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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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Features |  |
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Ranil's fate in the balance From the Kraal Mahout As predicted in this column five weeks ago, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) swept the Provincial Council Elections in all six provinces. The victory was resounding despite the fact that a little less than 50 per cent voted at the polls. The UNP made a lame excuse that it could not win due to the low voter turn-out. This excuse looks absurd according to the plan Ranil Wickremesinghe implemented to ensure a clear victory in all six provinces though his partymen were convinced they could win only the Central Province. Despite the UNP's confidence about winning the Central PC, this columnist predicted the UNP defeat there. The question is how could the UNP blame the low voter turn-out to get over the humiliation. Did not Ranil Wickremesinghe with the assistance of his deputy Karu Jayasuriya hand over letters to all UNP MPs in the six provinces to ensure that they worked hard to give the party victory at all electorates represented by those MPs? Wickremesinghe and Jayasuriya met those MPs personally before the polls and warned they should win their electorates. Moreover, he partly restructured the party two months ago and gave top positions to certain people who pressurised him for reforms. One was Tissa Attanayake from the Central Province who was the Deputy General Secretary of the party. Crossover Be that as it may, next comes the changes he affected in the organisation before the elections. Long-standing UNP stalwart, Tyronne Fernando was ignored and after his crossover, Prof. G.L. Peiris was given the Moratuwa electorate. Did the learned professor do his homework? No.... not at all. He lost Moratuwa in a humiliating manner. Though he proved inefficient at the April elections, the Kaduwela man, Karunasena Kodituwakku was kept in cold storage during this election. Kodituwakku is going to face another blow in the near future when he is ousted from the Kaduwela electorate. Wickremesinghe is planning to bring his blue-eyed boy, Akila Viraj from Kurunegala to Kaduwela, thinking Viraj could offer stiff resistance to JVP firebrand Wimal Weerawansa. Among the others is Vajira Abeywardene from Galle. He is to be replaced by Manusha Nanayakkara. Vajira, who tried hard to get into Wickremesinghe's inner list failed as the dispute between him and Hemakumara Nanayakkara aggravated day by day, leading the party to defeat after defeat. Therefore, Manusha has been called to lead Galle and the new appointment is in the offing. One time 'favourite' of Wickremesinghe, the accountant lad, Ajith Nivard Cabraal is going to have his neck slashed this time in Colombo West. Kalutara's Mahinda Samarasinghe who is a maestro in master-minding operations of that nature, is going to do a "Ronnie De Mel" within the party this time. Samarasinghe, a veteran in manipulating and scheming, is to fly from Kalutara to Colombo West, making the innocent Cabraal destitute in the district of Colombo. With Mahinda Rajapakse becoming Prime Minister, UNP insiders say that there appeared to be a feeling among Mahindas in the UNP that living close to 'Temple Trees' would be a qualification to occupy that office as a UNP Prime Minister. Badly beaten Mahinda Samarasinghe was severely defeated at the April and July elections in Kalutara. At the April elections, he, the district leader, was badly beaten by his inner rival Rajitha Senaratne who pushed him into second place. Adding insult to injury, Samarasinghe's performance as Labour Minister has been disgusting with his close aide, the former Foreign Employment Bureau Chairman, Susantha Fernando being charged for fraud. Even UNPers say that now there is transparency in the activities of the Foreign Employment Bureau under Minister Athauda Seneviratne. Recently the Bureau advertised Korean job vacancies. UNPers ask what happened to the Italian job visas and the Korean jobs that came under Samarasinghe's tenure as Labour Minister. These vacancies had been kept under the carpet and no one knows what happened. They want Samarasinghe to tell the people the truth. Samarasinghe's move to jump to Colombo West with the blessings of Ranil Wickremesinghe is opposed by many in the party. They blame Wickremesinghe for supporting characters who have brought the party into ridicule. "He has failed miserably at the elections and as a minister. Colombo West is J.R.'s seat that will never be lost. Mahinda is trying to grab it to save his skin to continue in politics," said a Colombo district UNP MP who is on the way out. He said that if Ranil gave Colombo West to JR's son, Ravi, the party had no objections. Wickremesinghe is not going to spare the SLFP crossover Mahinda Wijesekere this time. He is also going to axe Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, the popular UNPer from the Matara District. Who will replace them? None other than the Wickremesinghe favourite, the young boy, Buddhika Pathirana. He put his foot in by contesting the SPC elections last Saturday. He will lead UNP politics in the Matara District in future and Wijesekere, a total failure in UNP politics, as promised to Minister Mangala Samaraweera prior to the April election, will now have to drown himself in the Beira Lake or the Nilwala Ganga which is closer to his hometown. The UNP leader who gave into pressure by M.H. Mohamed before the PC elections, finally had to lead teams in the six provinces without leaders. Mohamed tried hard to push his son Shahul as the leader after Kodituwakku withdrew sensing what was in store for him if he contested Reginald Cooray. Shahul Hameed Mohamed ended up tenth in the UNP list in Colombo with newcomers overtaking him comfortably. This has embarrassed Mohamed who had been thinking of pushing Shahul to Colombo East to oust Wickremesinghe confidante Milinda Moragoda. Former Minister Moragoda, unhappy over the manner Wickremesinghe was handling the affairs of the PC election, distanced himself from the scene and never campaigned in full strength. "Manape" battle As developments are seen currently, Moragoda's neck is also close to the guillotine with Mahinda Samarasinghe trying to smuggle himself to adjoining Colombo West to offer competition in the "Manape" battle. If Moragoda is to survive in UNP politics in Colombo in future, a structure like the Great Wall of China would be useful for the boundary that separates Colombo West and East. All Wickremesinghe 'favourites' like Tissa Attanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sajith Premadasa and Naveen Dissanayake who got positions in the party by pressurising him, failed miserably at the PC elections. Naveen has now chosen to challenge Wickremesinghe to step down. This is the response Wickremesinghe has received upon offering positions to young turks. The young turks are now ganging up to oust Wickremesinghe who had lost 13 of the 15 elections he led. There is pressure to summon a general meeting of the party to conduct a post mortem on the PC election defeat. Wickremesinghe is not keen on such a meeting as a host of partymen are ready to question him about people like Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sajith Premadasa, Naveen and Attanayake on what they have offered the party. The UNP leader will have to bow his head to the majority of the party. If not, there is a group which is planning to support the UPFA Government in parliament come what may. Given this situation, the UNP leader's position in the party seems to hang in the balance. |
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