After Ranil?
 Wickremesinghe
has his strengths as much as he has vulnerabilities. He is from the crop
of Parliamentarians who entered the legislature in 1977 during
J.R.Jayewardene’s landslide win, and has now gained a wealth of
experience. He has stood by the UNP through thick and thin, and has seen
it all - including insurgencies, impeachments and assassinations.
Almost forgotten now is the fact that he was twice Prime Minister of
this country; first by default, second by design. In the first instance,
he demonstrated considerable skill in ensuring a smooth transition after
the Ranasinghe Premadasa assassination; he also ensured - much to his
party members’ chagrin - free and fair elections in 1994, and walked out
of Temple Trees without a fuss when the results were announced.
The country’s major opposition party, the United National Party (UNP)
is at it again. After yet another election defeat-at the Eastern
Provincial Council polls-there are calls for its leader Ranil
Wickremesinghe to step down.
It is a now familiar scenario with a predictable outcome: Wickremesinghe
wriggles out of a tight corner, appoints a committee to tide over the
issue and lives to fight another day-until he loses the next election!
Those who are now agitating in the UNP would want to believe that this
time around, the results would be different. More relevant to the issue
however would be to examine whether showing Wickremesinghe the door,
would solve the party’s growing problems.
In his second tenure, his signal achievement was the Ceasefire with the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Unfortunately, that is what has
now come to haunt him because his political opponents have conveniently
branded him as the man who tried to hand over the country to the LTTE,
at least in the eyes of the southern electorate. It is a label that
Wickremesinghe is finding it difficult to get rid of.
The Opposition Leader is also widely read and articulate. His knowledge
of Buddhism is deep and perhaps more than those who are seen regularly
observing sil and offering alms. Despite a thirty year political career,
he has been untouched by allegations of corruption, no mean feat indeed.
The irony is that he would make a good President or Prime Minister-but a
poor Leader of the Opposition.
Nevertheless, for Wickremesinghe to be as unsuccessful as he has been,
he has his faults. He is not the best of communicators on a public
platform. At times, his gestures seem awkward and artificial, and this
has been used many a time by his political adversaries to lampoon him.
Wickremesinghe has also been accused of neglecting the UNP’s grassroots
organisation, a charge that can be justified to some extent. The party
had, during the Premadasa and Jayewardene eras, regional strongmen who
carried clout in their domains and won elections for the UNP. That has
all but disappeared, much of it due to Wickremesinghe’s Colombo centric
style of governance.
In retrospect, Wickremasinghe is also guilty of not being a good judge
of men. It must be noted that the long list of his detractors in the UNP
are all men who are where they are, because of Wickremesinghe himself.
From Karu Jayasuriya to Milinda Moragoda, they were all Wickremesinghe’s
protégés, parachuted into power through his good offices, only to stab
him in the back.
But, any assessment of Wickremesinghe’s faults must inevitably be
followed by the question, after Ranil, who? And that is where the UNP
seriously lacks a credible alternative.
Many names are being bandied but few stand up to scrutiny. Rukman
Senanayake has little to show apart from being the grandson of the
Father of the Nation; his public persona is even more vulnerable than
Wickremesinghe’s, and party insiders all know that he is in the fray
only because he is the ideal compromise choice.
Then there is S.B. Dissanayake. Dissanayake is a late entrant to the UNP
and some of the Old Guard will feel resentful if he is handed the reins.
He would make a good second in command to Wickremesinghe-just as much as
the pragmatic Premadasa was to J.R. Jayewardene-but to slot him in as
the party leader would be a giant leap for the UNP. Then, there is of
course the small matter of his civic rights because of which Dissanayake
could not even contest the Provincial Council Polls, let alone become
the leader of the UNP!
Perhaps the best credentials now on offer come from Sajith Premadasa,
heir to the Premadasa legacy. He has been a staunch UNPer throughout the
recent tribulations, and he has been helped in no small measure by the
exodus of the Karu Jayasuriya faction, which propelled him into the top
rung of the UNP.
But Premadasa himself has preferred to be on Wickremesinghe’s side, and
although he has been critical of the party leadership on occasion, he
has never offered himself as a contender. Premadasa (Jnr.)’s time will
surely come, but the young man himself probably realises it is not right
now.
Quo Vadis, then, for the UNP? Perhaps the party’s priorities should not
be aimed at getting rid of the only man it has who, for all his follies
and foibles, commands national respect and recognition. Surely, the UNP
would be better served by getting its act together, rather than chasing
the leading actor off the stage?
Indeed, there is much to be done. The party needs to be reorganised and
rejuvenated, and the political climate is right to do that. Ranil
Wickremesinghe must learn to pick the right man for the right job not
only at Cambridge Place, but also in the electorates. For the UNP to
remain a viable political alternative, it must change; but then, so must
Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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