In House Of Cards, Frank Underwood schemes his way into unelected power but finds it hard to actually govern. Then he runs headlong into an election he may lose. Ranil Wickremesinghe is in a similar position.
The Caretaker Governor
Ranil has been appointed Prime Minister but he hasn’t won an election for 14 years. He was actually something of a joke until Mahinda imploded.
President Sirisena gave Ranil power, but he doesn’t have any mandate of his own. What he heads is basically a caretaker government between elections.
That’s why something like the Central Bank bond scandal hits him so hard. It’s like a valet driver crashing the car. You had one job dude, one job.
In His Defense
Ranil defense is that Mahinda was worse and other people are worse but, honestly, that’s not the point. Ranil was appointed by the President to clean up the political system. If something dodgy happens he just has to take the lumps like everybody else. Hence I think this part of his speech in Parliament falls flat:
The media says that the Private Sector has lost confidence in the Government. The people have lost faith in the private sector, so have I. It is about time for the Private Sector to decide whether they can work in a modern transparent system or depart. I would be calling you up soon. (via Colombo Telegraph)
What on earth does Ranil know about the will of the people? He hasn’t won an election since 2001 and he has no direct mandate. It doesn’t mean he’s wrong, but he’s simply not in a position to write off the media and private sector as if they aren’t composed of, you know, people.
The Central Bank bond issue does look like insider trading and it should be investigated like everything else. To their credit, a panel is investigating and the Central Bank Governor has taken leave. Sirisena is wisely staying above the fray on this but Ranil isn’t. In the end I think this just makes him look silly. Ranil can’t really say the private sector and private media are wrong because A) he doesn’t know and B) that’s not his job.
His job is to fix the Constitution, the elections system and basically clean house before Avurudu. I think Ranil is intelligent, experienced and very well suited for that vitally important work. In that regard I think President Sirisena has chosen his Prime Minister well.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, however, has not been elected as a national leader and he doesn’t even head the majority party. Until he wins an election of his own, I think he could dial back the attitude.
indi,
” Ranil was appointed by the President to clean up the political system.”
” I think Ranil is intelligent, experienced and very well suited for that vitally important work.”
I think you are forgetting the fact that Ranil himself is not a beacon of virtue. Ranil did what ever he can to stay as the UNP leader . What ever abuses of power you accuse MR of doing when he was president, Ranil did same (or more actually) to his party to stay as its leader.
Do you honestly think that Ranil did all that just to clean up the system???
To tell you the truth, I think Ranil has start to believe his own propaganda (believes that he IS actually the guy in the picture) considering his comments about the Australian PM and US senators.
And these incidents also discredits MS. MS is the one who choose Ranil. Like Truman said, buck don’t stop on Ranils desk. At least not yet.
Hey, where did you get this cover photo? Nice one.
Indi, the mandata that Maithri got was also a Mandate Ranil got to be PM. Remember, from Day 1 the campaing was for Maithri as Prez and Ranil as PM, it was not a secret. So , yes Ranil does have a mandate from the people to be PM. If people were uncomfortable with the idea of Ranil as PM, then they would not have voted and it would still be MR in power.
I think we need to stop the Ranil bashing and see if our own opinions of him have been skewered as a result of the 10 years of incessant propoganda by MR’s machines calling him a eunuch, amongst other worse things. When MR lost, he sought Ranil for protection for himself and his brothers, that tells volumes about Ranils honesty and integrity. Would you or I have had the patience or courage to withstand 10 years of people publicly abusing us as eunuchs, poofs etc and continue our career? Ranil is actually the best bet we have for a modern leader with balls and integrity who would lead the country to the future a country with immense resources like us deserves.
Don, Ranil’s name was not on the ballot . period. The question asked in a election for presidency is only one. That is “Who would you rather prefer as president ? A or B”. If you are trying to drum up a fake mandate for Ranil and UNP from Matithree’s win you are no better than Wimal who is arguing that there’s a mandate for MR too. And worse, you are forgetting there’s a reason that UNP had to support MS. Because Ranil cannot win.
I agree with Indi 100%. Not only Ranil, the whole UNP is acting like that they have won a general election. The arrogance is overflowing. This whole CB issue is a clear manifestation of this. It’s 2001-2004 all over again, where the inability to read the political landscape lead to their inevitable down fall. Looking at what’s going on I’m not even sure whether it is a bad thing.
Ranil hasn’t won an election because Mahinda was pulling the strings. Most of the country was brainwashed nightly through Rupavahini. Most of the newspapers were publishing preposterous lies about western ‘conspiracies’
One of the biggest political myths in this country are ranil wickramasinghe is an intelligent man. But in reality he is the biggest idiot
Well Ranil went on record that He can beat Mahinda anyday and that he only lost once to him (correct stats) and that he got 6.2 million votes while Mahinda only got 5.7 million.
@Nuwan
The lies in government media were nothing compared to propaganda, lies, half truths been shared on social network. From now on our elections will be purely based on those (until our population realize that any one can create a facebook post and that it doesn’t have to be true).
you don’t have to tell me about lies and propaganda. I saw what was written in the Lake House newspapers and blasted out of Rupavahini during the MR regime.