The Decline Of The UNP
an endangered species
This Presidential election will be the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the UNP does not field a candidate. There are Achchi’s who bleed green and just look for the elephant symbol, but now they’ll have to check the swan (which Sarath is running under). Most of the UNP brains left years ago (Milinda, GL Peiris) and the brawn just checked out (SB). The party has a leader, but one incapable of actually contesting. I am OK with Sarath running, but I’m really sad for the UNP
The UNP was the party at independence. When SWRD Bandaranaike didn’t get his due only then did he split off and found the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. However, the UNP’s charter thing is all about freedom from poverty, hunger, etc, so it reads almost like an SLFP manifesto. The SLFP has minimal ideological content, once being dynastic and now, well, bombastic. The UNP at least had content in terms of a a pro-business, open economy kinda outlook.
I like the UNP, but they don’t really exist anymore. I assume they’ll come back, but they are just falling further and further. I spoke to a few UNP guys and they seem to think that they’re somehow controlling the Sarath campaign, and presumably then the President. Ranil is out there saying that once the Presidency is abolished he’ll be PM. I find this both naive and weak. On one count, there are no consolation prizes in politics. On another, I think if I vote for Sarath I’d like to get Sarath and not some electoral skull-duggery.
Sadly, this has happened before. The UNP messed up some paperwork during the Colombo mayoral elections and couldn’t get on their ballot. Instead they struck a deal with the party running under the Spectacles symbol. UNP voters would vote for the Spec, and their candidate (a trishaw driver) would step down. So they did, the UNP won and, whaddya know, the Spectacles didn’t give up power. And we still have that trishaw driver as a mayor. Not that there’s anything wrong with a trishaw driver mayor, but they should win on their own merits, and not the UNPs stupidity.
I don’t think this convoluted deal is going to save the current UNP, and I don’t think it should. If the UNP wants to return as a party it needs to do what political parties do and restart and rebuild itself, with new people. All the backroom deals won’t get the party anything but screwed and its supporters anything but demoralized. I like the UNP and I like Ranil but it should never have come to this. The UNP should have restarted and rebuilt four years ago. Now they’re at a point where they can’t even field a candidate. The country’s oldest party is not running in the 2010 elections. Instead they’re telling their supporters to vote for someone else. That’s really kind of sad.
So who do you see as the next face of the UNP? It’s about time all those idiots at the top including Ranil himself were sent home. A proper re-org needs to be carried out, under a young leader. They may not win the next 2 elections, but then that’s nothing new, and also give them a solid foundation.
I just love how the UNP just expelled Azath Sally at the drop of a hat…..nd they talk about democracy?
And kinda amusing that a bunch of journalists were bashed up at the UNP get together…and they talk about media freedom?
Seriously the UNP is like that emperor without any clothes.
I guess they have a “marketing” issue..
Cannot believe what Fonseka has just done. Any respect I have for him has been taken away. He is doing Sri Lanka a huge disfavour with his comments – whether truthful or not. The world does not end on election day general! Your words have consequqnces for the country. And from what a lot of people I know have been saying the general has lost several fans.
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
SF is talking, Gota is balking?
Stay tuned, you racists/chauvinists, some of the truth has come out about this racist war. Just what the NGOs said.
So much for sinhala patriots! (Keep your U.S. citizenship and greedcards ready to RUN!)
I share you sentiments. I like the UNP, but have been greatly disappointed by its performance in recent years, and for that reason think it needs another defeat, because short of that it will not start that process of rebuilding and re-visioning. Ranil is in fact a key part of the problem. The other large part is the lack of internal democracy in the party and the failure, as a party with pretensions to being a modern, mass party, to build on the opening up of the leadership circle after the passing of the Senanayakes and the rise of outsiders like Premadasa, and this failure Ranil has to share much of the blame for also. The issue is not whether he is a decent person – I don’t know him personally, so can’t say, and he may be actually decent, and reasonably honest (once we allow for the nonsense that all politicians have to spout). But that’s not the problem.
Part of his problem, I think is that he seems to have a rather patronising and elitist attitude that he only has to wait long enough for the voters to eventually get fed up with the government and vote for him, since turning against the incumbent at every election was the one consistent habit of the Sri Lankan voter from 1956 to 1982. And because he assumes this eventually will happen if he waits long enough that he and the UNP don’t have to do too much to sell themselves to the voters or make any real promises. I guess he thinks that this way he will have total freedom to what he wants when in power, including things which he may believe might be unpopular but still good for the country. Evidence for this can be seen in the attitude in the early part of the decade that he didn’t have to put forward a serious manifesto – he publicly dismissed them as being meaningless – and the unwillingness to engage in “populist” measures (Can’t avoid noting here that Sarath seems to have picked up the idea of no offering a manifesto). Now the elite in Colombo might think this deserving of praise and an indicator of his virtue, but in fact in a democracy this is not a virtue. Parties which fail to offer enough to attract the average voter are in fact failing to do their job. Even Margaret Thatcher – the iron lady – was more than careful to engage in sufficient populism to win on polling day – for example selling public housing to skilled worker families at below the market price played a critical role.
Premadasa demonstrated it was possible for the UNP to be true to its roots and at the same time offer real benefits to the average Sri Lankan. Successful right of centre parties in functioning democracies, as the UNP aspires to be, have to work out how to follow market policies whilst keeping most people happy. All this appears to be beneath Ranil. Until this changes, the UNP will either have great trouble winning again, or will find it very hard to stay in power after winning – as was its experience the last time Ranil won.
[...] publicity to an anti-Fonseka rant of mine, and that’s quite gracious and nice of him. And he also wrote about the sad state of the UNP: I don’t think this convoluted deal is going to save the current UNP, and I don’t think it [...]