This is a tale of two politicians, Kumara Welgama and Wasantha Senanayake. What do these worthy individuals have in common? They have both been ministers. Other than that, Welgama, a Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) stalwart for decades, has declared he would not support the presidential candidacy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Senanayake, with strong family ties to the United National Party (UNP), announced he would not support Sajith Premadasa.
We have been hearing about Welgama’s dissent for some time. After Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in 2015, he was an integral part of the group of parliamentarians banding themselves as the ‘Joint Opposition’ (JO) informally in Parliament under Rajapaksa’s leadership. Therefore, he eschewed an opportunity to continue as a Cabinet minister in the UNP-SLFP coalition, the so-called ‘yahapaalanaya’ government.
He remained with the JO, attended their rallies and continued to be loyal to the cause when the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) was formed. Welgama’s problems began when the SLPP revealed its carefully laid out plans to launch Gotabaya Rajapaksa as its presidential candidate.
Welgama maintains that he still has the utmost respect for Mahinda Rajapaksa but cannot bring himself to support Gotabaya. He cites the fact that Gotabaya’s candidacy - without any previous political experience, with many questions about his political abilities, with a multitude of court cases against his name and his track record as a war winning but equally ruthless Defence Secretary - amounts to perpetuating a family legacy and nothing more.
Since Gotabaya Rajapaksa was officially proclaimed as the SLPP candidate - by brother Mahinda, no less, no more - Welgama has maintained his stoic opposition. Now he has gone a step further.
He has called upon all SLFPers not to vote for Rajapaksa. To do so would be to destroy the SLFP, he argues and hopes that Chandrika Kumaratunga, the daughter of the founder of the SLFP, would come forward to save the party in its hour of need.
Whether one agrees or not with the policies that Welgama subscribes to, one must admire his stance. Not for him the pathetic sycophancy of joining the Gotabaya bandwagon and singing his praises in anticipation of being rewarded if he wins the election - which is what almost everyone else in the SLFP is doing.
In the vast organisation that was once the SLFP, Kumara Welgama remains the one person - other than Kumaratunga - who has had the integrity to stand up to the Rajapaksa juggernaut and say a defiant ‘no’. It might well be a move that will cost him his political career. Yet, for that courage of his convictions, we must applaud him.
On the other hand, there is Wasantha Senanayake whose only real claim to fame is being the great grandson of the Father of the Nation, D.S. Senanayake and the nephew of four times Prime Minister, the much-loved Dudley Senanayake.
Senanayake has long had a difficulty with Ranil Wickremesinghe continuing as the leader of the UNP despite the many defeats the party suffered and had been agitating for a leadership change for some time - and there is nothing wrong with that. From time to time, he has been outspoken about this issue and won the admiration of party loyalists for his defiance.
However, during the constitutional crisis around this time last year, when President Maithripala Sirisena ‘sacked’ Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, Senanayake raised eyebrows by supporting Rajapaksa. In return, Senanayake was rewarded with a Cabinet portfolio, being appointed as Minister of Tourism and Wildlife.
Senanayake’s joy was short-lived as Rajapaksa struggled to win the support of Parliament and the Supreme Court declared the subsequent dissolution of Parliament unconstitutional. He resigned from his ministerial portfolio, returned to the UNP, then announced that he was still supportive of Rajapaksa before returning to the UNP, all within a few days. Those were moves that would have put to shame the political acrobatics of the likes of S.B. Dissanayake.
The day that Sajith Premadasa was announced as the candidate for the UNP, Senanayake was jubilant saying that it heralded the dawn of a new era for the party. Now however, in typical Wasantha Senanayake style, he has changed his tune and tainted the pitch.
Summoning a press conference this week, he announced that he was withdrawing from Minister Premadasa’s election campaign and also as UNP organiser for Rambukkana. The reasons he gives is the claim that the Premadasa campaign is led by those who opposed him within the party. Senanayake also wants to know whether Wickremesinghe, Ravi Karunanayake, Rauff Hakeem and Rishard Bathiudeen will have a place in a future Premadasa administration.
What is strange is that the questions posed by Senanayake have a sense of déjà vu about them. They are the same questions that are being asked from the SLPP platforms. And if he is a politician worthy of his heritage, Senanayake should know that the questions he asks about who would or would not be part and parcel of a Premadasa administration is rather hypothetical at this stage and would be very difficult to answer honestly. To base his ‘withdrawal’ on such issues is either a convenient excuse or an indication that he is politically unintelligent.
Undaunted, Senanayake adds a caveat to his ‘withdrawing from the campaign’ declaration. “If Minister Premadasa gives satisfactory answers to my questions, I will withdraw my resignation letters and back him completely in the election campaign,” says he. So, Senanayake appears to have left the door slightly ajar, so that, should the going get good and should he want to return and get in to Premadasa’s good books, he still has a chance.
Not surprising, one would think, considering Wasantha Senanayake’s track record during the constitutional crisis last year. No one would be surprised if the next news we hear is that he is on the SLPP platform hailing Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Suffice to say that this cringe-worthy performance must surely have the Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake not just turning, but spinning in his grave.
Wasantha Senanayake then is an example of the depths to which politics in this country has nose-dived. The likes of Kumar Welgama however offer hope that there are individuals who would still risk their careers to tell the truth.