The UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has shot himself in the foot twice in as many weeks in his desperate attempt to cling on to the party leadership. The first time he hurt himself was the week before last when he agreed to appoint an eight-member committee to go into the question of creating a senior leader’s post for him and to decide on the powers that would be wielded by the senior leader. This proposal was unanimously approved by the working committee and officially minuted. That was to prevent a group of parliamentarians from sitting separately and thereby depriving him of the leadership of the opposition. Then last week, in order to escape being kicked upstairs, as decided at the previous working committee meeting, Wickremesinghe agreed to cede some of the powers of the leader to the deputy leader, and the political affairs committee.

That was the compromise on which last Monday’s stormy six hour working committee meeting ended and this ceding of powers too will be in the minutes of the working committee unless Wickremesinghe doctors the minutes or moves a motion at the next WC meeting to annul the minutes of the previous meeting. These minutes may well turn out to be the main bone of contention when the UNP working committee meets next. The net result of all this is that Wickremesinghe’s position in the party is being eroded slowly but surely.

The mulberry bush

This is a desperate game, playing for time in the hope that some event will occur which will deliver him from those screaming for his ouster. The week before last, the message that Wickremesinghe was willing to step down and be the senior leader was taken to the rebels by Tissa Attanayake, Gamini Jayawickrema Perera and John Amaratunga. The committee appointed by the working committee to look into the creation of the senior leader’s post, came to the unanimous decision that the senior leader would preside at the national party convention and the national executive committee but that he would not be allowed to sit in the political affairs committee (PAC) which would be chaired by the party leader and all decisions will be taken by it. Thus even the new party leader would not have been able to make decisions on his own.

The PAC would have decided on appointments, as well as policy matters and would have resembled the politburo in a Marxist party, with all the day to day decision making power residing in it. In such an event, the working committee would have played the role of the central committee in a Marxist party - a wider body which would on special occasions have studied the recommendations of the PAC to validate or reject the decisions made. When it came to the powers that the senior leader would have over the working committee (WC), Wickremesinghe wanted to preside over it but this was strenuously opposed by the reformists. The unanimous decision arrived at by the eight member committee was that the senior leader would not preside at the WC either. On a suggestion by John Amaratunga, it was agreed that the senior leader would be made an ‘advisor’ to the WC. So the senior leader would be kept out of both the PAC and WC.

Wickremesinghe sent a message through Tissa Attanayake to the eight member committee asking them to allow him to preside at the working committee and to appoint the party chairman, the general secretary and the treasurer. This was furiously rejected by the eight member committee. Friday before last, the committee was scheduled to meet Shibly Aziz, PC, to finalize the legal aspects for the shift of power. But that morning, Aziz had phoned Jayawickreme Perera and said that Wickremesinghe was not agreeable to the proposal put forward by the committee.

Kauravas & Pandyas

When the working committee met last Monday, in what was to be the longest session in the party’s history, a few minor matters on the agenda were dealt with first and then Wickremesinghe himself invited the General Secretary Attanayake to present the report of the committee comprising Jayawickreme Perera, Tissa Attanayake, Renuka Herath, Lakshman Seneviratne, Sajith Premadasa, S.B.Dissanayake, Lakshman Seneviratne and John Amaratunga. Attanayake duely presented the report. After it was read out, the first to stand up for Wickremesinghe was Palitha Range Bandara who said that he was against the creation of a senior leader’s post. Range Bandara had put his views in writing. Dayasiri Jayasekera queried how one member can present a letter against a committee which had been unanimously appointed by the working committee. Jayasekera said that if this was so, then they too will write letters to the working committee.

