The ‘republican’ credentials of Patali Champika Ranawaka

• Most of these parties and organizations 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 organizations haven’t stopped his star from rising in the political firmament
• 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

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 judgement 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 organizations 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 organizations 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 realized 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 PM Ranil 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, 20th and 21st amendments to the Constitution. 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 conceptualizing 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 cozy with the USA or rather the representatives and thinking of that country. He’s come a long way from screaming for ‘capitalism of the 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 May 22 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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www.malindawords.blogspot.com.