(October 19, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) It needed a Senanayake to bring United National Party, back to its roots and Rukman, the Chairman of the UNP, has done it.
Rukman Senanayake has said quite bluntly what his grandfather, D. S. Senanayake, the founder of the nation and the UNP would have said if he was confronted with the current crisis: "No one else had the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the country." “DS” didn’t win independence for the nation to be subservient to another nation.
Rukman added in his interview with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation: "As the main opposition party we are extending our unconditional support to the Government in its endeavour to eliminate terrorism." Media reports said that this statement was an apparent reference to calls for cease fire from India.
I refused to believe my eyes when I first the read the reports. Even as I write I am pinching myself to believe that Rukman had expressed these opinions. I believe in the reports only because it comes from the mouth of a Senanayake and not a Wickremesinghe – the most failed political leader not only of the UNP but the nation.
Rukman, it should also be noted, is following in the footsteps of J. R. Jayewardene, the uncle of Ranil Wickremesinghe. At the height of the JVP uprising “JRJ” extended the support of his party to Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The Senanayakes and the Jayewardenes had their hearts and minds in the right place – right in the centre of the nation.
UNP leaders have consistently put their country before party and personal ambitions in times of national crisis. Only Ranil Wickremesinghe, misguided by his cronies like Lasantha Wickrematunga, Mallik Samaraweera and Mangala Samaraweera, another failed politician, turned to the ill-fated politics of appeasement. What madness took Wickremesinghe down the track of appeasing the implacable and intransigent Velupillai Prabhakaran is inconceivable.
Rukman’s statement is a landmark in the recent history of the UNP led by Wickremesinghe who had refused obstinately to recognise the terrors, horrors and the threats faced by the nation. Rukman, on the contrary, has grasped the basic realities faced by the nation when he labeled the LTTE as a separatist and a deadly extremist group unleashing terrorism to achieve their goals and added: "We should make the international community aware that this terrorist outfit is not fighting for the rights of Tamil people."
This is the best news that I have heard ever since Wickremesinghe took over the leadership of the UNP. He was deaf, dumb and blind and led the UNP, the grand old party of the founding fathers of the nation, into the doldrums with his bigoted anti-Rajapakse, pro-Tiger policies. If Rukman is now expressing his party’s stand on the crisis facing the nation and not his personal views then it can be asserted boldly that the Sri Lanka is well on the way to a secure future.
Even as the soldiers were closing in on Killinochchi the doubt hanging over like a Damocles sword was the role of the UNP. If it stuck to the failed policies of Wickremesinghe and was hesitant in coming forward to back the Mahinda Rajapakse government at this critical stage then the Tigers and external interventionists would have had a field day. Rukman’s statement has come at a time when it was needed most. It is a statement that will put paid to any intentions of external agencies to intervene in the domestic affairs of the sovereign state of Sri Lanka.
Since Rukman is head of the UNP all doubts as to whether he is expressing the party’s new stance can be eliminated. It can be assumed safely that Wickremesinghe too would have fallen in line. It is heartening to note that some sense has dawned on him though late. It is, as they say, better late than never. He could have advanced the cause of the nation and avoided the unnecessary deaths and destruction had he had the sagacity to come to grips with the political necessities and the hard realities facing the nation as a whole.
Rukman’s statement will go a long way to give the finishing touches to the heroic forces who are still sacrificing their lives to seal and guarantee security of the nation. Our soldiers will at last be happy that the mainstream parties of the nation are united behind them.
Of course, the UNP volte face can be interpreted as one of those expedient acts where you are forced to kiss the hand that you cannot cut. This interpretation is inevitable considering the fact that the support came only at the 11.59th hour when the forces were only a hop-step-and-a-jump away from Killinochchi. It will be seen as the UNP trying to take a part of the credit having denigrated all the achievements of our intrepid soldiers who marched all way from Mavil Aru to Killinochci.
The UNP, manipulated by the likes of Lasantha Wickrematunga, the part-time Editor and part-time (failed) politician, had to pay dearly at the polls for following unrealistic and unrewarding politics of appeasement. Wickrematunga is a loser like Wickremesinghe. It is said that Wickrematunga’s myopia in politics comes from the blinding light of the Canberra sun that hit his eyes when he was hanging too many undies of his mistress, Sonali Samarasinghe, who was noted for changing undies frequently each time Wickrematunga visited her under cover.
Incidentally, it should be noted that all the sympathizers, backers and die-hard opponents of the Tamil Tigers faced the same sentence of losers. The sympathizers and backers either lost national or international opinion or they were lumped together and eliminated without any compunction by the Tigers. Targeting dedicated and committed enemies of the Tigers like Maj-Gen. Janaka Perera was predictable. But not sympathisers like Rajiv Gandhi and Neelan Tiruchelvam who were eliminated for direct and indirect services rendered to the Tigers. Hard-core backers like Appapillai Amirthalingam and Mahattaya were eliminated because they didn’t fit into the Tiger agenda any more. It is not surprising to find Wickremesinghe and Wickrematunga biting their nails at the losers’ end.
Anyway, the inside story of how the UNP changed its mind is another story that needs to be explored. In a sense, Rukman’s statement is s triumph of the anti-Wickremesinghe forces within the UNP. It is an admission of the failure of the Wickremesinghe policies. It is a direct challenge to Wickremesinghe. But whatever, the internal politics of the UNP may be it can now be said that the nation has consolidated its power not only by the opposition closing ranks but also by producing a new leader for the UNP and the nation.
H.L.D.Mahindapala: Editor, Sunday and Daily Observer (1990 - 1994). President, Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (1991 -1993). Secretary-General, South Asia Media Association (1993 -1994). He has been featured as a political commentator in Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Special Broadcasting Services and other mainstream TV and radio stations in Australia.).
- Sri Lanka Guardian
 It needed a Senanayake to bring United National Party, back to its roots and Rukman, the Chairm...){kind=link}
Post a Comment