UNP's expulsion decision arbitrary, say dissidents

By Jaliya Wijeyekoon

The United National Party, the second oldest political party in the country, was formed by the late D.S. Senanayake in 1946. It is not wrong to say, that the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) which had been agitating for Independence, metamorphosed into the United National Party as almost all leaders of the CNC were in D.S. Senanayake's first Cabinet.

After winning Independence in 1948, D.S. Senanayake governed the country successfully, initiating a number of projects for the socio-economic development of the people. He was a far-sighted statesman who foresaw the ethnic conflict in the years to come, and commenced colonisation schemes to inter-mingle all communities and make them live in harmony.

After he passed away, his son, Dudley Senanayake became the Prime Minister and continued the schemes initiated by his father.

Starting with D.S. Senanayake in 1946, six leaders have held the reins of this Grand Old Party upto 1994 when Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected leader.

All previous leaders of the party won elections at their very first attempt itself after taking over the reins of the party. However, they all had differences of opinion with some of their subordinates, but sorted out matters amicably and worked in unison for the larger interests of the party. Former party leaders such as J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa took disciplinary action against some of the members who didn't fall in line with the party policies of the day. However, they managed to consolidate the membership and guide the party to victory at subsequent elections.

Break-away group

Ranil Wickremesinghe became the leader of the party in 1994 and succeeded in winning the election in 2001 with able support rendered by a break-away group of the then PA Government headed by its General Secretary S.B. Dissanayake and six other prominent parliamentarians. However, he could not consolidate the power he won and continue as his government was dissolved by the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga over the pressure exerted on her by the JVP and some other opportunists.

Since then, the United National Party had been suffering defeat after defeat at every election and its vote base has reduced to deplorable levels in certain areas of the country which were considered to be UNP bastions.

A large number of party stalwarts left the party and joined the Government, accusing the present leadership of the UNP.Following repeated defeats suffered by the party, young Parliamentarian from Hambantota distric Sajith Premadasa challenged the leadership of the party, backed by a few young Parliamentarians and Provincial Councillors along with some LG representatives.

However, at the subsequent National Convention, Sajith Pemadasa settled for the Deputy Leader's post to the surprise of everybody who supported him to become the leader.

The United National Party again suffered defeat at the Local Government elections and subsequent Provincial Council (PC) elections, and demoralising the party membership further.

Anti-Ranil campaign again sprung up among the dissidents and this time, Karu Jayasuriya agreed to contest for the leadership with Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Executive Committee of the party decided to hold an election to elect the new office-bearers including the posts of Leader, Deputy Leader and National Organiser.

Jayasuriya launched an aggressive campaign along with Premadasa and other dissident members with the blessings of some Maha Sangha too. Wicrkemesinghe, the ever cool leader, remained silent, watching the developments in the party as he knew very well that he had no competition what so ever with Jayasuriya who had lost his credibility by joining the Government for a short period and returning to the party.

However, the over enthusiastic supporters of Premadasa and Jayasuriya had gathered at the Siri Kotha premises to see the change of leadership.

Various meetings launched

There were a few Provincial Councillors among the dissidents who openly opposed Wickremesinghe and held meetings in various parts of the country, mobilising the support of some PC members. Two of the most vociferous campaigners who were involved in this futile effort were Southern Provincial Councillor Maithree Guneratne and Western Provincial Councillor Shiral Lakthilake. With the announcement of the results, unruly goons who had barged into the party headquarters started shouting filthy slogans and disparaging remarks against Wickremesinghe and attacking the Siri Kotha building and damaging some vehicles parked there. This tense situation lasted for sometime before it was brought under control with the intervention of the police and some party seniors. Extensive damage had been caused to the party headquarters.

However, everything had been recorded in CCTV cameras and the culprits were identified beyond doubt.

The membership of the party was shocked over this unfortunate incident, irrespective of differences, as the United National Party was a decent and a well-disciplined movement which had never suffered such uncouth humiliation since its inception.

The Executive Committee of the party immediately decided to hold a thorough investigation into the incident and appointed a committee presided by Sreenath Perera to carry out the investigation. After scrutinising all evidence the Committee submitted its recommendations based on three categories.

It was again carefully studied by the disciplinary panel of the party and the relevant people were summoned before them. Some of them apologised and sorted out matters amicably and pledged to work in unison with the party in the future. They were pardoned by the disciplinary board.

Maithree Guneratne, Shrilal Lakthilake and a few others were found guilty by the disciplinary panel, ample evidence was found to prove that they were directly involved in the Siri Kotha attack. Hence the UNP Working Committee decided to sack them from the party membership and from all other positions they hold in the party.

When this decision was announced at the last Working committee meeting, Sajith Premadasa expressed his views and requested the party to pardon them for the last time. This was not heeded by the majority members and finally, it turned out to be a verbal barrage between Premadasa and Ajith Perera.

Arbitrary decision

The Sunday Observer contacted Maithree Guneratne over the expulsion. He says that it was an arbitrary decision taken against him by the panel headed by Dinesh Dodangoda, the closest friend of Wickremesinghe.

The day he was summoned, he was in poor health with viral flue and asked for a week to appear before the panel, but the party didn't give him time and took an ex-parte decision. "This is similar to the decision taken against Shirani Bandaranaike. Anyway, we are not going to keep quiet and you will see the fireworks in the Court House in the near future," he said. When contacted by the Sunday Observer, Shirlal Lakthilake said that from the very outset, the whole process was illegal, undemocratic and carried out at the instigation of Ranil Wickremesinghe who "resented our presence in the party. We wanted certain changes in the party to put it back on the winning track since we have suffered 29 election defeats under his leadership. This agitation was not initiated by us, but it had started in 1994. The reason for over 60 of our prominent members to cross over to the Government was also nothing other than the inefficiency of the leadership.

"We fight the Government for taking arbitrary decisions, wrong procedures and adopting ad hock formula on vital issues. It is ironic that the same things take place with regard to disciplinary inquiries in our party under this leadership. We do not leave the party which we love so much and hope to redress our grievances though proper litigation in the near future."

The Sunday Observer also spoke to former Minister Imithiaz Bakeer Marker who was loved and respected by everybody in the party to find out his views over the expulsion.

He said the aim of the Opposition should be to consolidate the party and try to form a government and to work for the people based on the party's policies and principles. He said that he recalls the problems Dudley Senanayke had with J.R. Jayewardene, but Dudley allowed JR to take over the Opposition leader's post and re-organise the party. Because he knew that the majority support was with him. After the 1965 General Election Dudley was humble enough to speak to Philip Gunewardena, W. Dahanayake, I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla and others to support him to form a government to which these leaders readily agreed.

The Sunday Observer's repeated attempts to speak to the General Secretary of the UNP and other stalwarts in the party regarding the recent expulsion proved futile.