The Opposition: Time to innovate and move away from old ways

It is said that the UNP, had a 17-year run in power from 1977-1994, not because that regime had strong leaders, enjoyed popular support and sound policies, but because the then opposition was abysmally weak on all counts.  Democracy, it is pertinent to remember, is not only about government; it is about opposition also.  

A vibrant democracy requires a stable government.  At the same time, a principled and strong opposition is a non-negotiable prerequisite, for a polity, that has committed itself, to a democratic form of government.  

Today, there is no doubt that, the Rajapaksa Government is stable, notwithstanding the spiralling cost of living, continuing military engagement and other woes, typical of a third-world democracy, struggling to defeat an intransigent terrorist.  The Eastern Provincial Council elections, only served to strengthen the President’s hand in the overall political equation; with charges of election malpractice, remaining unconvincing, in terms of having altered the eventual result.

Where does all this leave the Opposition?  “Where it is always was: in the doldrums,” someone may, very well quip.  

The future of the UNP of course, is something that the UNP and its leadership should worry about.  What is important for the people and for democracy is, the threat that, an abysmally weak opposition, that is obviously lost in terms of vision and sense of role in political society, poses to democracy, in the broader sense.  

Ever since, Ranil Wickremesinghe was ousted in 2004, by a combination of general suspicion among the masses, regarding his dealings with the LTTE, a vindictive President exercising executive prerogatives and a serious communications disorder, the UNP has adopted an ad-hoc way of playing the political game.  The party did not understand the important role, it has to play, as the main opposition party and neither did it have a pragmatic plan, to position itself to assume power, when the time came.  

So far the UNP appears to be a party, that is overly dependent on outside factors.  The party leadership has looked to the JVP, the SLMC and other, to bring the Government down, come budget-vote or inflict moral-sapping defeats, in minor elections.  

All this only underscores the fact that, internally the UNP is in shambles.  Personal profit has been the watchword for both Ranil Wickremesinghe and his would-be successors.  “Me first, party next and the country last,” has been their guiding political principle, it seems.  

The past three years have seen the UNP, intent on self-destruction.  Leaders who had stature were sidelined to the extent that, they were virtually pushed in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s lap.  Imtiaz Bakeer Markar, is a gentlemen and an adornment to any political party. Karu Jayasuriya, it has been cogently argued, had, what it would have taken, to turn things around. Rajitha Senaratne and Hemakumara Nanayakkara were to the last day, the most able and willing defenders of the party line. Today, S.B. Dissanayake, still the one UNPer who can draw a crowd (apart from perhaps Sajith Premadasa) and can claim to have a finger on the polity’s pulse, is suffering the same kind of shabby treatment, that pushed Karu Jayasuriya out of the party.  In short, able people are made to leave the party.  There is an identifiable pattern in all this.  Vilification, in sections of the media loyal to the UNP leadership, is accompanied by deliberate cold-shouldering.  It is important to note that, Wickremesinghe himself, is not under threat by any individual or group within the UNP; it is others, that benefit when ‘strongmen’ are unceremoniously retired from decision-making processes.  At the end of the day, the UNP finds itself as a chronic example of a crisis, that the entire country suffers from; the lack of human resources.  

Today the JVP is split or splitting. The UNP has lost some of its best leaders.  The SLMC has perhaps played both sides, once, too many a time.  The TNA, as the LTTE’s proxy, has a hollow voice.  Add all this and we have an apology for an opposition.  The country needs a strong government and that is something we have at the moment. A strong government can only deliver, if there is a reasonably strong and responsible opposition, let us repeat. Today, the opposition doesn’t have what it takes to be even a minimal contributor, to the overall cause of good governance.   

The opposition has to move away from gimmick-mode and stop indulging in puerile fantasies, of overthrowing the Government. It has to re-learn the A-B-C ,pertaining to its defined role, in terms of healthy democratic practices.  The UNP and its leadership and the JVP and its leadership, need to understand that, the general population is not pining for a victory, for either party. They are still waiting, for these parties to be the best opposition, they can be.  Right now, they are hovering around an F-mark, in terms of performance.  They have to buck up, if they are not to get referred and should understand that, an F as ‘opposition’, will necessarily see them getting an F, at elections.  

We have a relatively stable government today, admittedly with many faults. Still, this is only, one half of what could be a success story, in the practice of democratic governance.  As for the other half, the opposition has to do a serious re-think on its effectiveness, self-image and more than this on the expectations of the masses.  If the UNP, doesn’t revitalise, it only means that, the Party will decay, due to lack of creative imagination.

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