Hydra-headed UNP at the helm

by Jaliya Wijeyekdoon

Since representative democracy was established in the country, there had been a large number of parliamentary elections and seven Presidential elections after the 1978 Constitution was introduced. It had been the practice in the past that whenever a new government assumed office after an election, the defeated party candidates and their supporters are humiliated, harassed and victimised.

The cancer started with the fall of the National Government of Dudley Senanayake in 1970. The UNP supporters were attacked, tortured and their properties robbed by the rampaging thugs of the Sirima Bandaranaike regime.

All this is in the name of socialism under the auspices of doctrinaire Marxists. Sirima governed the country for seven years extending the due period by two years unconstitutionally and her kinsman Felix Dias Bandaranaike was the chief architect of running her regime.

Harassed

He indulged in a number of misdeeds while being the most powerful minister and a reputed lawyer by profession.

During her tenure of office a large number of UNP supporters were unlawfully persecuted and harassed on various issues. Even the then Opposition Leader J.R. Jayewardene's son Ravi Jayewardene was taken into custody on an unfounded allegation and detained for some time and exonerated as there were no later evidence against him.

When J.R. Jayawardene came into power with an unprecedented five sixths majority in 1977, he dealt with all the wrongdoers quite legally and constitutionally.

He appointed a special Presidential Commission to probe the allegations against Sirima Bandaranaike, Felix Dias Bandaranaike and the Justice Ministry Secretary – Nihal Jayawickrema who were supposed to have manipulated the course of justice.

The Presidential Commission comprised three legal luminaries, J.G.T. Weeraratne, S. Sharwananda and K.C. de Alwis. They held lengthy sessions and scrutinised the allegations and found them to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt and proper justice was meted out on them.However, anti UNP forces tried to demonstrate the verdict as revenge taken by J.R. Jayewardene against his political rivals.

Sporadic violence

From 1977, the UNP was in power for 17 years and a number of elections were held in between but no major incidents were reported as there wasn't a change in the ruling party. However, sporadic incidents of violence occurred in some areas after every election.The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, returned to power in 1994 and UNPers again experienced political victimisation and unlawful harassment under Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's regime probably not with her concurrence but some of her ministers played havoc in their areas against UNP supporters.

Wayamba PC elections was the death knell of democratic elections. Democracy was reduced to an abysmal level under Chandrika's presidency.

But no action was taken by her against any of the wrong doers.

The UNP regained power in December 2001 under Ranil Wickremesinghe's leadership but it didn't last long as Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved the government after two years due to the pressure exerted on her by the JVP and some radical forces of the UPFA.

The United National Party was bogged down in the Opposition for a complete decade due to the LTTE-UPFA pow vow in 2005 and later owing to the internal conflicts of the party.

Single unit

However, Ranil Wickremesinghe with his long years of experience in politics and with a far-sighted vision and being a true democrat weathered all political storms with courage and confidence. During the past two years he was fully committed to integrate all dissenting factions of the party and fully consolidated the UNP.He infused a triumphant mentality among all members of the party from the grassroots level right up to his second in command.

He gave the assurance that he would form a UNP-led government soon.

By mid 2014 all party internal disputes were sorted out and everybody worked as a single unit.

Ranil Wickremesinghe with indomitable foresight introduced a new political culture in the country as he has seen and experienced the negative effects in divided party politics which hampered the progress of the country.

As a true son of the soil, he sacrificed his position to accommodate Maithripala Sirisena as the common candidate.The idea of fielding a common candidate was mooted by Ranil Wickremesinghe as he correctly felt the pulse of the people.

The decision was backed by a large number of progressive forces. The main theme of the campaign was to establish 'good governance' devoid of all vices as Maithripala Sirisena's election manifesto clearly stated the program of work for the next 100 days.

Aggressive

Mahinda Rajapaksa blatantly violated all election laws and accepted norms and principles during the run-up to the election. From the beginning of the election it was revealed at opinion polls that it was unfavourable for the ruling party.

