By Rajasinghe The passage of the amendments referred to as 22A was believed to be a difficult task. In the event, it was passed very smoothly by Parliament with a two-thirds majority; it was a feather in the cap of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his supporters, who not only gathered votes of the Opposition but also split the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) down the middle. In the days previously, SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam, who is identified as his master’s voice, made a public statement opposing certain provisions of the amendment, in particular the removal of the clause enabling dual citizens to enter Parliament and the clause which enables the president to dissolve Parliament in two-and-a-half years – a provision that Chandrika Kumaratunga used to dismiss the RW administration in 2004 and precipitate a General Election in which the United National Party (UNP) was defeated. In spite of the psychological warfare unleashed by Basil favourites, they were decisively outnumbered and preferred to avoid the vote by absenting themselves in Parliament that day.   Great victory for RW   The vote was a great victory for President RW, who only a few weeks earlier had been lauded by Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) in Nawalapitiya as a ‘good guy’ who had now found the correct Rajapaksa path and was therefore to be supported. However, MR was not in Parliament at voting time. He was joined by the hardcore SLPPers like Johnston Fernando, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Gamini Lokuge, and Sanath Nishantha and Basil Rajapaksa acolytes like Kariyawasam, Sanjeewa Edirimanna, and Ranjith Bandara. Several other SLPP bigwigs took the easy way out by going abroad so that their votes – either way – would not be registered in the Hansard.  A large number of SLPPers who were ministers and state ministers, as well as those like S.B. Dissanayake, desperately trying to enter the Cabinet, voted for 22A. Now it appears that another category – dual citizens who are in Parliament and would now face deselection – also kept away fearing legal complications if they voted for the amendment, along with their party colleagues.  The takeaway from all this was that the Pohottuwa (SLPP) painstakingly built up by Basil is now in crisis and President RW has outsmarted its strong core with a combination of assurances and threats. This confusion in the Pohottuwa was seen in the split voting of the Rajapaksas – while Namal voted for the motion, his cousin Nipuna Ranawaka together with MR stayed away. On the other hand, his uncle Chamal Rajapaksa and cousin Shasheendra Rajapaksa voted for the amendment with enthusiasm and thereby hangs a tale.   Co-opting a wing of the Rajapaksas    RW’s strategy of co-opting a wing of the Rajapaksas – namely Chamal and Gotabaya (GR) – to his cause was a major reason for his victory. He visited GR with a draft of the proposed amendments and obtained his concurrence on the grounds that they were initially drafted on the instructions of GR during his tenure of office. He then informed the Pohottuwa MPs of this development.  This strategy was so successful that some Pohottuwa cabinet hopefuls attempted to assault Kariyawasam for publicising Basil’s instructions without any prior discussion with them. His commanding tone was not to the liking of the seniors, who were complaining that they were ignored by Basil when they won. However, they said when there was a crisis, Basil left for his hearth and home in Los Angeles and abandoned them to face the music and even have their homes destroyed during the Aragalaya. Some seniors sarcastically referred to Basil’s desperate attempts to flee even from Mattala when he was arbitrarily held up at Katunayake and not permitted to board his plane en route to Dubai and California.   Like father, like son   RW’s other move was to enlist the support of Chamal and his family for the amendment. Chamal is ‘primus inter pares’ among the ruling Rajapaksas since he is the self-sacrificing elder brother who first gave the push to his siblings, which led to the high positions that they held.  It was the late Sam Wijesinha, Secretary General of Parliament and neighbour from Getamanna in the deep south, who said: “If you want to know how the father D.A. Rajapaksa was, you have only to look at Chamal.”  