What befell UNP!

By Jaliya WIJEYEKDON

Sri Lanka which has a recorded history of over 2,500 years was under British rule for 133 years starting from 1815.

Dudley Senanayake	D.S. Senanayake	Sir John Kotalawala
J.R. Jayewardene	Ranasinghe Premadasa	Ranil Wickremesinghe

The British rule made a great impact on the spheres of socio economic standards, culture, civilization, religion and education of our country. However, with the passage of time our great leaders of yesteryear realised the importance of national independence and started the freedom struggle against the British Empire.

The relentless campaign that continued for a long time finally paid dividends and we achieved independence on February 4, 1948 under the able leadership of Right Honourable D.S. Senanayake.

In 1946 Senanayake formed the United National Party with the support of other community leaders and it was very easy for Senanayake to command the respect of the entire nation as he had a broad vision for the future of the country. However, the Left movement which was inaugurated a few years earlier was also making a considerable impact in the political arena of the country under the leadership of Dr. N.M. Perera who became the Opposition Leader of first Parliament of Independent Sri Lanka (Then Ceylon).

The party policies formulated by Senanayake and his able lieutenants managed to attract the majority support of all communities irrespective of petty differences. Being under the British rule for a very long period, the mentality of our countrymen then was rather different and the influence created in the minds of the public was fully advantageous to the United National Party which took a pro right path in governing the country. The United National Party had appointed people of standing calibre who commanded the respect of the people from all electorates and most of them won their respective seats at the election.

Party fraternity

In the United National Party some of the top rung members were close relations or inter connected in some way or other. In addition UNP always looked into the family background, social status, education and the financial stability of the people before they are fielded as candidates.

The biggest allegation levelled against the UNP by the Left movement at that time was that the UNP was a rich man’s party and there is no room for ordinary people to represent it as it belonged only to the elite, the English speaking society. Further they branded the UNP as Uncles, Nephews Party or Unge Nedeyange Pakshaya. The progressive Left movement led by the Leftists such as Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Gunawardene, managed to indoctrinate the downtrodden masses with marxist political philosophy and attract the attention of the people to their movement with their powerful Sinhala oratorical skills. The Left movement consolidated its position in certain areas in the country represented by the party leaders.

These leaders managed to inculcate and develop a certain degree of hatred in the minds of ordinary masses towards the affluent society while representing their interests in the august assembly.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the United National Party had been taken over by Sir John Kotalawala, the third leader of the party who was not a successful political leader though a very straightforward, rigid strict disciplinarian. During the tenure of Sir John Kotalawala the public support to the UNP dwindled to a great extent mainly due to the manner in which he aired his views on a number of vital issues, some of which even involved the Maha Sangha.

SWRD leaves

In 1952, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who was a senior member in the UNP broke away from UNP over some disagreements with the leadership and formed a new party along with some progressive forces and it started gaining ground as a new force very rapidly. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, an Oxford scholar, and veteran politician knew very well that he had to garner the majority support by way of attracting vital sections of the society to his new movement.

His main political theme was ‘Five great forces’ Pancha Maha Balavegaya namely Buddhist clergy, native physicians, teachers, farmers and workers.

The members of the above group rallied round S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in thousands and thousands from all over the country and extended their fullest co-operation to the leader at the next election. The United National Party which had done a great service to the country since independence was swept out of power reducing its strength in the Parliament to a mere 8 members.

That was the first ever debacle suffered by the United National Party since its formation in 1946.

However the UNP subsequently bounced back to power on a couple of occasions under the charismatic leadership of Dudley Senanayake with the support of minority communities and ruled the country until 1970. Dudley Senanayake’s government from 1965-1970 was virtually deceived by the government officials over the unrealistic cultivation drive and rejected by the masses comprehensively at the election.

After the death of Dudley Senanayake the undisputed deputy leader of the party, J.R. Jayewardene became the leader.

Jayewardene, an astute politician who had gone through the mill, with his ocean of knowledge of practical politics completely revamped the party mechanism from grassroots levels to the top front.

That was the first ever period in the United National Party where upcoming young blood from ordinary backgrounds were selected and appointed as electoral organisers for a number of rural electorates in the island.

