepted defeat after the presidential election, he repeated the same statement after losing the August general elections. However, he said he would remain in active politics. It may be that Mahinda is dreaming to form a government with the 95 MPs elected from the UPFA someday in this Parliament. He may also be thinking to capitalize on differences that may erupt between Maithri and Ranil. Such plans may end up like Mahinda’s dream to become the Premier at the August general election because the majority elected by the UPFA is now supporting the National Government. SLFP seniors backed Mahinda at the general election under the theme ‘Let’s rise with Mahinda’ as they thought Mahinda could give a winning leadership. They wanted to enjoy ministerial portfolios as they did not want to sit in the Opposition after being ministers for twenty years. Since Mahinda is defeated Mahinda is of no use to them. Now they go behind Maithri asking for ministerial portfolios. When the UNP was defeated in 1994, former UNP ministers too, were greedy for ministerial portfolios. The 94-member UNP Opposition at that time tried in many ways to collect 113 in numbers to topple Chandrika’s Government. UNP leaders including Ranil gave notice of six Poya days to topple Chandrika’s Government. Chandrika got hold of UNP seniors greedy to be ministers and pushed Ranil against the wall. Eventually ten UNP MPs crossed over to Chandrika’s side.
None can be certain that the 95 MPs elected in August through the UPFA would stay with Mahinda. If anyone wants to topple the UNP to become a Prime Minister, he needs the support of Maithri. Maithri will never offer the Premiership to Mahinda. Under the Constitution, Mahinda cannot contest the next presidential election. Mahinda cannot pretend to be a baby who knows nothing about those realities. When these developments are carefully assessed, one could conclude that Mahinda has come to divide the SLFP and destabilize the government knowing that he cannot return to power. Or else Mahinda wants to stay in Parliament for the political future of his son and to take parliamentary power to face charges levelled against his family members. Though he now says he would not object to the National Government, he is trying to sweep the charges against his family under the carpet, anti- Mahinda factions predict.
However, China endorses Mahinda’s continuance in politics.
