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Though dumped by the people 20 months ago, Ranil Wickremesinghe popped out like a long shut Jack in the box to be harnessed to the Rajapaksa yoke as the chief tiller to furrow anew the land they had turned to waste.

After secret talks held behind closed doors with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the President’s House late Wednesday evening, it emerged that the beleaguered President, driven to the wall by mass protests and deserting ranks, had offered Ranil Wickremesinghe the prime ministerial post in the new ragbag interim government he, the President, was desperately seeking to form.

No doubt, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. But if the new Central Bank Governor’s threat on Wednesday to resign if an accountable Government was not formed within two weeks, increased the pressure on the hapless President to resign, Ranil eased the tension by instantly accepting the offer.

Without a Parliamentary seat to call his own; with his party decisively vanquished and reduced to zero at the August 2022 general election debacle; and having only returned to Parliament furtively through the rear door 11 months later on July 23, 2021 to occupy the solitary national list seat awarded to his party on the collective vote tallied, the prospect of ever holding political office would indeed have seemed remote and dismal to him.

But while fates taunt, they also tempt the temptable to take the dangled bait and precipitate the final fall from total grace. Understandably, the President’s prime ministerial offer would have proved irresistible and, driven by undiminished ambition’s prayers which heaven’s malice readily grants, would have made Ranil leap to accept the chance to shine again for the sixth time as Prime Minister, having failed every time he held the post to complete the whole 5-year tenure of office.

Every man, the shrewd Rajapaksas know, has his price. For some it is fear, for others it is money. For a few it is position and relative power, however fleeting the moment, however tenuous the hold.

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Most probably that’s why Ranil threw his stated principles to the winds when he accepted the President’s offer; and had — like the SLPP Pradeshiya Sabha supporters who had come out from the woodwork and rushed to save for Mahinda Rajapaksa his crumbling premiership — come in from the cold and rushed to salvage for Gotabaya Rajapaksa his crumbling presidency.

On Monday morning, only minutes before the Gotagogama was attacked, he had issued a statement warning the Government. The official UNP Twitter message at 11.29am stated: ‘Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe informs Government Party Leaders that if the GoGotagama protest site is disrupted by the Government, using the Emergency Law that he will withdraw from all discussions and will cease to assist the Government in solving the crisis.’

Shortly thereafter, the Gotagogama site was attacked by Government goons sent by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Temple Trees residence cum office, despite the emergency law in force.  The site was smashed while police looked askance, with many protesters wounded in the vicious raid on the innocents.

The Maha Nayakas of the three Nikayas, the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters of the Siam, the Amarapura and Ramannya Nikaya issued a joint statement that night condemning the attack and stated: ‘We strongly believe that the political leaders who directly and indirectly supported this despicable course of action no longer have a moral right to remain representatives of the people representing the sovereignty of the people’.

Rather than ‘withdrawing from all discussions with the Government’ as Ranil had valiantly declared, 55 hours later on Wednesday, sees Ranil striding up the stairs of the President’s House to hold discussions with the President on how to form a government. On Thursday evening, rather than ‘ceasing to assist the Government in solving the crisis’, he is standing to attention before the President while being sworn in as Prime Minister, as Government’s chief prop to solve the crisis.

Of course, excuses will be dished out. Spin will be used to justify the abrupt reversal of stated principles, such as ‘patriotic duty transcends personal tenets’ or ‘ supreme sacrifices must be made’ or some such insipid clichés like ‘it is the need of the hour’ as SJB’s national list  MP Harin Fernando snorted on Wednesday night to reporters when, after learning of Ranil’s volte-face, he said. ‘I left the SJB and will be an independent MP, it is the need of the hour,’ only to reverse his position the following day.

Furthermore, on April 27, the UNP stated on its official Twitter account: ‘The UNP will support the No-Confidence motion against the President which is being prepared by TNA MP Sumanthiran. It is important that the Parliament conveys the lack of confidence in the President that the public has demonstrated.’

TNA MP Sumanthiran’s no-confidence motion, already accepted by the Speaker, will be taken up for debate on Tuesday. It will be interesting to note how Ranil, as the only UNP representative in Parliament, will vote on the matter.

As the undisputed leader of the UNP, will he vote for the motion against the President, betray the man by whose grace and favour he holds his new exalted position as the Chief among all the President’s men or will he, out of a servile sense of gratitude for granting him the political lottery of premiership, faithfully vote to prolong the tottering Presidency, against his previously held position? The coming week will reveal all if the crucial vote is held as planned.

And what’s more, what about his own position? What are the reasonable grounds on which the President based his discretion when, under the Constitution, he appointed Ranil as ‘the Member of Parliament who, in his opinion, commands the majority in the House’? With all the UNP members exiled from the House by the electorate in 2020, can this lone national list member justify the President’s belief?

On Wednesday, in his televised address to the nation at 9pm, the President declared: ‘This week, I will appoint a Prime Minister who commands the majority in Parliament and can secure the confidence of the people’.

But has there been even a whimper of support extended to Ranil Wickremesinghe in the House, even an inaudible grunt, an agreeable nod made in his direction? And, as for him securing the confidence of the people, has there been even a grassroot whisper, let alone an urban shout, heard in his favour as the one fittest among the existing motley to carry the prime ministerial torch? Even any silent gestures to suggest that the nation’s collective confidence lay reposed in him?

