The rise of cry-baby politics

It's more than funny to see a person who entered politics and rose in it thanks to the sheltering care of an uncle in politics, borrowing a slogan from elsewhere and keep complaining about fraternal politics or the "Sahodara Samagama". If the very necessity to borrow the slogan shows the bankruptcy of UNP politics, the fact that it is uttered most by Ranil Wickremesinghe shows the very poor level of leadership with that party.

It is interesting to recall that in its early period the UNP was strongly identified for the politics of kith and kin. That was when the so-called father of the nation, Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake, was very close in politics to his nephew, Sir John Kotalawala.

The promotion of family bandyism within the UNP and its administration was so strong that Dr. Colvin R de Silva, whose 100th birth centenary is celebrated this year, described it aptly in his own pithy style as the Uncle Nephew Party.

As D. S. Senanayake grew older he saw a need to establish family succession to the leadership of the UNP. His method was to sidetrack Sir John, the aspiring and until then anointed successor, and inform the then Governor General Lord Soulbury that in the event of his demise the mantle of Prime Minister should go to his son, Dudley.

SWRD Bandaranaike, who saw his chance of leadership vanishing in the family strategy of the Senanayakes, had already left the UNP to form the SLFP. Read more about all this if you can get hold of a copy of "The Premier Stakes", Sir John Kotalawala's contribution to the history of UNP politics.

In the event, when D. S. Senanayake made his sudden exit due to a horse-riding accident, it was son Dudley who was asked by Lord Soulbury to form the next government, and not the Leader of the House and much more senior Sir John.

That was the politics of Father and Son or Piya Puthu Samagama.Sir John got his chance only after Dudley showed he had too weak a stomach for politics following the events of the Hartal of 1953, which made him retreat into political hibernation.

If the family tradition continued in the SLFP too, it was not because SWRD wanted it, as he had not groomed anyone for leadership when he was gunned down by Somarama's bullets in 1959. If the politics of a caste played a big role in the emergence of Sirimavo Bandaranaike as its leader, replacing CP de Silva in 1960, Chandrika came in despite a perceived matrimonial disadvantage on caste, but with the family standard still held high. Note how soon after her election as Prime Minister in August 1994, Chandrika Kumaratunga began insisting on being known as Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

SWRD's son Anura demonstrated recently that he still had dreams of the feudal claims to the leadership of the SLFP. But it appears he has now accepted saner counsel and will have to be satisfied minding the National Heritage instead of trying to further his own Bandaranaike heritage within the SLFP.

Ranil and his slogan

We now come to Ranil and his borrowed slogan. As a young lawyer he cut his teeth in politics under his uncle JR Jayewardene, benefiting from the UNP's landslide victory of 1977, which brought about the parliamentary dictatorship of JRJ. On his own admission he would most probably have been working at "Lake House", following the family tradition of father and grandfather, if JR had not tapped him on the shoulder to draw him into politics. Uncle Nephew politics rides again.

One still wonders whether the loss to journalism was greater than the damage to national politics caused by that move in Ranil's career interests. Interestingly, Rukman Senanayake, the grand-nephew of DS Senanayake, with his flair for tearing up of agreements, may recall the great battle waged by JRJ against the Senanayakes and how he too was a victim of that. With Ranil, his new leader being where he is due to the benefits of Uncle-Nephew politics of the UNP, Rukman had better keep looking over his shoulder if he is to keep his place as UNP Chairman for long.

With no uncle to back him up anymore, Ranil has now gone back to the cry-baby politics of the poor loser. Like the proverbial drowning man clutching on to a straw, Ranil is now clinging on to tales of a secret pact between the SLFP and the LTTE.

We heard him say this in the aftermath of his defeat in the presidential poll in November 2005. He also blamed that defeat on missing names in the electoral register, ignoring the fact that such missing names affected the other side too.

Political cry-baby

The political cry-baby is reborn today thanks to the fresh allegations, with no proof being offered, about the agreement between the Government and the LTTE. Ranil is once again shouting that Mahinda Rajapaksa had no mandate from the people, as his election was only due to the LTTE keeping to its part of the secret pact and ordering the boycott of the polling in the North and East. Surprisingly, he failed to take this argument to the Supreme Court within the stipulated period for an election petition.

Those who take pleasure in flogging a dead horse are entitled to their pleasures, but such pleasures have no attraction to the voters of Sri Lanka, including most of the voters for Ranil W too. It may be more helpful to move away from cry-baby politics and think of something more creative such as a charge that the LTTE's mortar and artillery attack on western diplomats last week was also the result of working according to a secret pact with the Government. Try a few more like that, the possibilities are endless.

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