Lanka’s ‘Crown Princes’ Still Playing The Power Game

“The last ‘crown prince’ on our list is Sajith Premadasa, the only son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He has not been blessed with political fortunes as the other ‘crown princes’ because his father was assassinated before he entered politics.”
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by Gamini Weerakoon

(June 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The rise and fall of ‘crown princes’ has been very much a part of contemporary history of Sri Lanka. Right now there are two such ‘princes’ attempting to climb the ladder but let’s begin at the beginning.

Dudley — the ‘crown prince’ who became ‘king

With independence and D.S. Senanayake as Ceylon’s (as Sri Lanka was then known) first prime minister, it was apparent that his son Dudley, was being groomed for premiership by his father. The charismatic young man in his thirties was for a start a cabinet minister in his father’s cabinet. Cambridge educated Dudley was popular among his colleagues and the people, but there were senior colleagues of outstanding ability such as Sir John Kotelawala and J.R. Jayewardene who too vied for the ‘prime minister’s top hat’ as it was called.

When D.S. Senanayake fell from his horse while riding on Galle Face Green and died soon after, the tussle for the ‘top hat’ ensued and Dudley came on top. It was alleged in UNP circles itself that the ‘old man’ had conspired with then Governor General Lord Soulbury to have his son as successor. Sir John the outspoken critic and a runner for the PM’s top hat, had referred to Dudley as a ‘pin gona.’ There was the anonymous booklet — premier stakes in which it was alleged that it was fixed for Dudley, but he did become the second prime minister of the country.

He was indeed a very acceptable ‘crown prince’ for later, he emerged as prime minister three times, winning and losing and finally on his death, soon after a disastrous defeat to Sirimavo Bandaranaike, being vindicated. The massive crowd of mourners that thronged Colombo for over a week was an expression of their regrets and sorrow for their fallen ‘crown prince’.

Anura the brilliant

The next ‘crown prince’ in line was Anura Bandaranaike, son of two prime ministers. He became a force behind his mother who was then the prime minister. But the Marxists allied to Mrs. Bandaranaike saw him as an ally of the powerful rightist, Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike and opposed to them.

Anura, a brilliant orator, did not fear to cross swords even with the best verbal swordsmen of the left and the right. Leftists called him the ‘clown prince’ to ridicule him and the name stuck.

Anura suffered the same fate as the Crown Prince of Britain, Prince Charles whose mother the queen refused to give leeway to her son as successor. Anura fell out with his mother many a time and also made up with her but the matriarch firmly held on to the leadership of the party. There was sister Chandrika too running for leadership of the party and finally Anura due to his inconsistent temperament, lost out to his sister.

But the ultimate winner was not the sister but Anura’s right hand man in his quarrels with his sister, one Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa, who (to describe in rugby terms) at the closing stages of the match, sneaked the ball away, worked the blind side and touched down to beat both brother and sister. The ‘crown prince’ died young — a disappointed man.

Rukman the reluctant

Another potential ‘crown prince’ is Rukman Senanayake, grandson of D.S. Senanayake and nephew of Dudley. Even though Rukman helped J.R. Jayewardene to take off in his victorious campaign of 1977 by winning the Dedigama seat in a hard fought by-election, J.R. soon distanced him from the UNP leadership and for 18 years he was in the political wilderness till R. Premadasa invited him back to the party.

Rukman however is a retiring politician and does not want to enter the fray. When Ranil Wickremesinghe did not appoint him as a nominated MP this year, the appointment being a foregone conclusion because Rukman was the deputy leader of the party, he simply stepped back. In an interview with this writer soon after the incident, he categorically stated that the UNP Leader should support Sajith Premadasa who had done well all by himself against the might of the Rajapaksas in Hambantota.

The new ‘crown prince’

The brand new ‘crown prince’ now on show is Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son and heir of President Rajapaksa. Even before the recent presidential and parliamentary elections, the media knew well that the young man was being prepared for great things.

He kind of pole-vaulted into the leadership of youth organisations such as Tharunyata Hetak. He has become a star on state TV as well as some of the privately owned print media who are glad to lick the boots of the rulers in power and today, TV and the press trail the newest ‘crown princes’ as they always do when such a ‘prince’ surfaces. The young man is seen in many state functions even though he is still the most junior of MPs while very many senior politicians including ministers fail to appear.

Namal Rajapaksa graduated from London’s City University and his ambition is to be a lawyer. He is now a student in the Law Faculty of the Colombo University as well as Law College while being an MP. But it is apparent his attraction is politics.

Rajapaksa’s appearances at places which junior MPs are not entitled to be present has raised eye brows in Colombo’s political circles. For example, he landed in Thimpu for 16th Summit of South Asian Cooperation (SAARC) in a special plane carrying the President and First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa with a limited entourage, others being: External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Sajin Vass Gunawardene MP (and a secretary to the president) and Mohan Peiris, the Attorney General. Political observers noted that the names of those from the Foreign Ministry, not even that of Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were mentioned in the despatches from Thimpu. There is widespread speculation both here and abroad that the young ‘crown prince’ is being groomed as successor to his father even over and above that of his powerful uncles.

‘Crown Prince’ in isolation

The last ‘crown prince’ on our list is Sajith Premadasa, the only son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He has not been blessed with political fortunes as the other ‘crown princes’ because his father was assassinated before he entered politics.

However, Ranasinghe Premadasa was building a political base in Hambantota in the last days before his death, into which Sajith has moved in and done quite well. He has taken on the Rajapaksa’s in their own den and done creditably well, winning four elections since 2000 and scoring over 80 percent of the preferential votes cast for the UNP. A further disadvantage for him has been that the UNP was split into two major factions during the last days of his father and there is still resistance to a Premadasa within the party.

It’s a long and uphill climb for young Premadasa for he is covertly locking horns with the party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, from whom he wants to wrest the leadership. Sajith, like scions of all ‘peoples’ leaders’ of Sri Lanka, had his education in UK, at the exclusive Millhill School and the London School of Economics. At the moment he is the favourite ‘crown prince’ of UNPers — at least some of them.