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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Ranil: The insurgent awaiting his turn Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake As nominations for the Presidential poll draws nearer the UNP leader moves deeper into history for inspiration. Shortly after the flak from his talk about a new Perakum Era had settled down, last week he said he would pave the way for another era of Pandukabhaya, and like him would unite the entire country. Pandukabhaya Whatever his plans for national unity may be, his choice of Pandukabhaya is one which can drive fear, especially to his kinsmen. Historians of repute, including Prof. Senerath Paranavitana, is on record describing Pandukabhaya as an insurgent who tarried for seventeen years until he killed off all his eight maternal uncles to claim the throne and establish himself at Anuradhapura. The only maternal uncle of Ranil Wickremesinghe I know of is Ranjit Wijewardena, a kindly man who has printers ink running in his blood, and runs the very successful Wijeya Newspaper Group. Although his newspapers support Wickremesinghe's candidacy for Presidency, Ranjit W had better watch out if the new Pandukabhaya takes after the original with regard to maternal uncles. So is this new promise of Ranil Wickremesinghe about another Pandukabhaya Era one of great blood letting? For that is what Pandukabhaya is better known than unifying the country. The not so distant future will reveal whether we are in for another Perakumba or Pandukabhaya era. However, in the UNP's manifesto one sees all the qualities of the hi-jacking of populist policies that has no link with the declared Conservative policies of the much touted private-sector led market economy. We have somehow to believe that it will create 200,000 jobs in the state and private sector within one year. It's strange the UNP that banned all recruitment to the public service from December 2001 to February 2004, has suddenly realised the need to provide 200,000 new jobs. Will that be by "inflating" the public sector against its own better views? Does it really expect the private sector to add even 50,000 jobs to their workforce? One needs a great helping of salt to swallow that. In a desperate move to keep in touch with mass feeling, the UNP is hell bent on reducing the cost of living. But its lack of understanding of public needs is exposed when its promise on "An end to hunger" says, "we will initially offer 400 g packet of milk powder at Rs. 139, 500g of dhal at Rs. 34 and 500g of dried sprats at Rs. 94." The programme to be reviewed every six months has obviously been drawn up by people who think that the cost of living is only to do with milk powder, dhal and dried sprats for a beginning. This does bring to mind the great promises of performance of the First Hundred Days after the UNP's scraping up a parliamentary majority in December 2001. From Jana Saviya to Samurdhi the people are now promised "Siya Saviya" with food stamps from Rs, 1000 to 1500 to all Samurdhi recipients. When compared with what happened to its promise in December 2001 of giving Rs 2,500 to all unemployed youth, one cannot help recall in this "Siya Saviya" Ranil's great uncle, the foxy JRJ, saying at the height of insurrections in the South and North that people should be able to look after there own security. That was "Siya Rekuma". Is this "Ranil Rekuma" or Ranil Saviya"? For a party and leader who claim to eschew promises, this manifesto is nothing but one mass of promises, possibly not believed by its own drafters. It speaks of defeating separatism through a permanent political solution, but does not even hint at the solution. It also talks of consensus building between the UNP and UPFA, and again fails to say how it is to be done. Will this consensus building end up as the Draft Constitution of August 2000, which the UNP burnt in Parliament, after being drawn up following months of negotiation between the UNP and PA? History has a strange habit of repeating itself, when at least one principal actor remains the same. Kinsmen or ... If "Regaining Sri Lanka" although much criticised had some content of value in it, what is now on offer is really the pits. There is no explanation of how all these costs will be met. One cannot see the corporate giants behind the UNP being happy at what's on offer. Many must already be crying foul at the UNP leadership for unleashing such a load of promises. Reaching out to the masses is one thing; but, it requires a great measure of credibility. Will the people trust the UNP to follow such populist policies that go against the grain of its own thinking or trust others whose political beliefs are in tune with such policies? Therein lies the rub, and rubbing off the image of the party of Colombo and the rich man is not as easy as producing a populist manifesto. How many political kinsmen or godfathers will the new Pandukabhaya have
to eliminate to implement his own policies? |
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