Saturday, November 19, 2005

Will Ranil Resign?
The gossip about Sirikotha is that Ranil is going to hand in his papers on Monday. What remains to be seen is if the UNP accepts his resignation. Plans are being made for a press conference on Monday by the office of the Opposition Leader.

Though a lot of people have said that Ranil should quit as the leader of the UNP now that he has lost two consecutive Presidential elections, the main problem is that there is no clear person within the UNP who could replace Ranil as the leader of the party. If the UNP does decide to accept Ranil's resignation then there is going to be a serious power struggle as to who is going to lead the party.

While many believe that Karu Jayasuriya should be the one to lead the party, Karu has shown no clear intention of taking the party into his hands. KAru Jayasuriya is generally seen as one of the most expemplery leaders of the UNP having won elections in Colombo consecutively without ever having resorted to violence, or even massive poster campaigns. I'm not saying that the UNP is thug-free. They do have their fair share of people who believe wholeheartedly in ballot stuffing and opponent beating, but Karu, so far, has not been one of them.


1. Karu and Ranil at a rally
2. Karu as Mayor of Colombo

But if not Karu then who is it going to be?

Both Naveen Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa, thought bright young leaders with relatively clean records (particularly Sajith, who ran a very clean campaign against Mahinda's thugs in Hambantota) but they are both too young and inexperienced to give leadership to a party like the UNP.

Ravi Karunanayake, Bandula Gunawardene, Tissa Attanayake and several others also perhaps harbor hopes of becoming the next leader of the UNP, but I don't think any one of them are going to get it. But maybe the UNP does decide to do something stupid. The UNP is known to do stupid push-the-self-destruct-button kinda things.

posted by Morquendi @  9:16 PM   || 13 opinion/s ||
Comments:
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 20, 2005 12:02 AM
 
I do hope Ranil resigns. It will be in the country's interests. Sri Lanka needs less people who lack a backbone and less people who are willing to sell out to racism (dividing Sri Lanka into ethnic enclaves based purely on ethnicity).

The sooner Ranil leaves the UNP the better for the party.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 20, 2005 12:09 AM
 
UNP is in the edge now.

Morq, despite of your names i think you can also add names like Milinda moragoda or S.B dissnayake to the possible UNP leadership list.

Milinda is new but with some mass marketing he is possible but the only problem is he is a Christian. Constitution does not alow any other except a buddhist. so It would be a Intresting scene over all to gaze at, Sadly..
# posted by Blogger sittingnut : November 20, 2005 12:15 AM
 
what is more important than leader, is whether unp will change it's policy, imo they will not nor should they.
ranil is still the best of the lot but karu is ok.
they must be very careful about s.b., the fellow is in prison but since some ppl seem to consider him a good organizer(without any proof imo) and has shown he has that ambition by issuing press releases in the last few days.
buffalo will soon release him if only to make trouble inside unp.

naveen doesnot live upto his father's standard, sajith does.

anyway if ranil goes karu it should be.


we will soon see how weak a spine buffalo has.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 20, 2005 12:19 AM
 
How about Jayalath Jayawardana? Now there is a winning candidate for the UNP.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 20, 2005 4:11 AM
 
LOL@kesbewa.

Mahinda becomes the prez. Karu becomes the UNP leader. How nice.

Has anyone noticed which schools they are from?
# posted by Blogger Deane : November 20, 2005 5:07 AM
 
Milinda Moaragoda is not Christian man.

besides i dont think he will be getting the leadership hopefully nor wiill Karu Jayasuriya he's basically Ranil without top brains + a little more appeal to the south. Karu is just a substitute for ranil, if the UNP wants that then might as well keep Ranil himself.

UNP will need someone who can communicate the message effectively and be ready by 2008 for the next big dog fight assuming that they cant get to have it earlier or MR wont dissolve the parliament. But the leader of the UNP shouldn’t be an empty headed hate machine like Wimal, or a headless idiot like Rajapakse.

i would propose Mahinda Samarasinghe, who i think demands a lot of respect and can speak quite well as well as being some what of an intellectual.

it's too soon for Sajith, his time will come. but not now.
# posted by Blogger sittingnut : November 20, 2005 3:36 PM
 
cc you are right, mahinda samarasinghe is a good choice. and well placed if he wants to make an attempt too.

buffalo won't go for a election if he has any sense, bc the result will be similar to 2004 with jhu loosing its seats to both sides equally. but the same ppl who advised cbk to go far a election are buffalo's advisers now, they might make the same mistake again. they did not get that under our pr system, in most districts a additional seat requires something like 15%-25% more votes. impossible. only the bonus seat changes hands and upfa already has them.
# posted by Blogger ivap : November 20, 2005 5:06 PM
 
Can someone point to where in the constitution it states that only a buddhist is allowed to be the president ? I haven't been able to find it but I haven't read the whole thing ?

The constitution including the ammendments is available here
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 21, 2005 3:25 AM
 
Buddhist leaders - DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, Sirima Bandaranaike, W Dahanayake, R Premadasa, DB Wijetunge, Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, Mahinda Rajapakse

Christian leaders - Oliver Goonatilake, SWRD Bandaranaike, John Kotelawela, JR Jayawardena, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunge

So it's more like 50:50. Mahinda Samarasinghe doesn't have the leadership skills or the charisma to lead a party. Karu is the only choice. Ranil was afraid that he'll get more votes than him in Colombo so he was sent off to Gampaha.

Milinda Morogoda comes from a Christian/Budddhist mixed family. I'm related to the schmuck.

^_^

Anyway, you lost - we won. Take that fuckers. Prepare for W-A-R!!!
# posted by Blogger sittingnut : November 21, 2005 3:52 PM
 
ivap:
constitution does not say any such thing.
though this may be irrelevant, under former constitutions christians were both governor general and president, of course they did not have any power.

to call jr jayawardana a christian shows some ppls knowledge, he was probably one of the few real buddhists in the country. ppl do not inherit religion from parents (or father as some ppl imply here)
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 23, 2005 3:34 AM
 
CC,for all your fumbling, you got one thing right. Mahinda Samarasinghe 'Demands' respect. That is the problem. Who we need is a leader who 'Commands' respect.

t4011, are you really sure Sir John Kothalawala is a Christian? When you enter Borella Kanatta from the main entrance side, the first grave (on to right), in the buddhist section is that of John Kothalawala, the father of Sir J.K.
# posted by Blogger sittingnut : November 23, 2005 4:42 PM
 
John Kothalawala, the father of Sir J.K - isn't he the one who committed suicide?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : November 24, 2005 11:40 AM
 
Anyone -even more-fucker- could replace Ranil.
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?