BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Generally, all political parties in Sri Lanka have a common problem, which is they don’t train the next leader for the party to take responsibilities on account of the country.  Next leader of a political party should be a dynamic characteristic, which has a good education, excellent attitudes, dynamic skills and broader experience as a person growing and intelligent person to deal with a dynamic world where emerges unexpected problems as a result of international or domestic reasons.  If we look back the selection of leaders to political parties it is observable that the election of leaders to political parties has been the genesis of the destruction of the political parties because elected new leaders failed to policy invention consistent to the dynamism of the environment.  In this sense, a leader should not be a marionette of advisors, but an intelligent person to understand the intention of advisors and the impact of advice. 

Mr. D.S Senanayake was the right leader for UNP at the beginning as his style of administration and intelligentsia could address the issues faced by Sri Lanka at the international and domestic level.  There may have disagreements among people on how Mr. Senanayake addressed the problems.  The most superior aspect of his administration was he never betrayed the nation and the religion, which highly recognized by any leader of the world.  The characteristics of Mr. Dudley Senanayake was people oriented and a follower of his father’s pathway but he was lack of initiative in relation to changes in party policies adapting to modernization.  Mr. John Kotelawala was an excellent determinant and good policy inventor in relation to economic development and foreign relation, but his temperament was not consistent to the culture of people and he was too aligned to the West. If the economic policies and plans of Mr. Kotelawala were successfully implemented in the country, Sri Lanka would be better than South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan with a strong foreign asset base and domestic currency value.  However, economic and social inequalities in the country would have dominated with differences among people.

Mr. S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was a leader of uniting ordinary people and giving justice to the rural community through education and cultural development.  His economic policies provoked the West and investors and promoted misguided attitudes among the working class, however, his leadership promoted the transferring of power of the country from feudalists to rural educated youths.  Mrs. Bandaranaike had excellent foreign advisors and attitudes to manage good foreign policy.  She continued weak and inappropriate economic policies and failed to control the behavior of family members’ influence on government administration and she as a leader had not understood of modernization.

Mr. J.R. Jayewardene did the best to UNP as a party leader who clearly understood modernization and the way should the country go forward. He did many international tasks that lead Sri Lanka to an internationally recognized country with Mr. D.S Senanayake and Dudley Senanayake. At the funeral speech of Mr. Dudley Senanayake before saying “Good Night Sweet Prince,” he convinced the country that Mr. Dudley Senanayake did everything with him and he continues Mr. Dudley’s policy in the country.  Policymaking using capable leaders of the party was his stewardship, but unable to successfully direct policies for ethnic and religious issues.  Mr R. Premadasa had a serious weakness in uniting party heavyweights and according to his experience with Mr. Gunassinghe, he committed to work for poor by offering a carrot to them rather than developing strong policies for poor to emerge in the economic and social field. Mr. Premadasa was a person easy to mislead by considering his personal interest.

Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga gained popularity, not because of the political dynasty but the popularity of her actor husband and sympathy for him due to the assassination.  As a leader of the SLFP, she could not show strong performance but she showed she was perusing for an unseen recognition or a utopian status than the reality of the country. These were not important to people from a party leader.  Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa had to face a gigantic problem as party leader as well as the leader of the country and he managed it well with the strong support of his brothers.  He did two most vital tasks defeat of LTTE and attempting to reduce the inequalities of economic growth between urban and rural.  When the West refused to support his government he successfully associated with China and obtained good economic supports. Although he lost power in 2015, he was able to able secure the power as a member of the opposition.

Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe had an excellent background to be the party as well as the leader of the country.  The first negative point for him was the selection to the law faculty for studies because Mr. Dudley Senanayake had to answer for questions at the upper house regarding his selection and he became the prime minister when there were more popular and educated party leaders. There were many fabricated stories about his behaviour, but they are not important to voters if he works for people.  The result of this situation was Mr. Wickremasinghe did not get full support from the party heavyweight.

Now the issue is who should be the next leader of UNP.  Many talks about Mr. Sajith Premadasa, however, he has fundamental weaknesses. What are his educational qualifications, he should openly express to the country?  He is too much taking or claiming his father’s work.  Can he produce a photo to the country that shows he participated in his father’s funeral and produce the speech given to people at the funeral? What is his policy opinion in relation to many areas such as foreign policy, economic development, and growth, a new constitution for the country and many matters?  As a leader like J.R Jayewardene, he must be able to talk about many policies matters rather than claiming his father’s work. The behaviour of his mother and his sister was not popular in the country.

Mr. Rawan Wijewardena has excellent qualities to be the leader of UNP. He has an excellent family background and relationship to the past leaders of UNP even to Kings in the country.  He has an excellent education, policy knowledge, and attitudes.  However, he cannot defeat Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa as security, policy development, policy correction and a building a cultural design are the priority in the country. The best thing Mr. Wijewardena to do is support Mr. Gotabaya and then go to power as a different leader. The only weakness of Mr. Wijewardena is media bias because his family members owned Lake House, however, his background is strong, he can get the support of Sinhala Buddhists and poor people if he convinces right policies to the country. He has no corrupt behaviour and he is a person with possibilities to get on with poor and have and share a lunch sitting on the floor. He is a completely different person from Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe.  He never makes hate speeches and very polite and pleasant characteristic.