Were the Qur’an to be revealed now in Sri Lanka, it would have highlighted the disgraceful fall of President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapakse as a stark warning for posterity in the manner it highlighted the doom of many individuals and nations of the past.
In this article I would not evoke Ibn Khaldun or, for that matter, Arnold Toynbee, to drive home certain universal laws, breaking of which cause the downfall of nationsand tribes. Rather, I strive to use common sense grounded on the Qur’anic teachings about how a man pulls misery upon himself by his own handiwork, as the matter is related to a single individual.
It is about a man of zero political experience, who by dint of excessive political power received from the Sinhala majority, impoverished a prosperous nation.
President Gotabaya created history on two occasions that no other Sri Lankan leader did, first by parachuting into the fray without having the experience of holding an elected office, even of a village council; second, fleeing the country stealthily in a state of fear, not as a brave leader who tactically retreats from the political arena for the purpose of replanning.
Mortal Injury Inflicted Upon Sinhala Intellect
President Gotabaya’s political ascendence has mortally injured the balanced thinking ability of a considerable number of the Sinhala people.
We witnessed the rapid growth of an unfortunate triumphalism replacing common sense among a significant Buddhist population with arrogance and radical chauvinism; the religion of aloofness and non-violence becoming a tool for rancour and vengeance;
ephemeral human feelings such as jealousy and anger overpowering gracious human qualities such as generosity and tolerance.Deceived by a toxic ideology of Sinhala supremacism blended with Islamophobia, the majority community voted him overwhelmingly, as crowning a political pre-schooler with 6.9 million votes plus two-third majority in the parliament was not a small thing in Sri Lanka.
They applauded him with all sorts of dynamic
attributes, calling him Sri Lanka’s Mahathir Mohammed and Lee Kwan Yew.
The Malaysians and Singaporeans should have reminded Gota-enthusiasts that these two leaders created wonders when they were young and carried a vast wealth of political astuteness all along their careers, not as uncles of 70s standing near the gate of their graves. As God Almighty mentions “Nay, surely man transgresses; for he believes himself to be self-sufficient”, (Surah Alaq:6-7), brimmed by the outlandish praise gained,President Gota arrogated to himself the position of redeemer of the Sinhala race, believing that the voters chose him to the job based on his fanciful Viyathmaga social revival programme.
When he pronounced in his inaugural address in the sacred Ruwanwelisaya temple premises that it was the Sinhala Buddhists who entrusted him the responsibility, so his primary obligation is to fulfil their aspirations, he transgressed the moral boundary that no Buddhist leader dared to do so brazenly.
It was where he shot his brain with a stuntbolt pistol. He and his coterie, some of whom are highly celebrated intellectuals and professionals, apparently preached indigenous wisdom, but brilliant nonsense. They spread filthy tales about Muslim schemes to destroy the Sinhala race, such as some sort of infertility-gel-contained underwear sold in
Muslim shops exclusively to Buddhist women.
The infamous fertiliser ban, cursing the GCC countries for being Muslim, burning of Muslim Covid-19 deaths, disregard for the globally accepted norms of governance and economics, attempts to suppress Muslim businesses so on and so forth were thought to be signs of Sinhala revivalism in his lexicon of illusions. His political silliness was so manifestly demonstrated when he told followers that he became the president to accomplish some elevated tasks, not to solve the crisis of rice and cooking gas; the lopsided “One Country, One Law” campaign that allusively targeted Muslim Personal Law, is a perfect display of his ignorance about Sri Lanka’s history of legislation.
The more chants of praise he received from the monks and far-right elements within the Buddhist community, the higher he went up in arrogance. He, either relied heavily on himself for advice or his closed-circle of advisors, mostly bootlickers of utter incompetency in governance and economic management. He is deprived of the balanced third way in which a political leader weighs his opinion against the opinion of his advisors contextually before making decisions.
The mess he created for us shows that, his political immaturity apart, he does not possess the ability to distinguish right from wrong. One would wonder, why the much-feared former defence secretary, a man with a sort of strict military discipline, could not act decisively in dealing with political dissidents.
The most sensible answer is that he does not possess the power of persuasion, an essential quality of a political leader. When he was jeered by some opposition members with “Go home Gota” slogan during a parliamentary session, the much touted “Terminator” retreated like a cockroach, which no seasoned politician without any military badges would do.
Terminator in the Wrong Seat
The art of persuasion does not dwell in the mind of a person who believes in the language of force. He believes that people can be ruled by strangulating them by the neck. In his mind common sense becomes dysfunctional paving the way for his desires to rule over him.
The Qur’an describes the mental state of such a man in the most beautiful manner: “Did you ever consider the case of him who took his desire as his god, and then Allah caused him to go astray despite knowledge, and sealed his hearing and his heart, and cast a veil over his sight? (Al Jathia:23) Once in this state of mind, a person becomes a slave of his whims and desires, which prompt him to commit dastardly acts with blinded impunity to achieve his despicable goals.
The fundamental flow in human perception is its inability to accept that man is impotent and weak without the help of God Almighty! Man cannot be god; some daring military victories cannot elevate a person to the level of god.
Neither election victories nor possession of huge wealth can make one all-mighty. Rise and fall are integral cycles of human life on earth as ordained by God. When excessive political power is concentrated in one hand, corruption and arrogance increase; greed and autocracy replace all kinds of civilized behaviour; it makes the system oppressive beyond all moral boundaries; the individuals who cling on to such powers with a violent grip assume themselves to be infallible and absolutely free from all forms of accountability.
Arrogance and oppression of such hands reach their highest tip. This is the stage where social order in a nation collapses and justice loses its significance. In fact, justice becomes blind and ineffective when the affluent lot engage in serious crimes. Crimes of the affluent of any great magnitudes are covered up by deceptive means or buried under the earth using brutal force. Looting and swindling of public wealth by political bigwigs and their cronies by ways of projects commissions, kickbacks, consultancies, contracts etc., become norms of the day. These bigwigs act against the very laws that they themselves painstakingly
enacted.
Threats, fear, intimidation and bastinado are the tools these bankrupt rulers resort to. As a
result, public anger and frustration increase and pile up. When a people reach a point where they do not have anything more to lose, they rise up. The first thing they break at this point is ‘fear’. They become fearless and ferocious to the extent of sacrificing their own lives for the cause they believe fair and just. When public wrath reaches its climax, the situation explodes resulting in the overthrow of rulers. History is a truthful witness at all times and this is what it tells us.
When Nandasena Gotabaya’s presidential caravan reached the point of sinking in the swamp of his own, he shot his legs and fell to the ground like a wretch. “God does not wrong man, but man by his own choice wrongs himself” is an unequivocal Qur’anic principle.
All of us Sri Lankans deserve to be ruled by a true Buddhist patriot.
M. Asim Alavi
Email: asimalav@yahoo.com
