The birth and demise of UNP (Unpatriotic Non-national Party)
Posted on December 6th, 2019

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS)

The beginning

The United National Party (UNP) was formed in 1946 by the merger of the Ceylon National Congress and the Sinhala Mahasabha to contest the first Parliamentary election of the Independent Ceylon under the Soulbury Constitution in 1948, to enable the Westminster system of Government to function smoothly (as they said) under a party system, as Political parties are considered essential to the working of representative government under a democratic system.

It is said that it was Henry Monk Mason Moor, the then Governor (1944-1948) who suggested this name mischievously whereby he implied that there are many nations in this country which was a complete travesty of authentic history of this Island nation as there had been only one nation in this country from the dawn of history and that was The Sinhala Nation. Contrary to this historical fact the British identified even Tamils and Muslim communities living here, who were only descendants of alien immigrants, particularly from South India, over time also as nations. Introduction of this concept by the British was aimed at cementing the divide and rule policy of keeping Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim divided and the country destabilized and to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist nation. This was the first time anyone has implied Tamils and Muslims as nations in any country in the world and it was also the first time they recognized any country with more than one nation. Because every country in the world has only one nation as it is defined in political science.

Usually nationality is defined as a ‘spiritual sentiment or principle arising among a number of people usually of the same race, resident on the same territory, sharing a common language, the same religion, similar history and traditions, common interests, with common political associations and common ideals of political unity.’ Within this context the Sinhala people are the only group of people, who could be called a Nation, within this country, and that is how it had been recorded from the inception of history. Usually the name of the nationality of any country comes after the language of the people who have found the civilization in that country.

Therefore Mason Moor’s assumption had no historical or a rational basis. As such it was absolutely wrong as there was only one nation called Sihalese (Ceylonese as the British called them), in this country even in 1946. What is more is at the time of ceding to Briton in 1815, this country was known as Sinhale as documented in the Kandyan Convention and the nation at that time was also Sinhala. The word Sinhalese meant the people of the Sinhale (the land of the Sinhala people), as it was known from 543 BC and their language was Sinhala. On the other hand the only place on earth Tamils can claim to be a nation by way of this definition is Tmilnadu in South India, but curiously even there, they are not recognized as a nation. There they are known as Indians. As for Muslims there is no nation called Muslim anywhere in the world. They are only a group of people following Islam; a religious denomination as Buddhists or Catholics. The nationality of Muslims all over the world is decided not by religion but by the language or the country where they live, like America, Australia, New Zealand all newly colonized countries by Europeans. Japan, China, India, Russia, England, France and Spain are few examples for the language category. As for the country category Pakistanis, Bengali, Egyptians or Iranians could be cited as examples.  On the other hand there is no country in the world that has a nation named after a religion.  As such it is quite strange that only in this country Muslims are pretending to call themselves a nation. Therefore one can conclude that this multi-national concept in this country was purely a vicious invention imposed on us by the British to consolidate their intrigue in realizing the divide and rule in this country.

The UNP was born as a non-national Political Party.

The term United National Party (UNP), it is argued, was invented to unite the different Nations in the country. Thus the concept of the presence of many nations in this country gained legal recognition for the first time in the history of this country in 1946. Native leaders led by D.S.Senanayaka blindly agreed to accept this new concept in a wink without realizing the total distortion of the Islands history and its long term implications and the British coup behind it to destabilize and divide this country. The UNP did not object or protest to this historical blunder and total distortion of the history of this country. Instead they meekly swallowed that colonial virus. K.M. De Silva in his book ‘The First Prime Minister of Ceylon D.S’ has stated that D.S.Senananyaka was a strong supporter of the multi- national, multi religious concept and he argued for a Lankan nation, in place of a Sinhala nation as it had been up to 1815. He also says D.S. believed in a secular State and he rejected the idea of getting religion involved in the affairs   of the    State as he thought that will affect inter religious and inter-ethnic harmony.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         This stand on the part of D.S. would have fitted very well to the colonial agenda.

