A Tribute to Basil Rajapakse

On the 16 November, 2019, the most disastrous, and the  worst of all political regime Sri Lanka had ever seen, which every Sinhala should pray never to see again,  The Yahapalanaya led by Ranil Wickramasinghe as the Prime Minister, was  at  last  driven away by an overwhelming  majority of Sinhala votes. It was a triumph for the unity of the Sinhala.

It proved  once again  that it is the Sinhala who stand up to defend the country when ever it is in danger. The mass of the Sinhala people may be divided,  but to defend the country against its enemies they will shed their  differences to unite as one .

Today  Venerable Elle Gunavansa Maha Thero made a resounding speech to flount the greatness of the yellow robe for this surge of the Sinhala Buddhist  revival against the enemies of Sri Lanka-the UNP  led by Ranil Wickramasinghe. Today he said that the Sinhala have shown that they haven’t got to  appeal to either the Muslim politicians nor to the Tamils to join them to form a government.  Many other voices are being raised  to hail the victory and at the same time take the credit for the 6.9 million  of Sinhala votes that elected a dependable Sinhala leader  to lead the country and  to bring back what remains of Sri Lanka after it had been hit by the UNP led political tsunami.

After  the 8^th January,2015 the Sinhala people was mislead  to vote fore  for a political change to defeat President Mahinda Rajhapakse,  who had  wrenched Sri Lanka from the grip of terrorism , developed the country,  brought peace and security ,and put it back on the path to progress and development. Mahinda Rajapakse  by far the greatest  political leader the country saw after independence,  and his supportive political leaders were  abandoned and left to suffer all ignominies. President Mahinda Rajapakse there after handed over the leadership of SLFP to Maithripala Sirisena who was responsible for  the after math of 8^th January,2015.

There was hope that President Mahinda Rajapakse may yet be able to form a government  after the General Elections held in August,2015. But the President Maithripala Sirisena who turned out to be his bitter enemy, swore to stop him  from becoming the Prime Minister even if he were to be elected with a majority from  what remained of the UPFA.

At the end President Mahinda Rajapakse and the UPFA  Parliamentary Group was refused  even  to be the Parliamentary opposition by the Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya- a blind follower of the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, with a subordinate mind set, without the ability  to take a decision of his own

Karu Jayasuriya  who brought disrespect to the Office of Speaker of the Parliament ( is even today despite  the defeat of the UNP and the triumph of Gotabhaya Rajapakse  as the President, occupies the  seat of the Speaker, like a mongrel  not eating the straw yet sits on it without  allowing the cattle to consume it ),  recognised  the Tamil National Alliance  with only 16 MPs as the official Parliamentary Opposition and made Sampanthan the leader of the Opposition, leaving out the group of 54 parliamentarians led by Mahinda Rajapakse.

President Mahinda Rajapakse  and his Group of Parliamentarians , sat in the Parliament as the joint Opposition . They were denied every right  in the Parliament with TNA,JVP and UNF taking over the control of it .  JVP along with the UNP  initiated accusations  and filing charges against  Mahinda Rajapakse , members of his government, his Supporters and even his family members for  bribery and corruption . A new  Police Force- the FCID  was set up under  Ranil Wickramasinghe  the Prime Minister, which  began a period of arresting, imprisoning , and harassing in every way possible the members of the Joint Opposition and their friends and families.

It was when the country and the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse and all his supporters , his family memebers were helplessly  facing the sudden unexpected tyranny of  a vengeful  Sirisena –Ranil  Government,  that  Basil Rajapakse,  Mahinda Rajapakse’s  youngest brother  came into the scene.  He was the brain that sustained  and gave hope to Rajapaksas and the Joint Oppostion.  He was the organizer , the brain behind the solution to rescues the Joint Opposition from the wreckage. He worked behind scene without  seeking to out shine his elder brothers.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna was the  result of Basil Rajapakse ‘s  genius. He launched it in 2016 as a political refuge to the “ship wrecked” Joint Opposition. It came at a time when there was a genuine grievance of the people  calling for a new political party to replace SLFP, which by joining with the UNP to form a Yahapalanaya Government, had breached the very foundation on which SWRD Banadaranaike broke away from the UNP to form a political party of the people. 

The popular demand of the people who had by then realised that they had made a mistake on the 8^th January,2015 in  voting Maithripala Sirisena to be the President for a change, was now calling out  for a new political party led by Mahinda Rajapakse.

Basil Rajapakse is  meticulous, organised, and visionary and knew how exactly he could organise a political party to defy the SLFP and the UNP, now  grouped together as  the Yahapalanaya.   The first challenge came in February,2018, when the Yahapalanaya under political pressure called for local government elections, which it had kept on postponing under one pretext or another, being aware of the unpopularity of the Yahapalanaya Government with already accumulated  scandals, accusations of theft, bribery and corruption, the arrogance of the President and the Prime Minister,. One of the Ministers , even dared to sponser  in Geneva -UNURC , a resolutiuon brought by the USA against Sri Lanka’s  own Armed Forces..

The Yahapalanaya Government faced the local government election using to the maximum its state machinery, spreading false accusations against the Joint Opposition. 

Basil Rajapakse with  an unbelievable faith in himself, organised  the local elections campaign, presenting candidates from  Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, and brought a resounding victory.. It was unbelievable that a political party-  Sri Lanka Podujana Peramun in just two years after it was launched,  became so popular and  lead the local election results by  40 percent of votes, while the UNP the oldest political party  got  29 percent of the votes, and the SLFP  only 12 percent of the votes.

That was the organising genius of Basil Rajapakse. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna had  the Lotus Bud- an appropriate symbol of identity.  It caught the  admiration of the people who drowned it in a deluge of mass popularity .At the  Presidential elections of 2019 the Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa won with the Lotus Bud symbol. It was far better than it would have been  if the Presidential Candidate was to have been represented by the symbol of a Chair as it was proposed by the SLFP, which was trying a come back after the loss of its popularity at the Local Government polls. 

Perhaps it is better that the Lotus Bud popularly called the Pohottuva ,be the electoral symbol for all future  elections  contested by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and its allied Parties in a common font. 

The  victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksha we hail today  was the contribution of the genius of Basil Rajapakse.  The Lotus Bud –- Pohottuva of Basil Rajapakse has not only made it possible to vanquish a detested enemy- the UNP and its allied political partners,  but also brough hope and expectations with a a new President who has already won the hearts of all , even perhaps some of the Tamils and the Muslims who did not vote for him.

After the defeat, of President  Mahinda Rajapakse on the 8 January,2015,  Basil Rajapakse who left  to America, was scandalised and the defeat of Mahinda Rajapakse was also attributed  him.   JVP  had filed charges against him for misappropriation of public funds.  Basil Rajapakse  therefore returned to Sri Lanka to face charges and the  enemies. The Yahapalanaya filed  charges against him for distribution of  roofing sheets,and GI Pipes for  local bodies .  Those were cases like all others , brought to harass and bring disrepute to the Rajapakses, his  then Ministers ,supporters and the families.

The founder of Sri Lanka Podujana Reramuna  Basil Rajapakse is responsible for  saving Sri Lanka  from falling into to the clutches of  Tamil politicians  who were preparing a Federal Constitution which was likely to have been accepted and passed in Parliament  by Ranil Wickramasinha the Leader of  the UNP , JVP and the Yahapalanaya group of political parties.  Therefore we owe to Basil Rajapakse our gratitude for having saved Sri Lanka from that sinister end..

Therefore we pay this tribute to this humble man Basil Rajapakse who remains behind scene, to keep the boats of political progress sail in safety in untroubled waters of political stability.