Mahinda Rajapaksa intensified his aggressive campaign thereby further violating election laws and getting his henchmen such as Wimal Weerawansa, Rohitha Abeygunawardene, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and some other garrulous, uncouth and shameless cronies to attack Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

They stooped to the lowest level of street urchins in mud slinging at Maithripala Sirisena. Mahinda Rajapaksa's cronies fabricated various false stories linking his campaign with the LTTE diaspora to win Sinhala votes. Wimal Weerawansa was the most vociferous henchman who inflicted the biggest damage to Mahinda by way of his uncouth oratory on political platforms.

Even after the comprehensive defeat suffered by Mahinda Rajapaksa, they still harp that they had been defeated only in Tamil and Muslim dominated areas creating communal problems in the country.

JR's footsteps

But any sensible person who scrutinises and analyses the results can easily see that Rajapaksa had been rejected in all areas of the island including predominantly Sinhala Buddhist areas. The Rajapaksa vote base even in Ruhuna had declined considerably.

Now that election fever is over and Ranil Wickremesinghe has formed a new government along with some joint partners in the battle, it is their foremost duty to execute their pledges expeditiously. The main theme was the 'Good Governance'.The primary objective of good governance is to cease all corruption, fraud and expose the wrongdoers and punish them accordingly.

Normal litigation is a cumbersome process which takes a long time.Instead the Prime Minister should also follow in his uncle JR's footsteps and appoint a Special Presidential Commission to probe the allegations levelled against corrupt politicians and punish them sooner than later.

Initial investigations have proved beyond doubt that a large number of miscreants had plundered State coffers incurring huge losses to the institutions. Mr. Prime Minister the people expect you to act swiftly to punish the rogues. The masses in the country were under tremendous pressure and fear psychosis during the last number of years over the errant behaviour of UPFA politicians. Starting with Mahinda Rajapaksa right down to Pradeshiya Sabha members acted like dictators.

Deplorable level

Those who expressed their personal views had to face misery. Not only the UPFA politicians but even officials who were their cronies and acolytes ran State institutions as if those were their personal properties paying scant respect to the needs of the public.

People were deprived of their basic and fundamental right to defend themselves at law making institutions. Law and order and civil administration dropped to a deplorable level.

With the proclamation of the 2014 Budget, Rajapaksa was under a delusion that he would be in power forever.

He little realised that a formidable Opposition was simmering under the carpet. Ranil Wickremesinghe had already organised, arranged and meticulously planned his scheme of work by this time to field the common candidate. The UNP was fully geared to challenge the UPFA rule. Although the UPFA rule was unpopular and people detested, the general belief was that MR couldn't be defeated. UPFA goons indoctrinated this into the masses. Not only the ordinary people, when one of the constituent partners of the common opposition visited the sacred Dalada Maligawa, even the Chief Prelate said, “We know that common candidate Maithripala Sirisena is more popular, but we don't know whether he would get power.”

Comments were such during the run-up to the election campaign. When UNP members took part in radio discussions and TV debates, they could not express their views against MR by the UPFA goons such as Johnston Fernando, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Wijithamuni Soysa and Wimal Weerawansa (notorious for his verbal diarrhoea) who could only attack the opponents with a barrage of words in foul language. UNP members were threatened and even manhandled at times.

In this scenario, the public was mortally scared to express their views against the dictatorial regime.

The statements by former Minister Mervyn Silva clearly prove that Rajapaksa had indulged in all forms of vice to stay in power which would put to shame even a tribal chieftain during the stone age.

The vast majority of people in the country irrespective of petty differences are ever grateful to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for manoeuvring this common candidate concept to defeat the most arrogant leader and form a UNP-led good governance administration. According to a countrywide conservative opinion poll, it had been revealed that a larger member of people were overjoyed on January 9 morning 2015 than on May 19, 2009, the day on which the war ended.

All stakeholders of the United National Party are now fully confident and earnestly call upon the party hierarchy to carry out the 100-day program and face parliamentary elections where they could prove that the United National Party is hydra-headed.