‘Ranil the Enjeeyokaaraya’ comes out of the closet

I take election manifestos very seriously. I treat them with the respect that I would have for pulp fiction. Why? Well, they are good for recycling and they are mostly fictional. I read them though. For light entertainment. I was thrilled therefore when Ranil Wickremesinghe distributed a manifesto of sorts a couple of days ago.

If you really want to know what people want to do if they come to power the last thing you should do is to listen to them or read their manifestos. The better indicators would be the company they keep, the things they’ve done and who funds them. I believe this is why in certain countries candidates are required to detail campaign contributions and why there is a lot of concern about lobbying and lobbyists.

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s anagatha abiyogaya (the challenge of the future) is an interesting read no doubt. It is easy to analyze, easy to promise. Delivery and will on the other hand don’t necessarily follow from these splendid words. I prefer, let me reiterate, to focus on track records, friends and funders.

If anything surprized me in this manifesto it is the fact that Ranil has named the organization that funded the printing of this manifesto, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit, a German-based INGO. Now I am not surprized that Ranil was offered funds by an INGO, but it does show what a political neophyte he is to actually acknowledge the fact given that INGOs are viewed with extreme suspicion by the public and that Friedrich Naumann Stiftung in particular has a sorry reputation for dabbling in local politics.

Why did Ranil Wickremesinghe have to run to Friedrich Naumann Stiftung to get money, though? I checked how much it would cost to print this manifesto and found the price to be in the region of Rs. 8 per copy. Assuming that he printed say 200,000, it would come to Rs. 1.6 million. That’s peanuts for the UNP. It is peanuts for Ranil Wickremesinghe.

It would be peanuts for the rich ladies and gentlemen who are members of that party or who generously fund it again and again. If these sources have abandoned him and if he himself has been so impoverished that he finds this a forbidding amount of money, then the UNP must really be in dire straits.

I am an unemployed graduate but even I could, if pushed, get 160 friends to cough up Rs. 10,000 each to make up this amount and if Ranil Wickremesinghe, given his wealth, connections and designation as leader of the ‘biggest single political party in Sri Lanka’ (well, that’s what he says, but let’s go with it) cannot, that is a severe indictment on the man’s abilities, I would think.

I checked out this outfit. Friedrich Naumann Stiftung is supposed to be a non-profit organization that promotes liberal democracy, economic freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

So sweet! They’ve been around Sri Lanka for quite a while, organizing/funding workshops, seminars and publications, supposedly along the lines of their mandate, but it doesn’t take much to figure out that they’ve consistently pushed for a certain kind of institutional arrangement that is not necessarily in the public interest.

Their partner organizations, the people they regularly hurrah and the kind of political discourse they promote indicates that Friedrich Naumann Stiftung is not happy just muttering about democracy, they want their pals in power. Why else would an INGO go to the lengths of funding a policy statement of the Leader of the Opposition? I do not know what kind of MoU Friedrich Naumann Stiftung has signed with the relevant agency of the Government, but I can’t think that there’s anything in the small print to permit some self-appointed saviours to fiddle around in local politics.

I find it interesting that Friedrich Naumann Stiftung talks about liberal democracy, economic freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. The outfit is based in Germany and therefore headquartered in the European Union. An interesting political entity, that. A few days ago, I watched a documentary titled ‘The end of the line’ that spoke about the alarming depletion of aquatic resources.

An African made the following observation about the European Union: ‘our fish don’t require visas, but they turn us away, they don’t like us.’ The EU is notorious for its racist immigration policies, especially the Maastricht Treaty, where it was specifically mentioned that immigrants from the Global South would be spurned. I wonder if Friedrich Naumann Stiftung has had anything to say about the problems at ‘home’ with respect to common decency, let along ‘ensuring freedom and worldwide in every sphere of society’ as per its mandate. Apparently ‘human dignity’ is a selective business.

Friedrich Naumann Stiftung ‘seeks to promote open markets throughout the world’. I am betting that the outfit has kept mum on the recent global tend towards adopting protectionist policies. Friedrich Naumann Stiftung wants us to recognize that ‘globalization is a major opportunity’ and to embrace it with open arms.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, then, is the organization’s preferred candidate to open Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans to naked plunder and exploitation for there is no other way to describe the ‘globalization’ that is constantly being thrust down our throats.

Now that he has come out of the closet, all his pals will come under a cloud called ‘The Agenda of INGOs’. In other words, the Mangala Samaraweera, Mano Ganeshan, Rauff Hakeem and others will have to wear the unsavoury badge, ‘I am an NGO kaaraya’. So too the JVP, interestingly, and nothing would be funnier than Comrades Tilvin and Somawansa playing puppy-dog to Friedrich Naumann Stiftung!

Anyway, folks, it’s all out now. It is about what you want. It is about who you want to rule this country. If you want Friedrich Naumann Stiftung to be the king/queen-maker, it’s your funeral. Remember Don Juan Dharmapala? I am wondering how many times the man is going to be re-born in this thrice blessed land. I am betting, however, that we are not short of Konappu Bandaras.

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