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Ranil strikes again!

S.Akurugoda

According to the updates the party leaders meeting held in Paris on June 26, 2008 of International Democrat Union (IDU) and appeared in its News Letter, IDU stated its supports for the non-violent movement in Sri Lanka.

Under the item 6 of the said update, IDU extends its full support to the non-violent agitation movement launched by the United National party, to restore the democratic rights of the people of Sri Lanka, and calls on the IDU member parties to raise these issues in their respective parliaments.

The updates also include; non recognition of illegitimate re-election of Mugabe, calls for real democracy in Cuba, calls upon Nicaragua to respect democracy, calls to stop the oppression in Belarus and calls for democracy in Venezuela.

International Democrat Union (IDU)

The IDU is a working association of over 80 conservative, Christian democratic and like minded political parties of the centre and centre right as it identifies by itself on its website www.idu.org. The entire membership of this Union consists of predominantly countries of Europe, Latin America and Africa. The Asian representation is limited to Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Korea and Taiwan. Although the Union is said to be those of centre right, by looking at the political parties listed as its members, one can easily conclude that most of them come under well known ultra rightwing political groups.
The officers of the IDU are elected at Party Leaders' Meetings which are held every three or four years. At the above meeting of the IDU, former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard has been re-elected as Chairman while our Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has been elected as one of the 17 Vice Chairmen.

Incidentally, despite the fact that the difference between the leadership qualities of Australia's John Howard and those of UNP leader is sky-high, both party leaders exhibit similar weaknesses which led to their parties down fall. Both John Howard and Ranil Wickramasinghe, though appear as the champions of democracies in this forum, do not listen to others including their party men and do not tolerate opposing views. John Howard refused to handover the party leadership repeatedly, despite numerous requests from his party men and ultimately lost his premiership, party leadership and his parliamentary seat disgracefully at the last general election. On the other hand, the UNP leader has surpassed his colleague of IDU by refusing to step-down even after tasting 15th defeats including two presidential elections.

At the last Party Leaders Meeting of IDU, held three years ago, the UNP leadership took up a purely domestic matter, either disregarding or not knowing the local avenues available for remedial actions for such issues, and made its Chairman John Howard to urge the Sri Lankan State to hold the Presidential elections without delay. Meanwhile, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), simply went to Supreme Court and obtained a ruling and the elections were held in time. The UNP leader lost his case against the Sri Lankan State 'for not being democratic' and also lost at the subsequent Presidential election.

Most recent non-violent agitations launched by UNP- Few examples

Since the IDU has resolved to extend its support to the non-violent agitation movement launched by the UNP and is expected to raise the 'issues' in their respective parliaments, let us rush through some of the most recent so-called non-violent agitations launched by the UNP, while not detailing its infamous attempt to 'topple' the government at the second reading of the budget proposals with the fullest blessing of some of the foreign diplomats based in Colombo.

Few months ago, as we remember, the party launched a signature collecting campaign demanding the government to resign. The government was elected by the people of this country to govern for a prescribed period and as long as the ruling party maintains the confidence of the majority in the parliament, there is no reason for the President to dissolve the government unless the President decides by himself for some other reasons, often to his advantage. On the other hand, there is no constitution provision or legal binding to dissolve the parliament and to go for a general election even if the entire country has joined the signature campaign. After tasting the defeat at the Eastern Provincial Council election, the signature campaign has gone underground.

Subsequently the party started a poster campaign and the party leader was seen pasting posters, a laughable experience for both the leader and the onlookers. That is the end of the campaign. All other actions intended to arouse public feeling such as pot and pans smashing, horn pressings of vehicles and bullock cart procession have failed to get the domestic support, and now the same leadership is seeking international support for these so-called no-violent agitations combining tragedy and comedy!

A party demanding the dissolution of the parliament prior the completion of its term should be rejoiced when Provincial Councils held by the UPF were dissolved paving the way for that party to demonstrate their popularly and to strengthen their demand for a general election. Instead, UNP leadership opted to challenge the dissolution, went to Supreme Court and lost their case. The next scream, I guess, would be the calls for foreign help to ensure free and fair election, obviously, to cover-up the most obvious outcome of the election!

Democracy within the party

Prior to attempting to restore the democratic rights of the people of the country the leader of the opposition must set an example by restoring the democratic rights within his own party. It is said that the party leader has enormous dictatorial power under the party constitution and there is no way the membership can remove the leader unless he decides by himself to step-down or become physically invalid or unable to function as it leader due to other natural causes.

The UNP demonstrated its maturity within the party, prior to the present leadership on many occasions. Dudley Senanayake gave up his leadership twice once in 1952 and again in 1970. Sir John Kotalawala gave up his leadership after stunning defeat in 1956. Former Presidents J.R. Jayawardane and D. B. Wijethunga gave up their leaderships when retiring from Presidency. The past leaders of the UNP, whatever said and done, were not in favour of internationalising our domestic problems for fear of attracting foreign interference in our internal affairs. President Premadasa had the courage to resist the interference of foreign governments and their diplomats in the internal affairs of our country.

For the present leadership, quite unfortunately, both the day and night appears dark. As seen by the leadership, there is nothing that the government and the security forces are doing for the benefit of the country. He is pleading the international community to restore the democratic rights of the people of Sri Lanka, while his party in disarray due to his own dictatorial leadership. His close associates, including his prominent advocates of the treacherous CFA have abandoned him and joined the government. Today it appears that most of the party members and parliamentarians including one time his faithful supporters publicly demanding him to step-down.

What would have been the situation today if this party leader had been elected President? The country would have gone the same way as his party.

Tarnishing the image of the country

Last year around August, the opposition leader call for foreign intervention at his meeting with the so-called Civil Monitoring Commission amidst former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evan's declaration that any attack on the LTTE held areas in the Wanni can be a 'potential case for the international intervention'.

It would be interesting to see the number of foreign trips (if records available) made by the opposition leader, since the last presidential elections, excluding the number of frequent trips he made to India to see Hindu poosaries, to ascertain the pace at which the opposition leader scream for foreign help. It won't be surprising, at this rate, even if the opposition leader follows the footsteps of Morgan Tsvangirai (his pro-western Zimbabwean counter part) and seeks asylum in a foreign embassy with time to come!

Tarnishing the image of a country is easier than making that image. Re-making the image once tarnished is more difficult than making it from scratch. In addition, the habit of screaming for foreign help to resolve domestic issues as a shortcut to seize power will strengthen the misinformation machinery of the LTTE.

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