FOCUS

Meet the PM aspirant of the alliance

By Vimukthi Yapa If ever the old proverbial saying 'there is a black sheep in every family' has been proved right it is in the case of Anura Bandaranaike. It will indeed be eons before this country is witness to another saga as the one perpetrated and enacted by Anura. A well known scrounger, loud mouthed and an alcoholic to boot, Anura has done little to remove the tag of Jonah from around his corpulent waist though projecting himself as the prime minister in waiting under an  alliance government.  As he played hopscotch with the SLFP, the UNP and finally the People's Alliance, Anura fortunately or unfortunately - the matter is yet to be determined - has always been on the losing side.

Memories of Anura's bad luck with lady fortune brought shivers down the spines of those present in Gampaha when Anura last week on nomination day pulled up in a bullet proof BMW - courtesy of his sister Chandrika - and heaved himself out of the car. In front of a few hundred PA loyalists, Reggie Ranatunga bowed as he handed over the nomination papers to Bandaranaike. But Anura, for reasons best known to himself was hardly in a position to place his hands with precision timing - and he dropped the papers to the ground. A silent manthra was said as the crowd watched Bandaranaike slowly heave his bulk into the Kachcheri. But more bad omens were to follow. Re-appearing, Anura was bedecked with a garland of orchids. For some unexplainable reason the garland turned upside down. The saga did not end there. No sooner had Anura got into his BMW the vehicle refused to cough. Another had to be summoned as some of the more superstitious present raised their eyes and crossed their palms uttering silent prayers to the gods above.

Hostile PA mob

Reggie Ranatunga must surely have thought of the time when on nominations day in the year 2000 Sirimavo Bandaranaike pleaded with Reggie to save Anura, who was then district leader of the UNP, from a hostile PA mob.

After the 2000 general election this mob raided Anura's Horagolla office, put smashed photographs of SWRD in a coffin and paraded the six foot long box in Attanagalla before depositing it on the roof of Anura's office. All this after Anura had convinced the UNP that he carried significant clout in the Gampaha District, was a man of no mean stature - ahem! - and that he must lead the campaign in the Gampaha District - only to be trounced at his own boastings and beaten by Karu Jayasuriya who scored a massive 237,000 preferential votes in the Gampaha District as against his measly 99,000.

Perhaps Wimal Weerawansa of the JVP would do well to study the history of his messiah and friend before he swallows that next expensive nutritious substance at the behest of his portly friend and promote him as the prime ministerial choice under an alliance government. But then the JVP does not give a jot for history given their own bloody track record, Weerawansa must believe the likes of Anura are a mere blot on Sri Lanka's blurred horizons in comparison to their own bloody skyline. What is it about this country that our sons of the soil have proved to be a dismal and utter failure?

Walking in the shadow of his two sisters Anura has earned a reputation of not just being an alcoholic and a political misfit but also continues from time to time to resort to tantrums he threw from when a wee lad. His obeisance to his domestics is perhaps a spill over factor from having been left to the care of servants when his mother entered politics soon after his father fell victim to the chauvinistic monster he created. Whenever thwarted, Anura, accustomed to having his own way would throw a tantrum, reacting aggressively ending in tears.

Determined to enjoy the benefits given to his sisters, Anura demanded equal opportunity when Sunethra and Chandrika were sent abroad for higher education. Kicking his heels, shaking his fist and weeping copious tears to his mother who was at the time prime minister for the second time - it was finally agreed that Anura be sent to Oxford from where his father had graduated. He failed the entrance exam at his father's college, Christchurch and eventually entered the University College in London. Unable to cope with hostel life Anura was boarded with a high commission political appointee - Dhanapala. No great student, Anura spent his time organising demonstrations against Tilak Goonaratne who was at the time Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to the UK.

First of many failures

Anura had a plan - and it was to replace Goonaratne with Guy Amithanayagam, who had been tasked to monitor Anura's university progress. Unfortunately for Anura and fortunately for Goonaratne, his mother refused to bow to pressure and remove Tilak Goonaratne and so failed the first of Anura's many conspiracies.

His London contemporaries recall how Anura had his first brush with the law when he relieved himself on a posh Belgravia doorstep having had one too many at Amithanayagam's house. An angry copper told the cowering Anura - "this is not India" before shouting at him - "off with you."

