"UNPers Sacrificed Their Lives in Preserving Democracy-Ranil"

By Darmitha-Kotte

Those who have inherited the mantle of leadership of political parties surely have short memories or have "memory blocks" if we could term it so. Fortunately, the ordinary citizen of this country, does not suffer from this ailment and thank goodness for that!

In the SLFP we see and hear of two children of the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike constantly making statements about how democratically they have ruled the party and how they have helped to preserve party ideals.

Similarly, we now hear that Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe made a statement (The Island-5th Sept.2006) at a ceremony held at Siri Kotha in memory of UNP members who sacrificed their lives, which coincides with the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the UNP, in which he is quoted to have stated " The UNP has sacrificed a large number of its members in trying to preserve democracy." Later on in the same article he is quoted to have said " that the UNP has always been in the forefront of protecting the people's franchise and democratic freedoms and would continue to do so in the future." What the entire country is suffering today, is thanks to JRJ and the UNP.

People's franchise and democratic freedoms actually died when the late JR Jayawardane won the 1977 elections in a landslide victory after having made promises to bring a "Darmishta Society" into Sri Lanka! Every aorta of the meaning of "Darmishta (Righeousness) " was dismembered during his tenure of office and the subsequent UNP successors. If we go down memory lane, we will remember that it was during JR Jayawardane's rule that immediately after the elections the Police were given a holiday for the UNP to attack opposition political candidates with a venom; Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was deprived of her Civic Rights; that the Judiciary was insulted and ridiculed; that famous and important literary figures of this country like the late Dr. Ediriweera Sarathchandra was assaulted; that the late Mr. Hector Kobbekaduwa who was the SLFP candidate at the 1982 Referendum had his own vote rigged and was deprived of voting; that The Sri Lankan Constitution was changed and the By-Election Law was demolished to ensure that the incumbent government could remain in power, by nominating their own candidate in the event that an MP needed to be replaced; that the Preferential Voting System introduced, brought about internal party in-fighting during elections; that mass scale vote rigging was encouraged(whole ballot boxes were exchanged) to win elections; that politicians began to wield guns at Election Officers to prevent their objections to vote rigging; that political opponents were massacred enmasse in the guise of eliminating the JVP whereby we lost thousands of able bodied Sinhala youth of this country; that the famous "Batalande Torture House" was operative; that the 1983 "Black July" massacre of innocent Tamils took place; that JR Jayawardane got his own parliamentarians to hand over "open resignation letters" for him to dismiss anyone he wished at any time; the famous "Tyre Burning of Humans" began and continued under President Premadasa's rule as well; that the then UNP Mayor used his supporters to print, forge & paste JVP style posters to instill fear in the people before the build up to the 1989 Presidential Elections at which President Premadasa was elected. It was also during the 1977-1993 period of UNP rule that worker's rights were completely destroyed and no one dared to strike for whatever grievence because the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS)which is the workers arm of the UNP kidnapped, burned or destroyed any trouble-makers. It was also during this period that all those seeking employment had to be UNP supporters and their suitability endorsed by the JSS even for a factory worker to gain employment in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone! If a person did not get this approval- no jobs were given to any one who did not support the UNP! Workers who went on strike during the then UNP regime, are still trying to get compensation for their loss of employment.

That is the list of items which comes to the mind of the writer regarding " UNP has always been in the forefront of protecting the people's franchise and democratic freedoms……….." that Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe spoke about at Siri Kotha recently. Does their record seem to be commendable or not, is for the reader to decide?

Most recently during a matter of 6-7 months after the 2005 Presidential Elections, we all know how democratic the UNP has been with their Colombo Municipal Elections( where they tried to manipulate "Spectacles") and their own internal party conflicts. Even though a large number of UNP Party Members have requested Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe to step down after having lost 14 elections which is a record unparalleled any where in the world, he still refuses to bow down to "democratic requests" for the welfare of the entire UNP and its future survival. This speaks a lot for the decency and democracy within the UNP-

We Need to Be Awake! Sri Lanka lost all decency, democratic freedoms and protection of people's franchise in politics with the entry of JR Jayawardane and his Executive Presidency and the rule of the UNP!