Michel Nugawela, in Daily Mirror, 9 January 2019, where the title is “Symbolic power of Rajapaksa brand” …
5 =Pope and King’ ideal-leader type worships Sri Lankan ground
7= Father’s masculine virility and generative capacity
In 1996, a punishing drought crippled hydroelectricity generation and impacted households and industry with gruelling eight-hour blackouts. Thousands of farmers faced crop failure and bankruptcy as Chandrika Kumaratunga limped along without plan or purpose. “Her goals are impeccable but her execution seems faulty,” said the roving American journalist Ron Gluckman, observing that the weather had even turned against “Sri Lanka’s bad-luck president”.
When rains failed
In contrast to Kumaratunga’s lacklustre response, consider Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reaction to the drought of 2012, with his prompt request to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fly the Kapilvastu Relics, believed to be the bone fragments of the Buddha, from India’s National Museum in Delhi to Colombo. The relics, conferred with the status of a head of state according to diplomatic convention, were revered as holy objects of awe by the thousands of faithful Buddhists who lined the streets to view, venerate and seek their intercessory powers for increased rainfall and bountiful harvests.
