{"id":71890,"date":"2017-11-22T21:53:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T03:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=71890"},"modified":"2017-11-22T06:44:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T13:44:05","slug":"utility-of-ranil-to-the-unp-is-his-ability-to-bring-money-to-the-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/11\/22\/utility-of-ranil-to-the-unp-is-his-ability-to-bring-money-to-the-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Utility of Ranil to the UNP is His Ability to Bring Money to the Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Ranil is not just facing a threat to premiership but also to his party leadership. He was made the party leader and kept in this post for close to 25 years is only because of his ability to bring in money for the party (mostly by foul means). He has absolutely no leadership skills and under his leadership, the UNP mostly languished in the Opposition.<\/p>\n

He was made the de facto party leader in 1993 only because of his ability to bring money to the party from various businessmen. His uncle JR Jayawardene introduced open economy in 1977 which benefitted local businessmen. Among them were strong UNP supporters. They were willing to finance the UNP. 1994 parliamentary election was a tough one for the UNP as certain defeat starred on their face. Ranil approached his business tycoon friends, terrorized them of another closed economy if PA won the election and skimmed money from them for the election. Although the PA won, no such thing happened and open economic policies remained.<\/p>\n

Having lost most LG, all PC, presidential and parliamentary elections, UNP was in dire straits by 2001. UNP was struggling to pay electricity bills of its offices. But its luck changed suddenly and party coffers were awash with cash. Ranil came to a deal with mostly tax evading businesses to collect money from them (as they kept postponing tax repayment) and give them a selective tax amnesty after winning power. All went to plan. UNP collected a few billions from these fraudulent businessmen, financed an exuberant election campaign and won in 2001. However, the regime took some time to effectuate the tax amnesty as the economy was in a bad shape and the regime needed money to appease the LTTE. By late 2003 UNP came up with their tax amnesty law which was challenged in the Supreme Court and was found to be illegal. Foolish tax fraudsters who financed the UNP lost their money and tax amnesty.<\/p>\n

After another cycle of losing any and all elections the UNP contested, it managed to claim power again using SLFP General Secretary Sirisena in 2015. UNP spent most money for the election campaign. UNP leaders were also aware of the impending parliamentary election which was a very expensive affair. They needed money. In February 2015 the central bank bond fraud was done. It was primarily done to finance the UNP by a number of Tamils. UNP won the 2015 parliamentary election but the bond fraud was caught. Once again UNP financing businessmen landed in loss. However, this time Tamil fraudsters hedged their risk by borrowing most of the money they invested in Central bank bonds from Bank of Ceylon. UNP leaders helped them secure the loan.<\/p>\n

Now UNP rank and file is convinced that Ranil can no longer bring home the bacon. All his frauds get caught although by then the UNP had earned its money. The fear is for future elections. Any fraud now becomes apparent to all. With this in mind, UNPers want Ranil out. They want a bigger crook to lead the party who can rob the public without leaving a trace. A renowned treasure thief is a prime candidate for party leadership. An ousted crook is also eyeing the UNP top post. Other dubious characters are also lining up to take the reins of the party.<\/p>\n

Ranil\u2019s removal has caused panic in the Rajapaksa clan as well. If UNP can offer fresh blood to voters, that will be a huge advantage over the clan dominated SLPP. Voters are fed up of the same old clans they have been seeing for the past 15 years. They want a change of clans, policy and priorities. Youth voters are utterly disgruntled with politicians in their 70s. SLPP or any challenger to the UNP will have to field a brand-new clan to win the 2019 presidential election if Ranil is replaced.<\/p>\n

UNP and the JO will try to impeach the president or try to change the constitution to abolish executive presidency as promised by Sirisena. However, they cannot find the 150 MPs required as Sirisena has won commendation from various quarters for his tough action against corruption by his own regime. This has never happened before. Sirisena may balance his action against the UNP by punishing a few from the past regime. Whatever the next steps are, the UNP social media mafia has already started attacking Sirisena. The president has to take the correct decision. Otherwise, he will be seen as part of the fraud and confirm the notion that he is just an effigy. To his credit, he has already caused the removal of two most powerful ministers (justice and finance) without collapsing the government. No past president managed to do so. Now he must remove his allegedly corrupt prime minister. People\u2019s court has given the verdict. In people\u2019s court Ranil has been found guilty. Ranil must go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Ranil is not just facing a threat to premiership but also to his party leadership. He was made the party leader and kept in this post for close to 25 years is only because of his ability to bring in money for the party (mostly by foul means). He has absolutely no leadership […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}