Ranil Wickremasinghe,The Gentleman Politician
A Birthday Tribute
By Dr.Levins T.C.Rajaratnem
Ranil Wickremasinghe
PATRIOT
It is a fallacy to think that only a selected few can be Patriots. We have had great many patriots from the UNP. The first in independent Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) was Rt.Hon.D.S.Senanayake. Then, Dudley Senanayake and the others who defected and formed the SLFP. The then UNP did not accuse the defectors as Traitors and unpatriotic elements. A careful study into the political career of Ranil Wickremasinghe (RW) would reveal the rare combination of experience, expertise and knowledge of the Leader of the opposition.
RW is a Patriot by his own right. We must learn to respect and honour those whom we see as having made valuable contribution to the country and society. He is well respected within the country and in other countries.
FAMILY & PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe was born on March 24, 1949. He was Prime Minister of Sri Lanka twice, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004. A member of the United National Party, he was appointed as party leader in November 1994. He is also the leader of the United National Front.
RW, the second son of Esmond and Nalini Wickremasinghe and was educated at Royal College , the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo and the Sri Lanka Law College . He took oaths as an Advocate in 1972. He is married to Dr.Maithree Wickremasinghe, a scholar and Author.
POLITICAL CAREER
RW was elected to Parliament in 1977. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of J. R. Jayawardene, and was later appointed as the Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment. He was later given the portfolio of Minister of Education.
He was appointed as the Minister of Industry, by President R.Premadasa and he initiated industrial reforms and established the Biyagama Special Economic Zone. He was appointed the Leader of the House of Parliament in 1989. On May 7, 1993 RW was sworn in as Prime Minister after the assassination of President R.Premadasa when Prime Minister D. B. Wijetunge was appointed President.
In the Parliamentary general election 2001 UNF, led by RW won 109 seats and PA was able to obtain 77 seats. Consequently he was able to form a new UNF government and was sworn as the 17th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on 9th December 2001. However the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga still remained as the President of the country. This led to a check mate position where the President and the Prime Minister were from two opposite parties. Although, according to the Constitution, both head of state and head of government was the President, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe(RW) was able to appoint his own cabinet and he had the control over the government. The then President Chandrika Kumaratunga also chaired cabinet meetings as de facto head, but her influence over decision making was strictly limited.
CBK’S CALLOUS DISREGARD FOR DEMOCRACY
President Chandrika Kumaratunga sacked three ministers of the cabinet and took over the ministries using her constitutional powers ending the uneasy coalition between her and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe while he was out of the country. Addressing the nation she claimed that this decision was taken in the interest of national security. Ranil moved out of Temple Trees like a gentleman.
In the Parliamentary elections held in 2004, RW’s UNF lost governmental office. Despite the expectation of a full six year term, and planned projects cut short by the defeat, the UNP was optimistic that it could regain power in a future election. Within 14 months of UPFA’s victory, the radical JVP wing's (composed of over 30 members) parting of ways with the government, left the UPFA's parliamentary composition well short of the required majority.
In December 2004, RW was nominated by the United National Party as its Presidential candidate for Presidential Elections due in late 2005. The Supreme Court decided in August 2005 that the elections should be held that year despite the then President's argument that her term would end in 2006. The, then Prime Minister, was nominated as the Presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
In the Presidential election held on November 17, 2005, RW was defeated narrowly by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who gained 50.29% of the vote to RW 48.43%. A large number of the minority Tamil population in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, who were largely expected to back RW were prevented from voting by the extremist Terrorists, which had enforced a boycott of the polls.
DEMOCRATIC IDEALS
Ranil Wickremasinghe has been observed as a cool and patient person with dignified manners worthy of his upbringing and not avaricious and as a politician who observes the decency, decorum and norms of democracy. Unfortunately for RW numerous members who were elected through the UNP defected from the Party for reasons best known to them. These are the traits of politics and the loyalty syndrome lacks its credibility.
