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The infightng tradition of the UNP has surfaced again with the nominations being given to candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. One saw an exodus of PA members during the debate on No Confidence motion in Parliament a few weeks back pre-empted by President Kumaratunga who used the constitutional powers vested in her to dissolve Parliament and the motion lapsed

The UNP leadership jubilant over the prospect of a defeat of the Government over the no-confidence motion had to lapse back to square one and the aftermath of the selection of UNP candidate saw the leader struggling to navigate his battered ship in uncertain waters.

Some of those who had deserted the PA were rejected by the UNP supporters of many districts and the latest rumpus surfaced in Kegalle district.

UNP leader who deleted senior UNP parliamentarian and former Deputy Minister from the list of candidates was heard to argue that Kegalle District will not elect two members to the House and decided to nominate Kabir Hashim, who became a Member of Parliament when Podinilame, a UNP member, resigned from Parliament.

On the other hand U.L.M. Farook who won the 1994 general election in which the UNP was defeated, polling 47,600 votes at the time, was not given nominations by Ranil as Farook is one of the old guard UNP men who does not belong to the Ranil loyalist group dominated by various young men and a few women of debatable repute or calibre.

In disgust against the leader's decision to axe Farook, a large number of Muslims from the Kegalle resigned and obtained membership of the SLFP from the former PA parliamentarian and candidate Salinda Dissanayaka.

But of course the infighting has not stopped there. Recently there was a UNP rally at Kegalle addressed by Ranil and the other UNP seniors. Kabir Hashim who was never elected to Parliament but filled in the vacancy created by the resignation of Podinilame was the master of ceremonies and the kingpin on that day's events.

In the morning G.L.Peiris, UNP Chairman Charitha Ratwatte, General Secretary Senerath Kapukotuwa and some of the other leading lights of the UNP were invited to a meeting organized by Hashim to which a new UNP candidate Nimal Jayasinghe was also invited. It was a case of poetic justice. Nimal Jayasinghe who was the former PA Chairman of the Kegalle Pradeshiya Sabha sat at this meeting for two hours while all other candidates and local UNP leaders were invited to speak. After sitting till almost the conclusion of the meeting Jayasinghe who began to realize that he will not be given the opportunity to address the meeting got up disappointed.

It was rubbed into Nimal Jayasinghe once again that he was persona non grata when the UNP big wigs and the local leaders were hosted at a luncheon by one of the UNP's affluent supporters of Mawanella.

Jayasinghe was not invited and for the second time he begun to realize what the UNP he had recently joined was like. But the worst was yet to come. The venue of the UNP rally at Mawanella was lavishly decorated with banners, posters and cutouts of Kabir Hashim and when Nimal Jayasinghe's supporters came in a procession to the meeting, Kabir Hashim's strong arm men, told Jayasinghe's supporters to take all the banners, posters and placards of Jayasinghe out of the grounds. "Meka Kabir Hashim mahattayage resveema, meke thamuselage banner, poster gahanna be." (This is Kabir Hashim's meeting, you can't display your banners or posters here).

The much awaited UNP rally began without Nimal Jayasinghe being invited to address it. Even Ranil Wickremesinghe who addressed the rally failed to mention Nimal Jayasinghe in his speech. For all intents and purposes the former PA Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman did not exist in the minds or even the pretences of the UNP leadership.

Nimal Jaysinghe, however, took the microphone on the stage after Ranil had left and gave vent to his feelings as a completely broken man who had crossed over to the wrong side at the wrong time. So the dejected UNP supporters who were backing Nimal Jayasinghe made a gauche exit carrying their banners out of the meeting's site.

Perhaps Nimal Jayasinghe that night would have turned uneasily in his bed while turning over in his mind the events of the day like any traitorous politician.

He would also have discovered that the UNP of Ranil Wickremesinghe is a political party that does not spread out a carpet of welcome to an enterprising rustic village lad whose ambition was perhaps bigger than his brains. The UNP has had a very long history of betraying its own people.

One could go as far back as the 1950s when old D.S. Senanayake plotted to throw out the two most senior members of his cabinet out of the line of succession and install his son as Premier in the event of D.S. meeting with an untimely death. There were two senior cabinet ministers each with claims to leadership, Sir John Kotelawala and S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike who was the Leader of the House, the natural successor in a Parliamentary government following the Westminster tradition.

The old Senanayake therefore left instructions with the then Governor General Lord Soulbury that in the event of his death Dudley Senanayake who was then too young and inexperienced to lead the party or the Government should be made prime minister.

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was too clever for the old Senanayake resigned from the UNP and formed his own party, the SLFP, and as destined D.S.Senanayake fell off his horse and died a day later. The Governor General Soulbury called upon Dudley Senanayake to name his cabinet as the new Premier and John Kotelawala was overlooked.

There are other and yet other instances of the UNP betraying its own members. Even C.W.W.Kannangara who is fondly remembered as the Father of Free Education was also treated badly by the UNP of the time as the UNP leaders did not want such a popular person to remain in the government. He was deprived of nominations to his own electorate and was asked to contest another electorate so that he would be defeated. And it happened just like that and he was defeated. During the evening of his life he lived in chill penury as he was not a politician who had accumulated ill-gotten wealth. It was the SLFP government of 1960 under Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike which brought a motion to Parliament to grant him an ex gratia payment so that he could spend the last few years of his life as a content person. The present UNP still carries the same legacy.

The incidents of capable members being deleted to allow the blue-eyed boys of the leader to contest elections would of course bring the usual rewards to the leadership. The leadership could rest assured that the UNP could spend one more term in the Opposition.

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