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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Features |  |
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Can S.B. do a Premadasa? From the Kraal Mahont The prediction of a humiliating defeat for the UNP at next month's Provincial Council Elections in this column was endorsed last week by none other than the newly appointed UNP National Organising Secretary S. B. Dissanayake. Former SLFP dissident Dissanayake announced at a news conference in Kandy that the UNP will not win any of the six provinces, but would win only Colombo Central electorate. This was what this column said a fortnight ago in its assessment of the July PC election. Now S. B. Dissanayake has become the 'favourite' of party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe with one time 'favourite', Prof. G. L. Peiris being sidelined on many important activities to re-organise the party. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has only the 2001 victory against many defeats under his stewardship, now seems to adopt the strategy of his uncle, the late UNP leader J. R. Jayewardene. JRJ, who took over from Dudley Senanayake, lacked experience at grass roots level as the people recognised him as a "white collared" politician. Therefore, he decided to make use of R. Premadasa to reach the grass roots level and approach the common man. Premadasa was a fiery speaker and had qualities that suited the ordinary man. He was able to convince the common man by using language which suited that society. Also, Premadasa was a clean politician during that period and there were no fingers pointed at him on allegations of corruption. That was an added qualification for Premadasa to prove his colours. Wickremesinghe, in the footsteps of his mentor Jayewardene, seems to have put S. B. Dissanayake on that track to play the role of Premadasa. Dissanayake and Premadasa are men of different calibre. Premadasa stood by the UNP throughout. He was loyal to all leaders of his party. He never defected though he had differences with his leaders. That was why prior to his election as President in 1989, Premadasa said: "If this Premadasa, who aspires to be your next President leaves this party, having done so much for the people, he will never get even ten thousand votes as an individual". Dissanayake, in politics, has been a quite different character from late President Premadasa. S.B. fell out with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga towards the end of the People's Alliance regime from 1994-2000. He criticised his leader Kumaratunga in a manner unacceptable in any decent society that upholds morals of life and justice. In his short spell as a PA minister, he had not fulfilled all pledges to his Hanguranketa electorate. On the contrary, Premadasa cemented the Colombo Central electorate for the UNP. Moreover, unlike Premadasa, S.B. built a mansion at Hanguranketa for him. That was a controversial subject four years ago, as the PA politicians levelled allegations of corruption against S.B., asking how he got money to build such a mansion.This issue seems to have died a natural death with SLFP and PA politicians apparently forgetting the issue. S. B. Dissanayake is a man who has been encircled by controversies from the time he became a minister and an opposition politician. He had faced charges for contempt of the Supreme Court. There were allegations of misappropriation of Samurdhi funds during his tenure as Samurdhi Minister both in the PA and UNF governments. In the field of sports, S.B. as PA's Minister of Sports was at the centre of a controversy involving sprint queen, Susanthika Jayasinghe. Last week, Dissanayake was reported as saying bravely that in the future, the UNP leadership will not be allowed to take unilateral decisions without consultations. This threat to Wickremesinghe came from S.B. hardly before a month has passed since occupying the post of National Organising Secretary. Sensing what Dissanayake may be planning, Wickremesinghe on Thursday quickly moved to appoint a "Commission" comprising party intellectuals, grassroot level UNPers and other important members of the public and professional sector to help build the UNP. Hence, this Commission is destined to play a bigger role than the National Organisation Committee headed by Dissanayake.As matters are, the UNP rank and file would take much time to reorganise the party at grass roots level. Defeat smiling on them at the PC elections in July will also need a post-mortem. Will S.B. ever be able to do a Premadasa is the question that is being asked by the UNP. |
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