Opinion
UNP Power struggle: There is no alternative for Karu and Sajith other than the GD option
It was reported that Karu Jayasuriya, the current co-deputy leader of Sri Lanka’s main Opposition United National Party has been asked by a group of UNP stalwarts, led by the other co-deputy of the party, Sajith Premadasa to take over its leadership. Apparently Karu has given his consent.
Karu – To Be or Not to Be?
If so, that will be the best piece of news that UNP supporters scattered throughout the island have been waiting to hear.
UN P leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya in conversation at a press conference in April 2010. Photo taken from hindu.com
However, Opposition leader and party chief Ranil Wickremasinghe issued a statement from London saying that he had “assigned” Karu Jayasuriya to unite the party.
Delegating the non delegatable
Thus the leader seems to be abdicating his primary responsibility. That is one responsibility a leader cannot delegate to a person below his rank. Ranil’s motive in this bizarre delegation is surely to ridicule the efforts of the Sajith group and Karu himself, but Wickramasinghe did not understand the implications of such a delegation of powers and responsibilities.
Seeking divine help
Meanwhile Karu left for India, obviously to seek counsel from even higher authorities, and to invoke the blessings of whom one might only guess at, so that he is better equipped to face the challenges ahead. Now both Ranil and Karu are back in Sri Lanka and Ranil is trying a last minute rescue operation with his band of MPs and Karu is keeping mum as to his future plans.
This writer feels that the only option available to Karu at present is to exercise the GD option. What is GD option?
In order to be better informed, the writer sought counsel of a close confidante of the late Gamini Dissanayake (GD) who informed him of the fascinating series of events that led Gamini to take over the party leadership after the electoral debacle of 1994. In fact every scenario that is being enacted today has had a historical parallel and they are astonishingly similar, both in tone as well as in the fundamental premise.
Real challenge to Ranil
The last time there was a real challenge to Ranil Wickramasinghe, was in 1994, after the United National Party narrowly lost the parliamentary elections to the Peoples’ Alliance led by Chandrika Kumaranatunga. Except for the Central Province comprising Badulla, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy districts, the UNP lost all other provinces.
Wijetunge calls GD
On August 17, 1994, the day after the elections, most of the results had been announced and Gamini happened to be in the office of the Government Agent, Kandy when he was contacted by the then President, D.B. Wijetunga(DBW), who informed him of certain electoral projections made by K.N.Choksy, PC .
Dog in a manger?
The latter had predicted that the UNP would win a few more seats than it actually won and the suggestion was made that
the UNP should negotiate with M.H.M Ashraff, Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) in order to form a coalition government with the help of the SLMC. DBW urged Gamini to undertake this task and got him down to Colombo by helicopter. But once Gamini landed in Colombo, he got to know that Ranil Wickramasinghe, the then sitting Prime Minister had already summoned a press conference and conceded the elections to the PA. RW had in effect aborted the formation of a government led by the UNP as he surmised that if such a government were to be formed, GD would be the Prime Minister and not himself.
Would have looked like traitor
An immediate round table discussion was summoned at GD’s office. The participants were GD, Dr. Wickrama Weerasooriya, Gamini’s wife Srima Dissanayake and two others. The consensus at the meeting was that GD should not negotiate with Ashraff now, especially consequent upon Ranil’s concession; Gamini would have looked a traitor to the country, interested only in pursuing power. Nevertheless, it was the unanimous decision of the group that GD should be the next Leader of the Opposition.
Met Ranil
Dr. Wickrama Weerasooriya insisted that GD should let President Wijetunga know of his intention after meeting him and that he should also meet Ranil and inform him personally about his intention to be the next Leader of the Opposition. The President was waiting to see GD at any moment but locating Ranil was more difficult but GD visited him at Temple Trees where Ranil was resting and met him.
