Sri Lanka elections: This is what Indian netas should learn from fall of Mahinda Rajapaksa

As Mahinda Rajapaksa conceded defeat in Sri Lanka on Friday morning, ceding the Presidency to his former health minister Maithripala Sirisena, he would probably have wondered how things went so horribly wrong.

When he ended the 25-year-old war with the LTTE in 2009, Rajapaksa looked invincible. He overrode concerns about human rights violations to push for a military end to the conflict, gathering support from a war weary nation which was ready for peace at any cost. He was celebrated as a hero, particularly in the Sinhala majority South, and was often likened to a ‘king’ who had ‘saved the nation’.

So how did that kind of mass support deteriorate into a wave of anti-incumbency that led to his ouster amid much celebration? The rise and fall of Mahinda Rajapaksa is a fascinating tale with all the ingredients of a great political pot boiler. The human rights lawyer/activist who morphed into a symbol of human rights violations, the tall claims of ‘development’ amid family excess and corruption, the ‘strongman’ who ran roughshod over all and yet wanted to be loved, and of course his final fall fueled by hubris and denial. His story in fact, holds some important lessons for Indian political leaders, least of which is not to take your electorate for granted.

Here are a few morals of the Rajapaksa morality tale:

* Nepotism has no place in a democracy

One of the biggest criticisms against Mahinda Rajapaksa was the blatant nepotism and favouritism afforded to members of his family. Sirisena summed it up best when he said that Rajapaksa ruled the country like it was a ‘corrupt family business’.

Ever since his election as President in 2005, Rajapaksa was noted for appointing members of his family to senior political positions.

When he was first elected, he appointed his brother Gotabhaya as Defence secretary and another brother, Basil as Senior Presidential advisor. With the election of the third brother Chamal along with Basil and his son Namal to Parliament in 2010, Chamal was appointed Speaker of Parliament and Basil the Minister of Economic Development. Between them the three brothers took charge of five government ministries, controlling an estimated 70 percent of the budget.

Indian voters delivered a similar message when they voted out the Gandhi family and the Congress party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.  From the Karunanidhi family in Tamil Nadu to the Chautala family in Haryana, politicians have paid the high price of nepotism, yet the lesson never quite sinks in.

* Encouraging fringe extremism will backfire on you

One major blot on the last few years of the Rajapaksa regime was the rise of fringe extremist Sinhala Buddhist groups, who began targeting the minority Muslim population. Most popular among these was the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), which talked up Buddhist supremacy and took particular offence to Halal meat and the Hijab. A series of violent protests saw a Muslim group agree to remove the display ‘Halal’ certification from foods. The BBS was also responsible for deadly riots in Aluthgama in Southern Sri Lanka.

Although the BBS was never actively encouraged by the Rajapaksa government, it chose to remain silent about their increasing vitriolism and violence, which served to alienate the Muslim people. This indifference to minorities, combined with their treatment of the Tamil people in the North and East, particularly after the war was won, was what ultimately cost them the election.

People speculated that the BBS was being utilised to rally the majority Sinhala community against a perceived minority threat, so as to convince them to vote en masse. If so, the ‘reverse polarisation’ strategy backfired. Amit Shah, BJP take note?

* Development by itself means nothing without other rights

Apart from the 2009 war victory, the other major plank of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s poll campaign was ‘development’. Aided by massive loans from China, Rajapaksa set on an agenda of road building, including a high speed expressway from Colombo to the southern city of Galle, which cut travel time from three hours to one, and an Airport highway which eased congestion on the main road linking the airport to Colombo. Other arterial roads and highways were widened and tarred, while Colombo underwent a huge makeover. Lakes were cleaned, houses whitewashed, roads widened, and boulevards constructed.

However, all this came sans other fundamental rights - like the right to dissent and criticise and the right to an accountable government. Laws were changed and passed at whim, the chief justice of the country was impeached because she pointed out constitutional discrepancies in a financial bill pertaining to people’s pension fund. More recently, in the name of ‘urban development’, a whole street of people with legitimate deeds to their property were evicted and their houses demolished.

As the poll results reveal, voters did not think Rajapaksa’s development model was worth such a high price.

* Patriotism is no counter to misgovernance

While nationalistic chest thumping is all very well, the hard truth is that patriotism is secondary to a person’s quality of life. A truth that Rajapaksa failed to recognise. While he was busy styling himself as a ‘king’ of the people, his style of governance was more Marie Antoinette - of the ‘Let them eat cake’ variety. With food prices, essentials and fuel at unprecedented highs and salaries barely keeping pace, the average Sri Lankan found himself at the wolves’ door. When you are struggling to make ends meet from day to day,the slogans of patriotism tend to ring hollow.

Above all, Rajapaksa lost this election because he forgot he was the leader of a democracy where voters demand more of their leaders than a shiny new road and an empty slogan. And they exercised their right to let him know exactly that.