Then Wickremesinghe tabled a letter which had 20 signatures and this letter recommended the appointment of a senior assistant leader. There was an uproar over this letter with Jayasekera saying that it was signed that very afternoon at MP Abdul Cader’s house. The story behind this letter is an interesting one. Vajira Abeywardene, that intrepid defender of Ranil Wickremesinghe, had been going from house to house last Sunday collecting signatures from members of the UNP committee expressing their support for Wickremesinghe and saying, among other things, that there was no need to create the post of senior leader. He collected Kalutara district leader Sarath Ranawaka’s signature on this document at 11.30pm on Sunday night at the Sri Jayawardenepura hospital where the latter was warded. The next morning, Abeywardene took the same letter to parliamentarian Abdul Cader’s house in Colombo where some middle of the road parliamentarians had gathered to discuss the latest crisis.

He had left a sheet of paper with Renuka Herath who had been at that gathering, to collect signatures for the resolution supporting Wickremesinghe and had then left. A little while later, parliamentarian Ranjith Aluwihare had phoned Abeywardene and said that they were not in agreement with his suggestion that Wickremesinghe should continue and that they were going to put forward a different proposal asking for Sajith Premadasa to be appointed as the senior assistant leader. Readers will remember that Ranjith’s father, Alick Aluwihare, had written on an earlier occasion to the UNP working committee asking for Premadasa to be made the deputy leader of the party. So where Vajira Abeywardene expected a resolution supportive of Wickremesinghe, what he got was a resolution in favour of his bete noir Sajith Premadasa.

Even so this would have been a relief to Wickremesinghe because these 20 MPs were not asking for his blood but deflecting attention to another issue. It was Kabir Hashim who brought attention back to the main topic. He stood up and said that he was a moderate who did not take sides. He said that this letter had been brought to him as well, but that he had not signed. His contention was that it was wrong to get such letters signed and he said that there was a problem in the party which had to be solved; without which the party could not go forward. At this point, Johnston Fernando stood up and challenged Wickremesinghe to reveal the names of the twenty signatories but Wickremesinghe declined to read out the names. After more cross talk, this resolution was shelved.

Leader for life!

At this point Lakshman Seneviratne, stood up and said that it was Wickremesinghe himself who had said that he was willing to step down and move into the senior leader’s post and that the working committee had appointed the eight member committee accordingly. Seneviratne said that the reason why UNPers have problems with Ranil is because he is a schemer. Seneviratne said "Obathuma onema kenek pawadei, kisima prathipathiyak nethi minihek". At this point, there was an uproar asking for a vote.

S.B.Dissanayake got up and said that the eight member committee had been formed at the request of the leader himself. Dayasiri Jayasekera said that it had been appointed with the approval of the party leader and the working committee and the issue now was whether the working committee was going to accept the report of the committee.

Ravindra Samaraweera who spoke next said that the people were abandoning the party and that they could not go forward under this leadership. He said that Wickremesinghe should have resigned like a gentleman after he lost the 2005 presidential election. He said "Sir, you say you have got the signatures of 20 MPs, where are the other 23? You have lost the game there." Then there was another document with the signatures of some 30 odd working committee members. Samaraweera wanted to know where the remaining members of the 92 member working committee were. He said that by having these signatures taken, Wickremesinghe had already divided the party. At this point Daya Gamage, stood up and said that Wickremesinghe should remain as the leader. Naushad, the Muslim parliamentarian from Ampara, stood up and said that he too was of the opinion that the party could not move forward with Wickremesinghe as the leader because he tended to favor his cronies.

Dayasiri Jayasekera said turning to Wickremesinghe, "Why are you trying to hang on like this? Don’t you realize what is going on? If you really want to cling on we will name you leader for life". Among the things that Ranjith Madduma Bandara said was that because of the UNP’s stand on the war, the party was losing Sinhala votes. Dr Ranjith Attapattu stated that Wickremesinghe could not win the next presidential election. It was at this point that Vajira Abeywardene got up to defend Wickremesinghe, shouting that Wickremesinghe was the only leader capable of winning the minority vote and that he got nearly 4.8 million votes at the last presidential election. With the intention of sowing doubt in the minds of the working committee members, he had asked, what if Mahinda dies tomorrow or the economy collapses?

