THE UNITED NATIONAL PARTY ADMITS THAT THE PARTY IS DIVIDED WITH FACTIONAL INFIGHTING OF MANY GROUPS
(By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles)
The United National Party’s Deputy General Secretary admiited in Colombo that the main opposition party in Sri Lanka is divided with factional infighting
He admitted that a senior leader of the party M. H. Mohamed is having arguments with the leader’s main political ally Milinda Moragoda with whom Ranil Wickremesinghe was touring India, last week.
He said it was natural for the party to have such infighting in the midst of electoral defeats and even in the past the party has had such divisions .
Attanayaka was referring to the most serious infighting in the United National Party in which the popular former leader of the UNP Dudley Senanayaka was challenged in the courts by the then second in command of the party Junius Jayewardene who believed he could not come to power as long as any Senanayaka was powerful.
Attanayaka said the current factional fighting will be overcome.
Already five UNP parliamentarians have crossed over to the government and since many more were expected to cross over, the UNP leader reportedly sought the help of Colombo’s Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao’s help to bring pressure on the Sri Lankan government not to accept the defectors.
Meanwhile a Sunday newspaper extremely close to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe attacked three UNP stalwarts for what they called proposing reorganization of the party but actually intending to capture power in the party. The newspaper called one of them a “silly” man for arguing with Ranil Wickremesinghe. The silly man according to the pro- Wickremesinghe organ happens to be the Constitutional Affairs Minister of his former government whom he sent as the emissary to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The newspaper believed never to publish anything about the UNP without consulting Wickremesinghe accused the national organizer of the party S. B. Dissanayaka as having “private agendas” and having ambitions of grabbing the party candidature for Presidency in 2011 from Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Southern UNP stalwart Mahinda Wijesekera was also accused of having similar agendas by the Wickremesinghe organ. It also accused G. L. Peiris of having secret talks with the country’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa to cross over to the government side in parliament.
Meanwhile there is a younger set of members of Parliament who have been asking Wickremesinghe to resign from the Party leadership since the Presidential election last year.
Some have alleged under the guise of party reorganization, Tissa Attanayaka and Ranil Wickremesinghe faction have been drawing plans to remove some anti-Wickremesinghe electoral party organizers and replace them with loyal hands.
