{"id":188946,"date":"2018-03-21T12:38:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T07:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=188946"},"modified":"2018-03-24T03:04:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T21:34:22","slug":"why-ranil-is-still-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-ranil-is-still-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ranil Is Still Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shyamon Jayasinghe<\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shyamon Jayasinghe<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMahinda picked up this part of the opportunistic psychology\u00a0of our politicians when he famously stated that he runs a barber saloon where MPs can walk-in and walk out. What an amazing metaphor!\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Cool<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Joint Opposition move to pass a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a>, will come a cropper. Ranil knows that best as he has tersely told a group of opposition pollies (Australia slang for \u2018politicians\u2019), \u201cCome on! present\u00a0 <\/span>the motion in Parliament and we will defeat that.\u201d His own UNP\u00a0<\/span>MPs, he advised not to panic over the motion because it has not even been presented to the Speaker. In his 40 year-long political history Ranil Wickremesinghe has never been observed panicking. What is it that invests him with such an emotional state? His savvy knack about Sri Lankan politics. He knows\u00a0<\/span>the jokers he is dealing with him.\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Pradarshanaya<\/i> or Showmanship<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, the latest move by JO and its veritable leader Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a> was described by someone the other day as a \u201cpradasharanaya,<\/i>\u201d or \u201cgimmick\u00a0 <\/span>exhibition.\u201d Mahinda is brilliant on this kind of showmanship and it has borne him success. Soon after he lost the 2014 Presidential elections and the General elections the following year, Mahinda commenced \u201cMahinda Sulanga.\u201d That was a\u00a0 <\/span>series of public meetings\u00a0<\/span>beginning with Nugegoda about which Dayan Jayatilleka<\/a> went into raptures. Mahinda knows how to get crowds and arrange a show of them. He did it at his election meetings when the front row of his audience was\u00a0 <\/span>studded with his human shield of supporters\u00a0 <\/span>whom he carried with him wherever he went. Women were lined up by the ropes and they would\u00a0 <\/span>simply rush to try and touch the divinity as he wades through. They failed to touch even the many golden rings around his wrist and the Indian charms. Yet, the show was what was important. The frenetic effort! As Mahinda would eventually ascend the stage, dressed in his red\u00a0 <\/span>Kurakkan Satakaya, <\/i>a kid or an aged person would materialize for the King to display his human touch. Mahinda kisses the kid; if it were an aged person, the latter would \u201ctry\u201d to bend in two before the monarch and, once again, the monarch would show a \u2018humility,\u2019 by disallowing such genuflection. Media cameras and drone cameras recorded all this. Taxpayer-funded TV media went blast. <\/span><\/p>\n

The meeting can now start.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s showmanship is his real asset\u00a0 <\/span>in the political gameplay. It works, and Pragmatic philosophers would tell us that what works is truth. Ranil Wickremesinghe fails miserably on this skill. He simply is not up to that. On the other hand, Ranil is often seen in a simple white shirt and pants or in a Western suite complete with tie. Mahinda\u2019s satakaya beats the tie and that resonates with the Buddhistic nationalist stream whom he is tailoured to. Ranil cannot do that. Even before the Mahnayake\u2019s, Ranil is often seen in shirt and tie. I have never seen him carrying babies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Selfish, Loony, Pollies<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The sharp, outstanding distinction between the two images represent one important political truth about the general behaviour of our pollies. They are generally a set of selfish, loony blokes\u00a0 <\/span>who\u00a0 <\/span>creep into Parliament to make a\u00a0 <\/span>buck and try to remain there by showmanship or pretence acts. Most of them are ignorant and over 60 per cent have not passed the O\u2019Levels. Mahinda Rajapaksa plays into and symbolises that deeply disturbing trend. Such mind -frames cannot produce healthy political outcomes for the country. Their\u00a0 <\/span>policies and decisions are intended to get over the moment. The short term is what they eye. Painful longterm decisions are anathema.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liquidity of political alliances is a defining consequence of this attitude. Parties are not the thing but self-interest is. Mahinda picked up this part of the opportunistic psychology\u00a0of our politicians when he famously stated that he runs a barber saloon where MPs can walk-in and walk out.<\/b> What an amazing metaphor!<\/b> I recently re-read philosophers who said that the world and life is absurd and merely governed by chance. Even the greatest mind of our generation the late Stephen Hawking, said something like that. Well, if nothing else is absurd the Sri Lankan polity is absurd.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In such a context, Ranil Wickremesinge\u2019s very dress appearance seems an anachronism. His effort toward installing good governance\u00a0<\/b>systems\u00a0 <\/b><\/span>in the island is subject to ridicule by our pollies.<\/b> Even most of his own party men do not grasp\u00a0 <\/span>the need for such systems. The substantial gains that his government has realised thus far, goes undervalued. Ranil\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>farseeing economic policies and strategies are just a nuisance as they have \u201cno impact\u201d on the voting public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bond Issue<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

