Interview with Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka
Ranil Wickremasinghe is the Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka, party leader of the United National Party (UNP) since 1994 and for the up-coming parliamentary elections, head of the United National Front alliance.
In this interview, Mr. Wickremasinghe both answers and dodges questions about the challenges to his leadership within the party, the acceptance of the UNP and its policies amongst voters, his ability to communicate policy, lessons learnt from his stint as Prime Minister from 2001 – 2004 and any regrets during or after the time of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). He is also asked for his opinion of a war crimes tribunal and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, plus views on developing the North and East in a manner different to that which is proposed by the incumbent government.
My final question to him is whether he believes in astrology, the practice of which can get one arrested in Sri Lanka.
Watch a complementary interview in Sinhala with Mr. Wickremasinghe here.
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i hope that the GV has time to interview some people like sunil hadunhetti and thilanga sumathipala before elections. OTHERWISE YOUR WEB SITE IS BIASED TO ONE PARTY.!!!!!!!!!
Rizan, these are not interviews produced by Groundviews per se, even though its Editor conducts them. They were produced for television and not all are featured on this site. The producer, Young Asia Television, has their own Vimeo video channel with more content in Sinhala and Tamil, from other political parties. All video embeds from The Interview programme are in fact from this Vimeo channel. Further, though repeated efforts were made by the producer to get more representatives from government coalition ranks to be interviewed in English, they were too busy or said they were coming only to cancel at the last minute.
Until I watched this, I had thought that due to JRJ’s proportional representation a two thirds majority would be out of reach of the UPFA, but now this guy Ranil, who has learnt nothing from his serial defeats, makes me wonder!
Almost by accident I chanced upon the YA TV interview with Anoma Fonseka. Now there’s a communicator!
And if one prefers a modernising, market friendly, Westernised reformer, Milinda Moragoda comes across far better than RW.
Dear Dayan J,
“..but now this guy Ranil, who has learnt nothing from his serial defeats, makes me wonder!..”
What can you do about the lesson learnt from the serial defeat?
You may be thinking of winning the election alone.
However, winning the election and building the nation are entirely two different things in “Silly Lanka” at the moment.
You must understand this fact.
I am of the opinion that you guys will never understand the danger that we are facing right now.
This man Ranil, more than anyone else of his entire generation, has done more harm to the democratic fabric of Sri Lanka. By stubbornly clinging on to UNP leadership – and thereby, also being the leader of the opposition – he has allowed so much to go wrong by default. He remains the biggest curse of this nation that is trying to rebuild itself after 30 years of war. A little bit of economic growth in short periods (when he was neither head of state nor head of government) is not at all good enough to justify his record.
All his predecessors in the UNP for past 50 years had either or all of these: intellect, oratory, charisma, political savvy and grassroots touch. (Maybe D B Wijetunge lacked all these, but he didn’t cling on to high office for long.) In contrast, what tangible asset has Ranil brought to the table besides his high pedigree (which by itself is not good enough)?
Instead, he has run down his own party, and increased the democracy deficit in Sri Lanka by his acts of omission and commission. Our biggest tragedy is that we have a serial loser heading the opposition who will not leave even when rejected by voters for more than 20 times!
Did someone mention the stars? RW’s chart is looking much better than it has done for a while. He’s probably not going to sweep the decks, but 1 week after the election, there’s a new moon on his true node, always very eventful. He’s going to be active for the following two years, fighting fires, and the planets of success, Jupiter and Venus are well-starred now. While RW gains from recent moves of the surprise planet Uranus, MR is starting to lose that traction that he has had for the last year. Guess nothing goes on for ever.
Dear Ranil Wickremasinghe , you are absolutely right in that Sri Lanka needs a national reconcilliation amongst its ethnic groups for the country to move forward in a peacful and democratic way. The country needs to go through legitimate war crimes investigation and must work with international UN bodies for all to accept and recognise that the truth has surfaced – and then, and only then – will reconciliation work.
Good luck.
