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The parties: The UNP

The United National Party as the main opposition political party often taunted by its critics as not having won any elections during the last seven years is nevertheless the alternative party of government and invites our attention today in a scrutiny of the election manifestoes and programmes of the main political parties in the fray.

The UNP is primarily contesting as the party which can deliver an efficient economy.

Its leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe has been programmed by his impressarios to address the constituency in whichever part of the country the travels in such a manner that he makes pointed reference to the interests of the people of those areas. So he goes to Ratnapura and laments over he supposed decline of the gem industry and goes to the villages and promises that Appuhamy's vegetables will be exported to Tokyo and Dingiri's fruits to Dubai. Mr. Wickremesinghe might in this manner want to demonstrate his rural touch or exhibit some kind of folksiness but he can not achieve the same effect.as, say, Mr. Dudley Senanayake who used to go around with his camera taking photographs of rural homesteads but with whom the people identified as a genuine folk hero.

Of course this is not Mr. Wickremesinghe's fault. Born and bred in Colombo and educated at Royal College and the University of Colombo Mr. Wickremesinghe did not have to travel beyond Kollupitiya and Bambalapitiya to widen his horizons.

He still carries the stamp of that upbringing and it is difficult for him to identify with Appuhamy and Dingiri so that his advisers are doing him a disservice by putting such folksy language into his urbane mouth.

A disservice because Mr. Wickremesinghe does carry the aura of a Young Turk and a managerial whiz kid. The UNP after all is the party of the plutocracy the neo-capitalist class who according to Mr. Francis Fukuyama has been ordained with the historic task of presiding over the end of history.

But how does the capitalist class expect to deliver the goods? As we have pointed out earlier in this column as well efficient economic management has been brought about in the South East Asian context at the expense of civil liberties.

And what is more Mr. Wickremesinghe will have to work his magic in the context of the on-going war. Can he come to an accommodation with the LTTE through his much-vaunted Interim Council and if so at what cost will he pull this through.

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