As with all great ideas, the start was excellent. Political stalwarts like Don Steophen Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike joined forces to form what was once a formidable political party.
D S Senanayake as its leader and as independent Ceylon’s first prime minister, launched several projects which have played a dynamic role in the development of our country. In fact he is fondly known as the father of the nation.
His son Dudley Senanayake continued his father’s work and helped transform the nation’s agricultural industry. He is remembered as the man who gave the people free rice.
Yankee Dickie as he is fondly sometimes referred to, President JR Jayawardena, led the party to a never before repeated 5/6th majority in parliament and is credited for transforming the country’s economic fortunes. He was as passionate about an open economy as Sri Lankans are fond of their rice and curry.
He retired gracefully and passed on the baton of responsibility to Ranasinghe Premadasa who went on to become one of the country’s beloved leaders. His ambitious One million homes for the masses project was to attract international acclaim. President Premadasa was the UNP leader the President that the people hailed as the peoples’ man.
His untimely demise at the hands of an assassin has marked the downfall of our country on more than one score.
For starters after his death, the UNP have failed to form a government with a majority all its own.
The baton passed on and eventually ended with Ranil Wickremesinghe. His rule as head of the UNP has been remarkable only for the disastrous performance by the party at over 24 elections across several political platforms.
Wickremesinghe as leader has overseen the flight of several top notch politicians fed up with his type of leadership. His brand has been one of tinkering with the party constitution which has assured him a virtual position for life. He has crowded the party’s working committee with his acolytes and has ensured their loyalty to him per se by the studious use of available benefits.
Wickremesinghe in the evening of his life has roundly lost much of his popularity save in his own electorate.
However it is the Bond gate matter that Sri Lanka will forever and a day remember Ranil Wickremesinghe for.
It is more about what he did not do rather than what he did. But even that is a close call.
His chosen expert to manage the Central Bank was found by a Presidential Commission to have acted not in keeping with disposition and that he had acted mall fide in the interest of one company that just so happened to have as one of its main shareholders, his son in law.
For the better part of two years Wickremesinghe maintained that there was no evidence against Arjuna Mahendran. On one occasion he assured his parliamentary colleagues that although Mahendran had gone abroad he would return. He did.
However although Mahendran was a regular at the Commission proceedings and attended as a witness when asked to so do, he went abroad and now remains a fugitive – not answering the Fort Magistrate’s call to present himself to provide a statement.
Wickremesinghe was the Minister in charge of the subject of the Central Bank and is held liable by sections of society for failing to stop Mahendran and his son in law in their tracks as they both played pandu with the country’s central finances.
With elections looming the number of people who believe that this scandal will never be resolved in the currency of this government has increased way above the base support that the UNP has always had – around 35% of the voteable.
If ever the average UNP member felt bad about belonging to a once great party, this is THE time.
For all his pronouncements on democracy and a just society, Ranil Wickremesinghe has behaved in a manner that any democrat worth his salt will abhor totally.
The UNP membership await someone anyone from their party to display sufficient backbone to take Wickremesinghe on and transform the UNP to greatness once again.
Until that happens the UNP’s fate is one of doom and deeply so.
