It was a long wait for Ranil Wickremesinghe to land his plum job.
The presidency was a distant dream for Wickremesinghe who was the leader of the United National Party – the grand old party of D.S Senanayake-for twenty-five years.
The slingshot events that took him to the pinnacle of the UNP were quite dramatic and came to pass under tragic circumstances. Firstly, it was the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali, followed by President Ranasinghe Premadasa and, within a shorter period of time, the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake took him to the impregnable position of the UNP leadership. There had been occasions when party cadres revolted against him. Those were occasions when he undoubtedly proved to be a leader without steam to clinch the coveted position of president at a keenly fought contest.
Wickremesinghe contested the presidential election twice. When ChandrikaBandaranaike Kumaratunga sought an election for the second time, Wickremesinghe staked his claim to become the president by joining the fray for the first time. He was unlucky, and the LTTE saw to it by exploding a bomb at the Town Hall which seriously injured incumbent President Kumaratunga just a few days before the election in 1999. Injured Chandrika won the election comfortably, relegating Wickremesinghe to the Opposition. Efforts by Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to introduce a new constitution to resolve the long-standing ethnic question failed to see the light of day as the UNP-led opposition headed by Wickremesinghe scuttled all efforts by Kumaratunga.
Her government faced social upheavals and with several crossovers to the opposition benches, forced her to call for elections in 2001. The UNP, led by Ranil Wickremesinghe, formed the government but it was dissolved by Kumaratunga in 2003. Before the dissolution of parliament, Kumaratunga took over three ministerial portfolios of the Wickremesinghe government. It sparked a massive protest on the streets.
Later, Kumaratunga agreed to hand back the ministries she took over, creating a political hiatus.
Although his popularity was rising, Wickremesinghe failed to exploit the situation and played the role of a lame duck Prime Minister instead. The 2004 general election once again relegated the UNP to the opposition benches. The year 2004 signified disaster and untold hardship to the people following the massive tsunami which hit the country, leaving a trail of destruction behind and causing immense damage to the life and property of the people. The tsunami claimed nearly 30,000 lives while parents lost their children and vice-versa.
An earthquake off the coast of Sumatra hadcaused the tsunami, which recorded a reading of 9 on the Richter scale. It devastated the coastal areas of Sri Lanka.
.The energy produced by the tsunami was similar to 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, records pointed out. During the same year, Sri Lankans came across the questionable Helping Hambantota Fund. There were allegations that the monies from the Prime Minister’s fund had been misappropriated and siphoned off to a private account.
Mahinda Rajapaksa filed a Fundamental Rights application in the Supreme Court for the investigations that were carried out against him. The Supreme Court absolved him and ordered compensation.
However, lately, the Chief Justice publicly admitted that if it had not been for his judgement Mahinda Rajapaksa would have been the President of Sri Lanka.
The Daily Mirror reported the remarks of then Chief Justice Sarath N Silva.
Former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva said yesterday that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not have become the President of Sri Lanka if not for the Supreme Court ruling to release him in the Helping Hambantota case.
Mr Silva said Rajapaksa would not have been able to contest the 2005 presidential election or come to power if the Supreme Court bench headed by him did not clear Rajapaksa of allegations of misappropriation of tsunami funds.
“We did this expecting that Rajapaksa in turn would safeguard the rights of the other people but it is not happening ” said the former Chief Justice .“There are many complaints that it was I who was responsible to bring Rajapaksa into power. I admit that Rajapaksa was freed to become president because of this decision by the Supreme Court. President Rajapaksa is now able to carry out wrongful acts because of the order we delivered then,” Silva said.
Following the tsunami on December 26, 2004, Sri Lanka received goodwill and financial aid from many foreign countries and in the absence of then President Chandrika Kumaratunga who was on a foreign visit, Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister handled the funds that were received.
The police initiated investigations against then Prime Minister Rajapaksa after a complaint was made by UNP MP Kabir Hashim that he was siphoning off tsunami funds into a private account. Hashim alleged that Rajapaksa was committing a criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation.
