The United National Party(UNP) and The International Democratic Union(IDU)

By Darmitha-Kotte

"The Island" dated 4th October 2006 carried a tiny news report "Ranil to Sydney" in which it is stated thus: "Opposition and UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe will leave for Sydney,Australia today to participate in special sessions of The International Democratic Union(IDU),Asia Pacific to be held from 5-7 October. Wickramasinghe is the President of IDU, Asia Pacific. After the Asia Pacific special sessions he will participate in the World Democratic Union special session."

Until Chandrika Kumaratunga became the Executive President of this country, most citizens believed that she was a good Buddhist. They voted her into power for the "Bandaranaike " name in the hope that she will serve to preserve the Sinhala Buddhist culture of this country.

Similarly, those who know the UNP and who often say " even if you slit our veins, it is "green colour" that runs through them, we will always vote for UNP" are in for a new surprise with his trip to Sydney to attend the International Democratic Union Asia Pacific meeting to be held between 5th -7th October 2006. Sri Lankans who swear by the fact that Ranil Wickramasinghe is a Buddhist and that UNP is a pro-Buddhist Party must know the truth of his current trip to Sydney to attend this conference.

The explanation given in the wikipedia(free encyclopedia) states that " International Democrat Union(IDU) is an international grouping of conservative and Christian democratic political parties. Formed in 1983, the IDU provides a forum in which political parties holding similar beliefs can come together and exchange views on matters of policy and organizational interest, in order that they might act cooperatively, establish contacts, and present a unified voice toward the promotion of center-right policies across the globe. The group was founded by several prominent heads of state and government, including Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher, Vice President of the United States of America George H.W.Bush, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac. At present, the group, headquartered in London,England and comprising 45 full or associate members is chaired by Prime Minister of Australia John Howard The IDU is associated with several regional organizations-The Democratic Union of Africa, Americas Democratic Union,Asia Pacific Democratic Union, Caribbean Democrat Union and European Democrat Union- as well as the International Young Democrat Union and International Women's Democrat Union. "

In section 1 "Full member parties" there is a list of names of countries who are full member parties(45 as mentioned above). Atleast 97% of these countries are originally Christian whether they be Church of England, Protestants, Catholic, Greek Orthodox or any other sects anyway. Under "Sri Lanka"- the United National Party is also listed as a full member! Ranil Wickramasinghe is President of IDU Asia Pacific region.

Now we Sri Lankans might be able " to open our eyes" and look back at the immediate past under the UNP rule and understand a lot of things that happened in this country. When Ranil Wickramasinghe became Prime Minister in 2001 he appointed a Cabinet of Ministers of whom over 60% were Christians by faith; he appointed John Amaratunga as Minister in charge of Interior Affairs under which Public Security and Police come as well as the Dept of Immigration & Emigration (so Visas were freely granted to inbound Evangelists to spread the faith) and he was also the Minister of Christian Affairs; during this period the Police were instructed to ensure that the whole month of December was celebrated for Christmas with lighting( in a predominantly Buddhist country); Buddhist ceremonies were given step-motherly treatment and in some cases directives were given not to issue permits for loudspeakers even for important Buddhist functions like Wesak and Poson; all illegal prayer centers around the country were given police protection in residential areas; Police were instructed to ignore complaints made by Buddhists when they complained about illegal religious activities which created social disharmony within villages; the Catholic Archbishop Rt.Rev. Oswild Gomis was appointed Chancellor of Colombo University; permission was granted for Christian Evangelical groups to conduct "Open Air Prayer Healing " sessions in close proximity to Buddhist temples so that Buddhist ceremonies would be drowned by the loudspeaker noises of the healing sessions etc etc- we can name many more such issues which were conducted to create religious disharmony! It was also during Ranil Wickramasinghe's time that LTTE terrorists were given their homeland almost with his signing of the LTTE/Norway drafted CFA. It was again during his time that we saw the likes of Dr. Jayalath Jayawardane who is an ardent Catholic jumping into the midst of all major Buddhist ceremonies and even conduct the "Chuda Manike" from Kelaniya to Jaffna as if we were short of Buddhists to do this!

In order to win the Sinhala Buddhist vote Ranil Wickramasinghe even published a book on Buddhism under his name( we are quite sure it was written by someone else), he promised to build the biggest Stupa in Sri Lanka (not knowing that we already had it!), his friend and school mate the Chief Incumbent of Kelaniya Vihare conducted many Buddhist functions with Ranil Wickramasinghe as the Chief Guest- all this to dupe and hood-wink the Sinhala Buddhist into believing that he is a true Buddhist!

We can now understand why Ranil Wickramasinghe is not relinquishing his post as leader of UNP because he is also the President of IDU Asia Pacific region and the western governments want him to hold on, for their own hidden agendas to destroy Sri Lanka's Buddhist heritage. We can now also understand why for every minute problem in Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickramasinghe would send his confidante Milinda Pinto Moragoda to America or to other western countriesto get advise from the heads of those countries, even at the risk of such advise being to the detriment of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

The UNP has never been a political party that represented the ordinary masses- it was always a political party that represented the interests of the business community and the elitist society in the country. Why would the international community of IDU elect Ranil Wickramasinghe as President of Asia Pacific if they were not convinced of his religious and political allegiance to Christian interests? This is also an eye-opener for us to know that Norway is also a full member of the the IDU!

This is a good question to ask ourselves and keep in mind at ALL FUTURE ELECTIONS in Sri Lanka- that the UNP can never be trusted to safeguard the interests of the Sinhala Buddhists in this country anymore.