How did he succeed in obliterating the names of all the leaders of the post-independent Sri Lanka? It was through his commitment and dedication to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and this was primarily in the context of a massive challenge by the LTTE which, according to many, was invincible.

It was his firm belief in the need to protect the unitary character of the Sri Lankan State which, in the end, motivated him to launch a humanitarian offensive to crush the LTTE, and its demolition and the virtual annihilation brought in a massive fund of political support which, in the given context, is a major political resource which, through its integral relationship to ancient traditions and traditional symbols of power and legitimation, is certain to provide him and his party with many more such resources to strengthen himself and the party in power. It is commonly accepted that once a leader is positioned at the very apex of the political ladder, when can he find political resources to muster support on behalf of his position and his purposes? With regard to this matter of political significance, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, unlike all leaders who preceded him in office, converted all the available traditional symbols of power and instruments of legitimation, based in the ancient history and ancient political lore, into very effective sources of aggregation of interests and mobilisation of mass support. It was a kind of political strategy based on a tradition - not an invented tradition - which can be described as the careful re-construction and renewal of an ancient tradition through which a political resource has been unearthed to sustain himself in power. He, on the basis of this resource, has now emerged as the most outstanding leader whose position is unassailable and unchallengeable primarily because of the popular acceptance which he commands in the country. It is an incomparable political achievement.

This special feature in relation to the political leadership in Sri Lanka has had a tremendous impact on the political process, especially within the parties in the political opposition in the country.

The opposition, both inside and outside the legislature, is in total disarray and is in steep decline; its support base has been damaged beyond repair. As Harold Laski said, the Opposition, particularly the Parliamentary Opposition does not know how to "bicker safely". It does not bicker at all and it engages only in cheap political rehetoric. Therefore President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the SLFP, with its tactics and current strategies, have successfully engineered this crisis within the main party in the opposition whose support base has begun to erode on a mass scale. All political parties in the Opposition are faced with a legitimacy crisis where their membership has begun to desert the parties and they, with full enthusiasm, have begun to join the SLFP en masse because of the visible failure of their parties to provide leadership to an effective alternative. This is a major crisis within the ranks of the opposition which specialises only on political rehetoric instead of effective and efficient political strategies. The growing rebellion within the UNP has weakened its leadership as well as its popular base which has now begun to erode because of its failure to understand its own role and its interests. Its leader cannot hide his own lack of authority within the UNP, and its political impotence is the biggest advantage to the Coalition in power. The United National Party has a leader who cannot re-assure his supporters due to the lack of imagination and strategies. It, apart from its lack of cohesion, cannot generate new ideas, and the party, therefore, is in steep decline. The latest Provincial Council Elections in Uva and South amply demonstrate this fact, and the decline of the UNP a permanent feature in the politics of the country, cannot be arrested even with a change in its present leader.

The Coalitions, to which the SLFP provided leadership since 1956, are an unique experience in the politics of Sri Lanka; the SLFP has tactfully given places to all shades of minority representation. The present Coalition led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa is perhaps the only Government in post-independent Sri Lanka that accommodated such a variety of minority interests. All minority political parties remain fragmented and they have failed to show their ability to work on the basis of a joint political agenda and this again is due to their own regional and communal agenda. The Government, at this point of time in Sri Lanka, has to perform a number of complex functions that require continued governmental capability. All functions of government, therefore, demand political capability, and the SLFP and its leader, President Mahinda Rajapaksa have endeavoured to develop a capacity to defend the territorial integrity of the State, while taking calculated measures to sustain both internal order and economic and social development. The whole process of change, that is now taking place under the leadership of the SLFP, is derived from such imperatives of governance, for which all interests have to be carefully aggregated. This has been the main achievement of this coalition government led by the SLFP, and this particular strategy needs elaboration to understand the new processes of change in Sri Lanka. No party can remain in power without aggregating sufficient power through the activation of individuals and groups who have power, and the SLFP, with its experience in coalition politics, has successfully mobilised the power of such groups in order to pursue its own political objectives and purposes. A leader needs certain political skills to manage power in a complex situation, and it is the political resource which one commands that gives the leader the opportunity to project an effective personalised charismatic leadership as represented in the style of leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who, through a unique kind of charisma, has put the entire opposition on the defensive. The role and leadership of the SLFP, therefore, combines history, tradition, ideology and personality, and the party, based on such historical foundations, has now emerged as the most powerful political formation, which, given its solid popular base in the Sri Lankan polity, is certain to remain the party of the Government for a considerable length of time. Through President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s personality, his style of leadership and the wide popular acceptance which he still commands within the polity, the party has obtained the kind of legitimacy which it needs to remain in power. It has not been acquired; it has been thrust upon the party on the basis of a number of historical and contemporary political factors. Sri Lanka Freedom Party, as in its history in the past 57 years, has produced a leader to undertake yet another historical mission on behalf of the party. With the annihilation of the LTTE, which claimed invisibility for more than three decades, a page in history has been turned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The mere fact that this is so is enough to change the vision of every politician and every citizen in Sri Lanka.