The Political Column

2nd January 2000

Post poll UNP in disarray?

By our Political Correspondent

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing the joint meeting of the working committee and the Parliamentary Group on Monday took responsibility for the defeat. This made him vulnerable to attacks by critics within the party.

In other words, it was a “mea culpa” cry from Mr. Wickremesinghe. The working committee was not critical of the leadership, except for a few salvos fired at General Secretary Gamini Atukorale. But it was more critical of the manner in which the presidential polls were conducted. Leading the attack on the government were Gamini Lokuge, W. J. M. Lokubandara and party chairman Karu Jayasuriya.

Mr. Jayasuriya painted a gory picture, saying convicted prisoners from Welikada might have to be brought in next time to counter the PA thuggery.

At the working committee meeting, most MPs opposed a proposal to join the PA and form a national government. The UNP bodies finally decided that the party should cooperate with the government if it took meaningful steps to solve the ethnic strife. Some members said it would be futile at this stage to join the government since the UNPers in many places were still facing attacks by PA thugs. Others asked how the party could join the PA which the UNP had described as Pachamalla.

After members spoke for nearly three hours, Mr. Wickremesinghe said there was yet no official invitation to join the government.

Among those who supported the concept of a national government was Karu Jayasuriya who said the UNP should maintain its own identity and place before the government its conditions to cooperate. But other senior members maintained a significant silence.

Though Mr. Jayasuriya’s proposal was not discussed at length, it needs more in-depth study and discussion. Mr. Jayasuriya knows very well the difficulty of building up the party and gearing itself for the next parliamentary elections. He knows that if the UNP is to join the government, it would not have a role to play for another six years which would apparently push them to political oblivion. The only way to keep the party flame burning is to join the government and help it in its endeavour to put the country back on the right track.

If the UNP joins the PA, analysts believe that Mr. Wickremesinghe could put forward his economic plan to the next decade and reach some consensus with the PA to implement it.

The group also discussed reports of more crossovers to the PA.

Reports suggest there are three to sixteen waiting to cross, but the rebels say the figure is more than that.

When the issue of the crossover was raised by Mahiyangana MP Lakshman Seneviratne who hammered out at those waiting to crossover and told them to go now if they wanted to.

Many UNPers attributed their defeat to the gross violation of election laws by PA supporters. Nikaweratiya UNP organiser Rohitha Bogollagama asked that a committee be set up to look into the plight of UNP supporters who were still facing attacks by PA thugs.

He said Nikweratiya was particularly bad and it was the party’s responsibility to give some redress to its supporters.

While the defeat overall was a setback for the UNP, what was more surprising was the defeat it suffered in the coastal belt, north of Colombo up to Puttalam.

Negombo, Wattala, Ja-Ela, and Wennappuwa which were known to be strongholds of the UNP were won by the PA with convincing majorities. However, UNP national list member A. H. M. Azwer who had been appointed to look after Puttalam won with a fair majority of 6000.

Mr. Azwer also says his supporters are facing attacks or harassment and he needs financial assistance to help them.

Among those who are calling for Mr. Wickremesinghe’s resignation is one-time Speaker M. H. Mohamed. He has told close associates that he would ask Mr. Wickremesinghe to stand down to save the party from further crisis.

Polonnaruwa MP Rukman Senanayake, the political flagbearer of the Senanayake family, is also had reported to have had discussions with Mr. Wickremesinghe on party matters.

Former minister Tyronne Fernando is report- ed to have told Mr. Wickremesinghe that most of the UNPers felt that they had not been fully used to grab the victory which was at their doorstep. Mr. Fernando had also criticised the UNP media outfit for not effectively countering PA propaganda which relentlessly harped on an alleged statement made by Mr. Wickremesinghe to the effect that he would hand over the northern and eastern provinces to the LTTE for two years.

Mr. Fernando told close friends he had not even been consulted by this media outfit though Mr. Wickremesinghe had told him to handle several news conferences since he had been the information minister earlier. He said the media pundits in the party had blocked him.

Mr. Fernando expressed his feelings to party adviser Milinda Moragoda when they met at the funeral of UNP MP Amara Badra Dissanayake. He said those who thought they knew a lot about marketing could not market the UNP candidate properly.

At present, many UNPers see a rising tide against Mr. Wickremesinghe’s inner circle in the party. Some say that it is slowly gathering momentum and there would be an outcry for the removal of party secretary Gamini Atukorale, to be replaced by a full time secretary who will not have interests, in any electorate in the country.

In this backdrop, Mr. Wickremesinghe is trying to find a way out. He wanted his loyalists to stand in his defence. With this in the back of his mind, he met Gampaha district UNP leader Anura Bandaranaike, though it was difficult to get at Mr. Bandaranaike. However when the Sunday Observer reported that Mr. Bandaranaike left the country on Thursday on a foreign visit, he retorted angrily. He wrote to the Sunday Observer editor that the report was false and a total fabrication. Mr. Bandaranaike said that leaving the island required Airport, Customs and immigration formalities. “It involves official franking of one’s passport with exit endorsement. Your newspaper is challenged to produce such authentication of my alleged departure. The said newspaper item gives readers the impression that I have fled the country like another Bandaranaike who really left the country hours after the presidential elections.

