President Ranil Wickremesinghe is currently attending the 40th anniversary forum of the International Democrat Union. Since 1995 for almost 30 years, Ranil having participated as leader of U.N.P; this is the first time that Ranil is participating in the forum as president. It is an achievement of Ranil.
Ranil is the President of the Asia Pacific Democrat Union. The relationship between Ranil and IDU was often discussed in Sri Lankan politics. Rebels of U.N.P., once rebelled against Ranil’s leadership claimed that Ranil does not want to give up the U.N.P leadership because of the fear of losing the membership of the IDU.
Lawyer Maithri Gunaratne, a former member of the provincial council who rebelled against Ranil’s leadership, wrote a letter to the IDU and explained how the democracy of UNP is being destroyed under Ranil’s leadership. Once the U.N.P’s former deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya also mentioned that Ranil’s way of ruling the UNP was against IDU policies.
None of these accusations caused any threat to Ranil’s IDU Asia Pacific presidency. The leaders who gain IDU membership became leaders of those countries. However Ranil is the only one who had served very long period in opposition even after becoming IDU leader. In the end, if Ranil did not participate in this forum by becoming the president through a deal with the Rajapaksas, Ranil would have suffered the same fate as the former British Conservative leader, William Hague, who was a strong leader of the IDU.
William Hague was a close friend of Ranil, who could not succeed as Prime Minister of Britain. He was forced to step down from the party leadership after losing the elections several times as the country’s opposition leader and leader of the Conservative Party. But Ranil did not leave the party leadership even though he lost consecutive elections. After Ranil became President, the IDU congratulated him while the Western countries were reluctant to congratulate him.
Ranil’s greatest impact on Sri Lanka was his influence through IDU on then President Chandrika to hold the 2005 presidential election. Chandrika conspired to postpone the 2005 presidential election by a year, and Ranil launched a street fight with U.N.P party members. Similarly, Ranil convinced IDU against the postponement of the presidential election, and the IDU passed a resolution in their forum to hold the presidential election in Sri Lanka immediately. Below is the news of the resolution.
Under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister, John Howard of Australia, the International Democrat Union (IDU) unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the Sri Lanka Presidential election to be held in 2005.
“The resolution stated: The IDU expresses its concern at the attempts made by the Government of Sri Lanka to postpone the presidential election scheduled for this year. The IDU supports the efforts of the UNP and other democratic organisations to ensure that the sovereignty of the people is upheld and the people of Sri Lanka are able to exercise their franchise for the election of a President of the Republic this year.
“Party leaders from 26 countries, including three Prime Ministers participated at the meeting. This included the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, Chairman of the US Republican Party Ken Mehlman and British Conservative party Chairman Liam Fox. Those endorsing this resolution also included the German CDU, German CSU, French Conservative UMP, the Spanish People’s Party, Canadian Conservative Party and the Greek New Demokratica…. “
Ranil, who influenced Sri Lanka through the IDU, to conduct elections in Sri Lanka, has become the country’s president and today he is going to the IDU, postponing Sri Lanka’s local government elections indefinitely. It is not known whether the IDU is aware of this or not. But it is an international joke that the International Democratic Union approves the anti-democratic actions of its own Asia Pacific Chairman in Sri Lanka.
