Entry of Ravi K

Ravi Karunanayake as usual dominated the headlines over the last few days for all the wrong reasons. His unilateral nomination to the Parliament via the National List of the New Democratic Front (NDF) has angered the UNP hierarchy. NDF General Secretary Shyamila Perera and the beleaguered politician go back a long way. The former was Late Lalith Athulathmudali’s coordinating secretary while the latter is a distant relative of the deceased prominent politician. 

Shyamila was appointed as Chairman of the National Lotteries Board by Ravi when he was Finance Minister. Considering the close personal relationship between the two, the former Finance Minister’s re-entry to the legislature after a four-year hiatus is not surprising.

A walking disaster is the best term that can be used to describe the accountant-turned politician. Whatever he touches (politically) turns into a mess. Some regard him as the individual who has contributed most towards the downfall and decline of the UNP ever since he joined the Grand Old Party in the run up to the 1999 Presidential election. Both he and Dr. Rajitha Senaratne were at the forefront in terms of pressurising the then Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to topple the CBK-led PA administration in 2001, driven by the power greediness as well as short-sightedness of the duo. The horrendous decision set the foundation for the obliteration of the foremost centre-right political party of the country. Upon assuming parliamentary power in 2001, his naïve conduct of antagonising the Executive hastened the downfall of the two-year UNP administration and played into the hands of RW’s political rivals quite nicely.

Furthermore, Ravi’s performance as Minister of Commerce made the then Government extremely unpopular and provided ammunition for opponents apart from becoming a source of ridicule. His foolhardy decision to keep Sathosa retail shops open for 24 hours of the day had a highly detrimental effect on the State-owned retail network. Even in remote and rural areas like Bibile, where people go to bed early, the shops were kept open throughout the Night without any financial/commercial rationale.

When Karunanayake joined the UNP, he was appointed as its organiser of the Left-leaning Kotte electorate. Nevertheless, he could not find recognition among the highly educated and well-to-do constituents of the nation’s administrative capital. Hence, he tactfully moved to the safe UNP seat Colombo North sometime later. His style of politics based on providing freebies and various material items fitted nicely with the desires of the underclass communities in the area.

Why does the UNP Colombo North organiser intend to enter the legislature again? The businessman who earned his fortune through freight forwarding and logistics is having problems with the arms of law. Currently, a bribery case against him and the jailed businessman Arjun Aloysius is being heard at Colombo High Court. The case involves that infamous Penthouse incident in which a firm allegedly owned by Aloysius had paid the lease for a luxury apartment where Ravi and his family were staying.

Perhaps the NDF National List nominee might be hoping to use the privileges associated with being an MP to soften some of the troubles that he might have to experience over the coming years. Subsequent to the said fiasco related to the luxury apartment becoming public in 2017, Karunanayake had to quit his ministerial portfolio. The ordeal became a nuisance for the then Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration and its popularity nosedived thereafter.

The former MP’s latest scheming tactic to re-enter the Parliament has further decayed his already tarnished image. People see him as an invalid political coin and this latest episode would lead his association with the UNP to a conclusion. Coincidentally, three decades ago, Ravi began his parliamentary career from the National List, and again he is re-entering the Parliament in the same way.