D.A. [Don Alwyn] Rajapaksa was drawn into politics due to the sudden and unexpected death of his elder brother D.M. [Don Martin] Rajapaksa, who was a state councillor representing the Girawa Pattuwa. He was fortunate to have his education at Wesley College, which opened up vistas for bright Sinhala [Buddhist] students. Among them were Baron Jayatilleke, Anagarika Harischandra, P. de S. Kularatne, and C.W.W. Kannangara. DM went back to his native Weeraketiya and clashed with the local colonial headmen who were oppressing the poor peasants.  Leonard Woolf’s ‘Village in the Jungle’ paints a picture of these Mudliyars, Muhandirams, and Aarachchis who combined to exploit the dry zone villagers. Even Woolf, the colonial Assistant Government Agent of Hambantota, was appalled by the injustice of it all and left the civil service to return to England, marry Virginia Woolf, and become an important member of the Bloomsbury Group and the fledgling Labour Party.  In this fight against headmen, DM joined Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe and became a sympathiser of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). Very few know that when the LSSP leaders broke the jail and went underground, they were sheltered for some time at the Weeraketiya and Medamulana residences of the Rajapaksas.   Enter D.A. Rajapaksa   Then fate took a hand. DM succumbed to a heart attack while speaking in the State Council and died. It was DM who first wore the maroon ‘satakaya’ [actually a muffler] saying that the colour was that of the ripe kurakkan that the farmers of Girawa Pattuwa grew. The obvious choice to succeed DM was his eldest son Lakshman, but he was underage by a few months. The next choice was DM’s brother DA, who was a gentleman farmer in Medamulana. He agreed with much reluctance but the Rajapaksas were so popular that he was elected uncontested. In the new Parliament he was an UNPer allied to S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and his Sinhala Maha Sabha. When SWRD crossed over to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), only DA followed him across the aisle. Later eight others joined him, but neither SWRD nor his wife Sirima forgot that gesture of loyalty. DA was made Deputy Speaker and Deputy Minister of Lands and Irrigation when he undertook several important irrigation projects along the Walawe River, especially the Chandrika Wewa scheme, for the inauguration of which he took along his eldest boy Chamal. Later in time when Mrs. Bandaranaike (Mrs. B) was reforming the SLFP, she was helped by George Rajapaksa, who succeeded his uncle DA. George was a bright scholar and superb cricketer at Royal who was taken under their wing by Colvin R. de Silva and his wife, who unfailingly referred to him as ‘our George’. His elder brother Lakshman was more radical and had joined Philip Gunawardena. They were instrumental in enforcing the Paddy Lands Act in the Hambantota District, which still retained the Latifundia or Gambaraya system.  Mrs. B wanted Chamal to be the SLFP Organiser for Beliatta. But according to legend, Mrs. DA had suggested MR in his place as Chamal was already employed as an Inspector of Police and was serving in Monaragala. Mrs. B, who was fond of Mrs. DA, agreed; MR became the organiser and entered Parliament in 1970 and the rest is history.   The steadying influence    Chamal has always been the steadying influence in the Rajapaksa family who has made many sacrifices for it. When a presidential candidate was to be selected, his name was endorsed by many, including his fellow Richmondite Vasudeva Nanayakkara. But he was too modest to push for his candidacy though many of his friends in Parliament and outside encouraged him to do so. As Speaker, he was admired by all parties and did not bend rules to help only his side. He is very modest and not a showman. It is clear that he was concerned that the Rajapaksa name, for which he had made many sacrifices, was being tarnished. Chamal told the parliamentary group that he was for the abolition of the right of dual citizens to hold political office. He has quite sensibly said that any such aspirant should give up his foreign citizenship if he wants to serve Sri Lanka. His intervention was heard with pin-drop silence by the group and many SLPPers said later that if that was Chamal’s view, it would be ridiculous to go against it. In the days to come, will RW, working closely with Chamal, push through a recovery agenda which has the support of the more educated and reasonable Pohottuwa members as distinct from the acolytes of their mastermind, the seven-brainer [Mola Hatha]? Chamal and his son voted with the majority and ensured the passage of the amendment. Is this a ‘Rajapaksa path’ which can surprise MR and his die-hards who want to have rallies around the country but ran into headwinds of protest in Nawalapitiya?