UNP Leadership is Neither Male
nor Female as Regards Devolution!
Dilrook Kannangara
PTissa Attanayake has stated that the UNP leadership is neither for
unitary status nor federal status!! This is the worst form of ‘stance’
a political party can make on such an important issue. It is also highly
irresponsible to mislead the public the way they were made to believe
the unbelievable!
However, as told to the general public, the UNP has shed the federal
demand. That was a jumbo bend; the UNP that stood for Tamil Elam at
one point has made a slippery U-turn. It was just a few weeks ago that
Somawansa Amarasinghe said that the JVP would join the UNP only if the
latter can agree with the JVP on the resolution to the conflict and
the economy. As a first step, it has agreed to the JVP on the most crucial
issue facing the country. This must be singled out and praised. The
UNP is now a serious contender to the throne. The only remaining issue
is the economy. However, in this regard, the UNP will never agree with
the JVP as it goes against the very existence of the UNP. On the other
hand, the UNP is known to better manage the economy than SLFP led governments,
and, therefore, it need no agree with the JVP; people would make their
own assessment.
The UNP should be praised for another achievement. They are now on an
equal footing with the SLFP as far as the conflict is concerned. This
puts enough pressure on the government not to pursue the doomed federal
solution. The President has a choice to make; he could either listen
to no-bodies (who will never ever vote for the SLFP) and go for a federal
solution or listen to his voters and abstain from federalism. If he
chooses to follow the first cause of action, that would mark the end
of his political career. This will give enough reason for government
ministers to cross-over to the greener pasture.
Unsolved mysteries
Mystery 1- However, it is mysterious that the UNP has not come up with
a viable alternative; in not agreeing to federalism, they have not stated
that they would retain unitary status, which is the always popular choice.
Mere expansion of the 13th amendment does not suffice to arrive at a
lasting solution within a unitary state.
Mystery 2- Another interesting repercussion is the plight of federal-kings
and the queen who are already in the UNP. Mangala, Sripathi and Chandrika
(and hence Vimukti) always preferred federalism to anything else. The
repositioning event only had a large Ranil’s portrait; the massive
SWRD Bandaranaike portrait that travelled the country has simply vanished!
This is clear evidence that Ranil has completely lost faith in Mangala,
Sripathi and Chandrika. What would happen to them? In the absence of
any other alternative avenues for money-making, they will stick to the
UNP.
Mystery 3- What would happen to the overwhelming support the UNP received
from the TNA? Now this is the tricky part. The UNP in all probability
will continue to seek active support of the TNA without which it cannot
topple the government. As it is now the TNA will join with anyone to
topple the government since that will ensure the LTTE is safe. Therefore,
just by dropping-off federalism, the UNP will not lose TNA support to
topple the government. However, canvassing for a new government will
be almost impossible for the UNP without the support of the TNA. On
the other hand if the UNP has actually rescinded all agreements with
the LTTE, including the 2002 MoU accepting the LTTE as the sole representative
of the Tamil people, this gives the UNP the right to canvass for Tamil
votes everywhere which was prevented at the 2004 general election. That
means, the TNA is going to lose their parliamentary power. Battlefield
loses and parliamentary losses combined will certainly put the Tamil
separatist aspirations in jeopardy!
Mystery 4- Also it is important to assess the enormous support the UNP
receives from Tamil Elam sources. Many NGOs, Tamil Elam supporters and
their affiliated entities provide huge monetary, moral and media assistance
to the UNP as long as it stands by Tamil Elam. Will the UNP lose all
this?
Mystery 5- According to UNP internal sources, some sections aren’t
happy about the move; most notably their newspaperman; he receives sizable
contributions from sources sympathetic towards Tamil Elam and doesn’t
want to, in his right mind, lose them. He argues that this will allow
the SLFP to eat into the UNP pie as this would lose the preferred position
the UNP has with the moderates like CWC, UPF and SLMC. It is important
to note that the UNP had separate and individual, exclusive agreements
with each of these parties at the last presidential election. Without
their support and the support of the TNA, UNP would have suffered the
worst election defeat in 2005.
Continued allegiance of the like of Pakasotthi to the UNP proves this
point.
Mystery 6- Also notable is the scant media coverage awarded to the ‘repositioning’
event by Tamil and English media. Ranil’s traditional practice
of ‘niche marketing’ hasn’t changed and his family media
are busy selling one story to the Sinhala voters whereas his buddies
tell yet another to the Tamil audience.
Mystery 7- Another bigger mystery is the appointment of a parliamentary
select committee to look into LTTE links from 1989. UNP surely had many
links apart from the official 2002 agreement which it now rescinded.
