‘I resigned from the presidency to give the people of Sri Lanka some respite’

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week released his book titled

“The Conspiracy: How Internationally Sponsored Regime Change Made a Mockery of Democracy in Sri Lanka”. Excerpts: On opposition to his election:

--“The only reason I won the 2019 presidential election with over 52% of the vote was because of the Sinhala vote.”

--“From the time I was nominated as a candidate for the presidency, large sections of the Tamil population, the Muslim population, the overseas Tamil groups, the foreign funded NGOs and certain countries with large expatriate Tamil populations were openly hostile to the thought of having me as the President of Sri Lanka. Sections of the Roman Catholic Church joined this group after I became President.”

On the politics of a two-thirds majority

Winning a two-thirds majority in Parliament brought with it “a raft of new problems”. While the government secured 150 seats in Parliament, the constitution limited the number of ministerial portfolios. Their parliamentary group had MPs who had been ministers in several previous governments but they could not all be accommodated in the Cabinet or even as State Ministers.

--“From the time we got that two thirds majority in Parliament, in August 2020, it was a downhill slide, politically speaking.”

On too many Rajapaksas in positions of power

--“I did not want to appoint many members of the Rajapaksa family to various positions.” But when they are voted in at number one position in their districts, voters expect them to get positions so they can do something for the district.

--“One of the accusations levelled at me was that even though I claimed to be doing things differently, that in reality I consolidated the power of the Rajapaksa family further and that under me there were more members of the family holding ministerial office than there was even under Mahinda Rajapaksa. To be sure, under my Presidency, there were five Rajapaksas in the Cabinet…”

They were himself, Chamal, Mahinda, Basil and Namal. His nephew, Shashindra, was a State Minister and Nipuna Ranawaka was the District Coordinating Committee Chairman for Matara.

On the disadvantage of not being party leader

--“The fact that I was not leading the party meant that I did not have much political power. For example, I was not involved in preparing the SLPP national list or the district nomination lists.”

--“The fact that we had 150 MPs became a disadvantage rather than an advantage. We started off with disgruntled elements in our midst. This is what made it easier for our opponents to destroy us. I can now say through experience that whoever becomes President should be the leader of the political party as well”.

--“Usually people spend years in a political party rising through the ranks as parliamentarians and ministers before becoming President. But when I became President, there were many people in our parliamentary group with whom I had not had much interaction.”

On personal problems

--“Basil was in control of the SLPP. When members of the ruling coalition picked a quarrel with Basil that too had an impact on me as the head of the government. Wimal and Udaya had personal issues with Basil.”

--“Everybody knows that the ban on dual citizens contesting elections was brought in by the 19th amendment…. But when we were trying to repeal the 19th amendment, some of our own people objected to repealing the ban on dual citizens contesting elections. This was entirely due to their opposition to Basil.”

On the breakup of the coalition

--“What contributed to this situation was that I was not an office bearer of the party and that Mahinda Rajapaksa did not get involved in politics as in the past… However, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s silence was one of the main reasons for the breakup of the coalition and the party. Mahinda Rajapaksa had over half a century of political experience and a factor that we could have used to our advantage but failed [sic].”

--“There were also various individuals and groups that believed that their support was crucial in ensuring that I was elected to power and they expected me to do what they wanted. These are the problems that emerge when somebody like me gets elected to power.”

On depoliticisation attempts backfiring

Overall, his “experiment in not appointing party loyalists to key government positions” was unsuccessful.

--“Some of those political appointees for the most part behaved exactly the same way as political appointees—their only aim was to use the position they got, to further a career in politics.”

--“A matter that was under discussion in political circles in the months following my ouster was the manner in which certain so called apolitical appointees who held positions in my government played a major role in funding and organising the aragalaya against my government. Fifth columnists were present not only within the country but within my government as well”.

On the failed organic farming initiative and Chinese fertiliser

--“I have openly admitted that the way the organic farming initiative of my government was implemented was a failure and a mistake.”

--“Though some think that the ban on the import of chemical fertiliser was taken suddenly and without much consultation, the shift to organic farming was a matter that had been under discussion in my government from the earliest days and it was an integral part of my manifesto ‘Vistas of Prosperity’.”