Back in Sri Lanka, Anura eyed the Dompe seat - a hotbed of his pater's Veyangoda constituency. It was 1977 and election time. Felix Dias, many times Anura's intellectual superior, refused to budge. This was the only time fortune chose to smile on Anura and the three member electorate of Nuwara Eliya-Maskeliya brought him into parliament. Otherwise he would have joined the SLFP debris in J. R. Jayewardene's landslide victory in July 1977. Amirthalingam's exit in 1983 together with Sirimavo Bandaranaike, briefly saw Anura as leader of the opposition.

Then came another conspiracy. By this time he was no longer on talking terms with his sister Chandrika and brother-in-law Vijaya Kumaratunga. He therefore sent emissaries to JRJ. A midnight tryst was arranged at H. W. Jayewardene's house and the President arrived in muffti in his son Ravi's car. Anura was convinced his 'de-camp' would earn him the post of foreign minister and as bottle met glass with friends, he was heard loudly appointing and dismissing ambassadors.

The JVP, now trumpeting clean governance will for sure find Anura Bandaranaike's close associates of interest. His current man Friday in London, Ramasamy Veerabahu is a classic example. A fugitive fraudster, Veerabahu owes the state banks over a billion smackers. He ran Hingurana Sugar to the ground, defrauded on EPF payments and fled the country - first to California and then to Singapore. Finding the laws too stringent he finally set up a gold shop in Lewisham - London calling it Thangamali Jewellers. The shop is believed to be a front - for what? only the law will find out. Veerabahu lives in London's posh St. John's Wood Road in Regents Park.

Longing for a return to Sri Lanka, Veerabahu was ready prey for Anura - a born scrounger. Promising to speak to his sister and ensure Veerabahu's return to Sri Lanka, Anura continues to milk the former sugar trader for all his worth. Cartier spectacles at 400 pounds, rent free apartments, a chauffer driven car and an unending supply of the cup that overfloweth, Anura has ensured that Veerabahu is a puppet on a string - at least as long as Chandrika remains in power. Veerabahu is manna from heaven for Anura who lost an accommodating patron a while back.

Alcohol addiction

Recovering from liver failure for the second time, Anura was sent to London for alcohol addiction counseling. Specialists referred him to the Maudsley Hospital where the head of the addiction clinic, Shamil Wanigaratne attempted rehabilitation. A Tamil businessman friend picked up the tab but not before Anura inflated it to meet some of his other 'expenses.'

Playing Good Samaritan with Bandaranaike however, hardly ever brings any gratitude. In the last election he turned on many a benefactor but not before keeping a car and a mobile phone despite their return being requested. It took some arm twisting before the vehicle was finally returned with an outstanding fuel bill of over Rs. 35,000. A senior presidential adviser Lakshman Kadirgamar not so recently publicly denounced Anura. He described him as living in California, holidaying in Sri Lanka and not doing a stroke of work anywhere! Going further he said, Anura nurses a juvenile fantasy that the country owes him a kingdom and to this end flashes his pedigree. He adds that Anura's utterances are bovine excrement and should be swept into the gutter.

Remember it is this same blue-blooded human that left a hotel room in Palm Springs recently in utter disarray. It took the hotel management four days to clean the room and Bandaranaike, pedigree and all, has been relegated to no man's land as far as this part of L. A. is concerned.

Well, well, some messiah eh? Perhaps it would do Wimal Weerawansa good to remember that a man is well known by his friends!

Chandrika and Ranil's leadership abilities

By Anura Bandaranaike 

I had the opportunity, during the time past of gaining an intimate knowledge of the governance of my sister, the present President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and the activities of Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of UNP. On a comparison of the activities of these two the foremost thing that I can say boldly and in keeping with my conscience is that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the present leader of the UNP is a more successful administrator than my sister, and that he has an outstanding capability of administering the country with good management. This is a fact that I cannot but give vent to. I can claim the rare good luck of having been able to associate with various political personages and leaders of people of this country as well as abroad from my very boyhood up to my taking to politics. That might perhaps have been possible because I come from a family inheriting a strong link with politics in this country.

I wish to set down the reasons presuppositions, why I consider the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as one who can rule this country and steer the economy successfully.

The opinion held by many of those who talk about the character of my sister Chandrika Bandaranaike is she pocesses a charismatic leadership. That is the view held by many who compare her with Ranil. It is true that she has a very winning smile and attractive looks. But this gift she has inherited from birth has been sorely degraded by the endless and interminable jabbering of hers. But what I can say of Ranil Wickremesinghe is that he is a person who does not talk too much, but one who has a very good understanding of the responsibilities cast on him and who has a clear vision and an objective.

