{"id":20729,"date":"2013-04-29T02:51:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T06:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20729"},"modified":"2013-04-29T02:51:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T06:51:39","slug":"left-and-right-together-created-the-myth-that-ranil-is-simply-not-fit-to-be-president-and-is-actually-unelectable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=20729","title":{"rendered":"Left and Right Together Created The Myth That Ranil Is Simply Not Fit To Be President And Is Actually Unelectable"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Kumbhakarna<\/strong><\/p>\n

T. S. Eliot wrote his celebrated poem \u2018The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock\u2019 in 1917, thirty two years before Ranil Wickremesinghe was born. Therefore, it\u2019s hardly correct to assume that Eliot based his Prufrock poem on Ranil. But, when you read through this long but delightful satirical poem, you can\u2019t help noticing an uncanny resemblance. I don\u2019t wish here to keep contributing to that miserable sport of lampooning Ranil (as Mr. Bean, etc). But the very fact that I suddenly thought of Sri Lanka\u2019s unlucky Opposition Leader while reading Eliot\u2019s poem shows how this kind of thing can work itself into the subconscious. It works like advertising, compelling you to think of a product not independently but according to advertising stereotypes.<\/p>\n

And so it is with politics. Many journalists who normally hate each other, both left-wing and right wing, get together when they want some target practice. Their favourite target is Ranil Wickremesinghe. This criticism can differ in some detail. The left hates him for being classy and arrogant. The right hates him being not nationalist (or chauvinist) enough. Both sides hate him for not being the kind of macho, manly street fighter they believe to be the right man to lead Sri Lanka, unafraid of anything not just on earth but even beyond the Milky Way \u2013 the kind of insolent juggernaut who can roll over public opinion (which hardly matters), international opinion, The United Nations, the EU, the Indian government, the United States, the IMF, the Commonwealth \u2013 you name it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The left and right got together to create the myth that Ranil is simply not fit to be president and is actually unelectable. Journalist Victor Ivan is just one of those strident voices. We can get back to that first point later; as to the second, it is largely a myth. Ranil has been very unlucky, that\u2019s all. He may have been president in 2006 if Prabhakaran hadn\u2019t been stupid enough to block his northeastern votes. But, before we discuss that \u2018unelectable Ranil\u2019 myth in more detail, let\u2019s look at this very dangerous Sri Lankan mindset of believing that \u2018when the going gets tough, the tough get going\u2019.<\/p>\n

In other words, toughness prevails. You can see this in all walks of life. The cinema, the earliest common art form to turn this folk fantasy into every day entertainment. The stereotype tough guy hero best personified by the late Gamini Fonseka (a model derived from India) prevails to this day. The difference is that politics have replaced films as entertainment.<\/p>\n

In real life, we have many other examples. Neighbours and drivers get tough over the simplest disputes. Policemen, like politicians or kachchery clerks, are expected to be tough. Nowadays, even schoolchildren get tough easily. Arjuna Ranatunge set an example to both schools and offices when he got tough with Australian umpire Darrel Hair. That Hair was stupid and nasty (and possibly racist) is another matter. But Ranatunga broke cricket laws and protocol (which are international, and not created at Ananda College, Colombo) by waggling his finger at the man. He was an instant hero. This government must have learnt something from Ranatunge, because it doesn\u2019t care a whit about international rules of the game. No wonder Ranil Wickremesinghe looks ineffectual by comparison.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa, on the other hand, is everyone\u2019s dream leader. He\u2019s big made, physically strong, wears a sarong (a throwback to the tough guy of the Sinhala films, though Gamini Fonseka culturally inhabited a larger world, at home in both sarong and pants), yells when he gets angry, and looks the archetypal tough guy in any context \u2013 parliament, football game, official ceremony, independence day TV broadcast.<\/p>\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe just can\u2019t compete. He can\u2019t talk with throaty menace, nor can he freeze anyone with a stare. He can\u2019t punch anyone on the jaw, or kick a football without making himself look silly. But he can write. Recently, he wrote an excellent analysis of Sucharitha Gamlath to the Sinhala weekly Ravaya. No other Sri Lankan politician could have written that. But the ability to write is not something that will please the electorate. <\/p>\n

