{"id":23260,"date":"2013-07-26T04:19:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T08:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23260"},"modified":"2013-07-26T07:30:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T11:30:29","slug":"unless-ranil-wickremesinghe-resigns-now-or-is-immediately-ousted-the-unp-may-soon-become-the-third-political-force-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23260","title":{"rendered":"Unless Ranil Wickremesinghe Resigns Now or is Immediately Ousted the UNP may Soon Become the Third Political Force in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nby<\/p>\n

Vishnuguptha<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"20130726-072544.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The scourge of Ranil Wickremesinghe has fallen on the United National Party (UNP), the \u2018Grand Old Party\u2019 of Sri Lanka. The Party that once was the strength of the common masses, the Party towards which scores of Parliamentarians of the opposition ranks flocked, the Party that could boast about many a national achievement, from Mahaweli Program to Mahapola, massive housing schemes, land grants and of course, free education and the open-market economy has ended up as the laughing stock of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The UNP did not fall into this pit by accident, although its demise began with the assassination of the trio of its post-J R leaders, R Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake andLalith Athulathmudali. Ever since the present leader took over the navigational wheel into his hands, the United National Party has been drifting away in the muddy waters of Sri Lanka\u2019s politics, handing over key Party positions to his cronies whose physical closeness to himself was placed as a premium on the party hierarchy.<\/p>\n

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The leader\u2019s idiosyncrasies assumed a critical mass and the ever-so-ambitious young UNP Parliamentarians started playing to this novel spectacle of currying favor with the leader for whom competence, mass-popularity, political astuteness and decisive leadership at lower levels were not the influencing factors when placing various responsibilities of the Party on individuals. On the contrary, what mattered to the leader was subservient loyalty bordering on literal boot-licking and opposition to the popular individuals in the party who have a mass appeal beyond compare. This self-defeating modus operandi was more effective in the rapid destabilization of the important Party organs, such as Party Branches, Bala Mandalayas, nomination process and election or selection to the Party\u2019s decision-making bodies.<\/p>\n

The open vengefulness on the part of the leader played a very disturbing and retarding role in the lower-rung Party organizations leading to defeat after defeat at elections. This swift journey towards certain death at elections became a second nature with the passing of time and the Party hierarchy as well as the lower level representatives got totally enmeshed in a \u2018comfort zone\u2019 of their own, fast becoming used to mediocrity and listless meandering. This abnormal behavioral pattern of the Party soon started finding entry into the hearts and minds of the Party- Parliamentarians, members of the Working Committee, Provincial Councils and Pradesheeya Sabhas and right down to the village-level organizations if they still existed.<\/p>\n

With the introduction of the Provincial Council (PC) and Pradesheeya Sabha (PS) systems into the country\u2019s political and administrative apparatus, these new institutions, in a real sense, started acting as nursing grounds for future parliamentarians and the burning ambitions of these representatives of PCs and PSs were to become members of the highest legislative body in the country- the House of Parliament. This enabled the one who holds power of nomination to decide who gets in and who stays out. That is the power Ranil Wickremesinghe wields as leader of his Party. Those who seek nominations for these slots in the PCs and PSs become invariably beholden to the leader and his cohorts and this dependency syndrome in turn has created a set of budding politicians whose sole aim is to do whatever at their disposal in order to get the nod from the leader.<\/p>\n

In the meantime the Party leadership, in order to retain its power around the same incompetent individuals, resort to extra-democratic means such as arbitrary rulings, deprivation of time to speak in Parliament, \u2018disinviting\u2019 most popular politicians to major events organized by the Party etc. The water gets muddier when it comes to articulating the official position of the Party on the various contemporaneous issues such as constitutional affairs, protest campaigns and selection of district leaders. The disgust and distress set in on an unprecedented scale and the day they realized the gravity of pursuing such an extremely hazardous and suicidal journey is counterproductiveto the well-being of the Party and its followers, the proverbial train would had left the station.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, those who have been sidelined have become too exhausted of the pursuit that they chose to embark on and on the other hand, those who are happily placed in enviable slots in the Party have become too intoxicated with their own egoistic dreams. The average Party supporter is left in the lurch, not knowing what exactly to do at the next election. When the average Party supporter is left to his own vagaries he makes a conscious choice and that option is to stay away from the polling booth, for his attachment to the Party is too emotional for him to vote the other way. The Party leader and his cronies dwell in a cocoon of their own making and float unbelievable statistical tales making a case for a UNP victory at the forthcoming PC elections. This story keeps repeating itself in each and every election cycle and the lethargy and lack of ingenious politicking has lulled the Party into an utterly boring and static state. <\/p>\n

The cocoon mentality has crippled the entire machinery and dragged the whole apparatus to a visibly delusionary state. In this delusionary state, the leader keeps manufacturing his disinformation campaign by leaking completely false stories about the patch-up between Karu Jayasuriya\/ Sajith Premadasa and himself by curtsey of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Then he floats a story that reconciliation between all warring factions is imminent by releasing his trusted cronies to meet Karu Jayasuriya and other \u2018reformists\u2019. In addition, he indulges in total fallacies, an example of which is when he stated at a recent seminar that he, Ranil Wickremesinghe was part of the panel of eminent lawyers who drafted the 1978 Constitution, little realizing that those who really knew the facts are still in the land of living. Ranil Wickremesinghe was not even in the Cabinet at the time the 1978 Constitution was being drafted and it is public knowledge that those who were really involved in that job were J R\u2019s brother H W Jayewardene, Q. C. and former Supreme Court Justice Mark Fernando. Ranil must stop practicing this falsifying of facts for, if not, his already damaged credibility would take another severe plunge. <\/p>\n

The defection of Dayasiri Jayasekera from the UNP ranks to the Government comes in the midst of all this internal chaos and Ranil seems extremely vulnerable in such a quagmire. A defection of a major player of enormous potential such as Dayasiri cannot be understated, nor can the arguments for Ranil\u2019s ouster from the UNP leadership be foreclosed. As one pointed out, this is the sixty second UNP parliamentarian who has deserted the Party and joined the Government. However, in the annals of defection, Dayasiri stands alone because he is the only Parliamentarian who chose to cross to the other side after resigning his parliamentary seat. That in itself is unique and worthy of special praise. In light of this defection, the possibility of the UNP falling behind the 20% threshold in the Wayamba Province elections is looming and its residual effect on the Central Province would not be minimal either.<\/p>\n

What needs to happen to the United National Party, if it were ever to rejuvenate itself and reclaim the old glory is the immediate ouster or resignation of its leader. If he chooses to do that, as least as a temporary measure in view of the forthcoming PC elections, the UNP falling behind to the position of a third force that is very much in the present horizon could sometimes be averted..
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by Vishnuguptha The scourge of Ranil Wickremesinghe has fallen on the United National Party (UNP), the \u2018Grand Old Party\u2019 of Sri Lanka. The Party that once was the strength of the common masses, the Party towards which scores of Parliamentarians of the opposition ranks flocked, the Party that could boast about many a national achievement, …<\/p>\n

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