The National List- The last straw for the UNP and the SJB?

By Kassapa 

The elections in September and November have turned Sri Lanka’s political world topsy-turvy. The hitherto untried Jathika Jana Balavegaya (JJB) is in power, with a parliamentary majority in excess of two-thirds, to boot. Theoretically at least, they can amend the Constitution and do as they please.

This is the time the country needs an opposition that is worth its name, not just a set of jaded politicians who are satisfied with securing their next term in Parliament. Instead, what we have is the two major parties of a bygone era, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on their political deathbeds and their unworthy successors, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLFP) merely battling for survival.

Ranil Wickremesinghe prides himself on being the second version of the political ‘Old Fox’, the first being his uncle J.R. Jayewardene. Yet, he was outfoxed by Shyamila Perera, General Secretary of the New Democratic Front (NDF) and staunch Ravi Karunanayake loyalist, who appointed her mentor without informing Wickremesinghe. She informed Wickremesinghe only after this was done and by that time it was too late for Wickremesinghe to intervene.

To add insult to injury, while the NDF was busy discussing who should be appointed to the other remaining slot on the National List, Perera again nominated Faiszer Mustapha of the SLFP, much to the chagrin of the UNP. At the end of the day the NDF’s five MPs in Parliament are Karunanayake (nominally from the UNP), Mustapha and Chamara Sampath Dassanayake (SLFP), Rohitha Abeygunawardena and Anuradha Jayaratne (ex-SLPP). Once again, the UNP has only one solitary MP in Parliament!

It is pertinent to note that neither the UNP nor the SLFP have a clear-cut leader. Officially at least, Wickremesinghe is of course still the UNP’s leader. If he were to lead the UNP at the next national elections due in five years, he would be eighty years of age by that time. If that is not the best option, then someone else needs to be groomed, and groomed now. Avaricious to secure his own position, Wickremesinghe hasn’t made any moves in that direction.

Even if he does, that will likely kill the UNP. Already Ravi Karunanayake, Sagala Ratnayake, Ruwan Wijewardene and Vajira Abeywardena are in contention, in no particular order. Karunanayake has already tried to steal a march over his colleagues by creeping into Parliament through the National List. That hasn’t endeared him to his colleagues. The succession battle is likely to be deadly for the party, as the clamour for the National List seats has just demonstrated.

It is reported that the UNP think tank has met and decided that they will contest under the ‘elephant’ symbol. That alone is not sufficient. The Grand Old Party is fast becoming a distant memory for voters. If they are to recapture the imagination of the masses, they need to reinvent and rebrand themselves. If they want such a campaign to succeed, the first head to roll would be Wickremesinghe’s- and he won’t allow that. Therein lies the problem.

The scenario in the SJB is no different. Just as much Wickremesinghe was outwitted in the National List stakes by Shyamila Perera, Sajith Premadasa was outsmarted by Rauff Hakeem. Premadasa dilly-dallied naming his nominees for the four SJB slots (Ranjith Madduma Bandara having nominated himself), and more contenders were emerging by the day. One, Thushara Indunil, even said he would commit suicide if he wasn’t included.

That was when Hakeem went to court asking for an order preventing nominations unless his nominee Nizam Kariapper was included. Having obtained that order, Premadasa’s hand was forced: he had to nominate those from partner parties or risk a prolonged legal battle. He blinked,, leaving the SJB with just one slot which went to the loud-mouthed but lack lustre Sujeewa Senasinghe.

That meant the end of the road for the parliamentary ambitions for some SJB heavyweights who were in the forefront of their campaign, the likes of SJB Chairman Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, Eran Wickramaratne and Hirunika Premachandra, not to mention two leading SLPP dissidents, G.L. Peiris and Dullas Alahapperuma.

One does sympathise with Premadasa’s plight. He had only four seats to distribute. However, his actions in entering into agreements with partner parties guaranteeing them National List slots smacks of either extreme political gullibility or a great deal of overconfidence in the SJB’s prospects. Whichever it was, it has now backfired spectacularly and left Premadasa with more enemies than friends in his own party.

In what seems an ironic twist to this tale, SJBers are now querying whether they can ever win an election with Premadasa as their leader and how he cannot be marketed to the Sri Lankan electorate anymore after two successive presidential election losses. These are in fact the very same questions Premadasa posed to Wickremesinghe a dozen years ago when the latter’s UNP leadership was formally challenged by Karu Jayasuriya.

Premadasa may have thought he scored brownie points when he took up the Parliament’s time to elaborate on his educational qualifications but the sheer pleasure writ on his face as he did so betrayed how much of an egotistical leader he was. Yes, he was responding to questions raised about his credentials but the response was cringeworthy. He would have been better off just tabling his certificates to lay any doubts to rest. Instead, he was intent on hogging the limelight, yet again.

Slowly but surely, there is a school of thought that there may be an opportunity for a different right-of-centre political force quite distinct from the SJB and the UNP. The enemies that Premadasa has made with his recent National List nominations will be low hanging fruit if such an entity emerges because the credibility of the SJB is only marginally better than that of the UNP.

That the country, now more than ever, needs a dynamic opposition cannot be emphasised more. That is even in the JJB’s interest. Being novices to statecraft, they need a critical opposition to keep them on the straight and narrow. Right now though, such an opposition is not on the horizon. What we have instead are dinosaur political parties preying on each other and racing towards their own extinction.