As I see it, the outstanding characteristic of his leadership is the ability he has of taking decisions at the right time. He is in no hurry or impatient for the realisation of an objective. What I find is that many have not properly understood the ability he possesses of biding his time to arrive at a correct decision. I think that he decides at the correct time and that is a potent factor in arriving at proper decisions. It must be said that one of the most outstanding characteristics of Ranil's leadership is his ability to look at any question before from all angles and in a balanced manner, understand it well and then come to a decision. Ranil does not have the habit unlike many others, of taking a decision on anything impulsively.

A thing that I have been always saying boldly in that my sister's governance of the country is very unsuccessful. Good governance and charismatic leadership are not one and the same. What is happening today is that a charismatic leader is all the time giving first place to that inborn charisma and giving lesser importance to good governance. It must be said that we now have to suffer the ill effects of such short sighted rule and that it might be worse in the future.

Since Chandrika has no notion whatever of governance, it is not possible to assess the damage done to the country. She who had given many hopes to the people is today utterly helpless without being able to fulfil any of them. It must be said that Chandrika Bandaranaike is today faced with the deplorable fate that confronts a leader who solely relies on her charisma without any knowledge of the complex methodology needed for governance. When compared with these, Ranil's ways are quite the contrary. He has a clear grasp of his political vision.

Ranil has very good experience in the act of governing a country. He acts about his political activities making use of the principle of persuasion and common sense. His decisions are not based on wrong data. He has the understanding that the correct thing is to be very subtle and what procedure he must adopt to realise it. He never pretends to be an all knowing sage. He likes to learn something he doesn't understand from someone who does and have it clarified. He would patiently listen to the views and opining of others and then entrust the work to those endowered with skill and ability. Ranil thus has a good sense of management in getting work done properly and in good time.

In the course of an interview my sister recently gave to the Hindu magazine she had said that by virtue of the training she had had she was now an economic specialist.

This is a very amazing statement. As for myself, I am no economic specialist. When her statement above is compared with the state of decline of the economy of this country at the end of her regime, I can only say this, it is thousand times better for a person well-versed in economics to be entrusted with the governance of a country than to one who has become an economic expert by mere training. I feel that the truth of my statement above will be acknowledged by everyone who considers the state's decline and boast of things she doesn't know.

The strongest point in Ranil's character is his honesty. His hands have not been soiled. Till recently I thought the same of my sister. But I think now the time has come to verify the accuracy of my decision above. But I don't say that she is directly involved in corruption and fraud. But I am amazed at her silence on the face of the allegations levelled against the corrupt ones crowding around her. Although allegations of corruption have been directly made  against persons such as Sanath Gunatillake, she is tight lipped. But what can be said about Ranil Wickremesinghe is that he is a person who would never show sympathy to those who are involved in corruption. I have no doubt that he would mete out proper punishment to the guilty whether they be his friends or opponents. As compared with the conduct of my sister, Ranil has this outstanding characteristic.

Ranil has the unprecedented virtue of being practical in his activities. It is the normal trait of his character to arrive at a place at least a few minutes earlier than the appointed time. This must be recognised as an excellent virtue of successful leadership. Chandrika Bandaranaike is quite the contrary. It is now her routine to arrive very very late for everything. She sometimes boasts of these qualities of hers.

A greater part of her daily routine is taken up with time consuming gossip. It is now established practice that important state officers who have to meet her daily in the course of their duties are constrained to waste their time owing to this habit of hers. Her activities are like those of a person desperately trying to extinguish a sudden fire. She has no sense of importance of the future. She has no time to organise. But Ranil's activities are quite the opposite. He sets about systematically as to the future. There is an uncommon management style in Ranil in taking on probable future events and structuring them usefully in keeping with his objective.

Quite contrary to this, Ranil has clearly shown that he is a person bestowed with the ability of taking crucial decisions at the opportune time. Although he earned disfavour of the old guard of the UNP in his decision to streamline the party, yet he did not hesitate to bring out the necessary changes, in a proper manner. Why Neil Kinnock, the former Leader of the British Labour Party was reputed was because he had the courage to carry out the necessary reforms within the party. It was Tony Blair who brought about what Neil Kinnock failed to do. Accordingly Blair was able to steer the party to victory with the label, "New labour party."

Ranil does not give promises to the people that he cannot fulfil. His message for the future governance of the country is straight, simpler and acceptable. In the meantime my sister is living in a world full of promises. While she has not carried out any of the promises she had offered to the people, she is not reluctant to make yet more and more promises to them.

(Divaina of December 20, 1999)