The impending fall of Ranil into oblivion
Posted on September 18th, 2019

H. L. D. Mahindapala

A common snide remark in the days gone by used to say derisively that if there is a traffic jam somewhere there is a cop in the middle of it. It means that an incompetent cop without any sense of direction had caused an unwanted and avoidable problem to the public. In contemporary times it can be said, without fear of being contradicted, that if there is a political jam you can be sure that Ranil Wickremesinghe is in the middle of it. You can also be sure that Ranil has been the cause of it partly because he has shown no sense of direction in handling the grave national issues.

Whether it is his disastrous Ceasefire Agreement with Prabhakaran, or whether it is the burning of the CBK-Neelan agreement in Parliament, or whether it is the kurundu polu attack on marchers against him in Matara, whether it is the undermining the integrity of sacred traditions of the Parliament, or whether it is biggest bank heist in the history of Sri Lanka, Ranil was in the middle of it. He has never been able to rise above his self-serving politics of plotting and kuth-thufying, pitting one against another, which has resulted eventually in dragging the nation down to its current perilous chaos.

The nation which ended one of the longest running wars in Asia is still running desperately in search peace, stability and security.  When he took over in 2015 there was hope. He promised to make a difference”. Today there is only despair without the difference” he promised.. He will be remembered mainly as the man who dragged the nation from hope  to despair. But he sees himself as the solution when in reality he has been the incorrigible problem. So like most of our semi-literate and crooked politicians he is under the delusion that the worst thing that can happen to the nation is for him to lose his grip on power, particularly the UNP leadership that keeps him going in politics..

Take the current crisis in the UNP which is still running in search of a candidate for the coming presidential election. With only a few days left for the declaration of the election date Ranil’s party is still twisting in the wind without a presidential candidate. As opposed to this, the main contender in the opposition has already declared his candidacy. But the UNP, the oldest Party in the nation, is still teetering without naming a candidate. Why? The answer is well-known: Ranil wants to be nominated as the candidate of the UNP which has openly declared its preference to Sajith Premadasa in so many clear ways. It is Ranil who is in the middle of this latest political jam. His capacity to create problems is far greater than his capacity to solve any of them.

The last remaining card for Ranil is to nominate Karu Jayasuriya as the UNP candidate. This will put Sajith in a dilemma. He can oppose Ranil but it will be difficult to oppose Karu as he has a better image than Ranil in the electorate. In the meantime, the media is having field day dramatising the rivalries between the UNP leader and his Deputy.

With Ranil cornered by the forces raging against him he is playing the role of King Canute, sitting on shore and ordering the waves of the sea to stop moving.  The Premadasa camp, however, is out there in the open ever ready with sound bites to dig their teeth into Ranil’s flesh. The rising popular waves within the UNP — and outside it too — have signalled, quite unambiguously, that Ranilhas been the unwanted and moos-pain-tu Jonah of the UNP.  Judgmental opinion believes that Ranil has lost the popular vote of winning even the job of cleaning the toilet at Siri Kotha because no one can rely on him to clean the droppings into it. They are right when they think that Ranil do not have the capacity to clean up the rot that has set into the political culture. From the Central Bank to Parliament his self-defeating trick has been to appoint committees to cover up the smelly toilets. Perhaps, the most remarkable feature is that, after all these years, the top ranks in the UNP hierarchy have abandoned him. Never before has he been in this situation where he has been publicly exposed as a loser by those at the top and at the bottom of the UNP.

There are, of course, some die-hard loyalists who are struggling to save him from his impending fall from grace by applying some fresh paint on his ageing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde face. The chances of these loyal desperadoes succeeding are as great as any Pamankada or Alimankada cosmetician trying to lift the image of a pig by applying lipstick on its snout. The visible anger and reaction of a critical section of the UNP leadership indicates clearly that Ranil’s stature as a leader has lost all credibility. The disillusionment with Ranil is almost universal.  It has come to a point where some of traditional Colombo 7 fashionistas, parading in high society  cat walks, have come out condemning him as a pig-headed” loser.

