After Anura, Namal?

José Mujica, the poorest president in the world, died this week. As a young activist he had joined the Marxist Tupamaros guerrilla movement and was imprisoned for 14 years, most of it ina hole in a ground where he befriended ants and a frog to stay sane. During his five years as Uruguay’s president, he continued to live in his ramshackle farmhouse-home with his wife and threelegged dog Manuela, went about driving his old Volkswagen car, and donated most of his salary to charities.

- BY TISARANEE GUNASEKARA

Since the Uruguayan constitution does not permit consecutive presidential terms, Mr. Mujica bowed out in 2015. Despite a 70% popularity rate, he didn’t consider another presidential run. In one of his final interviews, he criticised left-wing presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela for clinging to power and wondered at comeback attempts by Cristian Kirchner of Argentina and Evo Morales of Bolivia. “How hard it is for them to let go of the cake,” he marvelled ((https://www.france24.com/en/livenews/20241129-we-re-messing-up-uruguayicon-mujica-on-strongman-rule-in-latin-americ a).

Not wanting to ‘let go of the cake,’ isa political norm in today’s Sri Lanka. “Politicians never retire from politics,” Mahinda Rajapaksa said in 2024 (https://www.instagram.com/dailymirrorlk/r eel/DBLMDBtsP82/). ). He had done more than most to set that trend in motion. Up until 2005, presidents retired after completing their two terms. President Rajapaksa removed the two-term provision in 2010, contested for a third term in 2015, lost, and, instead of retiring, contested the general election becoming an ordinary parliamentarian.

Anything to keep even a sliver of the cake. “Attachment is the root of suffering,” The Buddha warned (https://suttacentral.net/mn105/en/sujato?la ng=en&layout=plain&reference=none¬es= asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin). When political leaders become attached to power, the suffering becomes nationalised. For instance, had JR Jayewardene not been so intent on maintaining power, there would have been no 1982 Referendum and all the ills which followed.

Mr. Jayewardene wanted power for himself and his party. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attachment to power is dynastic. He wants power, if not for himself, then for an immediate family member. In 2019, this gave us Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In 2029, it might give us Namal Rajapaksa.