| The Rajpal Abeynayake Column By Rajpal Abeynayake | ||||||
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But this time Ranil Wickremesinghe has appointed a Commission to put his own party right! And the joke is definitely on him. A newspaper advertisement calls for representations for proposals to cure the UNP! I missed the deadline by inches. I have no partisan yearning to improve the UNP - I am not a UNPer; not a card carrying member or a party man of any sort. Neither am I partial to the UNP as most of the Colombo elites are, who go on denial even if there is clear victory for another party at an election! But if any mainstream party or politically active group in this country called for proposals for its improvement - - be it JVP, the SLFP, the TNA or even the LTTE -- you can be sure that I will be the first to stand up and be counted. With the country in a socio-political morass, and the economy deteriorating, when we have seen an all out case of prolonged hostilities between the government and a rebel group plus two other insurrections since independence, there is the severest case for improving our culture of politics and governance. Government is peopled by politicians who arise from within the ranks of political parties, and if these parties can get their act together maybe we will have a democracy worth talking about. It is in this spirit that I am writing this missive to the UNP Commission. It is a serious representation. What's in a deadline, give or take a day or two? This representation is made in the public spotlight - -and if the UNP is serious about its efforts to revamp the party, it should definitely summon me the undersigned to make representations based on these proposals when the Commission eventually convenes. Whether the UNP wants to seriously set its course right is a different matter. Is the 'Commission'' mere eyewash, to make the party leaders feel better so that they can have a good night's sleep during the time of crisis? If it's not so, I deserve to be called before the Commission as a serious citizen who wants to make some contribution to our hopelessly divided, economically deprived and almost terminally conflict-ridden land. So
here it is. A serious open letter, a considered representation to
be taken up by the UNP Commission: Considering the current impasse that the party is placed in (which I am sure is traumatic to the UNP's leadership) may I address your minds to the fact that the UNP or for that matter any other political party or human entity cannot make progress for the country or for itself, sans imaginative and inspiring leadership. Such leadership does not come from Commission deliberations alone. Consider the UNP's past. Whenever there was a kind and ineffectual leader, such as Dudley Senanayake -- or perhaps John Kotelawala in the past, the UNP was made short work of by a dynamic opposition. But during the time of J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa things were different. They may have been ruthless, and they may have believed that the end justifies the means. But we shall come to the matter of ruthlessness later. The fact is that as dynamic leaders they parlayed the party into leadership positions - and leadership situations are the only vistas from which the party can make any real difference in the country. There is no alternative to imaginative dynamic and driven leadership for a party. This should be too obvious and almost axiomatic - - but the UNP being in the throes of a crisis, may not grasp the rudiments of political success. This country has not seen a leader with the imagination of a Nehru or the passion or vision of a Mandela or a Gandhi. Or the pragmatism of Mahathir Mohammed, or the single minded resolve of a Lee Kwan Yew or Chairman Mao. The
UNP can fill that void. Let the UNP propel itself to a position
of power while in the bargain doing what is best for the country,
by ensuring that a dynamic leader can transform the UNP to a people's
party that can show a thing or two about people-power to some of
the ersatz "people's parties'' that are occupying the political
space of today. 2. Eschew the politics of the buddy system, by which a relation or a friend of the party leader recommends some ambitious blackguard for a party position - -after which he goes around telling the newspapers that he is running for office just because the party leader told him to do so! It's a shabby strategy not becoming of an old mainstream party such as the UNP -- but more importantly it is a guaranteed recipe for political failure. 3. Install party democracy in the finest sense of that word. We may or may not love that country depending on our own personal assessment of the United States, but we can take a leaf from the USA's book in this regard, which incidentally is a country that the current UNP leadership is openly and almost childishly fond of. Enable a complete unknown to take control of the party and lead the nation if he/she has the will, the drive and the ability to do so. Nobody in the Democratic Party had heard of Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter when they launched their campaigns for President, barely a year or two before they were elected. The Democratic Party is not a monarchy and there is no anointed king there, however politically connected or experienced he may be. The party candidate for President is chosen through a grassroots nomination process. Anybody can run. Anybody can win. Anybody can become President. Even if he is not a member of the party at the time of the previous election. 4.Make sure the party is not the preserve of an elite circle, where everybody is everybody's classmate or kinsman. You have taken the first step already. You have appointed a Commission. It is a process by which presumably you want to give the party back to the people to whom it belongs. Let such a party evolve a process that can throw up an effective, intelligent dynamic and untainted leader, who can cleanse the UNP of its image as a party of shady characters, hoodlums and political liabilities who get ditched from the party, a matter of months after they get nominated. A party of rapist abductors and callow youth who are friends of relations - surely that way, the UNP is beyond redemption! 5.
Have a 'national Referendum'' of the UNP. Elect the leader who can
take the party bravely into the 21st century which is still a young
epoch with all the hope and possibilities that come with being relatively
untested. There are many other things that can be done to reform
the party - and the Commission's findings might yield some ideas.
But democratizing the party for efficient leadership is the only
real radical step the UNP can take to reform itself. This process
might yield leaders who are less than perfect - but the process
will weed out both the ruthless and the ineffectual, and maybe the
UNP will be saved miraculously to redeem this country for this and
future generations. |
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A
submission to the UNP Commission