Lakshman Seneviratne spoke after Abeywardene’s impassioned speech and hurled invective at Abeywardene with references to various deals with a certain construction giant and the naked lawyer in a gunny bag of sesame seed. The next person to speak was Velayuthan, an upcountry Tamil politician, who said that Wickremesinghe’s government had done nothing for the upcountry Tamils and that he himself could get nothing done; but it was Wickremesighe who could get the Tamil vote and that therefore he is with Wickremesinghe. Ranjith Madduma Bandara stood up and said that people were abandoning the party and that they could not win under Wickremesinghe’s leadership. He requested Wickremesinghe to step down and allow Karu Jaysuriya to take over. D.M..Swaminathan, the party treasurer, had addressed the gathering and said that had Prabhakaran not prevented the Tamil people from voting, Ranil would have won and that it was Wickremesinghe who could get the minority vote.

At this point, one Anuradhanayake, the newly appointed leader of the opposition of the NCP PC, spoke in favour of the party leader and moved for a vote of confidence and it was seconded by Daya Gamage of Ampara. Addressing Anuradhanayake and Gamage Lakshman Seneviratne said that he too had done what they are doing now and defended Wickremesinghe. Seneviratne said that he too had carried out Wickremesinghe’s biddng and helped get rid of Wijepala Mendia, Nanda Matthew and others. He said that he had on one occasion slapped an MP inside parliament in defence of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

At one point, Wickremesinghe who was getting increasingly apprehensive of the way things were going with MPs openly calling for his complete ouster from the party, referring to the proposals of the eight member committee asked what powers he was going to be entitled to and said that he had to have some powers. Protagonists from both sides including Lakshman Seneviratne and Vajira Abeywardene suggested that they go in for a secret vote. Palitha Range Bandara had said that they should go in for an open vote. S.B.Dissanayake said fine, if you are going to go for a vote, about the committee report, let’s make it a vote for the position of leader as well. Lakshman Seneviratne seconded Dissanayake’s proposal. Doing so, Seneviratne said that Sirisena Cooray had donated a well equipped printing press to the party in 1995 and he wanted to know what had happened to it. Two directors appointed to run that press, Irvin Weerakkody and Bodhi Ranasinghe, were present at the meeting, he said. Seneviratne alleged that the press was sold for 45 million. The party newspaper, Siyarata, could not be printed today, because the party did not have a press. He asked Wickremesinghe: ``What did you do as the leader?’’ Then Seneviratne posed the clincher – "Can we win the next elections with this leader?"

Joseph Michael Perera got up and said that he had been in politics for so many years and that his son was contesting the WPC elections; but that he could not win because there were four other candidates from the same electorate. It did not matter to him whether Wickremesinghe remained the leader or not; but when he leaves this room, he had to be able to tell his constituents who the leader of the party was and who the deputy leader was and that this had to be settled one way or another. The meeting was then adjourned for a few minutes. During this recess, a compromise was worked out where Wickremesinghe would retain the title of party leader but decision making power would pass to the political affairs committee and the deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya. The compromise solution was presented by Tissa Attanayake when the working committee met after the recess and nobody opposed it.

After this compromise was reached, Dilip Wedarachchi stood up and suggested Sajith Premadasa’s name as senior assistant leader. This was vociferously opposed by Vajira Abeywardene who shouted across the room what is this ‘balu weda’? Ravi Karunanayake wanted to know how this proposal which was not on the agenda can be brought in and he suggested S.B.Dissanayake’s name. A mighty fracas ensued with people pointing their fingers at Wickremesinghe as the perpetrator of all these intrigues. As this storm died down, Dayasiri Jayasekera stood up and proposed tongue in cheek that Wickremesinghe be confirmed in the position of leader so long as he lives. He asked Wickremesinghe not to appoint anybody to positions and that having just Wickremesinghe would suffice. Johnston Fernando in a similar mood of levity, seconded the proposal. Members of the UNP reformist group then ridiculed Wickremesinghe saying that he is going to be the presidential candidate not only in 2010, but in 2017 as well. With this, the meeting ended.