All political metrics indicate that the time for applying cosmetics is over for Ranil. The time has come for him, after his long innings at the UNP crease, to stand down honourably and admit that he has failed to score the winning innings expected of captain. He has been a perennial failure which has been forecast at birth by naming  him as Run- NIL”. The problem with him is that he refuses to admit that he is a spent force. He has never shown a capacity to score a century for his team and win the hearts and minds of the nation. If the UNPers don’t bowl Ranil out the people will whip his bails out if he steps out to bat in the pitch that is being prepared for coming presidential elections. (Note for the readers: Please don’t remove the ‘i” even accidentally and substitute an ‘l” in the word bails”’)

Right now Ranil is playing the most despicable role in his career. He is like the dog in the manger. As they say in Sinhalese:Balla piduru kanneth naha, kana gonata then-neth naha. It is in this dizzying climate that the NGO , including Jehan  Perera, the Napoleon Boru-part of NGOs, have  rushed to back him. Ranil is banking on the depleted cadres of the civil society, (some have abandoned him publicly disillusioned by his role as the scheming Ali Baba of the biggest heist in the history of banking in Sri Lanka), depleted TNA, depleted Ranil-Party-licker Champikaya, depleted Muslims   (his own Muslim chairman is against him), depleted Catholkic belt, and, of course, the JVP, the Sinhala Prabhakaranists now posing as the born-again champions of democracy and human rights. .

Ranil’s unprincipled and self-centred politics is revealed in his choice of presidential candidates. Twice he had gone all out to back two complete outsiders: Sarath Fonseka and Maithripala Sirisena. Both occasions should be considered as a public confession of his inability to win the confidence of the people to lead the nation. He opted for the two outsiders because they had better chances of winning than him. But it protected his leadership in the UNP. Clearly, on the principle that he supported Sarath and Maithripala he should go for Sajith because his deputy has better chances of winning than the leader. Besides, he is an insider and not an outsider. But he is out to block Sajith’s path for the simple reason that if Sajith wins the chances are that he will lose his power, position and pakum.  Those in politics will be looking up to Sajith for leadership and not to Ranil.

If there was a chance for Ranil it was in riding the anti-Rajapakse wave in 2015. Since then his chances have declined dramatically. In 2019 the electoral pendulum has swung back considerably to the Rajapakses. Considering all the available factors, this is the time to back the most favoured candidate, Sajith, though Karu Jayasuriya is flapping his wings on the sidelines waiting to be called. Instead Ranil is still hoping that he has  a chance at a time when his image has fallen to the level of the dust under the heel of Arjuna Mahendra’s Central Bank-funded boots in Singapore.

With his back to the human wall, put up by Malik saha Mangala-young–gay gang, Ranil, is playing his usual game of appointing committees, planting anti-Sajith stories in the media, promoting rival candidates within the UNP to degrade the potential of Sajith and, most of all dragging the date of announcing the presidential candidate and holding out until the eleventh hour to present a fait accompli to Sajith. Timing is of the essence now and Ranil is aiming to cut off any time that could advantage Sajith to mount a counter attack on Ranil’s nominee, which is most likely to be himself, or Karu Jayasuriya.

However, the latest comments leaked to media confirm that both are digging their heels in. Neither is willing to yield to the other. Ranil is making a bid to denigrate Sajith’s image, having failed to tempt him with bogus offers, as before, to keep him out of his way. Deceived by the previous feint offers that took him nowhere Sajith seems to be determined not to give in this time.

Ranil, however, knows that if he gives in he will have no future in politics. As stated earlier, the nation and the Party will look up to President Sajith Premadasa as the leader. Ranil will cease to be the indispensable force in national politics or in the Party if the President is Sajith. This inevitability would clip the wings of Ranil. The big stick used by him to determine politics in the big league of political leaders – and the American Embassy, of course — will be whittled down to a toothpick. Ranil’s manoeuvres are to save his leadership role at any cost.. It is not a move to save the nation, or the party. It is Ranil trying his best to save Ranil.

