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• Party’s own Colombo candidate blows the lid off startling claims

Actor Ranjan Ramanayake must have wished he was still in solitary jail after being found guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court for saying, ‘They are all rogues, mallie’. At least four impregnable walls would have shielded his ignorance of the basic election laws that govern candidates, and prevented this former MP, with over 12 years in Parliament, from an embarrassing fall after flying high in choppers, hopping from one campaigning spot to another.

With him taking a flying start even before his three-week-old party, the ‘United Democratic Voice’, had hopped out of its bassinet, he has used a helicopter to go district hopping to hold campaign meetings in various districts. No doubt, his arrival by air ala mode Shah Rukh Khan, impresses voters enough to cast their ‘manape’ to this actor born, than to those who travel by road, but it did little to impress journalists, except to ask him, ‘how much did it cost?’.

RANJAN: ‘One Shot’ actor in his latest role

Well, it certainly wasn’t Ali Baba’s loot from his secret desert cave, as some impish newsmen may have wondered. After staging his dramatic flying entry to one venue, he responded, “Don’t worry. It’s my public who are spending for me, mallie.”

Of course. How obvious. Why did none think of it before? Millions of adulating, adoring fans would have freely opened their hearts and their purses to spend the money saved from foregoing the daily 170-buck coconut, gladly on their heart throb’s campaign. But even whilst basking in the bright sun of his soaraway thoughts, trust a scribe to place a damper on his exuberance. The journalist, as reported in the Sunday Times last week, asked: “Did you not know it doesn’t matter who spent but all election expenses are charged to your account?”

Poor Ranjan! Brought down to earth from blissful Cloud Nine, he sheepishly answered, “I didn’t know that.” On ground, unlike his flights to lofty skies, he found more disasters afoot.

On January 12, 2021, Sadda Vidda Rajapakse Palanga Pathira Ambakumarage Ranjan Leo Sylvester Alfonso, also known as Ranjan Ramanayake was convicted and sentenced to four years in jail by a full bench of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice for defaming the Supreme Court.

After appealing from his prison walls to his former leader President Ranil Wickremesinghe to grant him a presidential pardon, he walked out a free man on August 25, 2022, having served only one year and seven months of his Supreme Court-imposed four year sentence. However, it had not been a full pardon that he had received but one that had left his civic rights suspended for seven years, preventing him from voting or being voted for at any future election within this period. Alas, the bird had been set free from the captive cage with its wings duly clipped, and left to vent his rage at being denied the wings to fly in the election hustings during the long seven-year curse. Unless, of course, his severed wings were to miraculously grow at a double quick speed and render him eligible to join the contesting fray at any election.

On October 1, he announced: “I’ll be making a fresh appeal to President Dissanayake to restore my civic rights.” It’s still not clear whether his prayer had received the President’s benediction. But it is widely known that his application for JVP nomination had been refused. Nor had the SJB, of which he had been a member, invited him to contest under its symbol, the telephone.

Now without a compass and denied a phone, he was forced to set up his own political group with a bunch of similar turncoats like himself. At his party’s maiden press briefing at the Taj Samudra, he introduced his ‘United Democratic Voice’ with its two sentinels present. One was former Lankan cricket captain. T. M. Dilshan who joined Sajith’s team a month before the final match and had deserted it soon after the skipper’s defeat to bat for Ranjan’s side. He has been named as the party’s national organiser.

The other was also a SJB turncoat, Vadivel Suresh from the Badulla district. No doubt he would prove a valuable popular vote-picking asset if he only follows his role model son, who has suddenly taken to plucking tea leaves amongst a bevy of female tea puckers in the tea gardens of Lanka.

But will the best efforts of this ‘One Shot’ actor, Ranjan, to carefully erect his dream election set to win public acclaim and win the public vote of trust, crumble and fall unto the ground even before its planned release on November 14?

It’s not that the party he newly formed to contest the forthcoming polls is lacking in money. On the contrary, it appears it has too much. Questions have been murmured, eyebrows have been raised in political circles, how Ranjan could afford to hop from district to district in helicopters while those whom he claims to be rogues have to travel by road.

TV mogul Dilith Jayaweera delivered the first shot and set the scene when he claimed on Tuesday—after assuming full personal responsibility for the astounding claim—that Ranjan is dealing in a business transaction, and said, he had seen on social media the allegation that “the man who catches rogues had himself been caught by a rogue”.

Although a meaningless retort that raised a litter of TV ‘laugh-cuts’, enabled him to avoid giving a straight answer to Dilith’s claim, he was to face trouble ahead. In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday, his own party’s Number One Colombo candidate, Prasanna Adhikari, blew the lid off a can of allegations and resigned from the party and withdrew from contesting on the party ticket.

At a press conference, he made two core allegations. He charged that the United Democratic Voice was not a party that Ranjan claimed to have newly founded. He claimed that a background search had revealed it was a ‘temporary name’ used for election purposes of the United Congress Party which had an entirely different list of office bearers than the ones in Ranjan’s list. Neither had the party’s national list still been released. The second core question was how Ranjan can contest the election when he is currently under a seven-year civic rights ban.

A petition filed by a rival candidate against Ranjan contesting the Gampaha elections without his civic rights restored, was dismissed last week by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it was a matter to be taken up in a future election petition.

Shortly before he announced his intention to contest the elections, Ranjan told the media that he intended to retire from acting and focus on his political career.

What? Retire from acting? He, who has won many film awards? Whose leaked intimate phone conversations with actresses had rocked the nation with scandal?

