The whole country is asking for Sajith — Rukman
(The Island ) Rukman Senanayake, the former UNP chairman and Assistant Leader, was dropped from the UNP national list in a move that surprised many. The rumour that flew around Colombo was that Senanayake had been denied appointment to parliament because of a fear that he could become a focal point in a contest for the opposition leader’s post. In this interview, C. A. Chandraprema speaks to Senanyake about what could well turn out to be a career ending event for him.
Q. The Sunday political columns said that Ranil Wickremesinghe had rung you and explained his difficulty in giving you a national list seat. What did he say in justification for keeping you out?
A. The party leader never called me. On the day that the national lists were handed over to the commissioner of elections, at around 10.30 I got a call from party headquarters from a party official, telling me that the leader wanted to see me at around 12.30. By 11.00 am I heard that the UNP national list had been handed over and that my name had been left out. At 12.30 I called the party leader and asked him why he wanted to meet me since they had already taken a decision. Then he started talking about difficulties. I told him that a decision has been taken and that he could keep my other posts as well.
Q. At the last parliamentary election, we saw a kind of resurgence of the Senanayake family. Now there are two Senanayakes on both sides of the divide, Wasantha Senanayake in the UPFA and Ruwan Wijewardene in the UNP, but you are out. Where do things stand with you as of now?
A. As far as I am concerned, I did everything for the UNP. This is a party that was founded and nurtured by members of my family from D.S.Senanayke downwards.
Q. Wasn’t it not a mistake to move out of electoral politics and accept this post of assistant leader, in a situation where party office bearers were asked to resign from their electoral organiserships and become dependent on the national list to get into parliament?
A. I first came into parliament in 1973. At the four parliamentary elections held before the last one, I won from two districts – twice from Polonnaruwa and twice from Kegalle. Then I was made the Chairman of the party and subsequently made assistant leader. When the party wants me to leave district level politics and go into national politics, I don’t expect that to be part of a scheme to cut short my career. At this election, I never asked the party leader to put my name on the national list. It was he who put my name on it. If he asked me to contest, I would have contested. After I handed my electorate over to someone else, I can’t take it back – that’s not proper. However I could have contested from a different district. So right throughout, he had it at the back of his mind to cut me off.
Q. Where does this leave the assistant leader’s post? You find the party treasurer appointed and others who had very little to do with the party, but not the assistant leader of the party.
A. The position has been completely devalued. If you talk of the party hierarchy, it’s the leader, deputy leader assistant leader, general secretary, and then the Treasurer. So of those on the national list, I should have been number one. But the assistant leader has been excluded and some newcomers to the party brought in.
Q. You say the party leader was keen to get you out. What signs did you see of that?
A. When the conflict between the LTTE and the government was at its height, I took up the position that we as a party must support the war effort, because that’s our duty. I took as an example, the way both Dudley Senanayake and J.R.Jayawardene supported the Sirima Bandaranaiake government during the JVP insurgency of 1971. My contention was that if in a democracy certain individuals take up arms to achieve political power, they are not freedom fighters, but terrorists. There can be freedom fighters in a dictatorship, but not in a democracy. The stand I took angered the party leader a lot. He asked me, why are you doing this? And I said “Sir we have to take up a position like that for the sake of the country”.
Q. What was his response to that?
A. You know that he does not confront people. His face was just dead pan when I said that. Then about the Janaka Perera murder, I openly said it was done by the LTTE. But the party was trying to foist the blame on the government. What I said was, don’t whitewash the LTTE because you are playing with fire. He had later made a comment to a person known to me that Rukman had spoken against him. This was one indication that he was displeased with me. Then since 1994, the party has been deteriorating steadily, and I pointed out to him that the Sinhala Buddhist vote has gone against us completely. So I told him, that we must go back to the grassroots level and rebuild this party. At one point I told him, to share power. “You be the opposition leader and let someone else be the party leader, like the arrangement between Dudley Senanayake and J.R.Jayawardene in the early 1970s”. I said all these things in his presence at the proper forum – the working committee.
Q. You were a part of the UNP reformist group in 2006. However when Mr Karu Jayasuriya and those 18 MPs left, you opted to stay back. Now you see that most of those who left, are doing very well. They were in government for four years and most of them have been re-elected. In fact, had all those people remained within the UNP, more of them would have failed to get re-elected this time. Do you regret not having joined them in 2006?
A. I have no regrets because the UNP is in my blood. I have been sidelined because of a person who is not fit to be in politics.
Q. What do you intend doing about what has been done to you?
A. I don’t know how one can reverse what has been done to me. But for the sake of the party, all members must get together and throw this man out. It has to be done, otherwise this party is finished. The whole country today is asking for Sajith Premadasa. If you talk to ten people, nine would want Sajith to take over. Right now what is happening is that we are losing even the base we had. We have been completely wiped out at the parliamentary election and for the party to get its confidence back we need a change of leadership. I am going to do everything possible to make that a reality.
Q. You were referring to the internal situation of the party. What about the external factor? You are faced with the strongest government that we have seen independence. J.R.Jayawardene may have more MPs in parliament but never the same proportion of votes. The if you take the ruling family, they are not prone to messing things up on a grand scale. The mistakes they make are marginal. So you may not see the popularity of the government plummeting in the short term. Even if you change the leadership of the UNP what is the guarantee that you can win the next election?
A. In 1970, Mrs Bandarasnaike won with a two thirds majority. But by 1977 we were able to get a five sixth majority…
Q. But you don’t have the conditions, the economic hardship, the shortages etcetera that led to that situation today.
A. Our debt servicing payments are now bigger than our income, so there can be problems in the future. In any case these problems can be utilized against the government only if there is a powerful opposition. With Ranil Wickremesinghe around, we will not have even a fighting chance. Whatever chance there is to come into power will depend heavily on who is in control of the party.
Q. Some say that you were removed because you did not work for the presidential election. What is the truth in that?
A. At that time, I openly said that our not contesting the presidential election was a mistake. I pointed out that the UNP rank and file suffered under the JVP in the late eighties and to go into a joint progrtamme with the JVP was suicidal. Then we dropped our party symbol to which people were emotionally attached. Despite these misgivings, whenever I was asked to go for a meeting, I went.
Q. You said that you are going to do everything in your ability to see that there is a leadership change, but you have resigned from all your positions in the party. So what is the platform you now have?
A. I am in touch with members of the working committee and the parliamentary group. I also intend going around the country and meeting the party stalwarts in the various districts and explaining matters to them.
(The Island )
April 29th, 2010 | Category:
Interview,
Political
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