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Traditional political parties went bankrupt from the time country declared bankruptcy
View(s):Opposition MP Patali Champika Ranawaka says a new political party to be launched soon will be based on meritocracy and driven by an innovation-centric economic strategy
By Sandun Jayawardana
Mr Ranawaka was elected to Parliament from the Colombo District after contesting the 2020 parliamentary election from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). He now sits as an independent with the opposition. The former minister recently announced plans to form a new political party known as the United Republican Front (URF). The new party will be formally launched during the third week of May.
Pic by M A Pushpa Kumara
“You could say that traditional political parties also went bankrupt from the time the country declared bankruptcy,” said the MP.
This “system break” that occurred due to the country’s economic crisis, opened the door for the emergence of right-wing and left-wing populists. They presented simple solutions to complicated problems. That is the reason for their popularity, he claimed.
Of the main opposition parties, the National People’s Power (NPP) is campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. “They believe that things will get better as soon as they stop corruption. But establishing rule of law is more a precondition and not an economic strategy. The NPP is yet to clarify its strategy on wealth generation. They have also been issuing contradictory signals,” Mr Ranawaka said.
The SJB meanwhile, has been trying to position itself as an established party seeking to help the poor by adapting the same strategy that Ranasinghe Premadasa used to successful effect in 1988. “The SJB has been parroting the populist slogan, ‘We will share with the poor.’ But their wealth creation strategy is the same as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – centric strategy adopted by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.”
The MP also spoke of his disappointment with the SJB. “We helped form the SJB and were supportive of it. We hoped it would develop into a modern, social democratic party. But we can see how today it has become reliant on political ideologies prevalent in the 1980s, on certain individuals and families.”
He however, claimed there was no question of him leaving the SJB as he was never a member to begin with. His Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) along with other political parties led by the likes of Mano Ganesan, Rishad Bathiudeen, Rauff Hakeem and Kumara Welgama contested with the SJB as part of an alliance known as the “Samagi Jana Sandanaya.” But that alliance was never officially established or registered with the Election Commission, according to Mr Ranawaka.
“However, we are not prepared to betray the aspirations of those who voted for us during the presidential and parliamentary elections. We still consider the SJB as an ally. We also extend our hand to those from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and who aren’t Rajapaksas to join with us.”
“We are people who have delivered,” the former minister said, when asked what makes his party different from other new parties and alliances formed recently. “Whether it is in the state or private sector, those in our party have a proven track record of having delivered results. So we have to be measured by our managerial skills. Many of these new parties and alliances have nothing to show for themselves.”
In order to overcome the debt crisis and efficiently restructure the state service, what the country needs is a system primarily driven by innovation, which moves along with the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and which will vest power in Generation Z, he elaborated.
“We need a hybrid system where governance is shared between experienced individuals and new people. It can’t also be like what was proposed by the Aragalaya, where you hand power over to a completely new group of persons who have no experience in governance.”
Changing the country’s economic strategy will be crucial to resolving its crises, he stressed. If it wants to emerge stronger, fields including agriculture, fisheries, small, medium industries and large industries, tourism, transport and energy must be significantly transformed by bringing “disruptive technologies” such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, gene technology, Artificial Intelligence and robotics into them, Mr Ranawaka said.
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