Wijeweera destroyed leftism. Prabhakaran destroyed Tamil nationalism. Mahinda destroyed Sinhala nationalism. Ranil destroyed liberalism…..’
This is a valuable saying found in the face book.
Actually, NM and Colvin were baptized as the fathers of leftism in Sri Lanka, but it was Rohana Wijeweera who popularized leftism in Sri Lanka. The youth of Sri Lanka gathered around him to fight two rebellions because he injected leftism into the hearts of the Sri Lankan youth from the JVP classes which suited this country. He is the popular favorite leader of Sri Lankan leftism. There is no debate on that. When the left wing pundits said that Sri Lanka is not ready for a revolution, he launched two revolutions and the capitalism of Sri Lanka fell on all four limbs.
Both revolutions failed. During the rebellion of 1971, the government of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike suppressed the JVP and broke the back bone of the leftism so that it could not rise again for almost two decades. But Wijeweera in 88-89 once again launched a revolution rising from the ashes. That revolution was suppressed by Premadasa’s government mercilessly. Eventually, people were afraid to even keep a book by Karl Marx in their home. Since then, student movements and trade unions in Sri Lanka were weak. Leftism was raised down to the ground. Mrs. Bandaranaike’s S.L.F.P. government and the UNP government of Premadasa got the opportunity to crush left movement because of Wijeweera’s failed revolutions.
Prabhakaran tried to build a Tamil nationalist state and followed the same thing that Wijeweera did by attempting to form a revolutionary government in the north of Sri Lanka. Before Prabhakaran came to the fore as a leader, the political leaders of the North were marketing federalism. Prabhakaran took that federal battle with a gun and converted it into a separate state concept. Before long, he became the leader of the world’s worst terrorist movement. In the end, Mahinda’s government killed him and his organization. After that, the North-East people were afraid to even mention Prabhakaran’s name. Today, Tamil political leaders in the north are killing each other. You will not find a politician to talk about Tamil nationalism and talk about a Tamil state. There are leaders who talk about 13 plus.
Even before the independence struggle federalism that started has been subverted today. Mahinda’s government got a chance to destroy Tamil nationalism in this way because of Prabhakaran’s stupid decisions. If he had agreed to a federal solution with Ranil’s government in 2002, Prabhakaran and Tamil nationalism would not have met with this fate. Prabhakaran’s fight initially received unimaginable support from the world community. But when Prabhakaran wanted an Eelam state, the Sinhala nationalist Mahinda finally got the opportunity to destroy Prabhakaran, LTTE and Tamil nationalism. Mahinda was also able to get the support of the world community for that. This is how Prabhakaran, who is supposed to be the father of Tamil nationalism, destroyed Tamil nationalist movement.
Although some thought that S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was the father of Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka, but actually it is Mahinda Rajapaksa. He distroyed the Tamil nationalism of Prabhakaran and the Muslim nationalism of Hakeem and Rishad. He was baptized as the leader of Sinhala nationalism and made Sinhala nationalism his main political weapon by inflating Ranil Wickramasinghe as the enemy of Sinhala nationalism. Mahinda became popular by showing Ranil as the enemy of the nation and attacking Ranil. More he attacked Ranil , Mahinda’s Sinhala nationalism gain popularity.
But during the ‘aragalaya’, he gave Ranil the prime ministership and the presidency for his own protection and broke Sinhala nationalism and nationalists in front of Ranil. Today, Sinhala nationalism and Sinhala nationalists are extremely helpless. The best example is the fate of North West Governor Wasantha Karnagoda and East Governor Anuradha Yahampat. Wasantha Karnagoda played a big role in making Mahinda’s Sinhala nationalist image. In 2002, during the ceasefire of Ranil’s government, Mahinda as the opposition leader visited Trincomalee about the LTTE threats. The Navy chief in Trincomalee was Wasantha Karnagoda, gave Mahinda with maps and sketches how LTTE build their camps in the area.
It was he who suppressed the naval power which was the biggest strength of LTTE during the war and stopped bringing weapons from the sea. Recently, the US imposed a travel ban on him for violating human rights during the war. Within weeks of the ban, Ranil removed him from the post of North West Governor. 2015-2019 when Ranil was Prime minister Karannagoda who was allegedly threaten to kill by finger signal the LTTE protestors in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission Britten deported him. Mahinda and others who stood against this move were silent when Ranil removed him as the NW governor.
The Mahindas also looked away when Ranil removed Anuradha Yahampat, who stood for Mahinda’s and Gota’s nationalist projects in the 2019 presidential election, from the East Governorate. The media and scholars, the elderly and the monks who were the pilots of Mahinda’s nationalistic project are helpless today. Today they have to whitewash Ranil whom they showed as the enemy of the nation. Looking at it that way, the story that Mahinda destroyed Sinhala nationalism is exactly right.
October 16, 2013 Mangala Samaraweera told the country that he supports Ranil because Ranil is the best liberal democrat in Sri Lanka today. He left the U.N.P. in 2020 he filed nominations in Samagi Jana Balawegaya and revoked it and told the media that U.N.P. is the only liberal leader and the only liberal party in Sri Lanka today. Ranil was recognized not only in Sri Lanka but in the world as a liberalist.
Because of this, he became the Vice President of the World Union of Democrats. But after he became president with the help of the Rajapaksas, he is arresting the social activists who defeated the nationalism of the Mahindas and won the victory of liberalism, who led the struggle, banning the protests, and postponing the elections which were the pinnacle of democracy. DS, Dudley, JR, Premadasa are not liberals. UNP is not a liberal party. But it was Ranil who turned UNP into a liberal party.
Because of this, the names of Chanaka Amaratungala, who founded the Liberal Party, disappeared and Ranil became the father of liberalism in Sri Lanka. Liberals in Sri Lanka thought that freedom of the media, freedom of religion, and freedom of culture would be guaranteed under Ranil. Ranil, whom they themselves christened as the father of liberalism, is now becoming the biggest enemy of liberalism. The liberals who brought Ranil now become ‘wood-barrels’, hiding their heads in the sand like ostriches. It shows that the fate befallen on the Sinhala nationalists who promoted Mahinda’s Sinhala nationalism has also befallen on the liberals who promoted Ranil as a liberal leader.
There is an adage that a forest tree needed to destroy another forest tree. The history of Sri Lanka is very mysterious to choose the father of leftism to destroy leftism, the father of Tamil nationalism to destroy Tamil nationalism, the father of Sinhala nationalism to destroy Sinhala nationalism, and the father of liberalism to destroy liberalism.
