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UNP's pie in the sky

While congratulating Ranil Wickremesinghe on his being nominated by the UNP as its next Presidential candidate, we are deeply saddened by the fact that the Uncle-Nephew-Party has failed to learn its lessons from the past and decided to continue hurtling along the road of disaster.

It was only a few days ago that this man who aspires to be the President and the leader of the country, was so demoralised and dumbfounded, by the first budget of the United People's Freedom Alliance people's friendly budget.

As UPFA Media spokesmen Mangala Samaraweera and Wimal Weerawansa said, "in the annals of Parliament it is customary for the Opposition leader to express his views on the first reading of the budget, but on this occasion Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did not participate nor express in Parliament any opinion on the budget".

Last Sunday's 50th UNP Conference also marked Wickremesinghe completing ten years as leader of the UNP. These years except for the 2001 General Election, which was prematurely called due to some despicable horse-trading and won by the UNP, there has been a significant decline in the fortunes of that party.

What the UNP has evidenced is deterioration, degeneration and disintegration. Facts show that under Rail Wickremesinghe as their leader the UNP is going down the hill with increasing rapidity, without any hope of the trend being arrested.

The facts speak for themselves: In the 1994 General Election the UNP polled 3,498,370 votes which was 44.04 per cent. In the 1999 Presidential Election Rail Wickremesinghe polled 3,602,748- 42.71 per cent to be soundly beaten by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

In the 2000 General Election the UNP polled 3,477,770 which was 40.22 per cent of the votes. The only victory he led was in 2001, with the UNP polling 54.62 per cent of the votes and finally in the 2004 General Election, the UNP polled 3,054,200 - 37.80 per cent of the votes - receiving one of its worst drubbings.

In the last election, the people threw out the Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP lock stock and barrel, which gave the UPFA, a resounding victory and the UNP an unprecedented debacle.

So the cat is out of the bag. The UNP pretends to condemn overwhelming executive powers vested in the President as at present. They were introduced by none other than President J.R. Jayewardene, who also established the Proportional Representation voting system, which has played ducks and drakes' with the stable governance of the country.

JR's erstwhile nephew is now hell bent on following in his fond uncle's dictatorial footsteps. No wonder the UNP Leader is sabotaging all efforts by the UPFA to abolish the Executive Presidency and restore the powers of Parliament.

No wonder the UNP ignores the public clamour to support President Kumaratunga's crusade for permanent peace through negotiations. According to political analysts Ranil Wickremesinghe's Presidential ambitions will be a non starter and doomed to fail for it is an ill wind that brings nobody any good.

The global tongue

English is fast becoming the most dominant language on Earth. It is on the march throughout the world. Its pace has stunned ardent defendants of native tongues, who fear that English could virtually submerge their languages. Europe has been hit particularly hard, thanks to its integration with the British Isles.

English is invading the languages of Moliere, Cervantes and Goethe, dominating the fields of technology and business and taking some native tongues hostage. There is a controversy regarding the infusion of English words to other languages. Here in Sri Lanka, where 'Singlish' refers to a bizarre mixture of Sinhala and English, it is not much of an issue. In Europe, Spanglish, Franglais and Denglish, a mix of Deutsch (German) and English, are prompting a backlash.

However, local Sinhala and Tamil radio announcers who liberally pepper their on-air performances with English words and phrases have been ridiculed in the press.

State media announcers have been told to stick firmly to the language of their respective station, Sinhala or Tamil, a move that has generally been greeted with enthusiasm by the public. European countries may opt to follow this example.

But we have to admit that some English words are far more easier on the mouth as well as the ear. No wonder that European authorities are aghast at the free usage of phrases such as "surfen", "downloaden", "emailear" and "le-weekend". But is this a bad thing ? Not at all. Languages cannot exist in isolation especially in this era of the Internet and instant communications. The introduction of foreign words can enrich a language and aid communication.

Besides, this is how languages have evolved in the first place. English has "borrowed" words from 350 other languages over the last 1,000 years, including up to 60,000 words from French during the Middle Ages, as well as from Latin and Greek, Italian and Spanish. Ironically, French purists are now worried about the 'return' of some of these very words back to French.

Although French President Jacques Chirac has been quoted as saying that "nothing would be worse for humanity than to move towards a situation where we speak only one language" it could make the idea of one global village a reality. The world needs a lingua franca and English is the frontrunner at the moment. Just imagine how easy it would be to communicate if everybody everywhere understood English.

About 800 million people now speak English either as their first language or as a second language. More people are learning English everyday, elevating Shakespeare's language to new heights. That said, we need linguistic diversity. But in recognising this need, we should be wise enough to leave the languages to learn from, and enrich, each other.

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