The first Betrayal by the UNP

This historical blunder later led to the concept of Sri Lanka being internationally accepted later as a multinational country although Sinhalese constituted over 80% of the total population of the country even at that time (after changing the demographic composition  for 443 years from 1505-1948, by colonial invaders) and put Sinhalese in par with the minority communities who all ways had their motherlands somewhere else unlike the Sinhalese. Total population in 1946 was 6.657.300. (Sinh 4.673, 600; Ceylon Tamils and Ceylon Moors 1.514 300. (CT 733,700. CM 780,600). The balance constituted Indian Tamils and Indian Moors, Burgers and Europeans and Malay who were not Ceylonese at that time. By doing so the British downgraded the Native Sinhala nation, the Bhumiputras of the land and elevated the Tamils and Muslims to parity status with Sinhalese, the sons of the soil. This was the first  betrayal of the Sinhala nation by the UNP. I put the whole blame for this betrayal on all the leading politicians who agreed to accept this name and took over the country from the British in 1948. Thus at the very outset the UNP started as an anti-national political party from the point of view of Sinhalese as it did not recognize the Sinhala people as the Nation or the bhoomiputras of this country and therefore I argue the UNP can never be accepted as a National political Party that is suitable to be given the power to govern this country from its very origin.

The UNP failed to get full Independence to this country or the Sinhala Nation

Furthermore the UNP also failed in 1948 the UNP failed

 2) To get the name of the country Sinhale” restored.

3) To get the freedom over the motherland by asking the British to take back all those South Indian Tamils they brought here to work on their projects, specially the plantations as cheap labour.

4) To get a Constitution of our own enacted based on our civilization  as a fully independent and free State without just accepting a made in Britain Constitution drafted by them (Jennings) designed to perpetuate their control of the Island and exploitation of its resources.

5) To get our own legal and Administrative system restored that was there for millennia

6) To get the language of the people of the country, Sinhala, declared as the official language of the State and finally.

7) To get full freedom and Independence from the shackles and clutches of colonial rule (by accepting Dominion status while India was declared as a Republic in 1951).

8 To complete sovereignty by taking over all aspects of defense and internal security by asking for Trinco and Ratmalana Air bases vested

9) By leaving the executive power of the Island to continue to be vested in his Majesty in England under sec 45 of the Constitution

10 By accepting the entire Legal and Administrative system prescribed by the British in order to continue their hold over the former Colony.

This made the 1948 Independence a big faux pass. Therefore the UNP has absolutely no right to claim that it has got independence to this country in 1948. It only replaced the white rulers with a local brown set of people who shared the same values as the British.

So what is the Independence they got about which they boast so much.

Very soon the UNP became a group of closely knit family circle that  was duped as Uncle and Nephew Party” merely enjoying the fruits of political power for personal gain serving the British colonial masters instead of building a free and Independent nation as a country that has got independence from colonial rule  and serving the natives.. History has clearly proved that the first UNP Government has done nothing towards this goal other than the continuation of the Dry Zone settlement development and irrigation work started during the State Council days with immense contribution from people like S.W.R.D.Bandaranayaka and S.A. Wickramasingha.

Bandaranayaka firing the first salvo of true Independence and freedom

S.W.R.D. Bandaranayaka disillusioned by this negative approach of the UNP Government left it in 1952 and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. D.S the first Prime Minister died in 1953.The native Sinhala Buddhists got disgusted and disillusioned over the neglect of their lost 2500 year birth rights like the language, religion and culture the disregard for their customs and values by the UNP and revolted in 1956 and formed a new people’s government under the leadership of national leaders headed by S.W, R. D. reducing the UNP to 8 seats in Parliament. This historic national resurgence movement was fuelled by the Buddhist Commission Report of 1953 and Eksath Bhikshu Peramuna led by a large number of prominent Buddhist monks in the Island. The new Government introduced a series of patriotic moves first, by making the Sinhala, native language of the nation, the Official language of the country after 141 years. Thus the sons of the soil actually felt some sense of freedom only in 1956 and it is hailed as the dawn of a new era for in Sinhala Buddhist resurgence for the first time not only after 1948 but also since 1848. It was popularly called the dawn of the age of the common man. This brought to an end the first unsuccessful phase of the UNP. But as the reactionary forces led by the Catholic church and the Western interests assassinated Bandaranayaka in 1959 the UNP again raised its head again in 1965 with a 3 months spell in 1960 march without any significant achievement in nation building.

During this period Dudley Senanayaka, among other things, undid all what Sirima Bandaranayaka had cleverly done to settle the Indian  Estate labour problem through her 1964 negotiations with  Indian Prime Ministers Sastri and 1974 with Indira, paving the way to keep back all Indians back at Home and thereby acted treacherously against the Motherland and the Sinhala nation. Had Sirimas plan worked the way it was agreed upon, today there would have been no Indian problem in the central hill country of this country. According to that agreement out of 825000 only 125000 had to be given Sri Lanka citizenship.

