A late learner seeks fast track to Presidency

WHATEVER he is not truthful about in his bid for the Executive Presidency, Ranil Wickremesinghe seems candid about his delayed learning of the policies of President Kumaratunga vis-...-vis a solution to the ethnic issue.

He beats a mea culpa, when he says it took him time to learn the good in Chandrika Kumaratunga's policies on devolution.

Almost with sack cloth and ashes he grovels that like any other mortal he too is liable for mistakes, and his big mistake was in not accepting President Kumaratunga's policy of devolution, announced many years ago, in 1995 to be exact.

He is quite a late learner this man, who seeks to lead our country into the bliss of peace with a wholly flawed Ceasefire Agreement, which he signed with Velupillai Prabhakaran without even letting President Kumaratunga have even a peep at it before the signing was complete.

It took him ten long years, mostly spent in Opposition, except for barely over two years as Prime Minister, for him to grasp the truth according to Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Dreams of a grand alliance

Ranil Wickremesinghe is today all for a grand alliance of the SLFP and UNP as the only way to achieve peace. It is surprising that it required a Presidential Election, for him to realize the value of President Kumaratunga's policies.

Was he really so blissfully ignorant of the benefit of these policies, when he allowed the members of his Cabinet, Ravi Karunanayake et al, to vilify Chandrika Kumaratunga so much when the two parties were involved in governance by co-habitation?

Learning late and admitting one's earlier ignorance is not to be looked down upon. However, the timing of his great realisation, or revelation of the truth as it seems, leaves room for more than a little doubt about how genuine he is about his conversion to the necessity of the SLFP and UNP to come together to usher peace to this country. It's good fodder for mass consumption.

The seeds of doubt begin to sprout into seedlings when he says it will happen after he is President. It is only then will he initiate the real steps, different from the background moves going on now, to bring the two parties together.

If he is true to his word about the two parties getting together, the best proof he can offer to the country of his dedication to a bi-partisan approach to the ethnic issue and achieving peace, is for him to bow out of the presidential race, allow Mahinda Rajapakse who is the SLFP's chosen candidate to win, and then go about building bridges between the two parties.

That would be the litmus test of commitment to a grand alliance. Not the abrasive, unethical and often vulgar campaign he and his party is now carrying on against Rajapakse to somehow get to the seat of the Executive Presidency.

Ranil before the revelation

Wickremesinghe is no ignoramus in politics. He is a graduate in law, a lawyer by profession, with a record in Parliament from 1977, from which time he held positions of deputy minister and minister in several capacities, and Prime Minister, twice. It is hardly likely that such a person would see the light so suddenly.

He has known Chandrika Kumaratunga's policies for a very long time. It was his party that made a Select Committee of Parliament sit through over 70 sessions, discussing her proposals for devolution, with no significant recommendations from the UNP.

When amendments to the Select Committee report were sought, it took the UNP several more months to come up with some changes of little importance.

Later, President Kumaratunga spent many months in discussion with the UNP on the draft of the new Constitution that recommended extensive devolution of power, before Wickremesinghe and Chandrika Kumaratunga, finally shook hands having reached agreement on all but a few of the issues involved.

That handshake was described as a historic breakthrough in this country's politics. Yet, in a few days Ranil went back on what was agreed, and suddenly said he cannot come to any agreement unless it had the approval of the Maha Sangha.

At that time I described the so-called historic handshake as the "Judas handshake". It marked the biggest betrayal in recent Sri Lankan politics.

Later events need little recall. Getting to rewind mode till August 2000, will show how this same slow learning Wickremesinghe was calmly seated in Parliament, while members of his party hurled abuse at President Kumaratunga when she presented the draft Constitution.

They tore it into shreds. Threw it and other books and papers all over the House and even set the Draft Bill on fire, like arsonists trying to burn down Parliament.

Wickremesinghe called for calm, which was ignored only when one thick paper missile thrown about struck him on the head. Soon after, he resumed his seat and looked on with amused silence at the mayhem that was going on.

Unethical conversion

Whether caused by late learning or not, Wickremesinghe's new concern for the future security of the SLFP gives the impression of one who has been unethically converted to the idea of a grand alliance.

He's a born-again devolutionist a la Chandrika Kumaratunga, in a conversion caused by his desire to be Executive President.

Like his multitude of promises to the people, one cannot expect him to deliver on his promise to join with the SLFP for peace or safeguard it from those who are said to be threatening it.

It looks more like a master strategy to weaken the SLFP into total submission if he does get the plum he is seeking. Until then he will make all the correct sounds, and send many signals about a future unity.

The strategy is to fool as many as possible in the SLFP, to accept him as the saviour of their party until he cuts them down when the opportunity comes.

It also strikes a chord in the people's desire for unity among the two major parties.

We have already heard Karunanayake say how after Ranil has won the Presidential Election, they will take the SLFP to the laundry, scrub it clean and hand it back to the Bandaranaikes.

These are strange words to come from anyone in a party that claims to be against dynastic politics, particularly of the Bandaranaikes.

We know very well how the UNP, in which Wickremesinghe was a senior minister, took the SLFP to the cleaners in 1988/89. There is an affidavit sworn by a former DIG named Premadasa Udugampola detailing how hundreds of SLFP members and supporters were killed at the time.

Late learning may be good in many instances. But such delayed learning that suddenly shows itself when the carrot of the Executive Presidency is dangling before you, could well be part of well rehearsed strategy.

It is time the SLFP took stock of the dangers from an embrace by Ranil and his team. It is better to be prepared to prevent the Trojan Elephant from entering its camp, whatever anyone may say about the benefits of late learning.