Time opportune to rescue UNP

By Jaliya WIJEYEKOON

Dudley Senanayake

J.R. Jayewardene

Ranasinghe Premadasa

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Sajith Premadasa

The United National Party founded by its leader D.S. Senanayake in 1946, had been a formidable political force since its inception until 2004 in the political arena. The party was led by six leaders during the past six decades and every one of them was confronted with different conflicts, problems and challenges yet they managed to overcome them and led the party to victory. However, the United National Party had its own ups and downs in the distant past but it never bogged down in the opposition for more than one parliamentary term prior to 1994.

The most charismatic and beloved leader of the party, four times Prime Minister, Dudley Senanayake passed away in 1973 and the leadership was taken over by Junius Richard Jayewardene the then leader of the Opposition. He had to face a whole heap of challenges from the very strong government headed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike and efficient but arrogant ministers such as Felix Dias Bandaranaike, Dr. N.M. Perera, Maithripala Senanayake, Pieter Kheunaman and some others.

JR, the well experienced and astute politician took up all challenges valiantly along with only 16 members of the party and weathered all political storms. He revolutionised the party mechanism from the lowest level to the top with the support of his able set of lieutenants who were under his wings. He delegated the party organisational activity and monitored performance periodically and freely allowed them to establish their political empires.

Jayewardene's farsighted visionary of local and international politics correctly read the pulse of the people and made all the ground work and formulated party policies to attract the general public to his fold whilst being in opposition. Simultaneously, he extended his unconditional support to the Sirima government on issues of national importance.

However, when the UF government decided to extend its life span by two years, J.R. intensified his anti-government campaign and mobilised all forces backed by his able lieutenants such as Premadasa, Gemini Renaissance, Lalith Athulathmudali, Dr. Anandatissa de Alwis, M.H. Mohamed and Cyril Mathew and achieved an unprecedented five sixths victory at the 1977 General Election.

JR's tenure of 12 years goes down in the annals of history as an epochmaking period of socio economic development.

After J.R., Ranasinghe Premadasa took over the leadership of the party and won the Presidential Election amidst severe oppression by JVP in the South and LTTE in the North. He had to face an impeachment motion initiated by some of his party stalwarts, but he managed to overcome all obstacles and consolidate his position as well as the party membership through his astute political wisdom and personal charisma.

However, the United National Party experienced a very unfortunate period in its existence from 1991-1993 losing all its top rung leaders such as Ranjan Wijeratne, Lalith Athulathmudali, and then incumbent President Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake, at the subsequent Presidential Election.

The party leadership was vested in Ranil Wickremesinghe in 1994. He formed a government in 2001 with the support by a break away group of Chandrika government headed by its General Secretary S.B. Dissanayake. However, Wickremesinghe was not able to consolidate and continue due to a number of reasons and the party was swept out of power in 2004.

Since then it had been a very poor performance by the UNP and a large number of UNP stalwarts left the party and joined the UPFA government claiming that the UNP will never return to power under the present leadership. The last Presidential Election followed by the general election further weakened the party when it lost almost all its strongholds.

Though there were dramatic incidents and changes in the party during the last two years, leader Ranil Wickremesinghe remained the leader despite severe criticism by the membership.

It is the general belief of the grassroots level membership that the erosion of the party is mainly due to the internal conflicts of the top runners of the party. It is quite evident that the party is divided into two groups, Ranil faction and Sajith faction which is not healthy for a democratic political party.

2012 Provincial Council Election

When elections for three Provincial Councils were announced the UNP sitting members were virtually in the political wilderness. It was the deputy leader of the party Sajith Premadasa who encouraged the candidates and spearheaded the entire political campaign during the run up to election. Sajith while being deeply committed to his Sasunata Aruna devoted full time to the election. He visited every nook and corner of all three provinces and encouraged the grassroots level membership to come forward. The standing ovation he received from the rural masses clearly indicates his popularity among the people. The UNP candidates were equally treated by Sajith Premadasa and everybody should be thankful to him for his tremendous efforts to ensure party victory.

The general belief in most of the areas, specially in Sabaragamuwa Province is that the UNP wouldn't have achieved even what they got if not for the personal efforts of Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa. He was virtually in an out of Sabaragamuwa Province every other day during the run up to the election addressing rallies, giving guidelines to candidates and encouraging the membership.

However, the elections for three Provinces are over and now it is time for all UNP leaders to sit down and think twice as to how they should march forward as a United Party shedding petty differences and without pointing the finger at one another for shortcomings or lapses.

Party consolidation is of paramount importance in achieving victory in a future election. Internal conflicts, problems, disagreements, differences of opinion and misunderstandings are common features in any democratic political party, specially when it remains in the Opposition for a very long time. It is for the leadership to have pragmatic approach towards the issues and take sensible decisions which may not further jeopardise the party membership.

It is quite evident that the grassroot level membership is getting disintegrated in certain areas of the country and some are in a quandary as to what they should do with on going conflicts in the party. It has been proved with the last election results that some people have deserted the grand old party owing to the constant problems among the top leaders. Anyway it is still not too late for the incumbent leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to evolve a viable mechanism to woo the support of the disgruntled factions of the party.

Grassroots level membership is already fed up with the continuing defeats of the party during the last number of years and unless concrete steps are taken immediately to re-unite all the stakeholders, a victory at a future election will be only a mirage!