Rajapaksa and Hambantota are not two, but one. That’s how close Hambantota is to Rajapaksa. Hambantota is close to Rajapaksa. Wresting the Hambantota district from the Rajapaksas was not difficult, but impossible. Especially after Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President, Hambantota district became the unchanging kingdom of Rajapaksa.
Hambantota was one of Sri Lanka’s poorest districts. A rural Hambantota village inspired Baddegama, a distinctive Sri Lankan literary work. Heavy rain and drought devastated Hambantota. That district developed significantly once Mahinda Rajapaksa became president.
Mahinda’s massive structures were built here. Magampura Port, Mattala Airport, Suriyawewa International Cricket Stadium, Ranminithanna Pampori Cinema Village, and other contemporary highways connected the district.
Many shocked citizens gifted the Hambantota district to the Rajapaksa. The Rajapaksa lost such a foothold recently. Samagi Jana Balavega won the Hambantota Regional Multi-Service Cooperative Society election. 335 of 483 voters supported Samagi Jana Balawega’s candidates. All nine Samagi Janabalawega candidates won, but all nine Pohottuwa candidates lost.
Thus, for the first time in history, the group representing the Rajapaksas has reached a level where no candidate can win.
Samagi Janabalawega wins most cooperative elections nationwide. 98%+. Many political experts feel that a cooperative vote often predicts an impending election.
However, losing even the Hambantota cooperative might jeopardise the Rajapaksa’s political future.
The Rajapaksas lose the Hambantota cooperative election to Samagi Jana Balawega. Sajith Premadasa leads Samagi Jana Balavega. Shaking the Rajapaksa cave door, Sajith Hambantota broke it. Sajith defeated the Rajapaksas twice.
Sajith entered politics from Hambanthota . Rajapaksa’s home. He went there when UNP was zero. Novice Sajith defeated the Rajapaksas for the first time. Sajith destroyed the state-repressed Hambantota Rajapakse camp.
Sajith defeated two-time president Mahinda Rajapaksa, making it more special. He won Hambantota, a stronghold for the left, the Sri Lanka freedom Party, and the Rajapakses, and 98,968 preference votes. Mahinda Rajapaksa received only 88,726 preferred votes.
Sajith’s UNP won Hambantota in the 2001 general election. Sajith Premadasa received 92,536 preference votes and Mahinda Rajapaksa 81,855. Even then, the youthful Sajith had showed the country the form of overcoming adversities.
If the two elections were held by simple majority method, under Sajith, the stalwarts of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chamal Rajapaksa would have to stay at home. Sajith is clearly the other Rajapaksa.
It is good for the political future of the Rajapaksas to find out how the Rajapaksas who carpeted not only the main roads and side roads but also the roads leading to certain private houses in Hambantota were vanquished by Sajith. Mahinda Rajapaksa won every election from 2005 until 2015.
It is good for the political future of the Rajapaksas to find out how the Rajapaksas who carpeted not only the main roads and side roads but even the roads leading to some private houses in Hambantota were defeated by Sajith. After Mahinda Rajapaksa became president in 2005, he won all the elections held until 2015. His opponent was Ranil Wickramasinghe.
Not only did Ranil continue to lose before Mahinda’s elections, but the powerful United National Party was washed away. Except for one occasion, the United National Party had to experience the bitter taste of continuous defeat since 94 and it happened until 2015. However, Sajith was able to turn around a president who voted for more than 69 lakhs, and a two-thirds government that was formed by voting for nearly two-and-a-half years. That is the truth that many forget and many forget.
An Indian journalist named Prabhash K. Dutta of the Indian national newspaper Times of India wrote a wonderful article on 13.07.2022. The headline of the article was ‘6 Sri Lankans who overthrew the powerful Rajapaksa regime’.
She began her article by saying, ‘The largely non-partisan Sri Lankan protests that led to the downfall of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Rajapakse politics were led by ordinary citizens who were fed up with the way their country was being dragged into an economic black hole.’
In another place it was written:
Former President of Sri Lanka R. Premadasa’s son and head of the largest opposition party Samagi Jana Balavega (SJB), Sajith Premadasa joined the protest in March.’
The journalist had reasons to write like that. Especially with the formation of the Rajapaksa government, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya started street fighting against the government not long after. It was led by Sajith Premadasa. At the beginning of the people’s struggle, Sajith always stood by the side of the strugglers while many political parties talked about it with derision. He gave them his support in practice as well. When some political parties talked down about the citizen’s struggle saying that such struggles are useless and that the struggle should be done by the political leaders, Sajith supported it without hesitation.
After that, many political groups came forward to claim the rights of the struggle, but the Samagi Jana Balawega and Sajith supported the struggle from the very beginning.
The end result of all this was the resignation of the President and the Prime Minister of the powerful Rajapaksa government. Looking at that, anyone can understand whether Sajith has played the role of the opposition or not.
Some laughed at Sajith saying ‘Sajith loves and fears’ because he did not join the Rajapaksa and get the Prime Ministership. But Sajith gave only one answer to those sarcastic words.
‘I’m not afraid of love, I’m afraid of shame…’
Sajith, who did not come forward to govern with the Rajapaksas, is winning cooperative votes all over the country. It culminated in defeating the Rajapaksas to such an extent that they could not get a single representation in Hambantota Cooperative like never before in history.
Trixie Jayawardene