I should be leader
Without wasting time, GD told Ranil that there were many calls from Party seniors for him to take over the position of the Leader of the Opposition and related to Ranil how Premadasa, Lalith and he labored for the party and turned it from a Colombo elite-based party into a rural mass-based one; how he was sidelined by Premadasa yet he never left the Party but was sacked along with Lalith and others. Once he came back, only his province, the Central Province could be secured by the UNP in 1994. So he wanted to be the Leader of the Opposition. To this Ranil said thus: “Gamini, I thought, as the outgoing Prime Minister, I should be the leader of the Party.” To this Gamini responded ‘If you think like that I can’t help it. I have already spoken to H.E. and he said that he would put it to a vote, so I’ll see you at the election’ And GD walked out.
The writer has no reason to disbelieve this story.. That was the only time Ranil was confronted and Ranil lost. That is the only option Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa have now, the “GD option”. Confront Ranil Wickramasinghe and tell him to step down in the name of the UNP. Sajith has already done it. It’s Karu’s turn now.
If you love this party step down
In that confrontation, Karu has to tell Ranil one thing and one thing only: “If you love this party anymore, please step down from leadership before you are thrown out”. Take the high road. People want to see strength in leadership; they want to see hope in leadership, they want resilience in leadership and they need to see fearlessness in their leaders. None of these attributes, can Ranil claim to possess.
Infested with ants
When J R Jayewardene (JRJ)was campaigning in Colombo during the Sathyagraha days he visited some slums in
Colombo. He was garlanded all the way through and after several hours of walking and talking to the constituents he arrived at home fully exhausted, but one garland that was put on him was not removed until he came home and undressed. When he took the garland off, his entire neckline was red and bubbles had appeared as if he had contracted a rash. But it was not a rash. The garland that he did not remove until he arrived at home was infested with formic ants (dimiyas).
JRJ did not want to tell anyone that he was given a garland like that for that would have been too embarrassing for his supporters, yet he endured the pain and discomfort without breathing a word about it, showing great discipline of mind and body and great resilience. What an embarrassment for the one who committed that lowly deed of garlanding him with formic ants? That is leadership. That is strength people look up to. The United National Party of today is bereft of that kind of leadership. Otherwise how can a party that got a massive victory in 1977 start such a steady decline from 1994 onwards?On the other hand the PA won a very narrow victory in 1994 and started climbing up and up! Why and how?
André Maurois said: “The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.”
Not acknowledged as a leader
Ranil Wickramasinghe has reached that abyss, the abyss of not being acknowledged as a “Leader”. People do not acknowledge him as a leader any more. In such circumstances the onus is really on Karu J and Sajith P and the rest of the Party. Can they take the lead in asking the leader, in the name of god or whoever it may be, to go?
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Do we have any leader who will go where there is no path and leave a trail?
6 Comments to “UNP Power struggle: There is no alternative for Karu and Sajith other than the GD option”
August 7, 2011 at 8:40 am
Well said Lalith . Ranil has not only ruined the UNP he is also ruining this country by way of not having leave alone a strong opposition but no opposition!
August 7, 2011 at 8:14 am
Time has come for Ranil to step down. But on the other hand who is going to take over the leadership.
Neither Karu nor Sajith could be a better leard like JR and Ranasinghe Premadasa. THis is the time we badly miss GD and Lalith Atulathmudali.
August 7, 2011 at 4:00 am
I don’t care what option Ranil needs to be taken out if he does not go himself.
August 9, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Isn’t that what he implies? According to the author, GD gave up forming a government or even talking to Ashroff, on his family’s advice….funny.
August 7, 2011 at 4:00 am
Ruwan I don’t think the writer is saying that GD was a person to give up easily. If so why would he pushthe GD option. You have misread read him
August 5, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Well, the story is not 100% accurate. I believe it was GD who called DBW and discussed a possible coup. GD most definitely called Ashroff and my friend was there when the discussion happened. Ashroff was in Trincomalee by this time and promised to discuss with his colleagues and to get back to GD. GD called Ashroff again to tell him that he will send a Helicopter for Ashroff to come to Colombo where they all could negotiate a deal. But Ashroff still wanted time. In an hour or so, Ashroff called GD to inform him that the former could not accept the offer, because he had already agreed to work with CBK and was going to go to Colombo to form the government. Unlike the writer says, GD was not a person to give up that easily.