Galle district UNP parliamentarian Vajira Abeywardene is no stranger to controversy. Next to Ranil Wickremesinghe, he is the MP most UNP rebels love to hate. Last week, during the UNP’s stormy parliamentary group meeting, a rumour went around Colombo that he had been manhandled by the rebel group. In this interview Abeywardene speaks to C.A.Chandraprema, about the present crisis within the UNP.

Q. They say that members of the rebel group pitched into you at the last parliamentary group meeting…

A. There can be various strands of thought within a party. Especially in a situation where a party has been in the opposition for a long time, the expression of divergent opinions can be a little shrill. Some people can tolerate only their own opinions. So we continue to be in politics amidst all these shortcomings.

Q. But there is a serious crisis within your party. People are leaving the party at all levels, even in your own district. If you take the recent defections in the Galle district alone, Ananda Abeywickrema, the Beddegama organizer defected. So did the leader of the opposition of the Tawalama Pradesheeya Sabha, followed by seven sitting members of the Bentara-Elpitiya PS. There are more to go, and they are waiting for an appointment with the president. So people are leaving as fast as the president can give them appointments.

A. There is nothing surprising in this. During the time of J.R.Jayewardene, the same thing happened to the SLFP, with the SLFP general secretary S.K.K.Suriyarachchi, and stalwarts like P.B.G.Kalugalle, Senapala Samarasekera and a whole host of others at various levels joining the UNP. When there is a trend like that, there’s no solution, other than patiently waiting for it to run its course. Even Anura Bandaranaike of the SLFP ended up in the UNP. But none of this affects the base of the party. But of course, the ruling party will be able to gain some temporary strength from these defections.

Q. The only solution you have for this spate of defections is to simply look on apathetically?

A. It’s not just a case of looking on, we also have to re-establish party discipline. Then if there is some mistrust of the party, we have to re-establish trust and confidence. Once this has been re-established, the party machinery has to be rehabilitated. After these three conditions are met, the present government has to run its course, more private banks will fail, more finance companies will fail, and after all investment is lost, the people will once again look at the UNP.

Q. You expect an economic collapse to revive the UNP, but it appears that both the economy and the UNP are going down in tandem. Will people have hope in a collapsing party?

A. On the surface, it may appear to be that. Various leaders at the regional and national level may decide to defect in consideration of factors like their age and limited time available in which to do things, but the ordinary members of the party are not like that. They stay on and work to revive the party. The basis principle is this – that there is nothing that can be done when the trend is in favour of the government and it is only in the context of the failure of the government that things begin to swing in the opposite direction. This a well established principle in politics. When the trend is in the opposite direction, nothing can be done, it’s like facing a tsunami you get on to high ground and wait for the waves to subside and then launch a rescue operation.

Q. You compare the Rajapaksa government to a tsunami?

A. Yes. The people have reposed immense trust in the government with regard to the war. The government has used the media to harness this public feeling. The people expect the government to solve the problem through war. But the only real solution to this problem is a political solution. In giving a political solution, the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe, will be needed by the president. At that stage, we will have to think of the nation and respond. Many people have contributed to being the war to the present stage. Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranjan Wijeratne, R.Premadasa also sacrificed their lives for this. Today, the government is fighting this war as a result of all those sacrifices. It is because of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ceasefire agreement that president Mahinda Rajapaksa can wage war. People say if only Mahinda Rajapaksa had been elected into power five years ago. But five years ago, this war would not have been possible. As a result of the ceasefire agreement, the world saw what the LTTE was. The LTTE violated the CFA 1500 times while the government violated it only 140 times, so the world was no longer able to pressurise the government to enter into ceasefires. After the war, the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts have to be rehabilitated. Whether Prabhakaran lives or dies, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership will acquire a great deal of worth within the next few months. It is because of this that some people are trying to have Ranil removed right now, because he can’t be removed after he acquires market value.

Q. Did the working committee decide to make Ranil Wickremesinghe the senior leader and appoint a new party leader, and is it for this that the new reforms committee has been appointed?

A. A committee can’t remove or appoint a party leader. A committee can only obtain all views. These views can then be presented to the working committee of the party. If the working committee approves of it, it can be taken to a party convention and ratified.

Q. You obviously don’t accept the view that Ranil Wickremesinghe is a discredited leader…

A. No I don’t accept that view. I accept the fact that the Rupavahini Corporation, ITN and the Lake House newspapers have created an impression like that among the public. But that is not the view of the UNP rank and file. So if someone asks me who should be the leader of the UNP, I say it has to be Ranil Wickremesinghe. If someone asks me who should be the leader of the opposition, I say it has to be Ranil Wickremesinghe, and if someone asks me who should be the next presidential candidate of the UNP, I say it’s not the Ranil Wickremesinghe you see today, but the Ranil you will see in five months time.