UNP TREASURER RESIGNS AND THE DEMOCRATIC WING OF PARTY ANNOUNCES A SECOND LAW SUITE OVER MOU WITH MANGALA

By Walter Jayawardhana

As an immediate repercussion to United National Party(UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Mangala Samaraweera the UNP treasurer has resigned and the UNP Democratic Wing has announced that it would file a second law suite against what it called “the leader’s arbitrary decision”.

Thilak Karunaratne, the treasurer of the UNP said he has resigned from his party positions as the treasurer, working committee member and party member in protest against the leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s arbitrary decision to sign a memorandum of Understanding with the Mangala Samaraweera wing of the S.LF.P.

He said he was shocked by the statements made by the party leader devaluing the military victories of the Sri Lankan armed forces and his recent statements insulting the Buddhist monks. He was referring to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s statement that the Buddhist monks in the parliament belonged to a “Duseela Samagama” or a “company of corrupt conduct.”
He said the above were reasons for him to tender his resignation for the second time, from the United National Party.

He is believed to be joining the Democratic Wing of the United National Party led by Karu Jayasuriya, who are now part of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
Thilak Karunaratne who is a chemist and businessman, on an earlier occasion resigned from the

UNP to form the Sihala Urumaya and later JHU but disagreements with certain elements of the party led him to rejoin the UNP.

Karunaratne has said it was an arbitrary decision on the part of the leader to sign a MOU with Mangala Samaraweera, and the party leader failed to discuss the matter in the party working committee, or any other body before making that decision .

Meanwhile , Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena , of the Democratic Wing of the UNP said, they would file a second case against the decision to sign a MOU with the SLFP (People’s wing) without consulting any other party official or party body like the working committee , the executive committee or a party conference. He said party President Rukman Senanayaka, Party Secretary Tissa Attanayaka or National Organizer S. B.Dissanayaka did not know until the signing of the MOU was announced.

He said before the rally Ranil Wickremesinghe held with Mangala Samaraweera it had been boasted that 15 government parliamentarians would get on the platform but none did. It had been boasted that they would bring five hundred thousand to show their strength but only a meager 15,000 came for the rally. They knew people were not coming and that was the reason why the UNP that customarily take Municipal Council grounds went to Hyde Park.

Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the people like M.H.Mohamed and Gamini Lokuge who used to bring crowds to the UNP rallies were with the government now.