JR resigns

J.R. Jayewardene resigned from his parliamentary seat after completing five years as a token of protest against extending the period of parliament by two years by the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government and went for a by-election and returned to parliament with a thumping majority.

From 1975 onwards he constantly agitated against the United Front government on various issues.

An admirable quality in his leadership was that he unconditionally supported Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1971 when the stability of the government was threatened by the JVP with its atrocities.

J.R. Jayewardene as the Opposition leader very correctly read the minds of the people and took all remedial measures before unleashing the most aggressive election campaign. He had formulated the party policy program and the election manifesto well before the election and presented to the party membership.

The United Front Government was rejected by the people at the election and J.R. received a mammoth five sixth majority. Various party leaders such as Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunewardane, Felix Dias Bandaranaike, Peter Keunaman, P.B.G. Kalugalle, Colvin R. de Silva and Dr. S.A. Wickremesinghe were unseated and subsequently driven to political wilderness.

Epoch - maker

J.R. Jayewardene was an epoch maker in the post independent country and no one can deny the fact that vast strides were made in all spheres, including socio economic standards of the people. Mega development programs initiated during his period paved the way to enhance the living standards of all Sri Lankans.

After completing his second term as the Executive President of Sri Lanka he retired from politics and Ranasinghe Premadasa took over the party leadership which he has been aspiring for some time as JR’s deputy.

Common man

Ranasinghe Premadasa though not from a elite background was a practical politician who started his political career with his mentor A. E. Goonesinghe, the Labour Leader. He had been right along with the ordinary people of the city and correctly felt the pulse of the people while accumulating a vast knowledge about everything in society. Being the Prime Minister under Jayewardene, he initiated a number of development programs to alleviate the grievances of the public.

Premadasa’s Housing program, Janasaviya Movement, Village Reawakening campaign, and opening of 200 garment factories all over the country were some of the major development work undertaken by him which finally consolidated the party membership and his position in the party. People at large were immensely benefited by these programs and they remained with the party even when some of the prominent figures of his party tried to oust him from the leadership and the Presidency.

Premadasa was not only a man who worked for the people of the country but was also a man who accepted any challenge in the House and talked back valiantly to defeat the opponent.

The way he handled the Impeachment Motion brought against him bore ample testimony to his bravery and aptitude.It was a well heard statement then that “Oxbridge combination failed to beat Kehelwatta”. However, after the untimely demise of Premadasa on May 01, 1993 there were immediate dramatic changes in the party leadership which was not advantageous or beneficial to the party membership or to the people at large.

At the next parliamentary and Presidential elections held in 1994 the United National Party was defeated by the People’s Alliance headed by Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumarathunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Leader of the Opposition and the party leader.

Role of opposition

When we scrutinize UNP activities while in Opposition in the past, it is quite evident that the leader had mainly focused his attention on consolidating and enhancing the membership while performing the Opposition Leader’s duties and obligations in the House.

It is quite doubtful whether the present Opposition Leader worked on the interest of party development for the last so many years.Unlike the previous party leaders, Ranil Wickremesinghe didn’t have any innovative and viable program or particular project which would have attracted the young people to his fold. Neither had he any prospective plan for the rural vote base which could have garnered the majority support.

His dictatorial stand and arrogant behaviour on some regional party issues have led to his unpopularity among the party members which ultimately affected the final result of elections. Ranil Wickremesinghe never thought of rubbing shoulders with farmers and peasants in rural corners of the country who had a great faith in the United National Party from its inception.

Although, the United National Party managed to form a government under Ranil’s leadership with the able assistance of a breakaway group from PA headed by S.B. Dissanayake in 2001, he was unable to consolidate and continue due to a number of reasons, the main reason being the cessation of new recruitments to State sector by a gazette notification. All the young qualified employment aspirants lost faith in the UNP.

In the meantime the Opposition launched an aggressive campaign headed by JVP and Ranil’s government came to an end in 2004.

Since then it has been a pathetic performance by the UNP under Wickremesinghe and the time has come for him to realize the shortcomings and mistakes made in the past and coordinate properly with all stakeholders of the United National Party and arrive at a suitable decision for the larger interest of the party.