The third UNP government was formed under J. R. Jayawardhana in 1977 he made a 360 degrees reversal of the all that good achievements of Mrs B on the Indian citizenship problem. His Government also completely reversed the nationalistic policies of the previous SLFP pro- Sinhala pro-Buddhist government, passed a new Constitution in 1987 replacing the 1972 Republican Constitution and introduced the Executive Presidential system of Government conferring enormous powers to himself as the Executive President. He signed the infamous Rajiv /JR Accord in 1987 by which he agreed to declare the Northern and Eastern Provinces Comprising 1/3 of the total area of the country and 2/3 of the Island’s coastal belt, paving the way for separation and leading to a Federal State in the North and East with 9 independent Provincial Councils under the notorious 13th amendment with power over land with Judicial and police powers to be governed by 9 Provincial Councils headed by 9 Governors and 9 Provincial Chief Ministers with  nearly 700 Provincial level MPP and 45 Ministers, granting Citizenship to all Indians in this country over the counter over an affidavit without any conditions and without following the normal procedure in granting citizenship to foreigners in any country, making Tamil also a national language all over the country and thereby reversing the status of the Sinhala (language of the natives), that was the official language for  21 years from 1956 the historic year of declaring it the official language once again after 1815, increasing the number of MPP in Parliament from 155 to 225 with 29 National list MPP specially made to accommodate political stooges with no qualification without having to face the elections, politicizing the entire public service by  introducing a compulsory chit system from the local MP to get a Government job, giving a free hand for UNP goons to run the country, removing the Civil rights of the Mrs Bandaranayaka for 7 years, increasing the number of Ministers in the central Government to nearly 112 at the centre, creating a new kind of Ministers called State Ministers and non- Cabinet  and creating 45 Ministers at the Provincial level are some of the prominent betrayals his government did ab initio.

This increased the number of superficial politicians, institutions and staff at least by five times and the government expenditure went up exponentially by billions with very little benefit to people and it completely disorganized and destabilized the provincial administration that was smoothly run until then under an excellent system of District Administration.

It should also be noted that Rajiv/JR Accord of July 29th 1987 was singed under Island wide emergency using the 3/5th power he had in Parliament after getting all MPP to sign undated letters of resignation, under compulsion, and confining all of them to a leading hotel in the city until they were driven to  Parliament to get the vote for this treacherous Accord, thereby making democracy a big joke This was UNP democracy in practice. This clearly shows that the passing of this Accord in Parliament was undemocratic and illegal from the beginning to the end. The biggest political coup during this time was the removal of Mrs Bandaranayakas’ civil rights by the UNP in October 1980 for 7 years, blatantly violating not only all our age old traditional values and ethics of a Sinhala Buddhist society but also all basic tenets and ethics of human rights of the so-called modern world, by just acting as an servile agent of the Western colonial and imperial masters to suppress an emerging independent nation in this country for their political survival. This in short was how democracy was seduced under JR Government,

Thereafter in 1982 he got the term of Parliament extended for a second term of another 5 years under a referendum conducted in the most undemocratic manner. They also had an election in 1989 March and R. Premadasa took over as the President. Other than starting a garment industry and construction of few houses under Gamudava programme and constructing clock towers at the roundabout all over the country, hardly any other significant development took place during this period.

 Again the UNP came to power under Ranil as PM in 2001 for a short period by accident. During this time he signed an agreement with Prabakaran who had waged war against this nation to create a separate Tamil Kingdom in the North and East of this land of the Sinhala Buddhists without the knowledge of President Chandrika and his government was sacked by Chandrika in 2004. He was defeated by Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2005 Presidential election and was driven in to political wilderness until he got appointed unconstitutionally as PM again in Jan 2015 by Maitripala Sirisena a hired out SLFP man who became the President, with the help of a master intrigue by Western powers in collaboration with India and even local agents, after quitting and betraying the only Party that brought about the first wave of national resurgence in 1956 after independence and that nursed him as a political cub for long years. The first job they jointly did was to rob the Nation’s Central Bank. Ranil as the Prime Minister was the chief architect in this mega scam. But for obvious reasons the President has not taken any action against Ranil up to date, who got a Singaporean citizen Arjun Mahendran appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank and got him to rob the Bank  and there after send him back to Singapore and helped him to hide there in safety to date.

