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The New Year dawned for the UNP and SJB on an optimistic and positive note. Ranil broke the ice with Sajith with a simple phone call to the younger on January 1st to convey his New Year wishes. The gesture finally ended the cold war that had existed within the family fold for over five years.

It marked the successful culmination of over months and months of talks that had evolved at a snail pace to either bring the roguish herd—which had strayed beyond the traditional foraging fields to win new rich pastures on their own—back to the ancestral home or, if that failed, to stand on the trail to triumph and, with their symbolic trunks raised aloft, trumpet in unison that the Grand Ole’ Party will henceforth contest elections as one.

To iron out the minor details was easy. Whether it was the herd that strayed or the herd that remained in the ancestral home, they were of the same stock and blood and shared a common pedigree.

This was not the case of a prodigal and dissipated son returning to his ancestral home empty-handed, with nothing to show for his desertion. On the contrary, he was returning enriched beyond measure to his ancestral home, which had fallen into decay and waste.

But it hadn’t been Sajith alone who had single-handedly enriched the party’s coffers with the goodwill of the electorate and established a strong vote bank in the name of the SJB.

Former UNP members who had left the ancestral fold and sought refuge in Sajith’s new SJB abode, as well as those who joined the SJB later, had each—to a man or woman—given whatever mite they personally had to build the fortunes of the SJB. They had also remained and shared the SJB heartbreak when the party lost lock, stock and barrel in both elections in 2024.

THE THAW AND THE FREEZE: A whole lot of resolutions passed but still waiting for Godot

With widespread hopes beginning to rise of a possible reunification of the two divided family camps on the same bank, the air was rife with a nostalgic glow that finally common sense would prevail, and the elusive dream would soon be realised.

But there was also panic setting in across both camps.

On the SJB front, while fears did not stage a midnight assault on those who wholeheartedly welcomed and approved reuniting with the UNP regardless of their own positions, others down the line who had also built the SJB from scratch had, understandably, panic attacks throughout the night, restlessly wondering if their hard-won positions would be on the block to be given the chop to meet the needs of the Old Guard arriving from the UNP’s old school of thought. And clinging on to their worst fears was justified, considering all the legwork they did for party and for chief.

The same fears stalked UNP minds by day and haunted their sleep at night. In the event of a UNP and SJB revival, would they be left with bones to gnaw after SJB members had first feasted on the flesh? Did the price of staying faithful to their party and their leader and steadfastly following his tracks to the wilderness to exist on fallen leaves come so cheap?

This was the Rubicon the two leaders had to cross while ensuring their members did not drown in the process but safely land on the mutual shore of trust in a spirit of bonhomie.

After spending months mitigating the perceived actual fears of both sides, Ranil’s top four knights emerged from Taj Samudra’s Colombo Club on December 30th to announce a breakthrough had been made to overcome the final hurdle that had stood in the way of reuniting the two parties and had prevented them from speaking in one voice.

As Ranil’s knights appeared from their conclave, Sajith was close at hand to grant his seal of approval with a gentlemanly shaking of hands. Ranil followed it up on New Year’s Day by calling Sajith and wishing him well, in a timely gesture that broke the ice that had built up during the long frosty relationship the two leaders shared due to egoistical rivalry.

Ranil had told Sajith that the agreement would be placed before the UNP Executive Committee for final approval on January 7th. It certainly portended a beneficial strengthening of the UNP by hitching its wagon to SJB’s ascending star.

Contrary to what UNP’s Committee members expected to hear from Ranil, what they heard, instead, was a convoluted series of plans to give the party a long overdue overhaul and rebuild the party like rebuilding Lanka after the floods.

What, for God’s sake, had party leaders done in their isolation in the wilderness? Scraped coconuts for their daily bread unaware, ‘man does not live by bread alone’?

Under Ranil’s directing hand, the Executive Working Committee, of course, ‘expressed its agreement for the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the United National Party to work together in the future. A joint programme was agreed upon, and the Working Committee also took steps to pass 6 main resolutions.’

‘Took steps to pass 6 main resolutions’? But before long, SJB leaders may entertain doubts as to what advantages they gain from joining procrastinating hands with an Executive Idling Committee whose only forte appears to be to act at the terrific speed of a sloth bear in heat.

As the UNP’s press release further declares:

‘It was first proposed to appoint a joint national programme committee from both parties to oversee the work of local government members from the United National Party and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya in local government institutions such as municipal councils, urban councils and regional councils.’

‘The second proposal called for the UNP and SJB working committees to appoint a committee to come up with three joint programmes.’