Retire? He has been described as Lanka’s greatest living actor in the same way that novelist and poet, Oliver Goldsmith described in poetic vein 17th century England’s greatest living Shakespearian actor David Garrick in his poem ‘Retaliation’ – written in honour of celebrity guests invited to dine at his table – as,

‘On the stage he was natural,
simple, affecting,

‘Twas only that, when he was off, he was acting’

Ranjan retire? Not on your life.

You can’t keep a good man down Three days after his defeat at the presidential election, Ranil Wickremesinghe gave up his political ghost. The UNP second command confirmed that their leader had finally decided to retire from politics. He has said, he will not contest any more general elections. Instead, he will take a backseat and focus on guiding the UNP. Barely a month after renouncing politics and leaving the maddening stifle behind, to lead the reclusive life of a sage, he found no charms that sages have found in solitude’s arms and, casting his vows in sacrilege, returned to embrace politics with renewed fervour and fire. RANIL: Fighting mood Sooner than anyone had predicted, he climbed aboard the dais of the alliance he led, ‘New Democratic Party’, held in Negombo last Sunday. Showing that a month in hermit garb had not drained his wherewithal, he went straight for Anura’s jugular for suggesting he should stay in the knacker’s yard and not stray outside its peaceful ambit. He turned the knife when he described his own status with that of the new President. He said: “President Dissanayake has wanted me to stay at home as I have been defeated at the presidential election. Yes, I accept that I was defeated since the majority of the people did not vote for me. However, the majority of the people did not vote for Dissanayake either. Therefore, I’m the former President without a majority, Anura is the new President without a majority’. Having tasted first blood in last week debate’s cut and thrust of debate, a month of self-imposed exile seems to have urged a lust for more to quench his growing thirst. Like a duck returning to water after an arid spell, Ranil returned to the political platform with zest, and plunged headlong, fit of body and fit of mind, and with all his wits about him, into the election battle with vitriolic sting. He showed in no uncertain terms when he returned to the political stage on Tuesday, why ‘hell hath no fury like Ranil rebuffed’. This time, he vent his rage on Harini, taking umbrage over her claim that he had been lying when he said he had kept ‘a ten thousand rupee pay hike for each public servant’. Ranil declared: “Harini had said, I had announced that a cabinet decision had been taken to increase the salaries of all public servants. She said she found out that such a decision couldn’t have taken since it hadn’t received the approval of Finance or Treasury officials. It was a false election promise to mislead the masses.” He continued: “From where did she learn the Constitution? Article 43 of the Constitution clearly states: ‘There shall be a Cabinet of Ministers charged with the direction and control of the Government of the Republic.’ No where does it state that public officials must give their approval. “That’s why I say, you must send people with experience to Parliament. You can’t work with babies. If Harini wants me to teach her the Constitution, I’ll gladly do it.” Perhaps, there’s still much left in old papas in the fine art of sucking eggs. Prime Minister Harini’s response to Ranil’s offer to impart to her the gift of knowledge—the gift that surpasseth all other gifts—by edifying her gratis on the salient provisions in the Sri Lankan Constitution, was to reject it outright and to bluntly say: “I do not take advise from a man who has been rejected by the people in countless elections and violated the constitution at countless times. We need to follow proper procedures when making decisions and the country has faced so many crises since such procedures had not been adopted. We make decisions by listening to the people and considering the opinions of the officials.” But is that wise? The Constitution is no plain and simple clear-cut document that even a simpleton can easily understand. It’s a legal labyrinth, a confusing set of interconnecting paths in which the unwary can easily get lost. Ranil Wickremesinghe was present in Parliament when J.R. Jayawardena introduced it to the House in 1978. Since then, he has traversed this legal maze, wandered through its streets and byways and pepped at its nooks and crannies, and used his wits to locate his exit after strolling down dead alleys. During these last 46 years he has witnessed 21 new pathways added to Lanka’s Garden of Eden, which, despite it enshrining the Temple of Laws, are still fraught with trap-falls, and still the evil nest of temptation’s snake, enticing gullible initiates to partake the forbidden fruit as a customary rite to seek salvation. The voluntary help of an experienced tour guide who knows this ingenious maze like the palm of his hand, to steer one through its ins and outs, its twists and turns, to show shortcuts concealed in secret aisles that only the weather-beaten know, to shun false paths that lead nowhere but only to dead ends, to avoid the dangers that lurk within its beguiling law-scaped fame; to show the errors to avoid that he himself had made while furrowing the untrodden terrain, to emerge safe from the pitfalls that lay beneath the assuring infallible facade of legislative polity; is not an offer to be shunned lightly. An experienced guide to show the chartered course through which one can safely traverse the constitutional minefield will certainly be an enormous help. A compass alone cannot navigate an intricate field laden with legal booby traps. Certainly, one can or ought to make decisions by listening to the people and considering the opinions of the officials but its implementation cannot revolt existing law in the governing book. Fifty years a lawyer, and over forty years in Parliament, Ranil has gone through the political mill and emerged as stronger steel. He has met triumph and disaster and faced both with an equanimous temper of mind. His resolve and resilience to bounce back undaunted from the wilderness of exile has made him a formidable foe to his opponents on victorious banks. Though routed countless times under his sole command, he’s still held in the greatest awe. No wonder why his old Pretorian UNP guard, as he leads them on to another election battle, not from the front but from the rear in a front-row active seat, still cheer and raise the battle cry: You can’t keep a good man down. Ranil retire? Not on your life.