Revision as of 03:22, 29 May 2015

2015: Fall of Rajapaksa

Kingshuk Mukherji@ timesgroup com

The Times of India January 10, 2015

Ethnic distribution of population in Sri Lanka

The Southern Expressway leading up to Colombo is calm, deceptively so. The government has changed. The man whose name many hesitated to take, some out of deference, others out of fear, will no longer be president of their country.Mahinda Rajapaksa suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of friend-turned-rival Maithripala Sirisena. Many concede that the dispensation they have voted into office may not necessarily give them a great government.“Had there been an option like NOTA as India has, I would have gone for it. In other words, the candidate I wanted to defeat has lost,“ says Nalaka Pereira, an executive in an IT firm in Colombo.

In many small towns of this island country, development shows. Roads are smooth, expressways built in concrete.Banks, ATMs and finely stocked supermarkets do brisk business, even in villages. No one denies the development story of Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa. But they complain of cronyism, family patronage and corruption.

Voices in Colombo also speak of the media being stifled. There is simmering anger against the disappearance and killings of journalists. Today as results of the keenlywatched Rajapaksa-Sirisena face-off stream in, villages along the expressway are abnormally quiet at high noon.Barring low-key celebrations at the coastal town of Hikkaduwa, there is little to show in the southern parts that this is a moment of change and a new beginning.

“In India, on results day sweet makers probably make a killing, here we struggle to find customers since most markets are closed,“ says the shop attendant of Bombay Sweet Mahal in Galle Street, Colombo.Perhaps the Sri Lankans prefer the safety of quiet celebrations.

“We are a Buddhist country and our belief in peace and compassion is fundamental to us. Many of us did not appreciate some extra constitutional and often violent tactics of key people in the outgoing government. But who can rival the towering personality of Rajapaksa,“ says Vijitha Priyadarshini, a hospitality industry employee. “The previous dispensation had one authority figure. The new will have many .Wonder what they will do? Will there be multiple centres of power saying different things creating confusion?“ she says.Many talk of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga's behind-the-scenes role in keeping the opposition together.What role she will play in the new government is a question everyone is curious about.

A TV channel beaming the election results ran a dramatic colour-coded map of the island nation showing the entire north, east and parts of central Sri Lanka swept by “common candidate“ Maithripala. “Even a town like Negombo, traditionally pro-Rajapaksa, voted Maithripala. This is unbelievable,“ an election watcher in Matara says.

In any case, the die was cast against the incumbent the day both the Tamils and the Muslims decided to vote en bloc for the common candidate.“Maithripala's defection was a master stroke. It came as a stunner and the ruling dispensation was forced to change strategy overnight. They were expecting an opposition charge led by Wickramasinghe and others but with Maithripala skippering the rival camp, the story had changed,“ he says.

In the once strife-torn parts of Jaffna, Rajapaksa's government worked a furious pace rebuilding. The results show.The Colombo-Jaffna highway is a dream. In Jaffna town, there's a push for change and in many years for the first time its Tamil population has a stake in the country's political future.“I went to Kerala at the height of the war,“ says S Sridharan, who runs a hotel in Jaffna.“Now I am back, I have redone the hotel and business is picking up. I want good governance and stability ,“ he says.

Rajapaksa made a last minute bid to shore up his fortunes in the north addressing a rally in Jaffna five days ahead of polling. Despite his rebuilding efforts, the process of integration and reconciliation clearly failed to impress the electorate. Rajapaksa lost by huge margins in Batticaloa, Jaffna and other Tamil areas, where voter turnout was higher than any previous election.

In the capital, a journalist with the public broadcaster said the lack of transparency was the biggest failing of the outgoing government. “Arrogance and good governance seldom go hand in hand. This administration lost its humility and was not open to criticism. That proved its undoing,“ he says.