By Udara Soysa –

Udara Soysa

There’s a temptation in Sri Lanka to treat Ranil Wickremesinghe as some elder statesman — the “last liberal,” the West-friendly technocrat who stood above the Rajapaksa swamp. But let’s be honest: RW’s political decline is no accident. It’s the result of a career defined by hubris, bad judgment, and a knack for playing the wrong hand at every critical moment.

If anything, his story is not one of tragedy but of farce: four election cycles, four colossal blunders, and one country left bleeding from his inability to get it right.

2005: The LTTE Gamble That Backfired

In 2005, RW entered the presidential race still basking in the afterglow of his 2002 Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE. He genuinely believed peace talks with Prabhakaran would carry him to victory. Instead, the Tigers enforced a boycott in the North and East, stripping RW of the votes he needed and handing Mahinda Rajapaksa the presidency.

Result? Sri Lanka was thrown into a decade of Rajapaksa authoritarianism, militarization, and corruption. RW’s naïve trust in a terrorist outfit not only lost him the election but reshaped the nation for the worse.

2015: Yahapalana — A Coalition of Chaos

Fast forward to 2015. RW tied his political fortunes to Maithripala Sirisena, the so-called “common candidate.” He fancied himself the brains of a reformist revolution. Instead, he ended up being backstabbed by Sirisena at every turn.

The Yahapalana government turned out to be the greatest missed opportunity in modern Sri Lankan history. Instead of reform, we got paralysis. Instead of unity, we got open war between President and Prime Minister. By 2018, Sirisena was humiliating RW by attempting to sack him and bring Mahinda back. It was a circus — and RW was the clown who built the tent.

2019: Indirectly Crowning Gotabaya

By 2019, RW’s credibility was in tatters — tainted by the Central Bank bond scam, blamed for economic stagnation, and seen as weak on national security after the Easter Sunday attacks. When Sajith Premadasa stepped forward as the UNP candidate, RW had one job: back him fully. Instead, he sulked, dragged his feet, and ensured a divided front.

The result? Gotabaya Rajapaksa swept into power on a tidal wave of nationalist anger. RW didn’t just lose — he effectively paved the road for a man who would bankrupt the country within three years. That’s not just political malpractice. That’s national sabotage.

2024: Sandbagging Sajith

In 2024, RW had one last chance to salvage some relevance. As the unelected president propped up by parliamentary arithmetic, he could have thrown his weight behind Sajith Premadasa and rebuilt a credible anti-Rajapaksa front. Instead, he chose ego over strategy. He split the vote, sabotaged Sajith, and reduced the UNP — once the party of giants like DS Senanayake and JR Jayewardene — to a historical footnote.

RW’s presidential campaign wasn’t just uninspired. It was a suicide mission, and he dragged his party’s corpse along with him.

The Common Thread: Misjudgment, Arrogance, Survivalism

Across two decades, the pattern is undeniable. Trusting the LTTE. Being outmaneuvered by Sirisena. Helping Gotabaya by default. Blocking Sajith out of spite.

Ranil Wickremesinghe has never been a strategist. He has been a survivor — clinging to office through loopholes, alliances, and parliamentary tricks, not through public legitimacy. And each time Sri Lanka needed him to rise above ego and make the right call, he failed.

Conclusion: A Stupid Game, A Stupid Prize

Let’s call it what it is. RW is not the statesman his defenders imagine. He is a serial miscalculator whose career has been one long lesson in how not to do politics. Sri Lanka paid the price for his errors — in authoritarianism, corruption, economic collapse, and the death of a once-proud political party.

He played a stupid game. And, as always, he won a stupid prize.