“In any event, it is hardly possible for me, given my high profile, to surreptitiously leave the country through an Airport named after the late prime minister, my father S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.”

While Mr. Bandaranaike also wonders as to what he should do now in the face of growing criticism against the party hierarchy, it is now said that many members are backing Mr. Bandaranaike for the number two slot in the party.

Meanwhile, another UNP group known to include prominent and influential persons is throwing its weight behind Mr. Jayasuriya. Though Mr. Jayasuriya has not responded to any of these moves, there had been heavy lobbying in some districts to push him to the party leadership. However, it should be mentioned that the Gampaha district nursed by Mr. Jayasuriya was totally defeated in all electorates.

In this situation the dissatisfaction of the UNPers has fallen more on Gamini Atukorale than on Mr. Wickremesinghe. Many members are calling on Mr. Atukorale to stand down if the party is to unite under one leader. Not only the stalwarts, but backbenchers are also airing their reservations about Mr. Atukorale. The latest of these is a complaint made by Sarath Kongahage to party leader Mr. Wickremesinghe against Mr. Atukorale. Mr. Kongahage’s grievance was that he was to be attacked by his own party men after a UNP victory.

The matter was brought to the notice of party leader Mr. Wickremesinghe who settled it amicably. It appears that things are more difficult for Mr. Atukorale since the allegations against him are that he was planting people in each and every district in a bid to achieve his own targets. The main grievance of Nanda Mathew who joined the rebels was against Mr. Atukorale. A campaign demanding Mr. Atukorale’s removal or his resignation is now gathering momentum within the party.

At the working committee meeting on Wednesday, many members pointed a finger at some in the inner circle of the UNP. The inner circle included Irwin Weerakkody, Charitha Ratwatte and Milinda Moragoda.

In this backdrop it would be difficult for Mr. Wickremesinghe to assign the task of secretary to any of these people. Mr. Weerakkody came under criticism for having failed to market the UNP presidential candidate.

Puttalam district leader Asoka Wadigamangawa asked the leader why the UNP provincial councillors were not allowed to take oaths in the Wayamba provincial council. Mr. Wickremesinghe promised to get back to him on this matter. But before Mr. Wickremesinghe made his decision, Mr. Wadigamangawa along with H.B. Abeyratne took oaths as provincial council members, defying their party decision.

At the working committee meeting, Minister M.H.M. Ashraff also came in for heavy criticism by the UNP members in the east. They said that although Mr. Ashraff demanded a free and fair election from President Kumaratunga, he himself was allegedly involved in various activities to mar the polls. Former Minister A. R. M. Mansoor took the frontline in the offensive against Mr. Ashraff while the others backed him up.

However, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress denies this. Its contention is that since the UNP had lost badly, it had nothing else to say, but to put it on the SLMC and find a way out. What the SLMC believes is that the PA’s media campaign was ahead of the UNP. Noteworthy contributions for the PA’s performance at the elections came from many people including Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, S.B. Dissanayake and parliamentarians such as M.M. Zuhair of the SLMC all of whom participated actively in panel discussions conducted by various TV channels.

The SLMCers are of the view that the 11 questions posed by M. M. Zuhair went unanswered by the UNP. The questions raised by Mr. Zuhair raised fears among the Muslims that they would be compelled to have direct discussions with the LTTE and come to some working arrangements with it in the north and east if the UNP emerged victorious. The SLMC believes that the issue raised by Mr. Zuhair had an adverse impact on the vote bank in the east and gave Mr. Ashraff a clear margin over them.

Besides all these, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress leader writes an open letter to the President criticising her victory speech. Mr. Ponnambalam says:

“Your speech was nauseatingly replete with one word — ‘peace’, but the tenor of your speech is nothing but one that is in a way conciliatory or given to peace. You refer to 18th December ’99 as ‘the night that will go down in history as the night this land was touched by the hand of darkness one too many times.’

“You indulge in this rhetoric because it happens to concern you. You do not realize that there are thousands of widows in Tamil Eelam to whom certain nights have gone down in their own lives as nights that have been touched by the hand of darkness caused by your machinations as commander in chief of the Armed Forces.

“You want to finish the LTTE. Please do so if you can. With that will go for all times any prospect of permanent peace in this island. Your election results show ruthlessly that all Tamils not only Tamil Eelavar, but also upcountry Tamils, not only do not want you, because they do not trust you any more, but also do not want a political solution from you. This is an indictment on all your postulations of wanting to evolve permanent peace.

“Just take your peace packages. There were 3 during the first three years after the commencement of your tenure. For the next two years, there was not a murmur about those packages. Even those three packages were diluted with each subsequent appearance. Surely, anyone who has a genuine desire to bring about a political solution will not trifle with packages each summer? One stands or falls with just one.”

The President is back in the saddle once again and she is expected to take note of all the different shades of opinion which come in her way from time to time.

But it appears that she is just now more interested in having the UNP join her to solve the country’s burning problems rather than listening to individuals and replying, which would not help in any way to solve the important Tamil question.

Situation Report

Editorial/ Opinion Contents