Ranil should step down - UNP (D) Group

Nadira Gunatilleke

The leader of the United National Party (UNP) and the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe should step down immediately in order to solve the present problem of the party, Construction and Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday.

The one and only solution will be implementing the recommendations stated in the Panditharatne Report which says 99 per cent UNPers want a change in its leadership, Minister Senaratne told a UNP (D) Group news conference.

“The Present UNP Leader is hanging on to his post just because of his greed for the benefits he gets because of his ‘Opposition Leader’ post especially the recognition that comes from foreign countries,” he said.

Minister Senaratne said that the SLFP has proved that it is not a political party that belongs to one group or some persons by appointing Minister Dinesh Gunawardena as its Chief Whip and UNP-D Group member Hemakumara Nanayakkara was appointed to another post. This shows that the SLFP belongs to all in all political parties and there is no one owner for it.

“But the UNP is getting destroyed because of one person.

“This person does not care about the party. He is only interested in his benefits.”

Minister Senaratne said that all the other persons in the UNP are more suitable for the leadership of the UNP than its present leader.

There was only one similar leader in the world and he was from Korea.

His party won as soon as he was removed from the leadership.

“There are a dozen other leaders in the UNP. If I was told to go I will not hang into my position even one second because my dignity is much more valuable to me than anything else,” he said.

The UNP Leader’s solution for the present problem is appointing a committee. This is his method of passing time.

He has appointed so many committees since 1994 and this number exceeds all the committees appointed by all former UNP Leaders in the history.

The only thing left for the present UNP Leader is the party constitution secretly amended by himself, the Minister said.

“There is nothing called central committee in the UNP and only the names exist. The only real organisation is the `Kitchen Cabinet’. The present UNP Leader thinks that he can go on and set up a Government with the help of some media houses.

Now the UNP Leader has no time to do anything else other than controlling internal riot.”

Minister Senaratne pointed out that there was an uprising every two years in the UNP since the present leader came to power and first one was in 2000 under the leadership of late Gamini Athukorala and the second one in 2004 with Tissa Aththanayake.

The third one was in 2005 under the leadership of Karu Jayasuriya. “We wanted to support the Government and walk forward with that credit as a strong party (UNP). But the leader sabotaged it.”

The only way forward is strengthening the SLFP and the UNP.

Then no fundamental group will be able to grab power. The animosity that exists between the UNP and the SLFP should be removed. The UNP-D Group will take the correct decision at the correct time, he added.

The UNP-D Group will contest with the Government for the coming Provincial Council Elections. It was Mangala Samaraweera who destroyed the MoU and now he wants a MoU.

Consultant to the UNP-D Group Kumar Abeysinghe said that the present UNP Leader is not suitable even to carry out the duties of the Opposition Leader.

“A leader must have followers and if there are no followers he is not a leader.”