Ranil Do You Love The UNP
By Gaya jayasuriya –FEBRUARY 20, 2018
Ranil Wickremesinghe has been in the UNP for a long long time. The UNP has also suffered Ranil for a long long time. But let us hark back to when he made his push to become the Leader of the Grand Old Party and his track record vis a vis the voting block of the country. His base is Colombo centric. His thinking is Colombo and international.
Wickremesinghe
His backing and his choice of core appointments are also Colombo centric and westward ho.
When JR Jayewardene changed the system of voting from first past the post to proportional count of votes the thinking was that the UNP could never be beaten. But the people found a way around it. Since then the UNP has floundered only because the Leader was found wanting besides Premadasa.
You, Ranil was cheated of a victory to become President by Mahinda when he paid Prabakaran to get the tamils to refrain from voting. Them the very same Mahinda was able to fool the people that you were with Prabakaran at subsequent elections and you didn’t have the persona to prove otherwise. You had to bring in Gen. Sarath Fonseka as a compromise candidate to run for Presidency because you did not have the public approval to face Mahinda after the victory over the same Prabakaran. Sarath Fonseka was the foil which you could not be at the time.
That was with your approval. The next time you had to turn to Maithripala Sirisena to run against Mahinda Rajapaksa. Again with your approval. This time Maithripala won. You had the Prime Minister position given on a platter again. Not because of your appeal but for the vote base of the UNP. You misread the UNP vote as a block support for you personally. If that was so you should have run for the top office each time.
You could not manage Maithripala like you could not manage Chandrika. Again Mahinda was able to raise his head over you. Let us not fool ourselves that it was you who ran this government and not Maithripala. Your appointed Ministers had the key Ministries. You were more experienced than Maithripala. Now. after the local elections Maithripala too is not enamoured by you. The common denominator is you where the UNP faltered. You have not been able to muster your base vote. It has dropped down to 30-35% because the die hards do not vote. They do not vote because they think the UNP cannot win under you. Even Maithripala who won with the support of all the parties plus the UNP block vote who were inspired by Harin Fernando in Uva has become disillusioned by you.