The Supreme Court, following the acquittal of Mahinda Rajapaksa from all charges, ordered the complainant Kabir Hashim to pay the petitioner Rs 100,000 from his funds. Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his petition to the Supreme Court, stated that he was planning to contest the presidential elections shortly, and the allegation levelled by the opponents would cause irreparable damage to his stature and the subsequent political campaign.
2005 was a year which bore significance for Wickremesinghe, who staked his claim on the Presidency that year. However, he was a little slow on the uptake and trailiedbehind Mahinda Rajapaksa in the campaign. Many well-wishers pointed out that he needed to intensify the campaign. Nevertheless, he was relaxing and taking his own time when he was defeated marginally by a Rajapaksa using all his antics.
His efforts to resolve the ethnic crisis using the goodwill of the Norwegian mediation continued for some time after Rajapaksa assumed office and ground to a standstill with the Sri Lanka Army taking over the Mawil Aru sluice gate.
There was a bitter contest between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan forces to secure the sluice gate, which is key to providing water to the irrigation canals in the East.
After a long-drawn battle, Sri Lankan forces secured Mawil Aru but stalled the peace efforts with the LTTE.
In 2005 Wickremesinghe lost the presidential election and from there on, it was a long wait for him. He did not want to contest the 2010 presidential elections. Instead, General Sarath Fonseka stood for the UNP as its presidential candidate.
Again in 2015, at the second presidential election after the war victory against the LTTE, the need to field a consensus candidate was on the cards. Although Wickremesinghe agreed, the other parties and the Ven. Madululawe Sobitha Thero who was keen to see the Rajapaksa out of politics, disagreed. After much deliberation, they agreed on Maithripala Sirisena, then General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The name of Karu Jayasuriya also cropped up, but Wickremesinghe expressed his reluctance.
Wickremesinghe said, – either me or nobody from the UNP and that diminished Jayasuriya’s chances of becoming the 6th executive president of Sri Lanka.
After a somewhat arduous journey after facing a constitutional coup in 2018 and a crushing defeat in the 2020 parliamentary general election, Wickremesinghe entered parliament as the solitary member of the UNP through the only national list slot the party secured.
Nobody entertained a whim of an idea that Wickremesinghe would end up becoming the 8th executive president of Sri Lanka. The circumstances that unfolded since May 9 this year inexorably thrust him to the pinnacle of power. Wickremesinghe did not have the mandate of the people. He was pushed into political oblivion by the people who showed him with vengeance where he belonged in the history of Sri Lanka. Although he had accomplished a considerable amount of work for the people as the Minister of Education and the minister who held portfolios of industries and youth affairs, he lacked mass support and the luck to grab the presidency on two occasions.
However, he had the rare opportunity of becoming prime minister on six occasions before he became the eighth executive president of Sri Lanka for the remaining period of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa term. He reached the position by default, attracting many remarks about his ascent to the coveted executive presidency.
Some think his enduring patience, courage and ability to absorb virulent criticism have brought him to this position today. What propelled him to the zenith is anyone’s guess and is true to the bewilderment of those who opposed him tooth and nail on the political platform.
The election result in parliament was a reflection of the concerns of the government group about their security. Given the current political situation, the parliamentarians looked for a more secure fold in the face of a growing threat by militant groups that called for drastic changes in the system. Hence Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The political prognosis relating to Ranil Wickremesinghe is not good. The decision by the security forces and the police department to storm the presidential secretariat and its vicinity did not augur well for him.
The incident flared up a howl of protests and condemnation by human rights groups and many foreign missions. The United Nations also joined the chorus.
The government cautioned the foreign missions to check facts before issuing statements that may cause damage to the image of the country internationally. The government also explained the circumstances that led to the military operation and said the protestors defied court orders. The US ambassador Julie Chung also met with the President to express her concerns about the attack.
Thus, the fledging Presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe was called in for questioning for blatant human rights abuses. As one newspaper described it, the attack on unarmed protestors is an inauspicious beginning for theWickremesinghe government. –Alakeswara
