'No peace for Tamils with Prabhakaran alive'

Profile

Name - Keheliya Rambukwella

School - S.Thomas" College, Mt. Lavinia

Civil Status - Hotelier/Film Producer

Political Career - Member, Central Provincial Council (1993) and Provincial Minister (1994) - (1999)

Entered Parliament - 2000

Positions held - Subject Minister of Science and Technology Joined the present

Government - 2006

Positions held - Subject Minister of Policy Development and Implementation

Current Portfolio - Cabinet Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion & Defence Spokesman on National Security

This young man had many plans from his school days. But, he never wanted to be a politician. Born to wealthy parents in the country's hill capital, Kandy, he had his primary education at S.Thomas' College, Gurutalawa. Later, he moved to S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia. He was a fine sportsman at school playing cricket, tennis, swimming, table tennis and squash.

He was awarded 'colours' for many of these games. The man in focus, Keheliya Rambukwella was a mischievous young boy in school, very popular among students and the tutorial staff.

He is the youngest film producer in Sri Lanka, a record to date, he produced the box office hit-"Sakvithi Suvaya"- in 1979, which starred film legend Gamini Fonseka in the lead.

Having done his Post-Graduate Degree at the Hotel School, Keheliya served as a top managing executive in the hotel trade when his friend, the late Gamini Dissanayake forced him into politics of the Democratic United National Front (DUNF) when the UNP split during the reign of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

A man above board who inherited enormous wealth from his parents and ancestors, Keheliya Rambukwella entered politics by accident.

This fearless character as in his childhood is prepared to brave himself for the sake of the country with the belief-'Country first and family second".

It was in that backdrop, Keheliya Rambukwella, the former Thomian, who holds a Doctorate in Defence Studies, expressed the following views as a politician and a Minister during this brief interview:

Q: Mr.Rambukwella, you were inspired into politics by the late Gamini Dissanayake. Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to have introduced you into the mainstream of parliamentary politics in making you a subject Minister of Science and Technology.

SLFP leader President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given you the opportunity to serve the people as a Cabinet Minister in addition to being the Defence Spokesman of his Government. How do you view their leadership qualities?

A: Primarily I would say that one of the distinct qualities of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the ability to identify spheres of each one's excellence. It is an experience that I saw in late Gamini Dissanayake. I believe if you are looking at a leadership and if you are a leader, the first thing is to identify the abilities of each one in your team.

If you get misfits into your team, how important or less important is the encounter is not the question. Even in a machine you should have the right wheel at the right place to move it well. If you have the wrong wheel at the wrong place even though the machine may look very sophisticated, the functions and the output will not be as expected.

Similarly, President Rajapaksa is able to identify people who have the scope and also give responsibility without reservation. Have trust and faith in the person you select. You must not give something and doubt it. That's a very remarkable quality of leadership.

A leader must always identify the ability of person, trust him, take him to your confidence, and give him responsibility with authority.

You cannot give responsibility without authority for a man to perform. In most instances you see people given responsibility and when they blossom, the appeal of insecurity accrues to some people and thereby they try to hold him back. Also one must have confidence in himself to part with his responsibilities.

You see late President JR Jayewardene just called few young people like Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali in whom he saw potential and gave them their responsibilities with authority.

That is very important. I see all these qualities embedded in the character of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. I believe that's the way to get about. You see, you should never suspect or hold back your lieutenants.

Q: My dear friend, is that an indication that Ranil Wickremesinghe lacks those qualities?

A: I am not saying that. I was only telling you about what is available with other persons. You can come to your own conclusions and I have no objections.

Prasad, you know that from my school days, I only debate issues and have never stooped to the low level of hurling insults or making unwarranted criticism on personalities, be they individuals or public figures.... I hail from a decent family and I was educated in a good school like you. And that's how I am, still my friend!

Q: Since you were a colleague of mine at school, tell me what made you take to politics because you are not a free man today to move about as in your school days where you were even seen at many places as a 'happy go lucky man'? Because, Keheliya Rambukwella was known as the most 'outgoing' man in the class 'free moving' those days.....

A: Well you have different spheres in your phases in life. Probably, although one may try to project himself as his self, being a Buddhist I believe in Karma and destiny.

Basically there is a driving force behind you, which you can't believe or explain. I feel that is the case when it comes to me because I still call myself an accidental politician.

Q: But... you were the most free and 'happy go lucky man' in our class?

A: I am a 'happy go lucky man' even now though at times some people call me a "VIP Prisoner". The response I get as a politician from the public being in the middle age, as we two are now (laughter as both have already passed the half century milepost), I feel there is a responsibility by the country.

Though I may lack in the freedom to go about in my 'youthfulness' to enjoy, the issue of 'enjoy' must be examined in its' correct perspective. It all depends on what you are looking in life. In my case, as you know I had the best in my youth and looking back I have no regrets.

