Mahinda's Legacy

Usually it is when people die, or move on, or do something significant that you talk about their legacy. But The Beast is no ordinary man. He has forever changed the face of Sri Lankan politics. He has made more changes to Sri Lanka's political structure and political system than anyone ever has.

Too bad for us those changes are for the worse.

I knew things were going to be different when The Beast did his saatakaya cheat in the run-up to the presidential elections of 2005. Does anyone remember that? When the Elections Commissioner told people to take down their posters and cutouts in the run-up, The Beast complied - technically. In every place that he had a cutout he placed a picture of Sri Lanka with the saatakaya around it.

When he was accused of stealing LKR 800 million from the tsunami relief funds he filed a court case asking that the investigation be suspended until the end of the election. After he was elected the investigation continued and - surprise, surprise - found that he was not guilty and that it was an attempt by the UNP to discredit him.

This was just the beginning.

From the first day he came in he started creating a personality cult around himself. The little kids wearing the saatakaya, the athletes at the SAF Games wearing the saatakaya, pretty much everyone wearing saataka. A strip of red cloth became the unofficial must-have fashion accessory for any event that was even remotely connected to the government.

And then there was the war. When he decided to go to war, his actions created a whole new meaning for the word terrorism.

The Government itself spread terror at a level that we had never seen before. The media had a field day with various threats to the people. There were fake bombs planted. Bomb panics were initiated where schools were shut down because the LTTE is going to bomb 5 schools. The Government engaged in the creation of a fear psychosis in society that was unparalleled. Even the establishment of checkpoints - which even the IGP testified at the Supreme Court had not managed to capture or stop a single bomb-laden vehicle without other information - patrols, various fear-inducing advertisements, the establishment of a general sense of paranoia, and of course the security theater that goes along with it was done so that the Government could have a free hand.

Of course the checkpoints did nothing to stop the actions of the extra-judicial killings and assaults that happened. Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed within sight of an armed checkpoint and the killers managed to escape. And on a more personal note, the presence of a checkpoint less did not stop the Pajero/Montero that performed a hit-and-run on me. But they did their job. They kept people scared on one side, paranoid on another, and secure on a third. Of course the feelings of fear were amplified by the white van abductions and - for those of us who remember the Black Cats vigilante squads of the late '80s - the establishment of armed military personnel on motorcycles who routinely zipped through traffic. All for our safety of course.

There were other actions too that showed that the government was learning how to manipulate the people. The teacher's strike on the 13th of September was overshadowed by a tsunami alert on the 12th. Of course this is not an attempt to say that the Government caused the earthquake. But note that the quake was of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale. Which is 100 times weaker than the 2004 quake that caused the tsunami. Of course that did not stop the media - especially the state media - from telling people that there might be a tsunami on the way even a whole day after the quake occurred.!

Then there is the corruption. The Beast's stooges and henchmen have been robbing the country. But that kind of robbery is a pittance, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the actions of Rajapaksa Brothers, Extremely Private, Totally Unlimited. After the death of Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, the job of Minister of Nation Building went to T. B. Ekanayake - who was given the authority to deal with any building project valued under LKR 40 million. All other projects go to Basil (aka Beast Junior). If the other politicians were shoplifters and armed robbers pulling a gun on the cashier, The Beast's family is akin to the manager of the store pulling a 40ft container up to the loading dock and emptying the store into it. If you're lucky, he'll leave the shelves.

The war was used as an excuse too. In order to stop the LTTE from finding out what weapons the Forces were acquiring the tender process was made a secret. No-one knew what was being asked for, who was bidding for it, and what it cost. There is, as yet, no way that we can get that information even after the war is over. The war was used as an excuse to stop the investigations into corruption, flagrant abuses of power, and human rights violations. It was used as a way to muzzle any and all critics of the government. It was used as a way to divide Sri Lankan society by branding all those who opposed the way the LKGov was handling the war as traitors.

The cult of personality went forward with the creation and distribution of the new LKR 1,000 banknote. It has The Beast in a blatantly campaign-poster-like pose on the obverse and an image representing the Forces - in a pose reminiscent of (ie a direct copy of) the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima on the reverse. He is not the first person in Sri Lanka to do that. The JR and Premadasa 1 Rupee coins are still in circulation, though they are rapidly dwindling in number. But the image in the front is clearly a propaganda/publicity image. It seems conceivable - nay, inevitable - that the next president will put his image on the currency too, and since he has to go one better, it would be the LKR2000 note. And the next would want the LKR5000 note (we don't have one yet? we will, and soon) and so on and so forth.

The other legacy is the USD 500 million sovereign bond issue at 8.5% interest of 2007. Does anyone remember that one? The one that had Ranil the Ineffectual running around the world trying to stop? The one that had The Beast calling Ranil a traitor to the nation? Well that comes due in 2012. Welcome to the legacy.

Of course, there will always be those who claim that his greatest legacy is a Sri Lanka without a war. The destruction of the LTTE is worth all the corruption they say. But is it? Yes, the war continued because the people involved we making money. They were milking that cow for all it was worth. But the cow was getting old. The people were starting to ask why are we keeping this old cow? So The Beast did the thing you do with old cows. He milked the cow, then killed it, and sold the beef (what he didn't make a curry out of). And now the people are cheering that the cow is gone. There is more room. But - to quote an old advert and the basis of a US presidential election campaign - Where's the beef?

So The Beast has left a legacy. A legacy that comes from the people who came before him. The cult of personality, the corruption, the outright robbery is not new. The others did it too. But The Beast took it to a whole new level. What he has done is multiple orders of magnitude worse than his predecessors. We may never - hopefully - see his like again. But all that he has done will be learned from, carried forward, and built on.

So The Beast's legacy is not just what he has done, but also what he has shown the people the way to do. And that is a legacy worth fearing.