Mahinda and the people outfox the Americans once again

By the Sri Lanka Study Circle 

Mahinda Rajapaksa led the Pohottuwa to an unparalleled victory at the Parliamentary Elections held on 5 August 2020, surpassing the expectations of many patriotic forces in the country. If 19 November 2019 was Gotabaya’s day, 5 August 2020 was, without argument, Mahinda’s day. 

Mahinda, the charismatic hero, with the people of Sri Lanka solidly behind him, had once again defeated the Americans at their own game – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Mahinda led from the front. His popularity among the people, as reflected in the preferential votes cast, was unrivalled.

It was a landslide victory, with Pohottuwa gaining 145 seats in the 225-seat House. When combined with the seats won by the ‘Pohottuwa’ allies, Mahinda is able to muster 150 seats in the Legislature to give the Party the 2/3rd majority needed to amend the obnoxious Article introduced into the Constitution during the Yahapalanaya regime and, to re-spell clearly without any trace of ambiguity, certain Articles in the Constitution which were muted, straitjacketed and made redundant by a judicial interpretation that surprised many; by re-spelling these Articles, Mahinda would be restoring the Articles to its previous status quo; the authors of the Constitution, in their profound wisdom, believed these provisions were of paramount importance; Mahinda and his team valiantly fought for the retention of these provisions in October 2018. 

It should not be construed that the ‘amendment’ to Amendment 19 of the Constitution would include the restoration of the ‘rights’ of Americans and other foreign nationals with dual citizenship, to hold any form of political office in this country. They should remain forever barred from a political life in this country as they continue to pose a major threat to Sri Lanka’s national security, given the total betrayal of their country of birth at the time of pledging absolute and undivided loyalty to their adopted country. 

Mahinda’s majority in Parliament would enable the Pohottuwa to immediately pass legislation to regulate all Foreign Funded Organisations (FFOs) that deceitfully pose off as NGOs and which have now re-christened themselves as ‘Civil Society Organisations’. They need to be regulated, by law, in respect of the membership, objectives, work plans, work executed, monies coming-in, monies paid-out, justification for payments, sources of funding, etc. Importantly, their work and funds need to be audited by the Auditor General, strictly according to Sri Lankan guidelines. The personal accounts of the membership of those in these organisations need to be scrutinised by ‘Income Tax’, the ‘Bribery Department’ and the Money Laundering unit of the CID. 

The re-registration of the FFOs, each year, would be dependent on their performance. By law, FFOs and their contractors should be denied access to Government offices and debarred from holding appointment in any Government or semi-Government organisation as they are duty bound to do the bidding of foreign governments and foreign corporations. 

The just-concluded elections made political history when, for the first time since independence, the UNP that took over the reins of power from the British were literally swept out from the House. It was a case of dial zero for the UNP. 

The blame for the defeat could be laid squarely on a corrupt UNP leadership, discerned by many as a boot-licking class grovelling at the feet of Western patronage and fawningly seeking their indulgence at every turn; this attitude is personified by Wickremesinghe, a self-centred politician whose behaviour evokes revulsion and demands that the rule of law be applied and justice done. 

The election also saw another major Party, the SLFP, reduced to just one seat, with the comedy of Sirisena, the leader of the SLFP, abdicating his party to contest on the Pohottuwa ticket, under Mahinda’s leadership.  

JVP’s frugal representation in the previous Parliament took a further knock to make it an insignificant nada in Party politics. The exposure of the JVP is complete; a pseudo-left party – like many of its ilk in Asia and Africa – denigrating ‘Che’s life and legacy and working covertly in cahoots with Washington. The party is not short of funds and gets richer with each election.

In the north and the east, the power of the monolithic Tamil and Muslim Parties has been dispersed. 

The Party that has emerged as the largest opposition grouping is the Telephone Party of Premadasa with 55 seats; strongly linked to the Western Governments, Premadasa’s voter base shrank alarmingly from 5 million in November 2019 to 3 million on 5 August 2020, reducing him to a sound-box, ‘full of sound and fury’.  

How did this happen?

How did this happen? Was Premadasa not fore-ordained to get more seats? Were the scales in Parliament planned to be so heavily weighted in favour of the Pohottuwa? Was the election script written for Wickremesinghe to be booted out of Parliament so unceremoniously? 

