Radical changes to be adopted at Annual Convention:

UNP will regain lost glory soon - Gayantha Karunathilake

By Jaliya WIJEYEKOON

The United National Party had governed Sri Lanka for over 30 years since Independence in different terms and led by a number of leaders. It was a formidable political force founded by D.S. Senanayake in 1946 with the support of all community leaders of yesteryear.

It experienced ups and downs from time to time, but was never bogged down in the Opposition for more than one parliamentary term prior to 2004. All former leaders of the party had to face different problems during their regimes and they successfully overcame them with their political wisdom and sheer commitment.

However, due to the atrocities committed by the LTTE, the United National Party suffered badly and lost a number of its leaders.

Ranil Wickremasinghe became the leader of the United National Party in 1994. He formed a government in 2001 with the able support rendered by a breakaway group of then People's Alliance led by its General Secretary S.B. Dissanayake. However, Wickremesinghe was unable to consolidate this power and continue as Prime Minister as the Executive President, Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved the Government due to the pressure meted out on her by the JVP and other radical groups of the SLFP.

Since then, it had been a pathetic performance by the once formidable United National Party which was reduced to a dismal level with successive elections. Following the repeated defeats suffered by the party, its leadership was challenged by young Parliamentarian Sajith Premadasa in 2010 and then by Karu Jayasuriya.

Some changes were made to the party constitution and an election was held to elect the leader. Wickremesinghe was convincingly re-elected as its leader and continues to guide the party. All other top positions of the party were also filled according to the party constitution.

The Sunday Observer had an exclusive interview with UNP spokesman, Galle district Parliamentarian Gayantha Karunathilake to ascertain the present position and the future course of action of the party.

Excerpts are as follows:

Q: First of all, could you explain the present position of the party with regard to the leadership issue? Is it still there or has it been settled now?

A: There is no such problem. We sorted out the leadership issue sometime back and now our Party Leader is Ranil Wickremesinghe and Deputy Leader is Sajith Premadasa.

Both of them are doing their work cordially and effectively. It is an accepted fact that some bankrupt and unscrupulous political elements are engaged in a malicious campaign to tarnish the image of our party saying that there are problems among our leaders.

We are not bothered or disturbed over these petty futile efforts.

You are a reputed State paper and I don't think that you should ask silly questions of this nature.

Q: The UNP Annual Convention is scheduled to be held on December 1. Why did you decide to invite only selected people for this event, creating a precedent in your party activities?

A: Well, it's a decision taken by the Executive Committee of the party to prevent unwanted elements attending our important activities and creating chaos. We have bitter experiences and we shall not leave room for a repetition.

Our investigations have revealed that a lot of non-UNPers had barged in to the Convention last year to create chaos and tarnish the image of our party. We are a disciplined party and a true UNPer will never resort to violence on policy decisions.

That is the reason why the Executive Committee decided to curtail the number of members attending the Convention. Anyway, all office bearers of branch offices, youth leagues Lak Vanitha Units, local bodies, PCs and trade union members and party supporters recommended by the area organisers are invited.

Q: According to some people, your leader is more interested in punishing party members, sometimes on trivial matters, rather than consolidating the membership. Your comments?

A: As I told you earlier, we are a disciplined party. From the beginning, all our previous party leaders took disciplinary action against wrongdoers irrespective of their positions in the Party. No organisation could sail smoothly unless internal discipline is properly maintained.

There are enough and more examples for this. When such things are not nipped in the bud, they continue to repeat and finally, one day, the party hierarchy will have to face the music from the public.

Q: It is quite evident that your grass-roots level membership is heavily demoralised with the present situation of the party. What action are you going to take to re-group the disintegrated factions?

A: It is quite natural; when you are out of power for a long period, the party members get demoralised. You have to look at the entire scenario with a broader mindset without pointing an accusing finger at anybody.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa's government managed to wipe out terrorism which had been a cancer to the nation for a long period. That could have been the reason for them to remain in power amidst many problems.

At our next convention on December 1, we hope to initiate a number of speedy and radical changes in the party mechanism involving all our party frontrunners.

We are quite certain that all our supporters and even the people who left us would rejoin us and launch an aggressive campaign against the Government in the near future. We have already formulated a comprehensive program to woo the support of all anti-government forces, the disintegrated factions of all parties and other pressure groups. We are quite confident that we would re-establish our lost glory very soon to face a future election with confidence.

Q: The general belief is that your party is divided into a number of groups such as Sajith's group, Ranil's group, Karu's group and so on.

A: As I told you earlier very clearly, there are no groups in our party. We are a united party. Please let me put the facts straight. In any democratic political party, there would be leaders who have differences of opinion on certain matters. It doesn't mean that they are divided and in different groups.

Any leader could have his or her own confidants who are near and dear to them. I cant see anything wrong in that.

When it comes to national politics and any issue of national interest, all our party leaders work as a single unit based on our party policies and principles. So how can you say that we are divided?

It is quite natural that this type of problems arise in any democratic political party when it is bogged down in the Opposition for a long time.

Can't you remember that the SLFP was also disintegrated when it was in the Opposition for 17 long years? It was fragmented into a number of groups such as Sirima's group, Anura's group, Maithripala's group, Kobbekaduwa group and so on. They went to courts to settle their leadership issue.

Their party headquarters was closed down over a court order and the party was in political doldrums. Our party has not suffered so badly.

Q: The Government will hold the PC elections for the rest of the councils in the near future. Are you confident of winning any of them with your new political strategies?

A: We are not very interested in elections held on a staggered basis. Our target is the next General Election where we will prove our strength and definitely form a government.

Q: How can you be so confident when the Government is so strong and vields more than two thirds in Parliament?

A: The Government was strong in 2010, but not now. People are fed-up with the repeated promises given at every successive election held on a staggered basis during the last two years. Life is becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary people.

With the present cost of living, people are undergoing immense hardships and find it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

We will launch an aggressive campaign against the Government from the beginning of next year.

We have done a comprehensive research and correctly identified our shortcomings and lapses with regard to our poor performance during the last few years. We shall not leave room at any cost for similar repetitions.

With the radical changes we hope to adopt at the next Convention, the United National Party will bounce back as the most formidable political force in the country and we shall be definitely forming a UNP government at the next general election.