Ranil's offer

REPORTS that United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is prepared to step down from party leadership, but only in the event of an agreement with the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), should be treated with both scepticism and historical clarity.

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For over two decades, Wickremesinghe has been the single most significant obstacle to reform within the UNP, presiding over its steady decline while jealously guarding his position at the top.

The irony is difficult to miss. A man who repeatedly proclaims his devotion to parliamentary democracy has never applied one of its most basic principles of a leader taking responsibility for defeat and stepping aside. Election after election, rejection after rejection, Wickremesinghe clung to leadership as the once-mighty UNP was reduced to a shadow of its former self. The nadir came in 2020, when the party was wiped out electorally and reduced to a single seat in Parliament—secured not through popular mandate, but through the National List, which Wickremesinghe promptly claimed.