Although the government managed to avoid a defeat at the vote on the budget it has not been able to identify the persons who are adding to the 4 members of Thondaman’s group, who had agreed to join the opposition for the purpose of defeating the budget and has also not been able to bring about a unity in the government ranks in order to prevent those members from taking such action in the future. This situation has led to a growth of instability in the government.
According to information, the opposition had come to an agreement with a selected group in the PA for the purpose of defeating the government at the budget vote and setting up an all party temporary administration for the sake of democratic reforms.
It had also been agreed to get the limited number of votes required to defeat the budget in the first round and subsequently to get another group to join the opposition and form an all party government to effect democratic reforms.
It is the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who is now accused of betraying this plan at the last moment. This situation has forced a massive revolt against Mr. Wickremesinghe in the party.
The view of a majority in the UNP’s parliamentary group appears to be that, although there is a real possibility of defeating the PA government at any moment with the support of a group in the PA itself and setting up a temporary all party government for the purpose of launching democratic reforms, it would be essential to effect a change in the leadership of the UNP to achieve this purpose.
There is a strong opinion in the UNP parliamentary group that Mr. Wickremesinghe, due to some reason, is not really interested in defeating the PA government and that there is a secret understanding between the UNP leader and the reins of the PA government. In these circumstances there is a strong demand that, at this particular moment, Mr. Wickremesinghe should honourably give up party leadership after handing over the reins of the opposition to Karu Jayasuriya and the leadership of the party to Gamini Atukorale.
The performance of Mr. Wickremesinghe as the leader of the UNP and the opposition has been extremely weak. He may be considered a person who has arrived at leadership at an unexpected speed due to the assassination of a number of front rank leaders, although he had been very far behind in the queue for the top spot. At the time he became the leader of the party there were a number of persons senior to him in the UNP parliamentary group.
There was also a group in the party who had voted for Gamini Dissanayake against him when he faced a contest for leadership. In such a complicated environment Mr. Wickremesinghe failed to establish himself in the party as a leader respected by all. He considered the seniors troublesome and thought those who had supported Mr. Dissanayake against him were untrustworthy. This fact damaged the unity of the party and contributed to factionalism inside it.
The manner in which Mr. Wickremesinghe as the leader of the opposition fought the government, too, was not a strong performance. He as the leader did not pose a serious threat to the malpractices and terrorism employed by the government to win the elections. Even on matters at which the government could have been pushed into an extremely difficult position, his attacks were perfunctory, and he refrained from taking the fight effectively to the opposite camp.
This weakened the standing of the UNP as the main opposition party to a great extent, and contributed to the opinion among the party members at the village level as well as among the business community that Mr. Wickremesinghe was a failure.
If an early solution respected by all is not found to the crisis in the party, the UNP’s debilitation will continue inevitably. Although the revolt in the party has been suppressed temporarily, it will be difficult to remove the dissatisfaction regarding party leadership.
In these conditions the party will achieve a new dynamism only if at least half the demands made by the rebels are met (that is to say if Mr. Wickremesinghe, instead of giving up both the party leadership and the opposition leadership, hands over the opposition leadership to Mr. Jayasuriya and retains the leadership of the party in his own hands).
In a broader sense, the UNP will gain new strength only if there is a fundamental change in the party leadership.
A change in the leadership will bring about a revival of spirit in the party, in the people, and in the party members who have distanced themselves from the party and have become inactive due to discontentment.
That will also inevitably bring the forces that aimed attacks on Ranil Wickremesinghe to a position of acting with a sense of responsibility and doing business with the UNP again.
The main challenge before Mr. Wickremesinghe today is to decide whether he is going to protect himself and not the party to be destroyed, or to give up his leadership totally or partially and protect the party.
This is certainly a serious dilemma. However, no leader can provide satisfactory leadership without the consent of the followers.
Honourable leaders are those who are modest enough to be able to listen to the voice of the followers and allow them to select a suitable leader when they reject their leadership.