By dropping the LTTE, UNP leaders expect that the past misdeeds may
be forgiven and forgotten. They are yet to realise that they must pay
for all they have benefitted at the expense of the nation.
Mystery 8- Ranil has been the darling of the international community
when he stood by federalism. Now he has defected, a fallout is imminent.
However, will he forego all the benefits that came up with his marriage
to federalism? On the other hand can the UNP beat the JVP in a battlefield
promoting the unitary status? If not it may lose both.
As predicted
The real reason behind the UNP’s agitation hype, which died down
on the 19th of September 2007, was to stop Ranil becoming the longest
standing Opposition Leader. As usual, he failed again. And as predicted,
the UNP changed its tactics post 9/19. There are no more National Congress
Mangala-Ranil punk shows; the chest beating baboon is silent about unbelievable
and unsubstantiated corruption charges; Ranil has avoided limelight
in wide contrast to pre 9/19 conduct; a new set of front liners (but
the same old buffoons) have appeared. (Please refer to Lankaweb article
‘the significance of 19 September’ which was published before
the event)
However, Ranil’s extreme power hunger is not likely to subside.
One who stands for nothing will fall for everything
Picking up the LTTE when they are strong and dropping them off when
they are weak shows the extreme opportunistic behaviour of the UNP.
What can guarantee that the UNP would treat its voters differently?
Nothing. Especially Ranil has a very bad record in this regard. After
getting elected from Biyagama twice, he eventually killed the voters!!
His premiership was utterly unpopular among the masses resulting in
very short terms (93-4, 2001-4) and devastating defeats that followed.
Therefore, this move, although a good one, was made with opportunism
at heart and not the nation. Hence, nothing will ensure that the UNP
under Ranil will not go back to its old partner – the LTTE.
This resonates with Ranil’s U-turns on his religion (he was a born
Christian and still uses his Baptismal certificate when apt, on other
occasions he pretends to be a Buddhist), political strategies (the 2001
government toppling campaign was named – Palayawu (go) but the
recently concluded one was named – Warev (come) and the crux of
these two campaigns were equally different), lack of commitment to political
solutions (in 2000 he agreed to support CBK’s devolution bill but
eventually backed down), media freedom (he would scream for media freedom
when in Opposition but punishes media men like Paul Harris when in power)
and lack of consistency (at the 1999 election he promised not to promise
but after a few days later was full of promises including a dole for
the youth, motor bikes, second hand vans, gold chains, chewing gum and
denim trousers).
However, it takes just one LTTE attack for the UNP to shift allegiance
again.
Federalism is nothing but dead
If federalism is so very good as self named moderates say, political
parties would compete with each other to be in the forefront of federalism.
However, the contrary has happened. At the last election in 2005, SLFP,
JVP and JHU won on a unitary note rejecting federalism. The main Opposition
has now rejected it. This means a 100% rejection by presidential aspirants
and more than 80% in parliament. On this other side of the battlefield,
the LTTE has repeatedly rejected it stating that they want the Tamil
Homeland. The federal idea is now dead.
It is important to remember that federalism took wings when the LTTE
was strong and supporters of it heavily capitalised on the LTTE’s
strength to promote it. They wilfully neglected the aspirations of the
Sinhala and Muslim populace and most importantly Sri Lankan aspirations.
However, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka must be
protected and strengthened. This is the ideal opportunity for that.
We urge the government to take meaningful steps to further strengthen
the nation and its unitary status during this small window of opportunity.
All set for a grand showdown in the North
In time, all significant political forces have rejected federalism;
LTTE has also rejected it and reiterated the demand for Tamil Homeland.
It has sent representations to the UN to recognise their Terroriststan.
However, no such acceptance is forthcoming and the tigers are getting
increasingly edgy. The so called moderates have failed drastically in
bringing the parties to an unarguable compromise. Desperate Tamil Elamists
are calling for tough action against Sri Lanka in order to save the
LTTE.
However, it is beneficial for the government to accelerate the war effort
so that all attempts to suffocate the nation will fail. The more it
is delayed the more the opportunities for economic and humanitarian
strangulation by interferers. If there is no LTTE to protect, they will
back off.
This is the most historic moment after King Parakramabahu the Sixth
unified the country a few hundred years ago. May all Sri Lankans live
in peace and all Tamil Elamists rest in peace!! And, please Ranil don’t
try to become a political eunuch by rejecting both the options; tell
the people one thing without telling the local media one thing and BBC
another, at least now.
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