I remembered R K W (Raja) Goonesekera. Patali Champika Ranawaka made me remember him. It took me back to the year 1992.
When
Patali Champika Ranawaka, along with 14 others were arrested in a
temple in February that year and detained for three weeks, the Bar
Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) accepted a request to represent the
group. A fundamental rights case was filed in the Supreme Court. The
case, ‘Channa Pieris and Others v Attorney General and Others’ is also
referred to as the ‘Ratawesi Peramuna Case’ (SC Applications 145/92 to
154/92 and 155/92). A bench that included Justice Dr A R B Amarasinghe
determined that their fundamental rights had indeed been violated.
Justice Amarasinghe, in his book on fundamental rights in Sri Lanka,
referred to the case several times. It is considered a landmark judgment
and has been frequently cited in FR applications thereafter.
Among
the BASL members who represented the group were Donald Walter ‘Bacon’
Abayakoon, Manori Muttetuwegama, Sanath Jayatilleka and R K W
Goonesekera. By way of helping these legal luminaries draft the
affidavits, I, one of the petitioners, was tasked to interview and write
down the political histories of my fellow petitioners.
The genial Counsel Goonesekera having read Ranawaka’s history made a comment that I have not forgotten:
‘I
say, this Champa Ranawaka (yes, he mispronounced the name then and in
court as well) is a remarkable fellow. But I worry. You know, I have
seen people like this before. I once heard Mahinda Wijesekera speak. He
was brilliant — thinking on his feet, shooting off his hip. Look where
he is now. I hope this fellow won’t end up in the UNP.’
He did.
For a while at least. There’s no telling if the parting of ways in 2020
marked the burning of bridges. In politics, bridges are rebuilt and if
not, there are innumerable vessels that can be used to cross back. And
forth.
Here’s his history in a nutshell: the Janatha Vimukthi
Peramuna, Jathika Chinthanaya, Ratawesi Peramuna (RP), Janatha Mithuro
(JM), National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), Sihala Urumaya (SU),
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led
by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the United National Front for
Good Governance led by the United National Party and the Samagi Jana
Balavegaya (SJB) which was essentially the rebranded UNP.
Most
of these parties and organisations are now defunct, in decline or have
embraced ideologies that are far removed from what was espoused
originally. Patali Champika Ranawaka is still around. The misfortunes of
these organisations haven’t stopped his star from rising in the
political firmament.
Not too long ago, parting ways with the SJB,
he launched a group called ’43 Senankaya (Battalion 43).’ Not ‘43rd’ as
he himself occasionally mis-names his own political formation, but ’43’
(after the year in which free education was launched in the country).
Now he’s all set to launch a new party, ‘United Republican Front (URF).’
The launch has been scheduled deliberately for May 22, 2023, the 51st
anniversary of the day in which Sri Lanka became truly politically
independent, i.e. a Republic. The name, the date, the history make
sense, but only as frills.
If history says anything, his
followers, admirers and political associates should know that for
Champika, as he once openly stated, political parties are mere vessels
that allow him to move from one shore to another. Stepping stones, then.
People don’t have to stay in one place, politically or
ideologically. They can plead, ‘I know better now.’ That’s legitimate;
one does not have to stay rooted just because roots were put out at one
point if one realised that it was the wrong spot to stop.
Where is he going, though? Put another way, where can he go?
Strictly
in terms of positions held, the previous avatar would seem more grand.
He was after all President Sirisena’s ‘right hand man’ in the
Constitutional Council even as he was Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s
‘right hand man’ as General Secretary of the coalition led by the UNP.
He was a minister then and today he’s fighting to retain his
parliamentary seat.
Given the way politics unfolds following the
Second Republican Constitution (1978) with proportional representation
and the marked reluctance for electoral reform, new entrants do not make
waves. The SU got one seat in 2000. The JHU, in a unique political
context, got 9 in 2004. Small parties do have a role. They help color
the picture of a coalition. The leaders, if eloquent (and he is), clever
(he is) and has a reputation as a doer and not talker (he’s a doer; his
accomplishments when handed over important ministries are impressive),
could attract the preferential votes of loyalists belonging to the main
political party of the coalition. They could also wrangle a spot on a
national list.
But where is Patali going? Where does he want to
go? With whom? The answer is, ‘well, he would know, for personal goals
outweigh ideology and even political groups he himself forms/leads.’
He
voted for the 18th, 19th and 21st amendments to the Constitution [In the original article published in the Daily Mirror, I erroneously stated that he had voted for the 20th as well. Apologies to Mr Ranawaka].
They were certainly not tailored from the same political cloth. I
haven’t heard any explanations from him. He was the General Secretary of
the coalition led by Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP even as he was
SLFP leader and president Maithripala Sirisena’s representative in the
Constitutional Council. He was a minister under Mahinda Rajapaksa and in
the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government.
He was, unlike others
playing the ‘small party’ card to further personal political ambitions
(he is ambitious and that’s not a crime), a key spokesperson for those
regimes and coalitions. Indeed, he was clearly the thinker when it came
to conceptualising and writing political manifestos. Good as a side kick
to some ‘whoever’ who may even consider offering him the prime
minister’s post which of course would be read by him as yet another
stepping stone.
To expect him to be a republican or a
nationalist at this point, however, would be silly. His minions in a
recent YouTube discussion clearly indicated that Patali Champika
Ranawaka is quite cosy with the USA or rather the representatives and
thinking of that country. He’s come a long way from screaming for
‘capitalism of he Putin and Mahathir kind.’ Makes sense. If he’s THAT
right wing, he might as well share bed with the big bosses of that
paradigm. Republican, then, in the sense of the Reagans, Bushes and
Trumps of this world. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is what
amuses me about picking the 22nd of May to launch his latest party. This
is what made me remember and respect all the more that kind, gentle,
highly intelligent man of integrity, R K W ‘Raja’ Goonesekera.
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