It is time to bury UNP because........

By Helasingha Bandara

(March 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is time for the Sri Lankans to bury UNP forever. Among myriad of reasons I would like to highlight a few.

1. UNP’s J.R Jayawardana was the father of numerous political and social evils that we experience in today’s Sri Lanka. He introduced a system of political malpractice for the UNP to abuse and deprive the developmental opportunities of an entire generation of young people who opposed the UNP. The discrimination against the political opponents in the field of employment was so aggressive that young members of some families never had the opportunity to get state employment for their entire life as they gradually passed the working age that was conducive to compete in the labour market. During the long 17 years of UNP rule discrimination and vengeance were relentless. He took away the Civic rights of Sirima Bandaranaike with the sole intention of winning the election. His evil deeds culminated in the writing of the so called ‘rotten constitution’ that has been abused by every leader of Sri Lanka ever since. When he died he was too old for the people to take revenge upon him. But a small yarn to highlight how much people hated him may be timely.

At a certain funeral JRJ saw a beautiful coffin which had a glass fitted for the people to see the face of the dead man. JRJ was very impressed that he called the coffin maker and asked him to make one for himself for him to see before he dies. Within two weeks the coffin maker brought the newly made coffin to the Presidential Palace. When the old man inspected the coffin he immediately noticed that two wipers had been fitted over the glass. Being curious about the new addition he asked the coffin maker why he fitted the two wipers. At this the coffin maker said, the dead man was a simple man and had only a few hundred mourners. Sire, you are the President and there would be thousands of mourners. Instead of trying to stop all of them spitting on your face, I thought the wipers were a good idea!

2. UNP’s Premadasa introduced intimidation, impunity and reckless murder of political opponents into our society. An estimated 30,000 young people were murdered and most of them were burnt on roadside pyres. His terror campaign was so intense that those who supported opposition parties lived in constant fear. There was hardly anyone who would speak of injustice. He gave weapons to the LTTE and in turn, they used the same weapons to massacre 600 unarmed policemen whom Premadasa had ordered to surrender. The country experienced a dearth of valuable human resources since he eliminated an entire generation of intelligent young people.

3. UNP’s Ranil Wikkramasingha almost created a separate country within Sri Lanka. He singed a peace agreement with the LTTE that enabled the LTTE to become such a powerful force. Many people of Sri Lanka lost their lives for Ranil’s folly. He openly criticized the war efforts and travelled to foreign countries to influence them against the efforts of Sri Lanka to defeat terrorism which plagued our country for so long. It is the Ranil-Mangala combination who vehemently tried to boost LTTE’s international propaganda against our efforts to change world opinion.

Worst of all the UNP have deprived the nation of an opportunity to cut the Rajapakshas down to their size at the forthcoming general elections. The UPFA government is looking for a two third majority. Let’s look at what they cannot do without a two third majority. Can they not develop infrastructure, develop education, provide employment, develop health sector, stop the brain drain, develop the economy, eradicate corruption and malpractices, eradicate lawlessness and restore democracy? Can they not? The Island online reported that every week 7 or 8 patients are admitted to Kurunegala hospital from areas such as Ambanpola, Maho, Galgamuwa, Megalewa and Nikaweratiya as bottle lamp victims. We live in the 21st century but still burn oil lamps and travel on potholed muddy roads.

I can think of only one thing that the government cannot do without the two third majority. That is the changing of the so called ‘rotten constitution’. They need it changed for Mahinda Rajapaksha to remain as the leader when his term of office comes to an end. What else?

People do understand this. They do not want the government to have a two third majority and be absolutely corrupt. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. The voters have a dilemma as to whom to vote! The despicable UNP has broken up the recently formed coalition under the leadership of Sarath Fonseka. Their misguided belief that Sarath Fonseka achieved less votes than Ranil at the 2005 election made them betray the nation, without realising that if not for Sarath Fonseka, the UNP would have gone down to less than to 20 Lakhs. The public should therefore vote for the Fonseka led coalition which comprises capable, honest and principled politicians such as Arjuna without dividing their vote between the DNA and the UNP. It is time for people to bury the rogue UNP and create a new force under Sarath Fonseka and Arjuna Ranathunga, the lion.