Ranil is/was not responsible for UNP defeats – his henchmen were – especially those who ‘crossed over’ for perks,power and portfolios. CBK too unjustly dissolved his regime earlier. He is, I feel, sincere about his future course if he wins a majority.The continuous barrage of accusation of his “appeacement” of the LTTE holds no water.He acted according to the dictates of the situations which prevailed.
He wants to only relocate, not remove, the army camps in the north. The nation is left with a peacetime army which has no military uses any longer.All countries demobbed most of their armies after WWII but this will be difficult here as they have been eiulogised so much that they consider themselves as ‘masters’ and not as servants of the people, as in other countries.He will correct the present human rights situation and place sri lanka among nations who value same.He will even have sri lanka back in the UN Human Rights Council, by implementing the ICCPR through legislation. We all should vote for him.
watched the video with increasing dismay. Doesn’t come across as decisive. I suspect if he wins he will cow down to the gangsters in his party….after all previously he accepted the likes of SB Dissanayake . Also, I could be wrong but he never apologised for the 83 race riots on behalf of the government he represented at that time. He as leader of his party is guilty of the crimes of the times as much as the present government since the opposition lacks intergrity, courage and justice. Yes he is correct…he was slow…..slow in bringing in justice when he was in power.
Dear SomeOne,
You can’t build the country without winning the election first! RW’s message comes across exactly the one that Jeeva skandamoorthy got ( war crimes…UN investigation) ….which is the one that the majority of Sinhala voters are going to get…which is why he ain’t gonna get their votes. Capisce?
Dear Justicia,
Even if this guy’s party wins the election, which ain’t gonna happen as long as he’s in charge, please tell me how on earth he’s going to relocate military camps when the portfolio of Defence is with the President who has already been re-elected? He hasn’t even figured that out….
Dear All, especially StarStruck,
Do yourselves a favour and read the objective account of sri Lankan politics today , and the prognosis, in Jason Burke’s new article in the Guardian ( London). Then you’ll know why people vote one way and not the other. So long as the generation/s that remember Ranil’s humuilaiting period of appeasement renmain voters, and the crucial segment of the voting populace, the fate of the UNP will remain what it is and he will always snatch defeat even from the jaws of victory.
If you want a change for the better in Sri lanka, remember how the UNP recovered after 1970, the US Democrats after Reagan and Bush, the Brit labour party after Thatcher and the Conservatives after new Labour: A NEW LEADER and an ideological shift to a moderate centre.
Make Karu or Rukman or Milinda the UNP leader and it’ll miraculously recover!
Dr. DJ,
Ah, so now there’s an objective account of why people vote the way they do! Should make politics a breeze then heretofore. I thought you were a bit of a Marxist. Don’t Marxists believe in historicity? Would people vote the same way today as they did in the 1970s, the same in SL as in USA? Is the American media as tightly controlled as the SL media, or isn’t that a factor in how people vote? I don’t think we need Jason Burke to tell us that a guy who won nearly 2/3 of the Presidential vote a few months ago will win this round too. Do voters lose their gullibility overnight? The question is how well will he win–enough to cause more mayhem, or less?
Astrology is a whole lot more reliable than predictions by political scientists who are hopelessly caught in their own desires and can”t see the forest for the trees. Here’s what I predicted for Fonseka five days before the presidential election when so many commentators here were so full of hope for a regime change:
“Poor Sagittarian guy [Fonseka]–somebody forgot to tell him that nobody should run for election at the age of 59, when they’re faced with their Saturn return, which is heaps more debilitating than menopause. And with Pluto complicating that return, while sitting on his Venus–much money will be lost too. So, bye bye, to power, money, Mr Sagittarian? Perhaps even worse because Jupiter will be magnifying all that bad luck on his chart.”
And that’s without even knowing the most important piece of info for chart interpretation: time of birth.
