Elepha Maxima

It appears that the on-again off-again struggle to lead the United National Party is once again heating up to its inevitable, lukewarm anti-climax. But this time, might there be a difference in the outcome of the battle to be declared the Elephas Maximus, the great elephant?

Not that anybody seems to care anymore. The leadership of the Grand Old Party seems almost irrelevant, as the jumbo vote gets smaller and smaller and the party itself loses significance in the greater scheme of things.

It is indicative of the abyss in to which the UNP has fallen that its leader went to London to sort out differences between two factions within its UK branch.

Ranil’s visit to the British section is of significance because it shows (a) the extent to which divisions are rending the party apart and (b) his priorities: would the leader not have considered it infra dig to have gone to resolve conflict in the UNP branch in, say, Angunukolapelessa?

The recent Local Government elections seem to have been the last straw which broke the pachyderm’s back. The public observed the spectacle of the leaders of UNP lists simply giving up the fight to win control of Local Councils and turning their resources to simply getting elected.

Leadership alternatives

However, the debacle seems to have galvanised the Opposition within the GOP to the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe, so much so that they took advantage of the absence abroad of the Grand Wizard to creep out of their mouse holes and talk about leadership alternatives.

The rogue elephants were in must and were ready to challenge the alpha male no sooner than he left the jungle. And even in the chief tusker’s absence, the young bulls remain circumspect.

Their modus operandi would not have been out of place in the novels of James Clavell - each Daimyo scheming to be Kampaku or even Shogun, but without ruffling the current Kampaku’s feathers.

Thus it came about that the perennial UNP leader of tomorrow, Sajith Premadasa, called upon the venerable Karu Jayasuriya - yesterday’s leader of tomorrow - to seize control and unify the party.

Now, people might have serious reservations about Karu’s suitability for the party leadership. This is not so much because he led the crossover group in the aftermath of the UNP’s defeat in 2005, and then decided to cross back again.

Lack of policies

It is more to do with his inability to judge a situation on its merits. For example, after Ranil’s defeat in 2005, he offered to step down. At that point, Karu protested his loyalty, only to mount a challenge to the leadership once Ranil withdrew his offer because of the lack of takers.

And of course it is not far from everybody’s minds that, at the last General Election, Karu came second in his district in UNP preferences, behind the novice starlet-politician Upeksha Swarnamali, popularly known as ‘Pabha’ from her role in the soap opera.

There is no reason to doubt Sajith’s sincerity. However, given Karu’s Kamikaze record, Sajith would be less than human if he did not expect the other to self-detonate and destroy all the obstacles in the path of the younger Premadasa’s rise to the leadership. Of course, Sajith is simply not leadership material. He is borne by the support base engendered by his father, but neither Premadasa Senior’s charisma nor his diligence appears to have rubbed off on Junior.

Another young bull, Ranjith Maddumabandara, was more vociferous in demanding that Karu be given the mantle. But then, he has nothing to lose, having been sidelined relentlessly by the leadership.

Far more serious, from Ranil’s point of view, is the outburst by Rosy Senanayake, who last week laid it on with a trowel to the press. She said that the reasons for the UNP’s cataclysmic defeat at the recent elections were lack of policies or strategies for victory and lethargy.

Media exposure

Ranil’s leadership, she claimed, was ineffective. The UNP was losing the support of the minorities because of its lack of engagement. It was losing the support of its own bloc vote.

The neophyte MP (who nevertheless calls herself a ‘stalwart’) is the symbol of the corporate sector which is the UNP’s very foundation. She also represents the TV reality show aspect of today’s politics.

Consider her background. As a young employee of the Tea Propaganda Board, Rosy was Miss Sri Lanka, winning the Miss Asia Pacific title but not gaining a place at the Miss World competition. She later became the first Mrs World.

She went on to become a household name by being the advertising face of Anchor milk food products - the archetypal fantasy mother of every TV viewer. It was this media exposure, rather than her knowledge of politics, which gained her a place in Parliament.

But then, this is the reality of today’s media-centred world. It should not be forgotten that Ronald Reagan became President of the USA mainly because of his familiar, rugged look and his thespian ability to give emotional voice to a lack-lustre programme.

Rosy made one particularly interesting statement. While complaining that she was no longer on her party’s working committee and that capable people were being denied key places, she said that the majority of the voters were women and UNP should have used the strength of the women.

Historically the UNP has been very much a men’s club, with no place for women leaders, but that could change. After all, that bastion of masculinity, Britain’s Tory party chose Maggie Thatcher as leader.

In the wild, the actual leadership is given to a herd by its matriarch. Could politics copy nature and a cow elephant become the UNP’s Elepha Maxima, the Great She-Elephant? Certainly Ranil and the rest of the UNP leadership hopefuls should ponder on this.