Rukman Senanayake, the formerUNP chairman and AssistantLeader, was dropped from the

UNP national list in a move that sur-prised many. The rumour that flewaround Colombo was that Senanayakehad been denied appointment to parlia-ment because of a fear that he couldbecome a focal point in a contest for theopposition leader’s post. In this inter-view, C. A. Chandraprema speaks toSenanyake about what could well turnout to be a career ending event for him.

Q. The Sunday political columns saidthat Ranil Wickremesinghe had rungyou and explained his difficulty in giv-ing you a national list seat. What did hesay in justification for keeping you out?

A. The party leader never called me.On the day that the national lists werehanded over to the commissioner ofelections, at around 10.30 I got a callfrom party headquarters from a partyofficial, telling me that the leader want-ed to see me at around 12.30. By 11.00 amI heard that the UNP national list hadbeen handed over and that my name hadbeen left out. At 12.30 I called the partyleader and asked him why he wanted tomeet me since they had already taken adecision. Then he started talking aboutdifficulties. I told him that a decisionhas been taken and that he could keepmy other posts as well.

Q. At the last parliamentary election,we saw a kind of resurgence of theSenanayake family. Now there are twoSenanayakes on both sides of the divide,Wasantha Senanayake in the UPFA and

Ruwan Wijewardene in the UNP, but youare out. Where do things stand with youas of now?

A. As far as I am concerned, I dideverything for the UNP. This is a partythat was founded and nurtured by mem-bers of my family from D.S.Senanaykedownwards.

Q. Wasn’t it not a mistake to moveout of electoral politics and accept thispost of assistant leader, in a situationwhere party office bearers were asked toresign from their electoral organiser-ships and become dependent on thenational list to get into parliament?

A. I first came into parliament in1973. At the four parliamentary electionsheld before the last one, I won from twodistricts - twice from Polonnaruwa andtwice from Kegalle. Then I was made the

Chairman of the party and subsequentlymade assistant leader. When the partywants me to leave district level politicsand go into national politics, I don’texpect that to be part of a scheme to cutshort my career. At this election, I neverasked the party leader to put my nameon the national list. It was he who putmy name on it. If he asked me to con-test, I would have contested. After Ihanded my electorate over to someoneelse, I can’t take it back – that’s not prop-er. However I could have contested froma different district. So right throughout,he had it at the back of his mind to cutme off.

Q. Where does this leave the assis-tant leader’s post? You find the partytreasurer appointed and others who hadvery little to do with the party, but notthe assistant leader of the party.

A. The position has been completelydevalued. If you talk of the party hierar-chy, it’s the leader, deputy leader assis-tant leader, general secretary, and thenthe Treasurer. So of those on the nation-al list, I should have been number one.But the assistant leader has been exclud-ed and some newcomers to the partybrought in.

Q. You say the party leader was keento get you out. What signs did you see ofthat?

A. When the conflict between theLTTE and the government was at itsheight, I took up the position that we asa party must support the war effort,because that’s our duty. I took as anexample, the way both DudleySenanayake and J.R.Jayawardene sup-ported the Sirima Bandaranaiake gov-ernment during the JVP insurgency of1971. My contention was that if in ademocracy certain individuals take uparms to achieve political power, they arenot freedom fighters, but terrorists.There can be freedom fighters in a dicta-torship, but not in a democracy. Thestand I took angered the party leader alot. He asked me, why are you doingthis? And I said “Sir we have to take upa position like that for the sake of thecountry”.

Q. What was his response to that?A. You know that he does not con-

front people. His face was just dead panwhen I said that. Then about the JanakaPerera murder, I openly said it was doneby the LTTE. But the party was trying tofoist the blame on the government. WhatI said was, don’t whitewash the LTTE

because you are playing with fire. Hehad later made a comment to a personknown to me that Rukman had spokenagainst him. This was one indicationthat he was displeased with me. Thensince 1994, the party has been deterio-rating steadily, and I pointed out tohim that the Sinhala Buddhist votehas gone against us completely. So Itold him, that we must go back to thegrassroots level and rebuild this party.At one point I told him, to sharepower. “You be the opposition leaderand let someone else be the partyleader, like the arrangement betweenDudley Senanayake andJ.R.Jayawardene in the early 1970s”. Isaid all these things in his presence atthe proper forum – the working com-mittee.