ELOQUENCE & STRENGTH
RW is an eloquent speaker- Concise and precise. There is no beating around the bush. He goes straight to the point. No pretences. Absolutely honest and dignified in success and in defeat. His own party men have betrayed him but he remains calm and cool. Never perturbed by defeat but gathering momentum and strength each time he experiences new ideals by defeat. As Swami Vivekananda has said “What are failures and stumbles…they are the poetry of life”. RW has become an astute, mature and dignified Politician who never gnashes his teeth to his opponent.
My memory of Ranil Wickremasinghe dates back to Jeyaraj’s words which depicted that he found him to be a splendid conversationalist, a man who had read nearly everything and who remembered everything he read.
He is a politician who did not clamor for attention and rarely struggled to get his name attached to publicity.
He speaks with confidence and with clarity in his own style. He is a great and fascinating orator. He was immensely tolerant of other people and looked after his friends, whether they had something to celebrate or much to fear.
Let me quote Rudyard Kipling’s poem on IF which illustrates the characteristics of RW
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
The writer can be contacted on levinstcrajaratnam@gmail.com
18 Comments
We know he is a gentleman.
But Sinhalese don't want somebody like him. They want a racist minded man.
Sinhalese dont mind eating battala.
You ought to be kidding my friend..
This is the guy who ridiculed the valiant soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice,
Dobbed in the brave intelligence officers to the LTTE death squads to be slaughtered in their sleep.
Dishes out "porkies' to innocent civilians specially the rural Sinhalese at every election. Eg the latest "Half price Samba Rice"
The mother of all tricks is the way he lead naive Fonseka up the garden path and hung him out to dry after resurrecting his otherwise doomed leadership.
The list goes on and on and I haven't even touched on the underhand deals he made with VP and Sampathan even as late as in January.
You call this guy a gentlemen? Pigs ass.
RANIL IS NO PATRIOT. His actions during the War were OUTRIGHT TREASONOUS.
PATRIOTS don't travel to other Western Countries to BEG them to UNDERMINE and CRIPPLE the Presiding Government in order to Gain power for himself. Have you people not frogotten how he Travelled to UK and other European countries to get them to Cut off aid and put pressure on Sri Lanka to stop the War???
Is that the Action of a PATRIOT? Is that even the Actions of a GENTLEMAN?
At the very least he should have kept his mouth shut and not taken our country's INTERNAL POLITICS to the Outside world.
There is a good reason why he is a MISERABLE FAILURE in Politics today... His own selfish Ambition and the SIMPLE FACT that he has absolutely No Grasp on the Will of the Sri Lankan people. He is a CONSISTENTLY-BOWING COLONIAL LACKEY who thinks that going begging like a WORTHLESS DOG to the WHITE MAN will solve Sri Lanka's problems.
Time for him to RETIRE and STEP DOWN, and hand over the reigns of the UNP to a more competent Leader. One who can restore the DIGNITY and PRIDE of this once great Political Party.
Despite his knowledge and experience Ranil Wikremasinghe always played second or third fiddle throughout his career and continues to do so. What may be the reason for that? I think he lacks the motivation and will to make a difference on behalf of the country and its people. Coming from a well to do background he doesnt really care about the people only about himself.
The gentlemanly qualities of Ranil Wickremasinghe are not in doubt. Unfortunately for Ranil politics is not a gentleman’s game. You just have to read Machiavelli to comprehend that gentlemanly conduct and politics are diametrically opposed to each other.
In the United Kingdom a recent survey revealed that the public distrusted journalists and politicians so much so that they were the least trusted of the professions listed for honesty and good conduct. Unfortunately this untrustworthiness is exemplified by the likes of Tony Blair and George W Bush. These two politicians lied blatantly to the world about Saddam possessing ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ to conduct a war for political and economic gain that left over a million Iraqi citizens dead and approximately another half a million who exited Iraq as refugees.