This was followed by a series of undemocratic conspiracies like the dissolution of Parliament in July 2015 to avoid a Parliamentary debate on the COPE report, followed by August General elections, the second CB scam of 2016 and  a plethora of anti –national, anti- Sinhala and unpatriotic actions such as selling national assets like Colombo, Hambantota and Trinco harbours together with 101 oil Tanks at Trico and  Air Ports like Mattala and Pallali to India and China, allowing the Tamil and Muslim extremists to run riots and betrayed the country at International forum like the UN and UNCHR and destroying the oldest political party in the country by internal feuds for power directly goes to Ranil’s account. What more evidence is needed to show the disqualifications of the UNP to hold on to national politics in this country anymore? Right from its birth in 1946 the UNP leadership, thus, has never been patriotic. Starting from naming the Party, blindly accepting the form of Government, machinery of governance imposed by Briton and formulation of all its policies the UNP had never been inward looking. Instead of building up a free, Independent and a proud nation based on our own 2500 year old heritage it always looked up for Western advice and Western advisors in all matters as if we were a nation who never had a history or an

In addition to their miserable past record, looking at the ongoing infighting within the Party and the mess they have made out of it how can anyone can expects them to run this country. The UNP is like a scrambled egg now.  As much as no one on earth can unscramble an egg scrambled none can put the UNP together now. Ranil is the worst and the most undemocratic, self- centered, irresponsible and inefficient leader UNP ever had in its 72 years of history. He had never been a Statesman or a man with a vision or a mission. He always has thought and acted as an agent of the West. He never had his feet on this land and I would rate him as the worst leader the UNP ever had and more over he will go down in history who signed the death warrant of UNP. Besides monopolizing the leadership nearly for 30 years he also never allowed a second generation of potential leaders to emerge, neither at the top and the middle or the lower levels.  He has never allowed a successor to emerge. What is more is Ranil has destroyed it not only by taking in transitory passengers like Fonseka, Rajjitha, Mangala, Kiriella, Champika and removing all potential candidates belonging to the traditional UNP leadership like Rukman Senanayaka and Jayawarhanas  but also by aligning heavily with anti-Sinhala elements like TNA, Hakeem and Digambaran. Now that he has completely destroyed Sajit too, there is no one to be seen   even at the end of the dark and long tunnel who could take up the leadership after him. So today the UNP has got reduced to an utterly disorganized, leaderless and radar less party with no future, as good as it is already dead and buried thanks to Ranil, a classic political misfit in Sri Lanka political history. He has dragged the UNP in to high seas and abandoned it there to sink.

Today as it stands even a tiny tot in a village compound can understand that there is no political party called the UNP in this country any more. As one writer recently said History will write him (Ranil) off as morally corrupt pimp of the West who dragged the Grand Old Party, the Parliament and the people to the lowest moral level in the post-independent era”. To this I would add that the UNP under his leadership during the past 4 1/2 years has ruined the whole country and the entire social system beyond recovery. The knell of parting day will toll for Ranil on election night on Nov 16. But how many UNP mourners will be there to follow him to his political grave?” So said the same writer quoted above quite rightly.

With regard to the ongoing tussle between Ranil and Sajit some might have thought it was over with Sajith‘s appointment as the Presidential candidate. That is far from the truth. It is only the beginning of another major conflict. Ranil did everything to defeat Sajit. As I see it Sajit was not able to win even with all Muslim and Tamil votes which Ranil deliberately garnered. Even if he had won by some miracle, Ranil would have made it virtually impossible for Sajit to do his job as the Presiden, as tsubsequent incidents have clearly shown. Now the full scale war between Ranil and Premadasa has already begun it will drag the country from bad to worse. At the end none will win. Both will pass on to political oblivion along with the Unpatriotic non-National Party that will be never heard thereafter after the next General election as the UNP will get washed out completely from the minds of the Sri Lankan electorate.

On the overall the UNP has never being patriotic or people friendly. As it stands today it is almost dead and buried as a political party, thanks to Runil’s 29 years of miss-leading that grand old party. Its survival right throughout has rested on minority votes. It never accepted this country as the native country of the Sinhala nation. Right down from D.S. up to date it always treated this as a multi -national, multi-religious and a multi-cultural country, not for anything else but for power hunger. Under Ranil it has gone down on record as the Political party which robbed the nation’s Central Bank by its own leader, the Prime Minister of the country. It is also on record that as the party that has sold the greatest number of national assets, as the party which has imprisoned the largest number of Buddhist monks and that kept the eyes closed while Tamils and Muslims were vandalizing most of the Buddhist heritage sites in the North and East while some of its members like Mangala openly declaring that this is not a Sinhala Buddhist country.

