It looks as if Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa, the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka were in a position to add a few more chapters to the (in)famous servant of the Florentine Republic, Niccolo Machiavelli's magnum opus, The Prince, which is described as the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Or, he may even be able to author a far more advanced work than The Prince. (The King may be an appropriate title!) Views Machiavelli so pompously expounded in his works look pedestrian in comparison to the Medamulana Chinthanaya, according to which President Rajapaksa is manipulating Sri Lankan politics and politicians.

Not even Machiavelli would have been able to survive President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, having ruffled her aristocratic feathers. But, Mahinda Rajapaksa did! He once ordered Chandrika, a granddaughter of a Gate Mudliyar out of a political rally in the south, when she was a political drifter in the Opposition looking for an opening to make a comeback. Chandrika, after becoming President in 1994, true to form, avenged herself on him to her heart's content. He was never given a decent ministry but he was unstoppable. He bounced back after a few years to become the Opposition Leader in 2001 and Prime Minister in 2004, while President Kumaratunga was still ensconced in power. He managed to outfox her in style and be the SLFP's presidential candidate the following year.

Thereafter, he defeated a not-so-surreptitious move by the UPFA's kitchen cabinet and many others in its orbit to engineer his downfall. His was also a win against the so-called international community and the business elite who joined forces with his rivals to prevent his victory. After winning against a plethora of seemingly insurmountable odds, he went on to grab the party presidency bringing to an end the Bandaranaike family's hold on the SLFP.

Moreover, in 2004 Mahinda went all out to prevent a coming together of the JVP and the SLFP as an electoral alliance albeit in vain. The JVP's tit for tat came in the form of its opposition to the UPFA government's decision to appoint him Prime Minister. They promoted the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar against him. Ironically, in 2005 at the presidential election, Rathu Sahodarayas, who had left the Kumaratunga government and tried to prevent Mahinda becoming Prime Minister, supported him to the hilt and threw in their lot with him! For, he pretended to be willing to let them lead him by the nose! But, today, he has caused a split in the JVP and has one faction in his pocket in all but name.

Prabhakaran, too, underestimated Mahinda Rajapaksa and called for a polls boycott in the North and the East, which the UNP says, ruined the chances of its candidate at the 2005 presidential polls. The Tiger chief, while ducking bullets and nursing his precious legs that carry him from bunker to bunker, must be ruing the day he scuttled polling in the areas under his jackboot. (Having provoked President Rajapaksa into waging war by capturing the Mavil Aru reservoir in 2006 and got a thorough thrashing for his military miscalculation, he must be shuddering at the sight of even a wayside puddle!) Whoever thought Prabhakaran would have to do a marathon through the Eastern Province via Kilinochchi into the Wanni jungles after plunging the country back into war? He finds himself deserted by his international allies and INGO cronies!

At present, there are more UNP MPs in the government than in the Opposition. It is the UNP crossovers who are defending President Rajapaksa against the UNP! (That's what people in this country call 'using a pig's back for chopping its own flesh'.) He has silenced the bitterest of his critics in the Opposition by luring them into switching allegiance.

The then government lacked pluck and foresight to back the LTTE dissidents when Prabhakaran unleashed his killers on them in blatant violation of a ceasefire agreement, after their breakaway in 2004. But, President Rajapaksa grasped the nettle. He not only made use of Karuna and Chandrakanthan in clearing the East but also forged a strong political alliance with them in the face of severe criticism from various quarters. He won the LG and PC polls in the East with their help and made bold to appoint S. Chandrakanthan Chief Minister so that an alternative democratic Tamil political leadership would evolve in that part of the country-a prerequisite for ushering in normalcy.

President Rajapaksa pulled another rabbit out of the hat yesterday. Karuna was appointed to Parliament on the National List. Thus, has he ensured that the political force he is promoting against the LTTE in the East has representation both at the provincial level and at the centre. He has also preempted a possible clash between Chandrakanthan and Karuna over power and positions, which the Wanni faction and its allies might have exploited to destabilise the East. In the person of Karuna, the government also has an effective counter to the TNA in Parliament.

The TMVP's gain has been the JVP's loss. Karuna has filled the vacancy created by the resignation of JVP MP Wasantha Samarasinghe to contest PC polls. The JVP has fallen between two stools! Irate Rathu Sahodarayas are on the warpath demanding that their seat be given back. Dissident JVP top gun Wimal Weerawansa chose to twist the knife by shaking hands with Karuna, while the MPs of the Somawansa faction boycotted Parliament yesterday in protest.

The JVP has taken the UPFA to court over the National List seat at issue. We are wary of straying into the bailiwick of the good judges by venturing a comment on the matter. Suffice it to say the JVP, which demands a National List slot from the UPFA having left it in a huff is behaving like a man who deserts his wife but asks for dowry from her father as of right!

Our striped friend in the Vanni must be a worried man. He has to swallow his pride and run for dear life in the jungles, while his bête noire Karuna is going places in Colombo. On seeing the smartly dressed Karuna rubbing shoulders with the powers that be on TV, our friend sporting a cyanide capsule in a godforsaken corner of the country might even burst a blood vessel.