Ranil is banking mainly on five political sources in his presidential race. He hopes to win the support (1) of his divided Party (1) the TNA (3) the Muslims (4) the civil society and (5) the JVP. His latest tactic is to challenge Sajith to prove that he can win over these groups. In other words, he is telling Sajith: These are my people. How are you going to win them over to your side?” Ranil’s question is a direct threat to undercut Sajith’s image and chances to win the backing of the pro-UNP minorities. Ranil is telling his Deputy that he has the cards up his sleeve to undercut him.

Clearly, Sajith is doomed mainly because Ranil is not likely to throw his full weight behind Sajith, even if the latter wins the nomination.  Ranil will front up in public pretending to support Sajith. But Ranil’s tendency so far has been to undercut Sajith and prevent him rising to a position of commanding power that would undermine his own leadership. Sajith is a Deputy Leader by name. On par with Sajith is Ravi Karunanayake –Ranil’s doppelganger–as an Additional Leader with equal claims for the leadership in the event of something happening to Ranil.

Besides, the visceral personal struggle for power within the Party has gone far deep into the body politic of the UNP that it will be almost impossible to stop the internal haemorrhaging in time to present a credible image of unity before the election. Whether both can sell a winning image, plastered with band-aids, to the voters is questionable. The bitter division, fought openly in public, will only add to the deepening crisis within the Yahapalanaya regime led by Ranil.

Both know that a divided UNP will kill the chances of either of them winning the election. The other most likely option is to present Karu Jayasuriya as the compromise candidate. He is waiting on the sidelines hoping that a last minute compromise would throw him into the ring. But internal bleeding has eroded the integrity and credibility needed to present the UNP as a viable force to govern the country. Its stature has dropped to almost the same level as it was in 1956 in the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate. It has to lean heavily on the minorities to save its respectability and future as a political party.

Ranil has fallen almost to the same level as West-leaning Sir John Kotelawela, one of the despised figures of the time. Ranil’s chances of rising from the stinking Meethotamulla politics of the UNP under his stewardship is nil, even with the backing of the five forces which are no longer formidable as it was in 2015. Besides, the anti- Rajapakse pendulum of 2015 has swung back with a new momentum to give the Rajapaksas a lead in the race to the next presidency. If the dictum that it is not the oppositions that win but it is the governments that lose is valid then the chances of the UNP winning either the presidential or the parliamentary elections are zilch.

The incremental decline and fall of Ranil’s image has one good silver lining: he will be thrown out of politics for good. History will write him off as morally corrupt pimp of the West who dragged the Grand Old Party, the Parliament and the people to the lowest moral level in the post-independent era. He will never rise again. It will be good riddance of bad rubbish that ruined the nation throughout his failed career.

The knell of parting day will toll for Ranil on election night. But how many UNP mourners will be there to follow him to his political grave?

3 Responses to “The impending fall of Ranil into oblivion”

  1. Ananda-USA Says:

    Mahindapala, you have succinctly summarised Ranil as a ‘leader” thus:

    “History will write him off as morally corrupt pimp of the West who dragged the Grand Old Party, the Parliament and the people to the lowest moral level in the post-independent era. He will never rise again. It will be good riddance of bad rubbish that ruined the nation throughout his failed career. “

  2. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Batalande wa(n)dakaya mega thief mega thakkadiya bay gal karaya
    murderous (Sinhalese Buddhists only) alugosuwa Pol Pot not going to go easily. My guess is, Batalande
    Wa(n)dakaya going to put old hag narumaya karumaya for the presidential elections, rig the ballot with its
    henchmen (certain satans from abroad will be on hand with their gadgets to help the wa(n)dakaya of course) and
    going to be the backseat driver again. Traitor low life hasn’t finished the job of decimating Sinhalese race, Sri Lanka
    and Buddhism and it wants do it and die on the job.

