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| Saturday, 17 April 2004 |
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The Ranil Wickremesinghe factor in the UNP debacle When elected to power two years ago Ranil Wickremesinghe was painted as prince of peace and he himself happily accepted the princely garb and went on a pretentious peace charade. He was determined to keep the LTTE at seemingly unending rounds of talks with the sole intention of prolonging the no-war situation. Peaceful life without explosions was the result of that two years and it was visibly evident in the day to day life in the south. But the real fallout of that period of peace is the strengthening of the LTTE militarily and of course gaining the much-needed respectability by pretending their interest in mainstream of politics. However at this stage LTTE realized that Wickremesinghe was on a mission of his own and decided to put an abrupt end to peace parleys, citing various other irrelevant reasons. Thus ended the two-year peace journey. Though peace parleys ended temporarily Wickremesinghe was not to let go the opportunity of maintaining friendship with the LTTE. He bent over backwards to get the LTTE back on track. He had to maintain peace talks mainly because he had placed all his bets on the peace process. He knew his future in politics and the future of his party were hanging precariously on the peace process. The biggest blunder Wickremesinghe made in his political life was to put all his "eggs" in the "peace basket". He did not have any other way to turn to when the peace process was abruptly halted "unilaterally" by LTTE. He and the entire Cabinet were solely dependent on the peace process. No arrangements had been made to attend to the grievances of the voters. Ministers followed Wickremesinghe on the garden path of peace. They never expected a dead end. That is why even some leading foreign dignitaries visited Vanni to convince the LTTE ostensibly on Wickremesinghe's behalf, but to no avail. It can be safely assumed that LTTE would not have wanted to get involved deeply in reconstruction activities with the government. Peace process seemed to have been utilized as a vehicle by LTTE to go where they wanted to go. They would have had their own agendas. Even though by this time LTTE had more or less abandoned the peace process, may be temporarily, announced to commit themselves to maintain the cease-fire. However LTTE openly violated it and monitors warned them on numerous occasions. It was very clear that state authority was being ridiculed even in the government held areas. Eight months later a presidential bombshell decree changed three portfolios and Wickremesinghe returned from USA to a rousing welcome home to tackle the situation. Realizing that the portfolios will not be returned to the original ministers. Wickremesinghe had to play a card. He announced his withdrawal from peace talks. His reasons for withdrawal were inability to talk peace without the defence apparatus in their hands. Actually speaking Wickremesinghe had not been talking peace for eight months as LTTE had abruptly ended peace talks. Anyway when Wickremesinghe too withdrew from talks, somebody would have expected LTTE to cry for Wickremesinghe, but that too did not happen. Wickremesinghe literally got stranded. Citing reasons of national security president dissolved the Parliament and announced general elections. Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government suffered a humiliating defeat. Defeat was utterly humiliating because Wickremesinghe and his party campaigned on a peace platform. Whether Wickremesinghe is charismatic enough to get the voter attention and retain it, whether he is a great communicator, whether people believe what he says are all characteristics of a man or woman. Such characteristics would have helped some other person to win an election. But all these characteristics would have been immaterial for him to win an election, had he taken the people in to his confidence and acted accordingly. Because he had launched a man-sized job of ushering in peace. Such a man-size job cannot be done without meticulously planning every stage of the job and of course not taking his voters into his confidence. Due to some reason or other, he failed to do that. Instead he narrated fairy tales to the people. He believed his people would follow his peace bandwagon. Like the Emperor's clothes, his ministers blindly accepted what he did and failed to say the Emperor was naked. Nobody had guts to say that he was going on the wrong track. When opposition and of course the private print media brought to light the dangerous happenings such as conscription of child soldiers, smuggling of arms and putting up camps in government controlled areas, Wickremesinghe and his ministers turned a blind eye. They never wanted to antagonize the LTTE under any circumstances. Even at the cost of sovereignty of the nation. He was under the impression that ultimate goal of peace would erase off such losses. Hence he ignored camps, child soldiers and arms smuggling. But by that time LTTE had other ideas. LTTE suspected whether Wickremesinghe was taking LTTE for a ride. But Wickremesinghe was genuinely for peace and peace at any cost, and was ready to accommodate LTTE. He was marking time till he becomes the president to finalize the talks and placate those involved. That is why Wickremesinghe never wanted to antagonize any body for that matter. But unfortunately without his knowledge he had been antagonizing his own people, who made him the man he was. The irony of it is that he lost peace and the people as well. He led a campaign tailor made to highlight peace. Nothing but peace. But alas! He lost. He lost some so-called border villages too. How was it that the innocent, hapless villagers in the so-called border villages too reject him if he had ushered peace to such defence-less people? So it is obvious that no-war is not peace. Though bombs did not explode in the south, the innocent people of the country did not get the peace dividends. Not only that, even his own electorate has had second thoughts about him and his peace. He had polled 86,162 votes less than the last election in his own electorate. It is nothing but suicidal to see 86,162 of his own people rejecting him within two years? Following in the footsteps of 86,162 Colombo district voters, 581,826 voters island-wide rejected the party. Same as above it is suicidal for a political party to lose 581,826 votes in two years on a peace platform. Such a rejection in just two years is unbelievable and calamitous. What had brought about this calamity? Has he not ushered peace into this emerald island? Does he lack charisma? Is he not a great communicator? or people do not believe what he says. Even if he lacks charisma, even if he is not a great communicator like Mao-Tsetung of China, he could have handled his peace process and the partly divided opposition well and won the election, had he checked the pulse of the nation and acted accordingly, had he stood up to the LTTE violations and acted patriotically, rather than covering up and putting the blame on to the media. People got to know through the media that under cover of peace blanket LTTE had smuggled arms and strengthened them militarily. Wickremesinghe did not take people into his confidence at this crucial juncture to explain what he plans to do. His ministers tried to accuse the media and the opposition for educating the people of what was happening. Further damaging the already damaged nation, Wickremesinghe went on to say "boldly" that we cannot afford to wage war, that he does not want people to get killed in a war. This type of irresponsible statements completely tarnished Wickremesinghe's reputation. LTTE knew that Wickremesinghe is not a fighter. People knew that with Wickremesinghe at the helm they are helpless. People subconsciously expected a "fighter" to be their leader especially at a time they have a war-like situation. When a leader acts like a lame duck leader to usher in peace at any cost, people never challenge openly. They wait till the time comes to act. Since people did not agitate against him, Wickremesinghe thought he had people's support in his endeavour. Wickremesinghe failed to read the pulse. But people had other ideas. Having failed to take people into his confidence and putting the blame on to the then private media and the opposition, depending solely on the peace platform Wickremesinghe acted truly like an amateur politician, completely discarding the experience gained as a seasoned politician and a party leader. It would not be incorrect to say that he acted in haste, like an amateur politician, when he realized the presidency was at hand. The tactician and strategist in Wickremesinghe were not at work and he paid the price. - Subash Wickramasinghe |
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