Daily News Editorial

MR’s sudden love for minorities

10 October 2016

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has suddenly taken upon himself the task of championing the cause of minorities in this country. Rajapaksa, of all people, the other day rose to the defence of Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, removing the racist label attached to him by Rajapaksa's own comrades in the Joint Opposition. Then on Saturday, the former President met a group of Muslims at his party office in Nelum Mawatha, Battarmulla to apprise them of his love and devotion to their community while issuing a firm guarantee that he would protect their rights as much as the Sinhalese and Tamil communities.

He also took pains to assure them that he was not a communalist and that his opponents backed by foreign forces hatched a conspiracy to alienate the Muslims from him and unfortunately their community was deceived by these tactics. Referring to the Aluthgama incidents, Rajapaksa said he was abroad during the unfortunate happenings and no sooner he returned he rushed to the spot directly from the airport and took steps to rebuild the damaged homes and offer compensation. He went on to say that the western conspirators never rested and carried out attacks on Muslim religious places and put the blame on him. He was never responsible for any such attacks, the former President went on to assert to his Muslim audience.

It is not clear as to why Rajapaksa has suddenly woken to the realization that there indeed is a segment called minorities in this country and that they are going to figure in a big way in deciding on the outcome at future elections. We say this because with the war victory now only a distant memory it is back to square one in the electoral equation, with the minority factory playing a crucial role once again in deciding a winner at future elections, whether under PR or the old electoral system. A party hoping for victory has to carry with it the minority vote.

All this of course is assuming that MR will once again make a bid for the Premier stakes under a new party, his chances of getting nominations under a Sirisena dispensation virtually nonexistent. In any event it is difficult to see the minorities throwing their lot with new party with or without the Mahinda factor. Be that as it may, it is also difficult to see Rajapaksa winning back the confidence of the Muslims, or the Tamils, for that matter, ever again given his past actions. The former President may have rushed to Aluthgama from the airport and assuaged the wounded feelings of the Muslim victims. However he never took action against the perpetrators of the arson attacks or the unruly mob led by members of the Buddhist clergy who pelted stones and damaged Muslim businesses and establishments. On the contrary, his brother, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was seen in the newspapers is genial conversation with the leading lights of the Bhikkus who led the mob- virtually delivering a slap in the face of the hurt and wounded Muslims who would have expected justice to be served on their behalf. Rajapaksa went on to tell the Muslims at Saturday's meeting thus: “I have never been a communalist nor can I be one in the future”.

This claim though do not bear scrutiny when one considers the past deeds of the former President. No sooner had he lost the Presidential Election Rajapaksa famously said that he was defeated by the Tigers in the North hence he would not consider it as a defeat. This, despite launching a vigorous campaign in the North to win over the Northern voter, even going to the extent of distributing gold items among the people, said to have been recovered from the LTTE's loot. It had also been his proud boast that he had wiped out the LTTE once and for all. Then why call the Tamils who voted against him, Tigers?

Rajapaksa also summarily put a halt to the National Anthem being sung in Tamil at state functions in the North after being piqued by the rejection of his Oxford Union speech. It was only the other day that the former President told a gathering in Weligama that the Sinhalese were not a race that could be pushed to the wall but would fight with might and main, in response to the protest demonstration held by Wigneswaran, a remark tinged with racism.

The former President, no doubt, will also be judged by the company he keeps. No Muslim or Tamil has cause to doubt that the type of racist comments made by the likes of Wimal Weerawansa and Udyaya Gammanpila does not have the tacit support of Rajapaksa. The frequent criticism of the government for dismantling military camps in the North and the release of land to the civilians, is certainly not going to endear the Tamils, be it in the North or elsewhere, to Rajapaksa. The former President has all but burnt his bridge with the minorities. He would do well to cut his losses on this score instead of trying to hoodwink the Tamils and Muslims that he has now mended his ways and about plots by his opponents and foreign forces to alienate him from the minorities.