--“But when Sri Lanka tried to import some organic fertiliser, unanticipated problems cropped up which had all the hallmarks of the deliberate sabotage that usually accompanies regime change projects.” (Reference is to the aborted organic fertiliser import from Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group of China).

On the Mirihana protest and attack on private residence

--“SIS Director Suresh Sallay who was also at the wedding reception, arrived at the scene and when he arrived, only around a hundred or so had been at the demonstration. But the police, STF and army personnel deployed in the area had been inactive since no one had given them instructions as to what had to be done. Sallay had taken a video call to Shavendra [Silva] and Kamal [Gunaratne] and shown them the crowd present but instructions still did not come down the hierarchy to disperse the crowd. Ultimately Sallay and some other army officers had taken it upon themselves to disperse the mob as some elements in the crowd had turned violent…”

--“By around 2 am that night, the crowds had been dispersed. Around 10.30 am the following morning, the Army Commander/ CDS [Shavendra Silva] and Defence Secretary [Kamal Gunaratne] arrived at my Mirihana residence.”

On the composition of the ‘aragalaya’

--“The minority communities were well represented within the aragalaya because each had a motivating factor to be there.”

--“There were NGO related foreign funded liberal political activists, youtubers [sic], and social media activists, then there were the usual opposition types associated with various political parties, the JVP, FSP (Peratugami Party), SJB and the UNP…. Virtually all of those at the Galle Face argalaya site were those who would have opposed me anyway.”

--“From day one, the so called argalaya was an operation inimical to Sinhala and particularly Sinhala-Buddhist interests, and it was well supported by foreign interests that had much the same objectives.”

On 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.”

--“These foreign powers maintain a permanent cadre of activists to promote their agenda in this country and can at short notice deploy dozens of commentators, speakers, writers to create public opinion on Sri Lanka…. Money is just one way of buying influence. Granting a permanent residence visa, giving a scholarship to the offspring of important persons, ‘research’ grants or even a simple foreign trip will even be enough to induce certain people to act against the national interest of their country.”

--“Thus we had a toxic mix of foreign money, geopolitical interests and notions of [liberal] ideological superiority all coming together at a strategically appropriate time to achieve the objectives of certain parties in Sri Lanka.”

On the Easter Sunday attacks

By mid-January 2022, the Cardinal started saying it was evident certain leaders used the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks to their political advantage.

--“What was now being alleged in so many words was that eight Muslim fanatics had launched a suicide attack in order to make me president”. The souring of relations is rooted in the Cardinal being dissatisfied with the investigation.

-- “The Cardinal’s pronouncements are creating more divisions in an already divided country. The icing on the cake will be when the Cardinal’s campaign based on wrong assumptions and conjecture against those not responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings results in yet another government that is totally dependent on the Muslim vote like the government of 2015-2019 and is unwilling to do anything to stop the spread of Islamic extremism in the country.”

On the failure of intelligence

--“If an organised mob can make its way to Colombo completely unopposed and then proceed to take over the President’s House, the Presidential Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Prime Minister’s official residence and to burn down the private residence of the incumbent Prime Minister, that can only be described as a law and order debacle.”

--“…though the intelligence service performed well in pandemic related duties, they completely missed the build-up of politicallymotivated mobs on the social media.”

--“Where a situation arises, the standard operating procedures are implemented automatically. In the months of May and July 2022 none of this happened the way it was meant to.”

On “structural shortcomings” that led to the debacle

One issue was there wasn’t much of a seniority gap between Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne and Army Commander Shavendra Silva. Both were Divisional Commanders during the war and saw themselves more or less as equals.

--“Whether the two got on well was doubtful. The Army Commander and Defence Secretary were working at cross purposes at times with the Army Commander disregarding instructions of the Defence Secretary. Kamal Gunaratne may not have had the same control over the armed services that I had as Defence Secretary because of these reasons.”

--“…strict protocols must be enforced to regulate, monitor and limit the interactions senior officers of the armed services, police and the intelligence services have with the staff of foreign embassies. Visits by foreign Ambassadors to military installations should also be stopped.”

On why he resigned

--“Many people have asked me why I resigned from the Presidency. There was in fact a major foreign power that was insisting that I should not resign and they had demonstrated their willingness to do whatever it takes to keep Sri Lanka supplied with essentials. Yet I resigned from the presidency [sic] to give the people of Sri Lanka some respite.”