By Ranga Jayasuriya.
Writing a critique about Ranil Wickremesinghe now is akin to hitting a dead snake with a pole, a gentleman quipped during the launch of Professor Rajiva Wijesinha’s latest book, “Ranil Wickremesinghe and the emasculation of the United National Party.”
Prof. Wijesinha does exactly that only if one is to conclude Wickremesinghe is all but politically dead. No one knows that for sure. For once, when it appeared to be so, he made a remarkable comeback, thanks to the patronage of the Rajapakasas, and was crowned as the 9th executive president of the country.
The book is full of incriminating details, though they are not necessarily new. Prof. Wijesinha adds personal insights, which he could do for his family association—Ranil is his cousin and his long association in politics. He was a state minister in the Maithiripala Sirisena – Wickremesinghe administration, though he later resigned.
The book depicts a man who contrary to the painstakingly cultivated reputation as a liberal—is incompetent, vindictive, corrupt and authoritarian. Prof. Wijesinha pulls no punches. A shade of personal vendetta seeps through the pages as well.
One of his greatest regrets, as Prof. Wijesinha, one of the finest English professors in this part of the world—narrates, that Ranil, along with his uncle J. R. Jayawardene, did their utmost to prevent the children of average folks from having an English medium education.
J.R. did so in the State Council by introducing compulsory vernacular education. This was while C.W.W. Kannangara’s Central Colleges had brought English language education to the villages.
As Prof. Wijesinha alleges, Ranil did his part to scuttle many well-meaning efforts to bring English medium education to public schools. The list is long, from his refusal to allow St. Thomas Mount Lavinia to conduct English medium classes to his wholehearted sabotage of Chandrika Kumaratunga administration’s effort to introduce English medium education to public schools – during the cohabitation government with Chandrika in early 2000.
Prof. Wijesinha explains this peculiar aversion. Ranil was full of himself and thought only he could undertake a task of such seminal importance. And he did not want lesser mortals to do it and take the credit. But Ranil was too busy handling the economy; hence, the education of the children was put on the back burner. And not to mention the usual feudal instincts that the children of average masses do not need English.
The book is all about Ranil Wickremesinghe. But, it begins with short biographies of ten political leaders of the UNP, ranging from some of the forgotten, such as Gamini Jayasuriya and Ranjith Atapattu, to controversial Sirisena Cooray, Lalith, Gamini and Upali Wijewardena, the latter though not a politician, nursed political ambitions.
Prof. Wijesinha calls them a lost generation for they could not live up to their full potential. They were often undermined by their petty-minded party leadership, and those who survived the wrath of their leaders were assassinated by the LTTE. Their induction was to juxtapose the old leadership with the one that came to replace them. That might have served the purpose, though they were not paragons of virtues either. One could still see how their loss sent the UNP to a new low, ending in its current predicament. Ranil destroyed the UNP, incrementally and conclusively, partly due to his preference for his acolytes and his tight grip on the leadership.
As Professor Wijesinha observes, the only time the UNP could vote and elect a leader, the working committee voted against Ranil in favour of Gamini. When Wickremesinghe was elected the leader, the first thing he did was to change the Party constitution to the effect that the post of leadership would fall vacant only if the leader resigned or died. Since Ranil has no desire to do either, the party is stuck with him.
Prof. Wijesinha provides useful insights into his cousin. During his early years in politics, Wickremesinghe was largely untainted by corruption, albeit being a faithful accessary to his uncle J.R. Jayawardene’s authoritarian reign. The turning point came later when he was defeated in the leadership vote after Gamini Dissanayake returned to the UNP.
As Prof. Wijesinha opines, rather than conceding that Gamini was more accomplished than him, Ranil believed that he won because of the vast financial resources at his disposal, much of which might have been earned through shady government contracts during his career as the Minister of Mahaweli Development. Thus began a downward spiral into corruption to raise funds for the party. The Party stalwarts did much of the dirty work, though it is hard to suggest Wickremesinghe was unaware. The bond scam was the logical end of that downward spiral.
Prof. Wijesinha attributes Ranil’s early rise to family links with Uncle J.R. and his early success as the minister of education in the early 80s to the competent Ministry Secretary at the time. That Ranil could not produce anything in his late career may be proof, he asserts.
He says beneath the veil of urbane liberalism, Ranil carries a hefty dose of authoritarianism, citing his early track record under J.R. and his later machinations to postpone elections. Allegations of Ranil’s hand in Batalanada are also repeated.
Much of the scathing detail in the book is not necessarily new, but Prof Wijesinghe provides contextualisation, and a personal touch and sometimes laces them with personal animus. Nonetheless, he shatters the liberal veneer of Wickremesinghe.
There is a lacuna, though. Prof. Wijesinha is selective in his criticism. As much as he has no qualms in excoriating Wickremesinghe, he is uncharacteristically charitable towards Rajapaksas—though he mentions he left the Rajapaksas due to the corruption the brothers indulged in. He calls the 19th Amendment ‘deeply flawed.’ However, he fails to recognise that it was still an upgrade from the 18th amendment, which turned the independent commissions into a rubber stamp of the Executive and removed the term limits of the Presidency.
Many similar details might call upon a discerning reader to use a good deal of discretion when making judgments.
In some ways, the book is similar to Victor Ivan’s Chaura Rajina (Rogue Queen), a scathing critique of Chandrika Kumaratunga. Unfortunately, Prof. Wijesinha’s work is in English and would only reach a limited audience. Probably, in the age of social media and Aragalaya, the English audience in political literature in this country is of academic importance. This book deserves to come in a Sinhala translation to reach a wider audience, probably the type to which Prof Wijesinha seeks to cater. That is where the book could make a real impact.
Daily Mirror