    Paadada pahara GooandPee (kakka and chu party) aka anti Sinhalese, anti Buddhist, anti Sri Lanka traitor
    UNPatriotic_rats won’t stop until it breaks up the country into 3 to please its ardent supporters tamils and mussies.
    What’s more pahara low lives have removed all traces of Sinhalese from the national carrier too I heard recently.
    No Sinhalese songs, no Sinhalese films. It’s only tamil nadu films and tamil nadu songs to cater traitor alugosuwa
    (to Sinhalese Buddhists, Sri Lanka and Buddhism only) thambi mudiyanselage jr@ created diasporats. This is in
    addition to thambi mudiyanselage jr@’s disastrous constitution which GooandPee (kakka and chu) aka UNPatriotic_
    rats tweak every time to bend rules using Batalande wa(n)dakaya-planted portugues nationals at the SC.

    GooandPee (kakka and chu party, that’s for the Sinhalese, Sri Lanka and Buddhism) aka UNPatriotic_rats
    anti Buddhist, anti Sinhalese, anti Sri Lanka activities:
    *Creating ever Mother Lanka hating diasporats

    *thambi mudiyanselage jr@’s constitution to tweak to suit GooandPee

    *13, 13A to have drealam and mussiesthan

    *appoint fast breeder mussies and tamils as governors to these mini governments to promote mussiesthan and
    drealam

    *dividing Sinhalese and making minorities king makers and Sinhalese pariahs in their own country

    *tamils and mussies decide where Sinhalese should live in their own country, how our national anthem should be
    sung etc. You can always ask advice from sarava ena muththa aka saravanmuththa etc etc.

    *mussie only, tamils only parties to somersault to be in the government after the elections (fowzie the owl, xxxx
    heem, bada udin, a sad ali (not enough children to be sad?), empty dog aka hisballa etc are like furniture, in every government)

    *mussie only schools to hide real numbers and which are filled up to the rafters thanks to baby machines

    *millions of 3-wheels, rickety private buses which have made driving impossible and death traps and contribute to nearly 4,000 deaths every year

    *creating corrupt deshapaluwas whose only job is to steal, steal and steal and call others thieves

    *not doing any development work since independence

    *massacring 60,000+ Buddhist jaathidhrohee vermins party aka jvp with GooandPee’s catholic police top brass

    *draggin catholic tigers of tamil drealam war for 30 years and sacrifice 100,000+, mainly Sinhalese, saying the
    terras were invincible. MR came so called invincible terras were running for their lives

    *sending millennium city intelligent officers to death by pol pot to help its catholic buddy hitler mala paharan

    *sending 600+ policemen in the east to catholic tigers of tamil drealam bullet by traitor alugosuwa (to Sinhalese
    Buddhists, Sri Lanka and Buddhism only) lk porisada

    *stopping teaching history and Buddhism in schools to please traitor tamils and mussies by Pol Pot

    *giving citizenship to 650,000+ estate tamils who were prepared to go to tn under Sirima-Shasthri pact by
    thambi mudiyanselage jr@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ for their votes. Thambi mudiyanselage jr@@@@@
    was the one who initiated the decimation of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhism and deserve @@@@@@@@@
    1000 times

    The GooandPee’s treachery list goes on and still some traitor Sinhalese support these murderous (Sinhalese Buddhists only) thieving, lying thugs for a packet of rice/a shot of arrack/a job/Rs 1000 etc. etc. GooandPee not
    just destroyed Sinhalese race, Sri Lanka and Buddhism but also made Sri Lanka the most corrupt, lawless
    country on the planet. We Sinhalese as a race are ashamed to have some Sinhalese who are still supporting
    these murderous (Sinhalese Buddhists only), Buddhism destroying, Mother Lanka dismembering, minority worshipping GooandPee traitor low lives for a packet of rice/a shot of arrack/1000 Rs/for a job etc. etc. SINHALESE
    SHOULD UNITE AND WIPE THESE ANTI BUDDHIST, ANTI SINHALESE, ANTI SRI lANKA, MINORITY WORSHIPING
    GOOANDPEE FOR GOOD FROM THE POLITICAL MAP OF SRI LANKA IF WE ARE TO SURVIVE!

  3. Cerberus Says:

    Thank you Ancient Sinhalaya. Here is another one on Rani’s doings for 40 years I found in Lankaweb.http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/08/09/ranil-wicremasinghes-crimes-against-sri-lanka-and-its-people-for-forty-years/

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

 


Copyright © 2024 LankaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Wordpress