Election results eye-opener for UNP and SLFP, says eminent accountant Ranel Wijesinha

Respected Chartered Accountant Ranel Wijesinha, who frequently engages in dialogue about the future of the country, stated that the Local Government election results, which strongly favoured the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, would serve as a “brutal eye-opener” for the country’s two main political parties, the United National Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Wijesinghe, who is the Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Past President of the Confederation of Asian Pacific Accountants, opined: “The results are a brutal eye-opener for the unity government. The need to perform a deep diagnostic of the two major parties, their structures and relationships with the electorate, whether in Colombo or in provincial councils, urban councils or municipal councils, and the need to relook at the strategy, structure and performance of the Cabinet and the Government itself is no longer an optional extra but a compelling necessity.” 

He asserted that for the sake of democracy and sustainability of what was good versus what was not, the UNP and the SLFP needed to reinvent themselves. Wijesinghe went on to underscore that they had also failed in their attempts to restructure and reposition the balance sheet of the country and State-Owned Enterprises, citing SriLankan Airlines as an example. 

“Yes, they may have regained credibility and respectability as a nation in relation to the rest of the world. Yes we regained credibility of the stock market, and I have complimented the Government about these. But what is now imperative is that they need to regain their relevance with the electorate without which the unexpired period of their term of office, whatever they may attempt to do, will be of academic value.” 

Wijesinha revealed that he believed the level of seriousness with which these parties remake themselves, with time-bound action plans, was a challenge they should wholeheartedly apply themselves to. 

“I am disappointed with the performance of these two major parties in relation to a newly-formed party about to bloom. More so since they have both lost an opportunity they fought hard for in January 2015, but an opportunity they trifled with. I yet remain optimistic about the yet-unrealised potential of the country, and hope that the bitter lesson learned will propel the Government into action, rather than force them into a self-inflicted woodwork and inaction. My views are as an equal stakeholder of the nation, equal to heads of government or heads of political parties or the views of a simple paddy farmer in my village of Getamanna,” said Wijesinha.