Q. You were a part of the UNPreformist group in 2006. Howeverwhen Mr Karu Jayasuriya and those18 MPs left, you opted to stay back.Now you see that most of those wholeft, are doing very well. They were ingovernment for four years and most ofthem have been re-elected. In fact, hadall those people remained within theUNP, more of them would have failedto get re-elected this time. Do youregret not having joined them in 2006?

A. I have no

regrets because the UNP is in myblood. I have been sidelined because ofa person who is not fit to be in politics.

Q. What do you intend doing aboutwhat has been done to you?

A. I don’t know how one canreverse what has been done to me. Butfor the sake of the party, all membersmust get together and throw this manout. It has to be done, otherwise thisparty is finished. The whole countrytoday is asking for Sajith Premadasa.

If you talk to ten people, nine wouldwant Sajith to take over. Right nowwhat is happening is that we are losingeven the base we had. We have beencompletely wiped out at the parliamen-tary election and for the party to getits confidence back we need a changeof leadership. I am going to do every-thing possible to make that a reality.

Q. You were referring to the inter-nal situation of the party. What aboutthe external factor? You are faced withthe strongest government that we haveseen independence. J.R.Jayawardenemay have had more MPs in parlia-ment but never the same proportionof votes. The if you take the rulingfamily, they are not prone to messingthings up on a grand scale. The mis-takes they make are marginal. So youmay not see the popularity of the gov-ernment plummeting in the shortterm. Even if you change the leader-ship of the UNP what is the guaranteethat you can win the next election?

A. In 1970, Mrs Bandarasnaikewon with a two thirds majority. Butby 1977 we were able to get a five sixthmajority…

Q. But you don’t have the condi-tions, the economic hardship, theshortages etcetera that led to that sit-uation today.

A. Our debt servicing paymentsare now bigger than our income, sothere can be problems in the future.In any case these problems can be uti-lized against the government only ifthere is a powerful opposition. WithRanil Wickremesinghe around, wewill not have even a fighting chance.Whatever chance there is to come intopower will depend heavily on who isin control of the party.

Q. Some say that you wereremoved because you did not work forthe presidential election. What is thetruth in that?

A. At that time, I openly said thatour not contesting the presidentialelection was a mistake. I pointed outthat the UNP rank and file sufferedunder the JVP in the late eighties andto go into a joint programme with theJVP was suicidal. Then we droppedour party symbol to which peoplewere emotionally attached. Despitethese misgivings, whenever I wasasked to go for a meeting, I went.

Q. You said that you are going to doeverything in your ability to see thatthere is a leadership change, but youhave resigned from all your positionsin the party. So what is the platformyou now have?

A. I am in touch with members ofthe working committee and the parlia-mentary group. I also intend goingaround the country and meeting theparty stalwarts in the various districtsand explaining matters to them.

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The wholecountry is asking forSajith — Rukman

You know that he doesnot confront people.His face was just deadpan when I said that.Then about the JanakaPerera murder, I open-ly said it was done bythe LTTE. But the partywas trying to foist theblame on the govern-ment. What I said was,don’t whitewash theLTTE because you areplaying with fire. Hehad later made a com-ment to a personknown to me thatRukman had spokenagainst him.

BY ANDREW HOUGHDinosaurs were wiped out by sud-

den drop in temperatures, not bycomet striking the planet, scientistsclaimed.

British researchers claim that a sud-den plummeting in thesea temperature of16F (9C) morethan 137 mil-lion yearsago

was the first step towards their eventualroad to extinction.

While studying fossils and mineralsfrom the Arctic

Svalbard, Norway,they concludedthe suddenchange in theAtlantic GulfStream during the

Cretaceous periodwould almost certainly

have wiped out the ‘’abun-dance’’ of the world’s dinosaurs. Some experts believe the creatures

were wiped out by one cataclysmic event65 million years ago – such as a meteorhitting the planet.

But the new research suggests theywere wiped out by a series of environ-mental changes, starting with a drop insea temperatures.

Gregory Price, from PlymouthUniversity, who led the study, said histeam’s research showed the drop in tem-perature happened when the Earth was ina ‘’greenhouse’’ climate, which was very

similar to now. He found the drop in temperatures was

so severe that numerous species ofdinosaur previously living in warm, shal-low seas, land and swamps would havedied out.

‘’We believe dinosaurs were most likelyto be cold-blooded creatures and wouldhave needed the warmth to keep themalive,” he said.

© The Telegraph Group London 2010

Dinosaurs died from sudden temperaturedrop ‘not comet strike’, scientists claim

“

“

One of the fossils discovered in theSvalbard by scientists.