UNP: The War Within A War
By Dharisha Bastians -November 7, 2013
Dharisha Bastians
“Politicians are like children; you can’t just give them what they want – it only encourages them” – Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn (Yes Minister)
Standing at the podium of the Business Today Top 25 Awards to recognise the country’s top companies on Tuesday night, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe cut a confident, even charmingly self-deprecating, figure.
None of these are adjectives that are often used to describe the new ‘National Leader’ of the United National Party. In his post-2005 avatar, Wickremesinghe is rarely confident or confidence inspiring. He has not been charming in years. And even his staunchest allies will admit that Wickremesinghe often possesses an off-putting arrogance about his own skill and intellect.
But under the glittering lights of the Hilton Colombo Ballroom on Tuesday, hours after he had abdicated as Party Leader and delegated many of his powers over to a Leadership Council that will run UNP affairs from this point, Wickremesinghe owned the audience of business tycoons in a short speech that was prefaced with witty remarks and ended by laughing at himself.
Addressing his hosts Mathi and Glenda Parthipan, Wickremesinghe said they were to be congratulated for putting on a good show as usual. “If politics consisted of bread and circuses, they would do jolly well at putting on the circuses,” he quipped light-heartedly. He addressed his remarks next to Leader of the HouseNimal Siripala De Silva whose speech had immediately preceded his own and consisted of a scathing critique of the abdication of moral responsibility by the business community and a system that favoured the super-rich while squeezing out the small businessmen.
“I thought I am invited here as the only discordant voice. But I must say the Leader of the House also joined me but I don’t think he went as far as I am planning to go,” Wickremesinghe jested. “But, then we are politicians. All of you, the 25, are fighting for different market shares, but both of us are fighting for the same market share and we are getting ready for the next round,” he said, causing ripples of laughter in the audience.
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I first met T. Suntheralingam when I was an eighteen year old first-year student at Peradeniya. It was a brief meeting at a University function but somehow I remember it. I next heard of him in 1972 when, as Magistrate Tangalle, he ordered the exhumation of five bodies in the compound of the Walasmulla police station.
T. Suntheralingam, A Judge Like Many Others
I first met T. Suntheralingam when I was an eighteen year old first-year student at Peradeniya. It was a brief meeting at a University function but somehow I remember it. I next heard of him in 1972 when, as Magistrate Tangalle, he ordered the exhumation of five bodies in the compound of the Walasmulla police station.
T. Suntheralingam
“All five skeletons from Walasmulla buried and unearthed from under the billing tree in the Walasmulla police station contain fractures indicating possible gunshot injuries before death” reported the Judicial Medical Officer, Dr. Chandra Amarasekera of Colombo in his report to the Tangalla Magistrate, Mr. T. Sunderalingam who called for a report on the five skeletons exhumed.” (Ceylon Daily News, June 21, 1972)
In the inquiry that followed, an inmate of Wirawila rehabilitation camp, K. M. Leelasena, of Maddawatte, Matara, told court that on 13 April 1971 he was shot at by certain police officers at the police station. He fell down and pretended to be dead; he saw others being shot and falling down dead. Later he managed to crawl into the jungle (Ceylon Daily News, 2 December 1972).
Suntheralingam proceeded to work his way up through the judiciary in the normal way, serving in various parts of the country. As Magistrate rarely did he accede to requests for remand without searching questions on the contents of a ‘B’ report. There were occasions when he would get a suspect to walk a little to see if he limped due to possible assaults on the heels, and would refer to the DMO for a medical report if he saw any signs of torture. In due course he was promoted District Judge, and then High Court Judge, at which point he retired. We used to exchange a smile occasionally in the premises of the High Court of Colombo at the former Queen’s Club in Bauddhaloka Mawatha.