The committee minutes

According to the compromise reached, Ranil Wickremesinghe will retain the title of party leader and will have the power to appoint the party chairman, general secretary and treasurer which he will do in consultation with the deputy leader but all other powers such as the appointment of electoral organizers, district leaders, nominations boards, disciplinary boards, and the power to take policy decisions, will rest with the deputy leader and the political affairs committee. Under this new arrangement, the PAC will appoint the working committee members as well who were earlier appointed by the party leader at his personal discretion. The present PAC will hold office until the end of this year. In this sense Monday’s working committee meeting ended with a victory for the reformists. But they were not really interested in shifting powers around. They wanted to get rid of Wickremesinghe. They felt that with him as the leader, the party had no chance at the hustings even of some other candidate was fielded as the UNP presidential candidate.

Everything depends on the exact wording of the working minutes which will be presented for the approval of the next WC meeting. If the wording of the minutes remains true to the compromise reached, real power within the UNP should pass to Karu Jayasuriya and the political affairs committee. The doctoring of committee minutes is a widespread practice and it’s a moot point in what form these minutes would be presented to the next working committee meeting. If the minutes are not in accordance with the powers that were ceded to the political affairs committee, there could well be another blow up in the working committee.

On Wedneday morning, the walls of Colombo were plastered with posters of a smiling Wickremesinghe, with the slogan "Ape nayaka, ekama nayaka". This would give the impression to outsiders that all problems within the UNP were over and that Wickremesinghe was secure in his position. But such is far from the truth. The sarcastic and contemptuous tone in which the UNP reformists like Johnston Fernando and Lakshman Seneviratne addressed the media immediately after that marathon working committee meeting was an indication that this was not going to be the end of the reformist struggle. If the minutes of the working committee are in order and Wickremesinghe has actually ceded his powers, that might see a petering out of the reformist movement. But there’s going to be war if nothing happens.

Sajith Premadasa

On Wednesday morning, The Island carried a front page lead story saying that a last minute deal between Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa had resulted in the failure of the rebellion. Premadasa’s reaction was instantaneous. In an interview with The Island on the very same day, he said that he was never one to betray his convictions for positions and that he was always and will continue to be completely committed to the reform process within the party. Reforms in his view had to take place not only in the leadership of the party but also in the organization and policy framework as well. He described the compromise that was arrived at on Monday as ‘slight changes’ and insisted that the reform process was not over yet. Thus whatever respite Wickremesinghe won did not last even 48 hours with the latest round of hostilities being initiated not by the familiar rebels but by Sajith Premadasa.

Another event that grabbed public attention last week was a UNP pradeesheeya sabha member from Horana asking Wickremesinghe when he was going to leave the party at a Janahamuwa held in the Horana electorate. This PS member had been jostled and jeered at by the others present. Wickremesinghe had called the man to his side and had taken him in his car and dropped him off away from the meeting. According to the Wickremesinghe camp, this PS member is supposed to have told Wickremesinghe that he had received a phone call from a party big wig telling him to ask that question. But when this columnist phoned this PS member, Vithanage Senarath by name, (and not Senarath Manatunga as reported in many newspapers), he vehemently denied that he had been instigated by anybody addsing that he feels that Wickremesinghe should leave, not because the latter was a bad man, but because the public mistrusted him and he had no chance of ever winning.

This PS member who has got the second highest number of preference votes in his area said he had no intention of leaving the UNP adding that if he was planning to leave, then he would not be asking Wickremesinghe to leave because his continuation would be good for the other side. He said that if Wickremesinghe does not leave, there was the danger that the government will get a two thirds majority at the next election. With his earthy wisdom, Senarath holds that had Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike led the PA in 1994, there would be no SLFP or UPFA today. Food for thought as the UNP braces for another round of infighting.