Basil Rohana Rajapaksa is no stranger to controversy. The younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he was to Mahinda Rajapaksa what Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike was to Sirima Bandaranaike: the all-powerful minister who actually ‘ran the show’, while the more charismatic relative held the highest office in the land.
He is now out of power and out of office, but not out of limelight. Recently, he was in the news when he visited Jaffna and made a few startling pronouncements. He is likely to hit the headlines even more frequently as he spearheads the ‘pohottuwa’ project: the task of marketing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) to the electorate as an alternative to the more established Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), beginning with the local government elections.
It is no secret that the smaller parties in the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the coalition of which the SLFP was the major partner when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President, had little regard for Basil Rajapaksa, although they worshipped the ground that Mahinda trod on.
Domineering
In fact, they blamed Basil for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat. They felt that Basil’s domineering role as Minister of Economic Affairs and his omnipotent role during Mahinda’s second term of office marginalized other, more senior SLFPers and led to resentment among them, among whom was Maithripala Sirisena who would then go on to challenge the Rajapaksas- and win.
The decision to impeach then Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayaka also came after a Supreme Court bench she headed deferred the Divi Neguma Bill, a matter under Basil’s purview- and there are no prizes for guessing who is responsible for this strategy that made the Rajapaksa regime hugely unpopular.
It has been argued that even the decision by Mahinda Rajapaksa to call for presidential elections two years ahead of schedule had Basil’s imprimatur. However, come January 9, 2015 and Basil’s departure to the United States no sooner the election results were announced, didn’t endear him to loyal SLFPers either.
So, Basil Rajapaksa’s latest pronouncements are intriguing. In his visit to Jaffna, Basil has made two startling revelations. First, he says that while Sri Lankan troops did not commit war crimes during the Eelam war, ‘individual’ soldiers may have committed ‘crimes’. Then, he promises to return lands now held by the military to civilians in the North.
Taken in isolation, there is nothing startling in these statements. In fact, they both convey a common sense approach to the issues in questions- the controversy over alleged war crimes and the matter of returning military occupied land in the North. However, taken in the context of the stance of the Joint Opposition (JO), the dissident faction which will soon metamorphose into the SLPP, we need to ask the question: Basil, is that the SLPP’s stance?
War crimes
Whenever the issue of war crimes came up, the JO has consistently accused the present government of trying to please the international community and betray our war veterans. For instance, the JO was critical of the government for signing up to a joint resolution with the United States at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). More recently, it took Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to task for censuring his successor, Jagath Jayasuriya on the issue of ‘war crimes’.
Now though, Basil Rajapaksa is doing much the same thing. What he is saying is that there may be incidents where Sri Lankan troops committed crimes against Tamil civilians, not in an organized manner, but individually. Surely, that would get the Eelam lobby to perk up and call for a fresh probe? And surely, that too would amount to a betrayal of the armed forces?
Then, the JO has been similarly screaming from rooftops about the government conceding land areas held by the military to civilians in the North, claiming that the region’s security is being compromised and that the stage is being set for yet another campaign for a Tamil Eelam. Basil Rajapaksa however, has no qualms about making the same concession, when he is visiting the North.
The question therefore is, is Basil Rajapaksa trying to hoodwink, both, the North and the South by making different promises to different sections of the population? Or, is that the policy of the SLPP itself, keen as it is to attract at least a semblance of a following in the North where it must know that, given its jingoist chants of chauvinism, its prospects are very poor? Should we believe Basil, the SLPP or neither?
Chequered
To answer that question, we need to look at Basil Rajapaksa’s chequered history. Rajapaksa began his political career as the SLFP candidate for Mulkirigala at the 1977 General Elections. He lost, but was soon working with Mahaveli Minister, Gamini Dissanayake.
In fact, he campaigned for the UNP’s Ananda Kularatne at a by-election at Mulkirigala in 1983, against his own niece, Nirupama Rajapaksa. At a subsequent election petition against Kularatne, the courts held that Basil committed a corrupt practice by making a false statement affecting Nirupama’s personal character and conduct, and unseated Kularatne!
Basil continued to work for Dissanayake in various capacities until after the failed impeachment motion against President Ranasinghe Premadasa in September, 1991. Basil left for the United States thereafter and returned to reside in Sri Lanka for the long term only after Mahinda Rajapaksa’s elevation to Presidency. As the Rajapaksas strengthened their stranglehold on Sri Lanka, their roles became clearer: Chamal was the patriarch, Mahinda was the logo and the brand name that could be marketed to the electorate, Gotabaya was the brawn but Basil was the brain behind the throne- the man responsible for all the important political decisions that mapped out the clan’s political strategy.
It is to this role that Basil Rajapaksa is returning- now in the SLPP. It is he who will mastermind the perceived second coming of Mahinda- although the Constitution now prevents it. Sure, G.L. Peiris is the nominal leader of the SLPP but, it is Basil who will be the puppet master.
Basil’s political opponents need not be worried- if his past track record and what he has said in Jaffna is anything to go by.
The very fact that Basil is calling the shots must be causing the likes of Dinesh Gunewardena and Tissa Vitarana to tear what little hair they have left because the man who engineered Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat in 2015 has now come back to lead them.
Mahinda Rajapaksa and the SLPP would be better off asking Basil to retire- and maybe even suggest that he write his memoirs. He could call it ‘How to lose friends and make people angry’!