UNP’s decline

The views expressed by the Ven. Mahanayake of the Asgiriya chapter Most Ven. Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha on the country’s main Opposition political party merits attention.

Giving an audience to UNP national Organiser S.B.Dissanayake the Ven.Thera lamented the decline of the Grand Old Party and questioned the quality of its current membership. No doubt what the Ven. Thera was implying was the negative attributes of the current leadership.

What was left unsaid was the inability of the present UNP leadership to relate to the larger populace of the country vis-a-vis the cultural and ethnic front. Its elitist outlook and image as a party linked with international interests to cause instability to the country too no doubt would have influenced the Nayaka Thera’s comments.

It is in way a sad indictment on the party which is credited with ushering in the country’s independence and whose early leaders were identified with the common masses. This drift from the original ethos and ideals of the UNP is the chief reason for the party’s downfall in recent times. The party’s Western oriented policies and its stand on the ethnic issue too have distanced itself from the larger masses.

The Ven. Thera also said that the time has come for all sections to support the Government casting aside all differences. It is no doubt the negative role played by the Chief Opposition particularly with regard to the national question that may have prompted the Ven. Thera to look askance at the UNP.

With the Security Forces forging ahead to liberate the country from terrorism such a statement from the Chief Sangha is only to be expected. The Ven. Thera was only echoing the views of all patriotic Lankans.

From historical times members of the Sangha were in the forefront to protect the country from alien influences and to advise and guide rulers on matters of State. Therefore, the voice of the Sangha even in the present times resonate with the masses and percolates down to the political establishment influencing changes and policy overhauls.

Thus when a Chief prelate expresses his views on a political development it carries much weight and significance. It is in this context that the statement of the Ven. Nayaka Thera should be viewed.

It would no doubt ring alarm bells within the UNP to have a Chief Prelate no less issue strictures on the state of affairs of the country’s chief opposition party. Inherent in the Ven. Thera’s statement was also the danger of a political void that is bound to be created by the gradual decline the country’s main Opposition.

For, a vibrant opposition is a sine quo non in a healthy democracy. Divisions and fissures of the main Opposition as the UNP is now plagued with is not the ideal recipe for a vibrant democracy. The problems that has beset the main Opposition are many even to a casual observer. Chief of this is the failure by its present leadership to identify itself with a majority of the populace.

It has distanced itself from the national polity to such an extent that it faces the risk of oblivion from the country’s political landscape. Today the UNP is akin to a rudderless ship living by the day with no prospects for future success. This is a far cry from the UNP of the past whose leaders pulled the party from the depths of defeat and transformed into a winning entity.

It is vital for democracy that the Government is presented with a strong opposition not only to maintain checks and balances at the centre of power but also as a means of providing an effective voice for alternate views and expression.

As it stands today the stocks of the grand old party have hit rock bottom with a serious erosion of its support base not to mention the defection of its stalwarts to Government ranks.

The recently concluded Provincial Council elections is proof that the party faces a Herculean task if it is come close to even challenging the Government. The UNP should even at this late stage try to reinvent the wheel and hark back to policies which made it a mass political party grounded on national ethos.

It should strive to transform itself to relate to the masses shedding its elitist garb. It owes that much to supporters. Where President Mahinda Rajapaksa has made great headway on the political front is his natural grasp of the mass mood and the core sentiments of the national polity along with his ready rapport with the common masses. Whether his chief opponent can even get to first base on these counts only time will tell.