It all happened this way because the people are concerned about the real threat to Sri Lanka, the threat posed by the Americans and they know that Mahinda, a man for all seasons, is the man who could be trusted to rescue Sri Lanka from the American snare.  

A major feature of the Sri Lankan political scene, especially in recent times, has been the flagrant interference by the Americans in the internal affairs of the country. The interference continues unabated, even to this date. 

Just prior to the elections, news surfaced that the Americans were working very hard to stage-manage the results of the election and the composition of the new Parliament. According to the American Plan, doing the rounds at the time, Pohottuwa was to get a majority, but not a 2/3rd majority. The major Tamil and Muslim communities along with the JVP were to get reduced representation in Parliament so that they would not be a party or hindrance to the bargaining process in the formation of a National Government that would include MPs mainly from a Pohottuwa-Telephone alliance.  

As planned by the Americans, the Telephone was to win about 20 more seats than it actually did, so that the Telephone would be in a strong bargaining position, to offer support for the establishment of a National Government based on a mutually agreed program and to provide a 2/3rd majority to the Pohottuwa, if required.  

The Parliament that the Americans had plotted to create had no place for Mahinda; the Americans consider Sri Lanka’s national hero a major threat to their plans; there was a massive campaign afoot to defeat Mahinda at Kurunegala. With Mahinda out of the way, the Americans were free to install a puppet of their choice as the Prime Minister.

 In the developing political scenario, the American Plan had a pivotal role for Ranil, Basil and Premadasa. The post of Prime Minister (in the absence of Mahinda) and some key portfolios were plums on the table to be had after haggling and bargaining between the two political Parties dominating the Parliament.

The American objective in ‘Operation-General-Election’ was to establish a National Government in the country that would sign the MCC; thus signed, it would convey to the world (and to history) that – with the two major parties in the south (the south is the bedrock of opposition to the MCC) unanimously approving the MCC in Parliament – the Sri Lankans accepted the MCC with open arms. Viz, Sri Lanka’s surrender to the US was of her own volition. 

Divine providence forewarned the people and Mahinda about the plot. Mahinda had to work very hard against a strong undercurrent of assorted forces that was attempting to dislodge him from Kurunegala; but work he did. A true son of the soil, he sensed the stark danger the MCC posed to Sri Lanka.  

On 5 August, Mahinda, with the people solidly behind him, soundly defeated the American plan. The people gave Pohottuwa a 2/3rd majority in Parliament and to Mahinda, personally, over 500,000 votes in Kurunegala so that he and his team in Parliament could confidently dump the MCC in the trash can.

Mahinda, the charismatic hero, with the people of Sri Lanka solidly behind him, had once again defeated the Americans at their own game. 

Teplitz reacted badly. In a tersely worded statement meant to pass off as an ‘expression of good wishes to the new Government’, she alluded slyly in gypsy style, to the signing of the MCC by conveying a couched threat that Sri Lanka must perforce ‘partner’ America. 

It is regrettable that Teplitz used the occasion to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic; a threat to be read between the lines? This line of thinking, as constructed in this paper, may be controverted by arguing that Teplitz was only referring to Sri Lanka’s success in handling the virus. That, is a hard sell. 

A mention of ‘COVID’ does seem inappropriate, or out of place, to be included in a ‘congratulatory’ note. Sri Lanka is only too keenly aware that Agent-Moragoda, at a time when the Sri Lankan medics were coming to grips with COVID-19, nearly derailed the medical efforts by attempting to coerce Sri Lanka to follow the deadly ‘herd-immunisation’ path; herd-immunisation was America’s answer to the bug; this policy has taken a toll of 160,000 human lives in the US thus far. 

Had Sri Lanka followed Agent-Moragoda’s advice, the country would have been a virtual cemetery and the US Indo-Pacific forces would have invaded Sri Lanka to ‘rescue’ her. 

It is pertinent that on 7 August 2020, the American Defence attaché paid a call on Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Services and reportedly discussed with him about COVID-19 issues. 

It is of grave concern that on 10 August, the US awarded ‘Sarvodaya’ $ 1.5 million to manage a portentous disaster that awaits Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka must necessarily be alert and take necessary precautionary measures, in anticipation, against a possible COVID-19 attack considering America’s dreadful track record. Sri Lanka’s defences against such a virus attack must include a plan that would stymie the introduction of the bug by agents and contractors.

In the meantime, Mahinda and his Parliament must take all steps to dump the MCC, ACSA and SOFA to where it belongs.