Point of View:

Presidency without the Excellency
 

BY ROHAN Premaratne

PROMISES, promises what a lot he promises!

The pressures of a do or die Presidential Election has brought Ranil Wickremesinghe down to a level he declared from every stage he would never go to.

Since the Supreme Court determined that presidential elections should be held in 2005 Ranil had to undergo a kind of metamorphosis that none thought would happen to the heir to the Jayewardene tradition.

Going by his public conduct it seems that Ranil is no longer even an old boy of Royal College Colombo 7. Cannot all see how close he is now to the true sons of the soil like Gunapala, Wijedasa and Bodhipala? What agreeable company these guys are, especially at televised chitchats near a kamatha!

Our leader of the opposition one time was claiming that he would not make false promises to get votes. But that was before a Mahinda from that adjoining school which could not even get a fixture with the old school fora game of cricket in his day dared to make a go at the Presidency.

The impudence of it! Uncle Dicky certainly did not envisage a Thurstanite in that august office. Why don't they just listen to the noise made by that poisonous new crusader disguised as a leading type and vote for him?

Ranil in his manifesto is promising jobs. He is going to create one million jobs and also is going to double our income. That will really make the old boys happy. Talking about jobs, where are these going to be ? Maybe in the export oriented Ayurvedic industry. Even if the economy reaches 10 per cent growth rate how many jobs would that create ?

Who says Ranil is not serious about his promises. Why do you think he brought back that Sirisena Cooray to make his urban dream come true? Ranil wants to make the UNP a youthful forward-looking party. If any one doubts Cooray's intellectual suitability to correct the mess the urban centres are in, just read his outstanding contribution to political/autobiographical literature "President Premadasa and I". The Colombo based intellectuals' say Ranil knows what he is doing. Even the LTTE endorses him. Tilak Karunaratne supports him. The stock market manipulators love him. Only the poor common man is slow to jump on the bandwagon. Let us try to rope them in too.

According to Ranil's Manifesto there is going to be a huge consumer relief programme with subsidies and food stamps by his Government.

The pro-open economy writers are silent on these massive public spending programmes but as long as it is Ranil who is making the promises, there is nothing wrong. What about the biggest Dagoba in the world given as an election promise?

This must be the first time such a promise has been made by a candidate at an election since the Suez Canal was cut. Wonder which building contractor came up with this brilliant idea.

But the strangest promise of all is the undertaking to do away with the Presidential pomp. Just when we were getting used to the idea that we may be developing a bit of good old British tradition with all the bowing and scrapping associated with the office of the presidency, Ranil wants to scuttle it. No more Your Excellency!

Promises! Promises! You said that it is no way to get votes!