‘The United National Party is currently working with other political parties, and it was next proposed to clarify the issues to those parties as well, and to appoint a committee with the approval of the leaders of the two parties to discuss the matter.’

‘Another resolution passed by the Working Committee called for action to be taken to meet the leader of the United National Party and the leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya after agreeing to this programme. ’.

Does this resolution require SJB leader Sajith Premadasa to appear before the UNP’s Executive Working Committee Board and lie on the UNP’s casting couch for an audition to decide whether he fits the bill to co-star with Ranil Wickremesinghe in the forthcoming blockbuster Ranil Does It Again?

‘The sixth resolution presented to the Working Committee stated that all parties should be informed that the agreements between the United National Party and other political parties and alliances, and that parties affiliated with the UNP will work together with the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.’

However, since Sajith has unequivocally said, ‘The SJB will not have any truck with the SLPP,’ this must amount to an insurmountable stumbling block to further talks aimed at reuniting the two parties from being torn asunder by any man. If a way out cannot be found from this impasse, then it will be time to bid a last farewell to the exalted hopes held by members of the party divide.

Soon after his remand ordeal in August, an emotionally driven Ranil strongly urged opposition parties to launch a series of joint opposition rallies islandwide to protest against the government’s gross incompetence to govern the country efficiently. Perhaps he realised even then, as he remains convinced even now, that with an ultra-powerful government in office, it is safer and wiser for an opposition party to protest against the government with a similarly disposed pack of opposition hounds to rush to its defence if suddenly attacked rather than travel alone on a solitary path without a dog in sight to raise a bark of alarm if ambushed.

On December 17th last month, Ranil reiterates his support for a UNP–SJB alliance and says he will gracefully step down if an understanding is reached and if the UNP Executive Committee proposes that Sajith Premadasa should assume the leadership, provided, however, the matter is resolved swiftly. He urged the talks be concluded quickly without any delay since there was ‘little time to prolong the process’.

But don’t resolutions adopted on Thursday smack of tactics to further delay the merger or alliance, or whatever name you want to call it, from taking conclusive shape and form to expedite the process, ‘since there was little time left’? Conducting negotiations without a definite timeframe would simply be to talk no end until the cows come home.

Does Ranil wear the inscrutable face of Providence? Or is it simply a case of ‘you can’t keep a good man down who simply cannot let go’? The nation shall soon see whether the younger rises when the older falls.

Ranil should take good note: An ancestral home divided falls into decay and ruin. A united ancestral home, on the contrary, stands lit with success and made invincible.

Harini makes a dash to Kandy to seek refuge in the Sangha Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya left her averseness to according foremost place to the Buddha Sassana behind in Colombo to make a dash to Kandy to give foremost place to the Buddha Sasana’s Mahanayake Theras and present at their feet her rambling account of the still unresolved mystery of the weblink printed in the English Grade 6 module that gave 10- or 11-year-old school children access to adult gay websites. After first devoutly kneeling in worship with her head touching the ground, she found refuge in the Sangha to repeat her mantra: ‘I did not have the foggiest; I did not know at all; we have complained to the CID, and an investigation is currently going on; someone has placed this offensive adult gay link in the English module, and all possible efforts to track down the offender are being taken.’ PRIME MINISTER: Harini in the hills to clarify web link to Siyam Nikaya’s two chiefs Dressed in a white sari, she told the Malwathu Mahanayake, the Most Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera: ‘We thought we must explain what has happened regarding the English Grade 6 module. We received a report informing us that there was an unsuitable weblink in this module. We, indeed, found there was such a weblink. We hadn’t distributed the book, and we immediately sealed the store. Harini delivered a long narrative and then, placing her finger on the weblink, told the Mahanayake of the Malwathu Chapter, ‘Though we have printed the weblink to the offensive site, nowhere in the module have we asked anyone to access it.’ When the long-winded submission came to an end, it not only left the jury of Most Venerable Senior Monks convinced. It had left them spellbound. But there was a certain thing that Harini said that disturbs one. She said that this book with the offensive weblink hasn’t fallen into children’s hands. Thank the Lord for small mercies. But she also announced that 5000 copies of the English Grade 6 module have been printed and distributed to teachers during the last 6 months for training purposes. Is she sure this book hasn’t fallen into children’s hands? Is it too much to expect these 5000 teachers to keep it under lock and key in their cupboards? Would not unsuspecting teachers of 10- or 11-year-olds be more likely to introduce this book received last year and say to them to read and study its content? Unbeknownst to those clueless at the Education Ministry, the scandalous weblink to perverse adult gay websites may already be the talk of the school.