By P. K. Balachandran/Sunday Observer
Colombo, March 10: “Only UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe exhibited courage by accepting an invitation to assume duties as the Prime Minister,” former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s writes in his latest book, “Conspiracy to Oust Me from the Presidency”.
Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s book offers intriguing insights into the political landscape of Sri Lanka. According to Rajapaksa, amidst the tumultuous events surrounding his presidency, amongst all the aspiring politicians, it was only Wickremesinghe who took the challenge into his hands.
On page 163 of the book, Rajapaksa reveals that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa declined his request to accept the post of Prime Minister. Despite being approached for the role, Premadasa had cited the necessity of a Parliamentary majority, ultimately turning down the offer.
Moreover, when Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka was invited to take on the position of Prime Minister, he expressed the need for a public statement before accepting the role outright, as detailed in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s account.
Rajapaksa further recounts that there was an urgency for appointing an Opposition MP as Prime Minister amidst escalating violence and political unrest. He reached out to Premadasa and Fonseka, but Premadasa declined and Fonseka requested a public announcement before considering the position.
In the book released on Thursday, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has blamed the West and foreign-funded NGOs for his ouster in 2022.
He also identified the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Frontline Socialist Party (Peratugami) as agents provocateurs.
Gotabaya concedes that he was seen as being anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim because of his own statement at his inauguration that he was elected by the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. The accusation stemmed also because he had defeated the Tamil separatists. Gotabaya also points to the absence of support from the dominant political party in Parliament, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), for his inability to function to his satisfaction.
He attributed the disconnect with the SLPP MPs and other party functionaries to his inability to meet their political needs due to his apolitical background and also his bid to promote apolitical experts in place of politicians to depoliticise the administration. Also with such a large majority in parliament, it was not possible to meet every MP’s aspirations.
Gotabaya attributes the massive street violence, which ultimately forced him to flee the country and resign, partly to an unprepared and weak security apparatus whose top functionaries were scared of Western sanctions, and partly to a lack of an understanding between the Commander of the Army Gen. Shavendra Silva and the Defence Secretary Gen. Kamal Gunaratne, due to the absence of a clearly defined hierarchy.
But one foreign power which comes in praise in Gotabaya’s book is India. Gotabaya thanks India profusely for its timely economic aid which saved Sri Lanka when an unprecedented shortage of essential goods occurred due to a severe foreign exchange shortage.
Financial Pipeline
“It was a financial pipeline worth about US$ 4000 million kept open by India that enabled Sri Lanka to keep importing fuel and other essential items even after I resigned and well into the tenure of my successor. I have to express my heartfelt gratitude to India for this unstinting help at a moment of crisis which is what enabled the Sri Lankan economy to stabilise by the end of 2022.”
On the foreign hand allegedly behind his ouster, Gotabaya says in a chapter entitled: Destabilisation by Fifth Columnists: “It would be extremely naïve for anyone to claim that there was no foreign hand in the moves made to oust me from power.”
“My very assumption of power was met with prejudice and resentment by interested parties overseas. This was a carry forward from the days of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government which was toppled in January 2015 through the intervention of foreign parties. We began to feel the heavy hand of foreign intervention in the politics of the country particularly from the time we won the war against the LTTE in 2009. We managed to fight that war to a finish despite attempts made by certain foreign powers to prevent the total defeat of the LTTE.”
“The increasing number of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka after 2006 brought an element of geopolitical rivalry into this intervention.”
The economic successes notched up by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government also aroused envy, Gotabaya contends.
“We presided over a nine-year economic boom which saw the per capita GDP increasing from US$ 1,240 in 2005 to US$ 3,819 in2014. Certain external powers resented both the independence and the success of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government.”
Gotabaya says that his Government, formed in November 2019, was “unfairly prejudged from the beginning by certain external parties.”
Gotabaya then goes on to recall that in less than two weeks after he assumed office, the international media carried a story about a Sri Lanka female staffer of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo having been abducted by unidentified persons to extract some information from her. The Sri Lankan press carried the story subsequently.
The Swiss embassy wanted her to be flown out of Sri Lanka in an air ambulance. But a thorough investigation by the Sri Lankan police revealed that the abduction claim was a “complete fabrication.” In July 2023 the staffer pleaded guilty at the Colombo High Court which gave her two years’ of Rigorous Imprisonment and an order to compensate the State with LKR 2 million.
In December 2019, the Swiss Federal Court ruled that the LTTE was not a criminal organisation and set free 12 Sri Lankan Tamils who had broken the Swiss Penal Code by collecting money for the LTTE from 1999 to 2009.
On January 26, 2020, less than eight weeks after he assumed office, the Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying that the “New President seems intent not only to wipe away the Rajapaksas’ past abuses but clear the path for future ones.”
Travel Ban
In February 2020, the US State Department imposed a travel ban on the then Commander of the Sri Lankan Army Gen. Shavendra Silva and his immediate family alleging that he was involved “through command responsibility” in gross violations of human rights during the separatist conflict.
Gotabaya attributes the long school teachers’ strike during the pandemic and the detention of a Russian commercial aircraft at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to conspiracies by interested parties to cripple the educational system and to drive a wedge between Sri Lanka and friendly Russia. These incidents could not be “coincidental,” the former President says.
The economic crisis that followed the pandemic was not due to his actions, which were well-intentioned like the changes in the tax structure and the ban on chemical fertilisers, but due to mismanagement during the 2015-2019 Yahapalanaya Government, Gotabaya says.
About the street protests over the shortage of food, fuel and other necessities, called Aragalaya (Struggle), Gotabaya says that he allowed them in front of the Presidential Secretariat without any hindrance. Tents, mobile toilets and an “inexhaustible supply of food and drink began to arrive at the site to encourage the protesters,” he recalls, hinting that the Struggle was well-planned and funded by various local and foreign sources.
On April 9, 2022, the security personnel warned him that the “Aragalaya” activists were going to attack the President’s House and Secretariat at some point. “The moment this happened, two European Ambassadors called me in a state of agitation wanting to know whether I was going to drive the protesters out of Galle Face. They were keen to ensure that the protesters were allowed to remain at Galle Face,” Gotabaya recalls.
On April 19, 2022, police shooting at a mob in Rambukkana to quell a mob which was attacking a fuel bowser, had resulted in one death.
“The Ambassador of the United State to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, called for a full and transparent investigation into the Rambukkana incident and the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Sri Lanka Hanaa-Singer Hamdy expressed deep concern over the casualties reported during the protests in Rambukkana.”
By this time, there was an actual physical mob on the streets and a virtual mob in social media as well. The mob went berserk, burning and damaging buses and 70 houses of SLPP supporters, invaded the President’s House and burnt Prime Minister Ranil Wckremesinghe’s private residence in a quiet neighbourhood of Colombo.
“This is a different kind of terrorism, which, while claiming to be bloodless, is in fact more effective than the old style terrorism,” Gotabaya says.
He goes on to call for a new legal and regulatory framework for breakdowns of law and order and national security. These have to change from time to time to enable the armed forces and police to handle a situation effectively, he suggests.
And “as in the past, strict protocols must be enforced to regulate, monitor and limit the interactions of senior officers of the Armed Services, Police and Intelligence services have with the staff of foreign embassies. Visits by foreign Ambassadors to military installations should also be stopped,” he urges in his book.
It was reported that the initial stock of the book, published in both Sinhala and English, had sold out. A Tamil version is being planned.
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