In a similar vein the CFA agreement with the LTTE that resulted in murder of many Sri Lankan forces and citizens will continually haunt the political career of Ranil. Unfortunately for Ranil his geniality and trustworthiness though very genuine was taken advantage of by the ruthless terrorist Velupillai Prabaharan . To the Sri Lankan public this very act of trusting the word of a terrorist echoes the complaint that he should have known better.
Politics is the art of making the citizenry of a country advantaged in matters of economics, opportunity, life, liberty and happiness. How this is achieved whether honestly or through various manipulative methods is irrelevant. Examples of the USA supporting right wing death squads and dictators in South America during the seventies and eighties come to mind. The reality is that being a gentleman and a successful politician is an illusion. Ranil Wickremasinghe is a living example of such an illusion.
A fortnight ago (to be precise up until you contested the PC elections for the Western province - Where you came last in the UPFA List in Colombo district) you were praising Mahinda to the neck and criticizing Ranil like a pariah.
Hi, Ranil
Wish you many happy returns!
You are indeed and admirable character and I love you for what you are. You do not use harsh political words or retorts and I hope you would keep it that way for the future too, because things are just about to turn your way.
As an ardent UNPier I have to point out a few flaws in your approach to things in the political field. When you became the Prime Minister last I expected more proactive approach in appointing Ministers. At that time I was an employee of the Ministry of Health and I hped you would appoint a man like Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena as the Minister of Health. But you went ahead and appointed a nincompoop like Dayaratne who knew nothing about Health Services and he duly handed over the administration to his brother-in-law and began to enjoy the spoils of the position leaving the Ministry high and dry. Ultimately he let you down for a buck! Is this foresight or you had some other reason to do this?
Even a child would have realized that SBD is an out and out traitor and you chose to hold on to him until he kicked you in the butt. You even gave him the position of National Organizer. Nobody needed clairvoyance to predict his character. Was there something more to it that what we see?
You held on to Milinda and that guy from Maharajah Organization as the Secretary General in Siri Kotha with whom I had a confrontation about a relative of mine who contested Paddiruppu seat on UNP ticket and lost his life. The manner he acted was akin to being the sole owner of the leader. Disgusting!
I only hope that you would keep your personal life, personal and political life political. That is the only way you could come out of this mire.
I have devoted all my life working for UNP and continue to do so hoping that you would see political realities in correct perspectives. I do not thing any of your organizers have done so much for UNP than I have done behind the scene, and yet I am not trying to show myself as a political activist to gain favors. You should have more of them and work towards it!
ONCE AGAIN HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS!!
If Panditaratne's report on why the 2001 UNP regime was brought down was not hidden from the Party and UNPers in the country, the UNP would have been stronger. Ranil owes the country a duty to make this report widely known. Weragoda's advise to Ranil to hide this has done more harm than good. It matters little every page has a strong indictment against Ranil.
The Writer was a dyed-in-wool SLFPer who used to sing the hossanas of Jeyaraj F on his birthday. Has the defection bug infected him on the reverse?
ISS
ISS
Today the UNP is saved because of Ranil. He is an educated and honest gentelman. His motive is to develope
this country and to see no more poverty is exist, he lost
good chances as he trusted people too much. The govt. is
taking advantage of his innocency in every respect.If the
voters of this country gives an opportunity to him to
govern atleast for five years he will show his talent.Now
he has cleaned the party by sacking unwanted people and
who behind MR as opportunists. God save Ranil and I wish
him goodluck for his birthday.
Hi, Devinda
Nice to see you back in the forum, for only the likes of you can bring out the "profile" of our blessed nation. Keep it up friend. Only the likes of you can bring ultimate redemption of this country.
You said Ranil is not a patriot. In the same breath you are trying to imply that MR is A patriot!
Well, you may be riding it high now talking Robert Mugabe (RM) alias MR u no hoo.