Dear Dayan Jayatilleke,
Are you for or against relocation of military camps? You appear to gloat over the army’s unwanted presence in the north and east – and appear to have the same mindset of your champion Mahina Rajapaksa who ousted you from your UN post though you cleverly engineered the passage of a resolution favourable to sri lanka. These camps are detested by the populace as the army interferes into their everyday lives as evidenced by the many reports and videos of foreign journalists.This is an ‘army of occupation’ just as those of germans in occupied france and other countries at the beginning of world war two and serve the same purpose – to continue repression of the people denying them their civic rights.There are ways a majority in parliament can counter the dictatorial ways of a head of state.
Dear Dayan J,
“….You can’t build the country without winning the election first…”
You caught in a wrong mind set here, I guess!. Politicians and parties have been winning elections for the past 60 odd years.
Our system of democracy is entirely different from that of some countries which you are comparing with. For instant, media freedom is very essential part of the true democratic system. I don’t understand how we can have true democracy with out having true media freedom.
The reality is that king does NO wrong (rather, king does NOT know wrong). Therefore, why do you need a free media? King’s media is all you need. Get it?
Sure, I want all the army camps in the south to be relocated to north. But I do not have a say in this have I? The government of Sri Lanka will decide where the army camps have to be.
There is no comparison to German army (nice try, why Germany? Why not US or UK?). Sri Lankan army is in Sri Lanka and all of their camps are located in Sri Lanka.
Great, thank you for pointing YA TV on vimeo. I think I am going to spend a great time there.
As far as the interview goes, Ranil is a lot of hot air. and things could be done. I liked his view of foreign markets then again it is common knowledge.
Good interview, Sanjana. Seems RW is courting the women’s vote. Hope he pulls it off.
Hi Sony,
Why do you need an army camp in a country at the first place?
If any one thing that “Silly Lanka” is one country then the army should be located in the sea bordering “Silly Lanka”.
There shouldn’t be any army on the land. Is it for prevention of alien invasion?
Common Dayan… Expected a better view point from you on this… Why do you hate Ranil W so much?? I also watched the video.. i did not see any wrong in anything he said over. Honestly, i was amused to see the way you address him- ‘This guy”. Don’t act like the “Infamous Doctor”.
Do you think Ranil a fool? or do you feel you are way smarter than him?
FIne judgement on Milinda … the guy who sold the SLIC and LM for peanuts and got the stick from the SC. Got elected from UNP votes and jump the shipped for personal gain. You wish…
He’s right, we do need to reconcile.
But, the Sinhalese don’t need to say sorry for the Tamils for anything.
It is the central past & present government(s) who should apologize to the Tamils. Because of the past mistakes/actions of the past UNP/SLFP governments there is a erosion of reconciliation among Tamils and Sinhalese.
Ranil Wickremasinghe is far ahead of his time. In fact, he is so far ahead of his time that most people in the South simply have no clue about the implications of what he says. A truth-and-reconciliation commission – or whatever approximates it – is not just there to make the Tamils feel better. It is an opportunity for the majority community to come to terms with the mistakes made in the past. More importantly, unless such an acknowledgment is made, the same mistakes made in the past will likely reoccur.
Of course, it is much easier to beat drums and wave a Lion flag than to look back at the past and see where you went wrong. The simple-minded can easily indulge in the rhetoric of “no races, only those who love the motherland.” They can go on believing the war was nothing more than a “humanitarian operation.” But such beliefs are extremely shallow. If (Sinhalese) Sri Lanka wishes to move on, it will have to acknowledge at some point that Tamils are the real victims in all this. The acknowledgment is actually the first step in making amends. Certainly, it is the most difficult one, but it lays the foundation.
Now that the LTTE is wiped out, reducing the high security zones will not be a problem for RW’s government in the future, especially as he has decided to discuss with the military beforehand. I remember even a hard headed military officer like Sarath Fonseka prepared in 2003 a de-escalation plan in which he agreed to relax if LTTE was willing to decommission. He failed because the LTTE was unprepared to decommission. There is automatic decommissioning that had taken place as the war with LTTE is over. President need not ask LTTE to decommission. He can take decisions himself. Hope Preisdent will take the cue from Ranil Wickremesinghe on this matter.
