* Making the choice :: Politics in Sri Lanka
Tue, Dec 8, 2009, 09:24 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

(by Chandrani Gunaratna) Sri Lanka has been a democracy since its independence from the colonial rules. Its governing body always enjoyed the challenges of a strong opposition until now except during the Jayawardena era.

Today Sri Lanka's main opposition is a hodgepodge of all sorts with a man at the helm who seems to have lost his charm but still hanging on to the top post. He has failed to deliver any hope to the grass roots of the party having lost every election held since 2004. The crisis-ridden UNP is in such a sorry situation with Ranil Wickremasinghe at the top, the joke among the ruling party supporters is that Ranil's leadership is a political blessing to President Rajapaksa.

The other opposition party JVP is a different story. It knows that nobody takes them seriously and never will get anywhere in an election as proven at every poll held in the past. They are only good for creating mayhem in the country with frequent strikes and union actions causing loss of billions of rupees in productivity and stifling the progress. In reality they are hurting the common populace by their selfish actions.

The UNP leader knows that he doesn't stand a chance contesting against President Rajapaksa in the present atmosphere. His loyal party members and the ones who joined him recently like Mangala Samaraweera also know that. Yet the leader is not willing to give anyone else in the party, like Karu Jayasuriya, Rukman Senanayake, Sajith Premadasa or SB Dissanayake, a chance either. The UNP has been plagued with this leadership crisis for years now. Any grass root members of the party sticking with the UNP leader is making a huge sacrifice with no political future in sight. Ranil being the leader has to stop the disillusioned grass root from crossing over to the other side before the election.

So what does he do? Bring in the war-hero General Fonseka who 'singlehandedly' won the 30–year long war and liberated the country, the very same General who according to the UNP was not even good enough to lead the Salvation Army.

The UNP leader has another trump to save his face. He forms an alliance with the disgruntled JVP promising to give what they always roused for – abolishing the executive presidency.

It is well-known to him that under Sri Lanka's constitution the executive presidency cannot be abolished without a two-third majority in the parliament. But he'll deal with that when it comes, if it ever comes.

When it comes to the policies, economic principles, power devolution to ethnic minorities, and other such matters the UNP and the JVP are on the opposite poles. They only have one thing in common. Both want to teach President Rajapaksa a lesson. So how long their alliance would last after the election? It is anybody's guess.

Meanwhile, General Fonseka is all gung-ho about becoming the President. Yet, he is like being parachute dropped in the middle of a jungle not knowing which way to go, which policy to follow, UNP's economic policies, for 13th amendment or not or JVP's policies. It is all politics to him knowing only how to give orders during his entire career. Ironically now he is taking orders from Ranil and the JVP leader, Somawansa Amarasinghe.

It was not a secret that SB Dissanayake and other UNP stalwarts vehemently opposed the idea of fielding the General instead of a candidate from the party like SB or Sajith Premadasa, Karu Jayasooriya or Rukman Senanayake. The General is Ranil's proverbial cat's paw and that is the biggest mistake Ranil has made.

Now that SB made the jump there will be more to follow. Some of the grass root, Ranil was trying to save by bringing the General, is bound to follow foot steps of SB. Some have already made that decision according to (highly) reliable sources. This could be the beginning of the end of the UNP. The General is also bound to sink with the UNP ship.

The UNP leader having no solid arguments against the government is also tirelessly working on the rumor mill to convince the public that President Rajapaksa and his clan amassed a great wealth and the corruption is rampant within the government.

One such rumor is that the Defense Secretary bought the Apollo Hospital. In reality the Apollo Hospital which was under the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation came under government control when the SLIC was taken by the government nullifying the privatization agreement. The government appointed Defense Secretary as the board chairman and not in his private capacity.

Ranil also made a huge cry that the Central Bank was planning to sell the government's gold reserves which turned out to be another faux-pas. The UNP leader was understandably silent when the Central Bank purchased 10 metric tons of gold recently. The public must not be as gullible as the UNP leader wants them to be.