An open plea to all patriotic Sinhala Buddhists who are still with the UNP

I am asking the following questions from those all Sinhala Buddhists who still remain stuck like leaches and ticks to this treacherous ant-Sinhala and ant-Buddhist political outfit plagued with an obnoxious band of political rogues and nincompoops.

 Don’t you feel ashamed as the descendants of heroic Sinhala forefathers who fought and died  in battle to preserve this country for you to be a party to all these betrayals by sticking to this Party.

Don’t you have an atom of brain to understand what these traitors have done to this country over the years and the irreparable damage they continue to do this Sinhala nation, the country and the Sambuddha Sasana

Don’t you feel guilty that you have already become a party to the crime of destroying the Sinhala Nation   the motherland that has nursed you and your ancestors for 2600 years, by supporting an unpatriotic outfit like this who have come to power through your vote promising the Sun and Moon and ruined this Paradise Island of yours.

Don’t you realize that all what you had done so far by voting these rogues has only enriched them and their kith and kin only while you have gone down the slope of  poverty, misery and eternal hopelessness as individuals and a nation.

Don’t you see that the present day UNP is a dead and stinking corps that will never reappear again in this country under that name? The results of the Presidential Election just concluded both on figures and on map clearly shows where the UNP stands in national politics.

As such it is high time that you change your maruvath kepuwat Kola blind mentality at least now, as there want be any UNP after the next general election. Therefore I strongly advise you  to bury the UNP mentality and align with a new patriotic force where all Sinhala people stand united under the Lion flag to rescue this nation from the socio-political and economic mess in to which this government has put it within the past 4 ½ years. That is the only way the Sinhala people can save this country, the nation and the Buddha Sasana for posterity and be forgiven your past sins for voting the UNP.

So now I appeal to all those mad and blind followers of UNP, who are still suffering from the incurable mania of ‘Api kepuwat meruwath UNP” to immediately leave these unpatriotic good for nothing bunch of strayed political rejects and get out of this rut as early as possible and join the patriotic forces at all future elections to save your bellowed motherland and the Sinhala nation from extinction, for reasons, I have outlined above. In this noble mission you have no alternative but to elect the persons selected and presented by the Mahasangha keeping with the age old tradition, as the most suitable representatives who can take this country out of the present pathetic situation. A vote for the UNP is a vote against the Sinhala nation. A vote for the UNP is also a vote against this country and the Buddha Sasana. 

As it is, besides being unpatriotic and treacherous, the UNP today, has ceased to be an organized political Party that can come to power any more. It is struggling very hard in a deep political cesspit to come out, whose bottom and width is immeasurable. Therefore I request all those of you who still dream of UNP, to form an entirely a new political Party under a different namesuitable to our native context like Sri Lanka Prajatantaravadi Paksaya or Sinhale Bhoomiputra Paksaya or any other based on the principles of a Civilization State” in order to provide an alternative political Force one day, to the ruling SLPP, which in my opinion will rule at least for another 15 years, if not more.

If the diehard UNP followers need an obituary to express their sorrow to the world over the demise of the UNP and an epitaph I would suggest they publish the following notice in all papers and other media channels to be inscribed as an memorable epitaph that will be remembered for centuries on its tomb.

The tragic demise of the UNP (Unpatriotic non-National Party) BASTARD, son of the British Imperial colonial invaders, left behind when they left this Island in 1948, brother of Ivor Jennings, D.S.Seanayaka. Ponnambalam and Sundaralingam, Vice, Robbery and Corruption, uncle of JR, Premadasa and grandfather of Ranil and Sajit died under tragic circumstances due to serious heart failure in the wake of Parliamentary General Election results 2020.

The cortege will leave Sirikota for BIA at mid night to be taken to Westminster Abbey, in his motherland, by plane to be interred there after final burial rituals by his English relatives. Wreaths and mourners are not welcome for fear of public turmoil.

 (The remains of BASTARD UNP Born at London in 1946- died in 2020 at Sri Lanka after fulfilling his avowed mission by the King of Great Britton in the name of the God, lie here in peace)

(Pl note that this is an essay I wrote before the Presidential election and slightly changed to reflect the present status of the UNP)

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