To be honest, Ranil Wickremesinghe hasn\u2019t been all that cautious about many of his doings.\u00a0<\/span>The Presidential Commission into the so-called bond scam<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>had suggestively advised the Prime Minister to be more cautious about his appointments. (I say, \u2018so-called,\u2019 because I remain not convinced that any scam has in fact taken place here.) The Commission hasn\u2019t, however, found him or any Minister as being involved in the \u2018scam.\u2019 Ravi Karunanayake<\/a>\u2019s issue is not directly related to the incident and so the Commission wanted allegations relating to the latter separately investigated. Be that as it be, the fact is that the JO campaign has succeeded in making the Prime Minister perceived by the public as a guilty party. It is the success of showmanship\u00a0 <\/span>over fact.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Bullseye of Opposition Attack<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Ranil is dragged into that focus all the time and\u00a0 <\/span>attempts are being made to disgrace him. All Opposition guns are on Ranil. As a historical fact, we can recall how Ranil Wickremesinghe had been the bullseye of\u00a0 <\/span>the Rajapaksa attack men men even during the time the latter had been in government. He was labelled a failure; unable to win elections. This criticism had being contrary to the position that he had succeeded in being Prime Minister three or four times. At the last General Elections, Ranil broke all records by registering over 500,00 votes in his electoral district. This was no mean achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n

About twenty years in opposition, Ranil managed to keep his party together without breaking up against the intense manipulative pressure of the Rajapaksa government. His party leadership\u00a0 <\/span>was challenged twice\u00a0 <\/span>by his own men. However, Wickremesinghe showed considerable understanding and emotional management to\u00a0 <\/span>override all these attempts-subtle and direct- and to ride high. In this way, Ranil\u2019s<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>political resilience\u00a0is outstanding. One cannot easily put Ranil down as, like a rubber ball pressed to sink in water, he keeps coming up. <\/b>He had predicted the UNP will form government two years before it did this time and so that happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

From this perspective, t<\/strong><\/span>he myriad attempts by Opposition over the years to target Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks more of his attackers than of him; for that demonstrates that Opposition\u2019s number one bogeyman is none other than Ranil Wickremesinghe. That throws light on\u00a0<\/span>Ranil\u2019s effectiveness and not of his weaknesses.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the Opposition shows poverty in their futile efforts to paint Ranil Wickremesinghe as a corrupt man. There have never been any charges of corruption against him. No charges of murdering dissentient journalists. On the other hand, of Mahinda Rajapaksa we have a totally opposite picture. The former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva\u00a0<\/span>openly alleged that Mahinda, while he was Prime Minister, had been seriously guilty over siphoning off Tsunami funds to private bank accounts. The present Commission about serious financial crimes have recommended that Mahinda and some other ministers of his regime should be deprived of their civic rights. White vans and gruesome murders marked the former regime.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The contrasting picture is that\u00a0 <\/span>Ranil Wickremesinghe still remains Mr Clean. He is also Mr Cool. Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s political skills are proven. So is his vision capacity. To me, the most important thing about this much maligned and underestimated leader is that he stands for the\u00a0 <\/span>values\u00a0 <\/span>that can keep Sri Lanka together. Ranil Wickremesinghe, even in his depressed moments, never resorted to racial\u00a0<\/span>slogans; never touted Sinhala Buddhist nationalism.<\/b> He is provenly multicultural. He is also modern in economic and political outlook.<\/span><\/p>\n

To add to these attributes, Ranil\u00a0<\/span>is one of the handful in Parliament who possess knowledge of social and economic policy. The nation needs him to remain. He may groom a successor – that\u2019s a different matter. The fact is that he is still needed if Sri Lanka\u00a0 <\/span>is to be saved from the mad world of selfish loonies. Among all the bunch of political leaders that Lanka now has, Ranil Wickremesinghe stands alone – still unmatched.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

*The writer can be contacted at<\/em>\u00a0sjturaus@optusnet.com.au<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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