Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) last week published a book titled ‘The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency’ in English and Sinhala. 

Instead of holding a book launch event with great fanfare and inviting religious leaders, politicians, and foreign diplomats, as is customary for political leaders, GR sent copies of the 179-page book directly to main booksellers across the country. He issued only a media release announcing the publication of the book. 

Immediately after the release of the book, United National Party (UNP) Chairman MP Wajira Abeywardena announced that he would launch a book shortly, which related the inside story of how incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Head of State with a solitary seat in Parliament following the 2022 ‘Aragalaya’ uprising. He already released a compilation of newspaper cartoons about the President last week.

Local and foreign media have given much publicity to GR’s book, which he described as being based on the firsthand experience of an internationally sponsored regime change operation. The book, he said, would interest not only Sri Lankans but also foreigners.

However, the book does not seem to have created much sensation among the people of Sri Lanka, since it mostly contains matters that are already known to the public. Perhaps it would have attracted more attention if GR, who fled the country amidst an unprecedented people’s uprising and resigned from the presidency while in Singapore, had given his book a different title.

Talking of international and local conspiracies is a habit of the Rajapaksas, who have fabricated conspiracy theories to explain their failures. 

The Rajapaksas have been saying that the people’s uprising that drove them from power two years ago was a conspiracy by domestic and foreign forces. They do not accept that the people took to the streets and revolted against them as a result of their policies which led the country to bankruptcy for the first time in the history of modern Sri Lanka.

National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa, an erstwhile staunch ally of the Rajapaksas who turned against them after having being stripped of his ministerial position by GR in the early part of 2022, had already released a book titled ‘Nine: The Hidden Story’ on the alleged international conspiracy behind the ‘Aragalaya’ last year. It is reported that Weerawansa’s book contains more details than GR’s.

With the country awaiting national elections, the publication of GR’s book after he was forced to resign is being interpreted as a signal of his willingness to re-enter politics.

Meanwhile, there are those who say that it was not a coincidence that the book came out when elder brother Basil Rajapaksa returned from the US to steer the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) towards the elections.

GR’s claims

GR says in his book that he had to step down as a result of a regime change operation which had the support of international powers. Despite claiming that the book is based on firsthand experience of the conspiracy, he has avoided mentioning any country by name and did not produce any credible evidence of a conspiracy.

However, his contention is that the geopolitical rivalry between China and other countries was responsible for his downfall. He argues that his downfall was the result of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects after 2006 that brought an element of geopolitical contest in the Sri Lankan political landscape.

The former President has said that it would be extremely naïve for anyone to claim that there was no foreign hand in the moves made to oust him from power. He further says that foreign intervention in Sri Lanka started from the day he won the war against the Tamil Tigers.

“From the time I was elected as President in November 2019, local and foreign forces have started working to remove me from power. Immediately after I took office, the Covid-19 pandemic began spreading in Sri Lanka and across the world. I had to spend my two-and-a-half years in office trying to control the pandemic. 

“After the pandemic was brought under control by an effective vaccination campaign in March 2022 and when the economy was beginning to recover, the conspiratorial forces started their campaign to remove me from the presidency. Today foreign intervention and manipulation of internal politics has become a fact of life in Sri Lanka in a manner never experienced in the first 60 years of independence of this country. 

“Attempts to remove me from office have brought a new trend in the politics of Sri Lanka, which had witnessed a peaceful transition of power through democratic elections since independence,” GR said in his media release.

His comments at various points in the book reveal his belated acceptance that he was a political neophyte. He has openly stated that he was not able to properly exercise his power as he was not the leader of the ruling party. 

GR must have known why previous executive presidents, including his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, made sure that they were also the leaders of their parties. He believed that since the party was under the control of his brothers, he would not face any problem on the political front. Perhaps blood is thicker than water, but political power is thicker than blood.

GR vs. the ‘Aragalaya’ 

The main reason that prompted me to comment on GR’s book is to present some observations on important passages on the ‘Aragalaya’ uprising.

It appears that he has written this book to attribute ethnicity-based political reasoning for the  popular revolt against his rule. GR says that it was obvious that all ‘Aragalaya’-related protests, especially those held in Colombo, would have been motivated by the fear that if he continued in power, Sinhalese Buddhists would have been strengthened to the detriment of minority communities. The ‘Aragalaya,’ which had the support of foreign powers from the very first day, was inimical to the interests of the Sinhalese, especially Sinhalese Buddhists.  

He has further said that if anyone thoroughly examined those who gathered at the Colombo Galle Face Green, it could be clearly seen that all belonged to sections of the population that had already rallied against him. 

“The perception that I was against the Tamils and Muslims was reinforced. Although I maintained excellent relations with the Catholic Church, they also later turned against me. Those who participated in the ‘Aragalaya’ had different goals and priorities. 

“If anyone had an impression that the purpose of the ‘Aragalaya’ movement was to mitigate the hardships faced by the people as a result of the economic crisis, it is simply delusional. The agenda of diaspora Tamils demanding a united Sri Lanka instead of a unitary state was clearly visible in the ‘Aragalaya’. They have been demanding a political solution to ethnic conflict based on a federal set up,” the former President says.  

He has also gone to the extent of saying that his very election to power was the result of a contest between the Sinhalese and Buddhist interests on the one hand and all non-Sinhalese and non-Buddhist elements on the other.

Although the Supreme Court ruled in November last year that the three Rajapaksa brothers and some senior officials who held key positions in their Government, including the two former Governors of the Central Bank, were responsible for the collapse of the economy, GR adamantly refuses to accept that his Government was responsible for the crisis. He is intent on portraying  himself as an innocent victim of a dangerous conspiracy.

No doubt his narrative is a clear demonstration of the Rajapaksas’ determination to regain the support of the Sinhalese people by taking a stand against the interests of minority communities through the mobilisation of the majority community. They can easily attribute the political opposition to them as a conspiracy of foreign powers.

It is clear that the objective of the ‘Aragalaya’ movement was genuine. In the initial stages of the struggle there were manifestations of a political revolution which was carried out peacefully and turned the attention of the whole world towards Sri Lanka. 

However, when the movement turned into a mass struggle, various political forces infiltrated and diverted it to violence, storming strategic State buildings, including the President’s House, Temple Trees, and the Prime Minister’s Office, creating a convenient situation for the Government of President Wickremesinghe to justify repression. 

The ‘Aragalaya’ is a very recent example of the fate that would befall a popular uprising without clear objectives and proper leadership, albeit guided by progressive political principles. 

Upcoming moves 

The Rajapaksas never dreamt that the Sinhalese people would rise up against them so quickly. They were labouring under a strange belief that the Sinhalese community would be slavishly loyal to them forever and that Sri Lanka’s political power would be their monopoly. The family expected the Sinhalese to support them, tolerating their shenanigans without a murmur.

The Rajapaksas either need to return to power or ensure that someone who does not hold them accountable for their past misrule comes to power. There is no doubt that their moves in the coming days will be based on this objective. They have no way to rebuild their party and regain the support of the Sinhalese people other than through indulging in propaganda about an imaginary international conspiracy and anti-minority politics. 

When considering today’s geopolitical situation, it is not a new phenomenon for powerful countries to intervene in internal affairs of other countries and manipulate political forces there, but it should be understood that the actions of rulers create a situation conducive for such interventions.

GR’s view that the popular uprising was against the interests of Sinhalese Buddhists is an insult to that community. Only the next election will show whether the attempts at majoritarian mobilisation will gain traction with the Sinhalese masses. 

No longer should majoritarian mobilisation be allowed to cover up corruption and misrule. If not, there will be no future for Sri Lanka.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)