*** In the same breath you are trying to imply that MR is A patriot! ***
LOL! No Kinglsey, that is you once again trying to Put words in my mouth...
Dear Kingsley,
The number #1 fan of "Batalanda Gentleman" Ranil is actually Mahinda. As long as Ranil is UNP leader, the SLFP will never loose an election.
in 2002- "Mallita Bracelette ekak" (A braceltte for the young man)
In 2010- "Mallita Mobile ekak" (A mobile for the young man)
That is our alternative "Gentlemen, patriotic" leaders vision for the country.
Long live the loser.
Do not forget Batalanda,
Betraying the part of the country to LTTE through the CFA,
I read quite a lot of political appintments of henchmen and getting rid of opponents in the Island news paper.
Destroying the backbone of the UNP.
Ranil is a nice guy but why does he talk as if he has a sponge cake or something stuck in his throat? His words go "slush slush" and you cannot understand what he says - actually so much the better. The only thing he said that anyone could have understood was when he spoke three words in Tamil - "Poda poda poda"!! But he's still a nice guy and I hope he continues to hold the prestigious position of "Leader of the Opposition" till eternity!
REF. ISS'S VERY SHARP COMMENT OF 24 MARCH ABOVE, I KNEW THE VERY HONEST SEC. OF THE UNP - MR PUBLIS PANDITARATNE(PP) PERSONALLY FROM F.R. & T. ACCOUNTANTS' DAYS WHEN THEY HAD THE GREATEST ACCOUNTANTS OF ALL RACES, AND HIS GRACIOUS WIFE- A CULTURED PRODUCT OF GALLE CONVENT . I THINK OUT OF THAT GROUP IN THE FIRM ONLY ECBW'S SON IS THE ONLY ONE REMAINING; I COULD BE WRONG.
WHEN I WAS RESEARCHING AT EVELYN RUTNAM INSTITUTE ONE DAY , ONE OF ITS ORGANIZERS MENTIONED THE SAME THINGS THAT ISS MENTIONED, AFTER MEETING PP AT A VERY OLD LAW FIRM IN CBO FORT IN THE CO OF MRS B'S FAMILY LAWYER "WHO WAS A VERY "POLISHED", ETHICAL AND WELL-CONNECTED TAMIL GENTLEMAN."
PP HAD PERSONALLY AND OPENLY DENOUNCED THE BATALANDA ACTIVITIES AND GONAWALA SUNIL, AND IP UDUGAMPOLA'S AFFAIRS THAT RECEIVED BLESSINGS OF H.E. JRJ AS WELL AS HON.RANIL W. HIS OPINION HAD BEEN THE SAME RE "RESIGNATION LETTER SCANDAL" OF HON JRJ.MY FRIEND WAS A VETERAN POLITICIAN OF THE OLD ERA WHO KNEW ALL SHADES OF POLITICS IN S.L. AS ISS VERY CORRECTLY MENTIONED, UNP COULD HAVE DONE BETTER IF CERTAIN HAPPENINGS WERE AVOIDED DURING THOSE 17 YEARS.
Dear Daya:
Are you living upto your name in assuming the 3 P's you use as 3 letters. They are just one - dear Mods. Ranil may need more than sponge cake soon. But I am with you - the gasser is quite a basher, in different ways. One day Sri Lanka
may create history with an all-species Cabinet including Ranil, Mangala, Malik
and fellow travellers whom the Boss of the local variety calls Friends in the Journey or some such thing. Old Banda, Daha and others in similar trajectory but long gone will cheer all the way up from the clouds. What a scene?
ISS
ISS. You forgot to include Ravi Karumakkaraya in the "all species cabinet" that will create history some day. Yes, the species that will be known as the "Gay Royalist" cabinet - once they are out of the "closet". Unfortunately, these guys (????) don't even follow the simple Royal College motto - "Disce Aut Discede - Learn or Depart"; they have neither LEARNT a Lesson nor do they want to DEPART!