Ranil is far ahead of anyone’s time because no one else has been able to – and will never be able to – break his record of being the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in any country. He is far ahead of time for sure.
M.O. Daya:
At least Ranil’s friends and relatives are not in the Government. No 10% collections, no “Helping Hambantota” deposits in the sister’s bank account, no BANKRUPT ventures like Mihin Airlines, no commissions from LANKA LOGISTICS, no asking Cabraal to PRINT money…. do I need to go on?
A quintessential article from HLD Mahindapala on this interview – http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/04/05/unp-“thinker”-is-the-best-joker-in-town/
RW NEEDS TO GO NOW!!!!!!!
Far ahead of his time… my ass! That’s why he wanted to feed the poor with cake when they were having a hard time buying bread :-S
Ranil wants to implement a consensus of a small minority (blah just some Colombo rich) in SL. That is a politician bound to fail! His party and supporters are even bigger failures for letting this man make a mockery of their vote.
Truth & reconciliation.. my ass! That’s why in South Africa blacks and whites are separated by barbed wire outside the court, while trialing race hate crime. Who’s the genius that ever said truth & reconciliation commissions worked in SA???
http://news.google.com.au/news/story?pz=1&cf=i&ned=au&hl=en&ncl=dT_t0pm2CZAQyWMnwAPMKeL05HkqM
Developing the economy and improving the life for people especially in the North/East is the one and only reconciliation. We have to give them what the LTTE took away from them and win their trust. What these people want now is money to eat well, live well, educate their children well and provide jobs. Most of all opportunity to succeed.
to RW and UNP.
this election indicates the inefficiency of the party the gradual decline of the UNP’s appal to the masses. dont blame low voter turnout as when your in the opposition, any eletion should be taken as a positive to get back into power.
FEW KEY THINGS THE UNP HAS NOT DONE WELL.
1. although you claim colombo as the UNP power base, you have failed to realise that areas such as homagama, maharagama and those areas control much of colombo vote. UNP didnt have ay bigwigs from that area.
2. big party boys should be asked to leave the cooler colombo 7 climate and go and work at rural grassroot level. hence Ranjan ramanayaka and sajith premadasa should be recognised due to this feature.
3. Minortrities – UNP’s didnt have adequate muslim candidates from colombo, beruwala, or east to get those vote…
4. UNP should create thee own media site knowing very well that party in power will control the state media..
5. the fact that only 5o% of colombians voted at polls is a slap in the face of UNP> you should have organised transport and glavanised people to vote.. looks as if UNP as usual overstimated their hand
Observer,
“Developing the economy and improving the life for people especially in the North/East is the one and only reconciliation. We have to give them what the LTTE took away from them and win their trust. What these people want now is money to eat well, live well, educate their children well and provide jobs. Most of all opportunity to succeed.”
When did you become the sole representative of the North East Tamils? How do you know what they want? Yes, of course they want the basic rights that were taken away by both the LTTE and the government restored but that does not mean they are not interested in a political solution that will empower them culturally and regionally. I see you are an ardent fan of Mahinda Chintana.
lol @ ModVoice, when did I ever say I was their sole rep? All I said was that best form of reconciliation was to help improve NE economic prosperity. You need to take a chill pill.
Observer,
“lol @ ModVoice, when did I ever say I was their sole rep? All I said was that best form of reconciliation was to help improve NE economic prosperity. You need to take a chill pill.”
You did not say you were the sole rep, alright, but your comment seemed to suggest so.
I quote you again, “What these people want now is money to eat well, live well, educate their children well and provide jobs. Most of all opportunity to succeed.”
These are the basic things all should be entitled to, however, they do not address the crux of the ethnic conflict, which in its nature a political question that cannot be terminated by a military answer!
Yes, helping improve the NE economy is one aspect of reconciliation, however, not the ONE AND ONLY reconciliation as you claimed in your previous comment. That is why I say you are toeing the same line as Mahinda Rajapakse, whose main focus seems to be that of development and not addressing the roots of the ethnic conflict.