Is the Upali Wijewardena affair the first sign of fissures in the UNP?

On Friday, November 20, the debate on the United National Party's (UNP) fifth budget was dominated by a man who is not even a member of the house, and has in fact failed several times to win party nomination to a vacant seat."Interpol To Investigate Upali's Activities'" screamed the banner headline of the state-owned Daily Minor. "Ronnie Will Put Interpol On Upali's Trail" ran the headline in the independent Sun. "How Did Upali Amass His Wealth? Tax Hounds On Treasure Trail" said the country's leading newspaper, the Government-controlled Daily News. It was Finance Minister Ronnie De Mel's blistering two-hour attack on Upali Wijewardena which had made the headlines.Yet, on the same evening, Interpol and tax sleuths notwithstanding, Upali Wijewardena, director-general of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCFC) was escorting his cousin, President J. R. Jayawardene on an inspection tour of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ). This event claimed the headlines in Sri Lanka's newest newspaper, the two-month-old Island. "Election Pledge Fulfilled Says Upali. 19000 F.T.Z. Workers Cheer The President" said the Island. Its owner: Upali Wijewardena. And now the politics of the Island and its boss have begun to complicate the island's politics.The Ronnie-Upali quarrel is a longstanding feud. It was Ronnie De Mel, then an opposition MP, who first raised questions in Parliament about Wijewardena's business transactions which, to say the least, sail pretty close to the wind. Never shy in admitting it. Upali, Sri Lanka's first tycoon, makes an ideological virtue of its by boasting how he uses legal loopholes. His favourite modus operandi is to weave a web of interlocking companies, spread out in different countries ranging from Britain to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, United States and Australia.When President Jayawardene appointed him to the top post in the Free Trade Zone, the new private enterprise-oriented UNP Government's "showpiece", Upali had to appear before a Parliamentary committee screening top-level appointees. The committee chaired by Prime Minister R. Premadasa, consisted of several key ministers, including the Minister of Trade, Lalith Athulathmudali and the finance minister. All of them are in their late forties and fifties and therefore potential rivals to the 43-year-old Upali who has never concealed his boundless political ambitions. On account of a possible "conflict of interests" the committee found him unsuitable. But President Jayawardene chose to ignore the committee report.Upali then decided to take the plunge. When Parliament had two vacant seats, Kamburupitiya and Kalawana, it was all systems go for the Upali political machine. But a powerful party caucus blocked each of his moves. Upali identifies this group with Premier Premadasa, Finance Minister De Mel. Athulathmudali and - half a dozen others who regard him as an outsider and an upstart.These disappointments and defeats have only proved a spur to his limitless ambition and stiffened his resolve to settle scores with those who have crossed his path. Given rarely to modesty, he has told the local and foreign press that he would like to be the finance minister or in his own lofty phrase "The Ludwig Erhard of Sri Lanka". Wijewardena: target of attackAnd this, naturally, is only a stepping stone to the final goal which is nothing less than the presidency. (Though the 75-year-old Jayawardene is obviously keen on a second term. The issue of succession is very much alive.) As Upali told India Today: "The President has often told me that he would like to have me in his cabinet. Given my academic background, and my extensive business experience in the past twenty years and if I may say so the success I have achieved. I thought that the Finance Ministry was the most suitable for me."It would be difficult to match his pedigree. A cousin of President Jayawardene, Upali married former prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's niece six years ago. His uncle, D. R. Wijewardena, the Beaver-brook of Ceylon, founded the Lake House Press and another uncle, on his mother's side, was president of the Senate. His nephew is minister of education. Educated at Royal College, Colombo and Cambridge, the ex-Unilever executive who started a business that now has an annual turnover estimated at a hundred million dollars has taken care to retain a politically important "family" title as lay custodian of the Kelaniya Rajamaha Vihare, one of the most venerated Buddhist temples. Besides all this he is an intimate friend of Anura Bandaranaike MP of the rival Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).Upali launched his newspaper in early October. If the Island proved an instant success it was not because the paper was an outstanding exhibition of journalistic excellence. For a highly literate and politically conscious public tired of the state-controlled media, it was a welcome gust of fresh air. The mainstream media (Radio, Lake House Press, Times Group, TV) ventilated public grievances less and less even as economic hardships grew and the Government's popularity slumped. What incensed an alert and sceptical reading public even more was the manner in which a sycophantic media deified the ministers and glorified their pet schemes.The Island trained its guns on what it calls these holy cows. By a coincidence which escaped nobody the Island has been picking on the prime minister, De Mel and others who are not among Upali's favourites.What has infuriated some UNP panjandrums and their fawning coteries is a gossip column masquerading as satire. Its thinly disguised characters are so easily identifiable that the Colombo middle class, gluttons for gossip, lap it up greedily each Sunday.The counter-attack started earlier this month with an inquiry being sought into shareholder complaints in two Colombo-based firms controlled by Upali. Financial skulduggery was alleged and even forgery insinuated. Then came an unusual intervention from the Opposition. Describing Upali as the "biggest crook in Sri Lankan history", R.P. Wijesiri (SLFP) asked the prime minister and the finance minister if they were "scared" of Upali.Because of Wijesiri's close contacts with UNP stalwarts these developments lead to several questions. Is the Upali affair the first sign of fissures in the UNP? Could the Ronnie-Upali fight become a proxy war between President and premier? If the UNP cracks widen, would there be a re-grouping of UNP and SLFP factions before the next elections? Whatever happens, says communist leader, Mrs Pieter Keuneman. "The UNP's image, especially its foreign image, has been badly damaged, for Upali is the symbol of the Government's open door policy. Now he may be its 'window of vulnerability'.".preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 24, 2013--- ENDS ---

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Is the Upali Wijewardena affair the first sign of fissures in the UNP?

On Friday, November 20, the debate on the United National Party's fifth budget was dominated by a man who is not even a member of the house, and has in fact failed several times to win party nomination to a vacant seat.

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