And what was the reaction to his appointment from his Parliamentary colleagues?

The SJB, which had remained rooted to its position of boycotting any interim government as long as Gotabaya remained President, relaxed its inflexible stance after the President had expressed his willingness to abolish the executive presidency at a future date.

This may well have been a presidential ruse to extend his stay in office till the end of his elected term for the complex procedure would require a period of extended time, including a reference to the people by referendum.

But using the President’s willingness to abolish the presidency as an excuse to pre-empt Ranil’s impending appointment as Premier and, instead, occupy that station himself, Sajith Premadasa wrote a last minute letter to the President indicating the SJB readiness to form an interim government with Sajith as Prime Minister, provided the President agreed to four conditions, the main one being that President Gotabaya agrees to resign from his post within a specified time.

No doubt Sajith was influenced by the pressure exerted by fellow SJB members, some of whom intended to quit and join Ranil and be ministers in the cabinet he would seek to form.

The last minute partial surrender was to no avail. The wedding ceremony was well under way. And the main demand that the President should forthwith resign, though watered down to a future date, still remained the same in its essence, echoing the ‘Gota go home’ mantra chanted on the streets and Gotagogama on the Green.

As the President replied Sajith on Friday after the betrothal had taken place, he had already given his word to the new suitor who came without conditions; and the marriage of two minds had already been consummated.

But though Sajith’s letter backfired, the shotgun wedding shocked and galvanised the SJB to unite as one. On Friday, SJB’s Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara declared that no one in the SJB would accept ministerial posts in the Government to be formed by new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said: ‘He has no mandate to form a government.’

So have some of the SJB’s top stars on whom Ranil Wickremesinghe may have banked to quit the SJB and join him to give the air of legitimacy to his cabinet team, announced their confirmations not to be part of Ranil’s regime under Gota?

Dr. Harsha de Silva wrote on his Facebook account: ‘I’m not joining the new regime that is to be formed against public opinion. The politics of power and privilege is now the country’s political culture. The younger generation demand a political culture that truly loves the country without fraud, corruption and political deals. This is why, I can’t betray this wave of people with my conscience. I received many requests to become the Finance Minister but I didn’t accept it. I would rather go home than get posts in a government that tries to protect the power of a family, protect their future, and satisfy the power greedy. Today everyone is asking the President to resign.’

It is also claimed that the horse trading has already begun. SJB’s Rajitha Senaratne alleged at the press conference that enormous sums of money are being discussed to lure MPs to join Ranil’s outfit as did Eran Wickramaratne claim that ‘the exercise to woo MPs to change the composition of the House has started.’

Whether these allegations are true or not, it will, no doubt, stigmatise any opposition MP who crosses over to Ranil’s camp as an incentivised turncoat.

The SJB was not alone in sticking to its guns. The rest of the opposition, the JVP, the SLFP, the TNA united as one to declare they were dead against joining as ministers or playing any part in the government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Even Wimal Weerawansa and his 10 independent groups, including Gammanpila, usually not averse to jumping aboard any passing gravy train, also declared, they will have no truck with Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Government.

But, though Ranil’s prospects in Parliament looks bleak indeed with the entire opposition dead against joining him, all seem not lost on the international front to give him a morale boost to discharge his vow to bring home the bacon. The Ambassadors of the US, the UK, Japan and China streamed into his office to offer the customary good wishes while the Indian High Commissioner turned up with a floral bouquet to say it with flowers. But whether professed good wishes and petals from flowers will turn into dollars remains to be seen.

Minutes after taking oaths as Prime Minister, Ranil visited his mother’s family temple, the 181-year-old Walukaramaya in Colombo 3. There he told an India Today journalist: ‘I will lift up the economy and ensure we have enough foreign exchange and government revenue.’ That should be a few crumbs of comforting hope for eternal optimists to chew on till the promised vistas dawn.

Forthcoming events will show whether Ranil has dug his own grave and that of the UNP members by rashly volunteering to fulfil the aspirations of 6.9 million who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to become President. If he fails, he might not only blast their hopes — if not blasted already — but, worse, ruin the chances of his UNP members winning at the next general election.

Already UNP member Navin Dissanayake has expressed his fears, especially since Ranil seems not to have obtained the UNP party’s Working Committee approval before heading off to become the leader of another political grouping. On Friday, Navin tweeted: “I am apprehensive and concerned about Ranil been appointed as PM. I wish the Working Committee of the party was consulted about this move, it wasn’t. I hope for the sake of the country and our party that the new PM will succeed.” If Ranil does succeed, in spite of the odds stacked against him, he would have single-handedly won for the UNP, the next general election.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose omissions while in Yahapalana office as Prime Minister had enabled the Rajapaksas to make a stupendous comeback to power, has now been commissioned by the Rajapaksas to bear their yoke in the hope of extending their feudal tenure of the land. But the guardian deity of the Rajapaksas, should be mindful of the advice bestowed by the officiating monk at the Walukaramaya Temple while tying the pirith noola on his hand: ‘To guard against the time when elephants, too, might be bathed by the people at the Beira.’

The SUNDAY PUNCH wishes you all, a peaceful, contented, blissful Vesak.