“Can the Rajapaksas go to Hambantota now and do politics?”
This was the question posed by former State Defense Minister Ranjan Wijeratne in Parliament, silencing then-opposition MP Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda, who had been persistently raising concerns about the disappearance of young people, was left embarrassed by Wijeratne’s sharp retort.
At the time of the JVP insurrection in 1988–1989, Mahinda Rajapaksa was serving as the SLFP organizer for Hambantota. He was one of the SLFP leaders who attempted to negotiate with the JVP to secure their support for Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the SLFP’s candidate in the 1988 presidential election. These negotiations were conducted through the Inter-University Student Federation but ultimately failed. The JVP’s boycott of the election led to Mrs. Bandaranaike’s defeat, ending any potential alliance between the SLFP and the JVP.
After the 1989 general election, the SLFP, including Mrs. Bandaranaike, lent their support to President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s efforts to suppress the JVP. SLFP leaders, including Mahinda, participated in all-party talks convened by Premadasa to address the JVP uprising. During this period, Mahinda and other SLFP leaders avoided Hambantota due to the JVP’s threat. The assassination of Kalutara District SLFP leader Chandrapala Abeyweera by the JVP only heightened their fears. Many SLFP MPs, including Mahinda, sought refuge in Colombo and provided silent support to Premadasa’s crackdown on the JVP.
It was only after the JVP was suppressed that Mahinda and others felt safe to return to Hambantota. However, once back, Mahinda became vocal about the youth who had disappeared during the conflict. He raised these issues in Parliament and even took the matter to international human rights organizations. On one occasion, Mahinda was caught by the CID at the Katunayake airport while attempting to travel to the Geneva Human Rights Commission. He was found carrying photographs of the disappeared youth, a move that highlighted his commitment to exposing the human rights violations of the Premadasa government.
But Mahinda was not afraid. He formed associations with the parents of the disappeared and went on ‘padayatras’ procession to Kovils after Kovils, smashing coconuts to curse Premadasa. He held public demonstrations. By this period, people saw JVP members as terrorists. The reason for this was the suffering people undergo under the unofficial curfew imposed by the JVP. It was because of this suffering that people supported the Premadasa government to suppress the JVP.
After the JVP was suppressed, the remaining JVP activists hid, fearing the hatred of the people more than the repression of the Premadasa government. The only man who wrecked this hatred of the JVP among the people was Mahinda Rajapaksa. He demolished the hatred people had for the murdered JVP youth whom were branded as terrorists and ushered sympathy for them. Premadasa, who became a hero by suppressing the JVP, was later branded a murderer because of Mahinda’s campaign that highlighted the bloodshed of the JVP.
After the JVP turned the gun it had aimed at the UNP on the SLFP, the SLFP stopped protecting the JVP. It was Mahinda who brought the SLFP back by protecting the JVP.
But after the SLFP came back to power in 1994, the first political threat to Mahinda from Hambantota came from the JVP. Mahinda was afraid of the JVP. Mahinda did not tolerate the JVP becoming strong in Hambantota to break his political dominance.
From 1994 to 2004, Mahinda’s archenemy was the JVP. The JVP’s archenemy was Mahinda. When the SLFP formed an alliance with the JVP in 2004, Mahinda did everything to disrupt that alliance.
But the SLFP won the 2004 general election because of the JVP. Even though the SLFP won that general election, the JVP won a large number of seats by defeating former SLFP MPs and Ministers. At that time, the President and SLFP leader Chandrika got afraid. She was so afraid of the rise of the JVP that she decided to give the Prime Ministership to Mahinda, whom she considered her political enemy because the best man to control the rise of the JVP was Mahinda, who had clashed with the JVP without fear. The main reason that influenced her decision was the letter that JVP Secretary Tilvin Silva sent to her not to give Mahinda the Prime Ministership. She made Mahinda the Prime Minister despite the JVP’s threats.
The JVP withdrew from Chandrika’s government after Mahinda leaked a cabinet paper presented by Chandrika to the media, alleging corruption in the Ten Thousand Tanks Project of the then Agriculture Minister, JVP MP Anura Kumara. The JVP, without knowing it, developed a grudge against Chandrika. Mahinda also played into it. Finally, the JVP expressed its willingness to make Mahinda the presidential candidate in 2005 to teach a lesson to Chandrika. It was JVP that kept Mahinda on its shoulders. Mahinda won because of the JVP. From 2004 to 2006, Mahinda and the JVP had a good honeymoon. After 2006, Mahinda split the JVP. The JVP fell on all fours and allied with the UNP to help Fonseka win the 2010 presidential election. From 2006 to 2024, Mahinda did not take the JVP into account, but Mahinda was JVP’s arch-enemy.
In the 2015 presidential election, JVP did not field a candidate. JVP supported the UNP candidate as the common candidate Maithripala to defeat Mahinda. In 2015, Anura joined the committee to hook thieves of the Maithri-Ranil government to teach a lesson to Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family.
Anura and the JVP think that if Mahinda is eliminated, the SLFP will be weakened and a part of it will be won over by the JVP. But the JVP made a mistake and went to the Maithri-Ranil government to hold the torch and JVP slid down further. The Rajapaksas came back to power.
Although Mahinda was the JVP’s arch-enemy from 2006 to 2022, Mahinda thought that the JVP would always be a 3% party. He did not even touch the JVP. When a section of the JVP broke away and formed the Frontline Party, Mahinda helped Anura. Mahinda’s government arrested the Frontline leader Kumar Gunaratnam and strengthened Anura.
The 2022 aragalaya was not started by the JVP. It was by the Frontline. Anura and the JVP were afraid of angering the Rajapaksas at that time. After Gota fled due to the aragalaya, when the Rajapaksas decided to make Ranil the president, Anura stood for the presidential election in parliament, unwittingly supporting Ranil and Mahinda.
After that, the JVP, seeing that Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family and the SLPP were destroyed, started attacking the opposition leader Sajith, who was the enemy of the SLPP, to get those 6.9 million votes. In 2024, Sajith became the ultimate enemy of the JVP.
Anura won the 2024 presidential election by flattening Mahinda and the Rajapaksas to the ground in those votes.
After taking the presidency and the government, the JVP fears that the Rajapaksas will come back to life and take back the 6.9 million votes they took from the Rajapaksas. Now Anura is attacking Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family.
A property between Mahinda and the JVP cannot be divided. That property is the SLFP vote base that later became the Pohottuwa. The JVP’s hatred of Mahinda is just the difference between love and hate.