I now have serious doubts how about his fitness to rule this country, though not for any of the above. It\u2019s due to his actions a democratic leader after all his reactions to the impeachment of the Chief Justice and by his handling of UNP internal matters. He looks increasingly like a man who has cracked under pressure.<\/p>\n

It may be that he has been under pressure for too long. There are two kinds of leaders: those who grow and improve under pressure cooker situations (Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Benazir Bhutto) and those who deteriorate. Unfortunately, Ranil isn\u2019t in the former category. But that still doesn\u2019t rule out his eligibility for the top job. While he certainly isn\u2019t the best out of a bad lot, neither is he the worst. And has anyone ever considered he might be lonely at the top? His most trusted stalwarts have abandoned him in droves and are filling government seats. <\/p>\n

Ranil is waiting for his chance. Unfortunately, he isn\u2019t going to fight for it, which is what Sri Lankans want. They want a street fighter, somebody who can get bloodied and will not hesitate to hit under the belt. They don\u2019t care if he wants to represent genuine democracy, whatever style. Also, he\u2019s a typical democratic politician in that he doesn\u2019t worship the military. But, if elected as president, I wonder if Ranil would bother about being democratic now, simply because the chaotic, violent Sri Lanka he must rule may be ungovernable with democratic niceties. That would require a leader of serious mettle, a Thatcher in reverse, but Ranil isn\u2019t that. Of course, he\u2019ll have better foreign policy, but it\u2019s survival, not foreign policy, which fills the minds of most voters. <\/p>\n

Another criticism is that Ranil is aloof. He smiles rarely, if ever. He\u2019s not going to kiss children and vow their mothers and grandmothers. He\u2019s not going to kick footballs, and he\u2019s not the kind of hypocrite who\u2019ll turn ascetic on Poya Day. His lack of hypocrisy is among his biggest failings. But, if elected, he\u2019ll occasionally put his foot in his mouth and govern as best as he can. The problem is that he looks increasingly useless while trying to hang in there. <\/p>\n

Another argument against Ranil is that he\u2019s the weakest, least imaginative of the \u2018shining star\u2019 line up of UNP leaders who emerged with JR Jayawardhane in 1977. This is quite true. But then, the rest have died, largely as a result of their own chauvinistic politics, and you can\u2019t blame Ranil for that. To his credit, Ranil wasn\u2019t in Jaffna when the municipal library was burnt down. He certainly didn\u2019t direct mobs in July 1983 (a fact which irks both our left and right, though both sides must share responsibility of that catastrophe). <\/p>\n

Finally, Ranil isn\u2019t corrupt, which again doesn\u2019t please anyone. He doesn\u2019t want money. He only wants power, which is a quality of a democratic politician, because such people know that the state will look after their personal expenses and rid them of monetary headaches, leaving them free to rule while enjoying political power and its privileges. He\u2019d thrive in a place with a savvier, sophisticated electorate who has more faith in science than in religious charms and other mumbo jumbo.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Sri Lanka which he must address is sliding more and more into superstition, ignorance and anarchy with each passing day.<\/p>\n

His failing is that, in a time of acute political crisis, he\u2019s unable to come up with a creative solution to counter the retrogressive Mahinda Chinthanaya (as Tony Blair successfully countered Thatcherism with his New Labour). What the UNP\u2019s ultras are now projecting, via Sajith Premadasa, is a green-painted version of Mahinda Chinthayana, which nobody wants. That leaves us with a real dilemma because \u2013 as ineffective, ridiculous, aloof and unathletic as Ranil might seem, it\u2019s hard to think of anyone else in opposition ranks who has a counter strategy to Mahinda Chinthanaya. That leaves us hard-working, salaried dredges without a future, and Ranil stranded in a political no man\u2019s land — unless he starts taking steroids and learns to kick a football.
\n COURTESY:DAILY MIRROR<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kumbhakarna T. S. Eliot wrote his celebrated poem \u2018The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock\u2019 in 1917, thirty two years before Ranil Wickremesinghe was born. Therefore, it\u2019s hardly correct to assume that Eliot based his Prufrock poem on Ranil. But, when you read through this long but delightful satirical poem, you can\u2019t help noticing …<\/p>\n

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