Why not Speaker Karu Jayasuriya as the UNP candidate?

 Members of Parliament attacking Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. File photo

By Bert Gunawardana 

For the grand old party started by D.S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and the first Executive President JRJ, now led by their relative, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, selecting the presidential candidate for the upcoming Presidential Election has become a big nightmare. PM Wickremesinghe, according to party sources, wants to give it a shot before he retires, despite his failure to meet the expectations of the public.  His Deputy Leader, Minister Sajith Premadasa, wants PM Wickremesinghe to take a back seat and make him the candidate. 

A few want Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to be a compromise candidate. People in general have had enough of PM Wickremesinghe, not because of his actions alone, but because of his cronies like Malik Samarawickrama, his Senior Advisor Charitha Ratwatte, and R. Paskaralingam. Sajith Premadasa, on the other hand, is young and has the blessings of the President and also most of the party backbenchers, but lacks serious experience when it comes to governing. 

Premadasa factor

Sajith Premadasa, contrary to the UNP traditions, has unfortunately taken his fight to the streets. Premadasa, who is popular at the rural areas, needs to test his popularity in the cities before he takes a dive, because unlike in a General Election, the Presidential Election is won in the six big districts of Sri Lanka. Also the R Premadasa legacy will certainly hound the young Premadasa in his bid for the top job. R Premadasa, who had done so much for the poor, unfortunately did not get the respect in the city when he died, because of his poor governance record and because of the mob that surrounded him. Moreover, without the active participation of the UNP Leader in his campaigns, Sajith Premadasa will find it hard to collect the six million plus votes he needs to cross the finishing line. 

Karu Jayasuriya 

Therefore a possible candidate who is yet hardly spoken of is Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. Some months back, he expressed his views on the matter in an interview with the BBC Sinhala Service, and noted that if he is recommended by his party, he would consider campaigning for the Presidential Election. Karu Jayasuriya, a one-time Second Lieutenant in the Army, who was in active duty during the first JVP insurrection, showed his true mettle when the No-Confidence Motion against the Government was presented before Parliament. He courageously acted as a protector of democracy. 

However, something that will haunt Jayasuriya would be that in early 2007, Karu Jayasuriya resigned from the UNP and joined the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government with 18 other senior members of the party, and was sworn in as the Minister of Public Administration and Internal Affairs.He re-joinedthe UNP in 2008, and was appointed as the Deputy Leader.

But Jayasuriya will be contesting against someone who gave up his citizenship, only to come back when his brother was appointed as the presidential candidate. Karu Jayasuriya has a huge following among the Buddhist clergy, far more than any other candidate in the fray. He was recently given the title of “Sasana Keerthi Shri Deshabhimani” award — the highest honour awarded to a layperson for services to the Buddha Sasana and, more broadly, to the nation as a patriot. 

Jayasuriya, who is the lay president of the Ramanna Nikaya, belongs to a tiny minority of political leaders that even their political rivals have never accused of bribery and corruption, or encouraging petty ethnic or other tribal divisions. In addition, he was a very successful Colombo Mayor, who ran a corrupt-free administration.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, some months back, was also awarded the honorary title of Jana Prasadini Lanka Puthra of the Amarapura Maha Sangha Sabha. Accepting the award, he said the country needs to be rebuilt again. He added that he always requested the President, the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader to work together for the well-being of the country. 

He went to note that 72 years have passed, and still Sri Lanka is not up to its true potential. He added that the country has dropped to a state where youth are inclined to migrate. He added that it was necessary to create unity among everyone in order to track development. He is the best man to do that, given his conciliatory approach. .

Therefore, if the 78-year-old Karu Jayasuriya can come forward as a national candidate to abolish the Presidency, he will have a very good chance of uniting the anti-UNP political forces, and stand firm when it comes to abolishing the Presidency.