With all limitations of movement and all risks involved I think I am happy and duty bound by the country. If I only looked at my five member family, they would have been happier with me having more time for them.

They would have also had certain privileges in larger measures than at present. Instead of looking at five people, I am looking at a country of nearly twenty million people. In my role as Defence Spokesman, I feel satisfied as I feel I have done something for my country.

Q: Coming to your role as Defence Spokesman, do you feel that the killing of Thamilselvan is a victory of the present administration in the drive against terrorism or is it a victory of the Armed Forces?

A: You can use little bit of both. First thing, I believe in humanity. Killing of anybody is not a matter of joy. Given the context and the background in which we work, there is also the issue of larger interest of the public. Democracy is vital to the public.

There is terror unleashed irrespective of the community one belongs to. It is vested upon the rulers to ensure that the people are safe. In the drive to promote terror, Thamilselvan played a major role. At the last peace talks, he played a lead role.

There, we wanted to discuss core issues directly related to the Tamil people, he was a visible obstacle. On the second occasion in Geneva, he hung onto the A-9 Road issue. Why? They were extorting the people on that highway.

You cannot call them taxes as such levies are only made by local bodies and the Inland Revenue Department. You cannot have a good terrorist or a bad terrorist nor have two faces. A terrorist is a terrorist.

On the second trip to Geneva he was accompanied by a man called Alex whom Thamilselvan identified as a photographer. In fact, Alex was highly a technical man dealing with night vision and communication equipment. On their return, unlike previous times, we did some checking and found out catalogues of military hardware and high tech equipment.

Obviously, the trip Thamilselvan made with that type of smiling face was to strengthen the terror organisation he represented.

When we wage a battle against terrorism as a policy of the country to defeat terrorism, he was one of the major components of that scenario of terrorism.

Q: Whenever there is a controversy on the achievements in the battlefront, there appears a contradictory nature that persists in statements made by Government politicians. You are one who is accused in that respect. You are the official Defence Spokesman. Do you feel that too many cooks are spoiling the soup?

A: So far as my briefings are concerned, I am proud to say that I have not lied to the public. This started with the Anuradhapura incident. Given the background to it, it must be studied according to the circumstances of evidence that surfaced from time to time after the incident. It happened at 3.35 in the morning and I was contacted immediately.

I was up from that time monitoring the developments. We were not monitoring how many nuts and bolts were missing. We were concerned about supplementing troops for reinforcement. That was the priority. The damages caused had to be assessed in a process. The priority was to defeat the attack. We were immediately not interested in counting numbers.

When we sat for the press briefing at 9.30 am, at that time the information was that three helicopters destroyed and a few were damaged. But, I categorically said it could be much more and let's wait till evening till the scene was cleared. When I sat to meet the press in the morning, clearing was on at the scene of the attack. I did not lie at anytime.

I was sad that the country is suffering in this manner with the people first trying to ascertain the extent of damage caused to State Forces that safeguard you and me rather than measures to overcome this problem. Some people said if it was 50, it was better. That's the sad kind of thinking of some of our people. It's very tragic.

When the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre in US took place, the Government announced the figures of the dead. And up to now no one knows the exact number killed. No one has disputed that so far. But, if it happened here, some people even would have joined the autopsy to claim of additional bones found here and there.

Q: As a Cabinet Minister do you think that this war could be fought for long as it causes immense damage to the economy?

A: I think that's a misconception. Why I say that is... if you look at thirty years of this conflict in this country, it had, over the past 15 years increased expenditure in defence budgets.

What have we achieved over that 30 year period? This budget we have put in 117 billion rupees. What we have achieved during the past two years is far greater than what we achieved over the past 28 years. Therefore, there are two options.

One is that we fought it for 30 years. We had many military offensives. Every single leader made a genuine attempt to work with Prabhakaran to arrive at some kind of settlement. It was never successful.

Every time, in my view it was the LTTE and Prabhakaran who went back on some flimsy item. We should be mature enough after episodes of 25-30 years; it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that every time the LTTE got weakened, they moved for a ceasefire or peace talks to get an interval to strengthen them militarily.

That's why you say it had affected the economy. Are we going to live in the backyard forever? Are we going to abandon one of the options that are left with us? The first option was to seek peace with Prabakaran which seems to be not taking place.

Thirty years is a too long a period for us to believe in that with Prabhakaran. Without Prabhakaran we should be able to look for it. We have nothing to lose as we have lost everything basically. If we succeed in this, we have won everything and even the world.

If you lose, you have not lost anything because you are back in square one.

Q: That means as long as Prabhakaran is there, any Government will be forced to continue the war?

A: It all happens on how you look at it. If you want you can demarcate areas and give what Prabhakaran wants. That's not what Tamils want. What Tamils want, we can sit and discuss. There are so many Tamil leaders in this country who are democratically elected.

We can discuss with them. It is proved beyond doubt that Prabhakaran does not want other views to be entertained.

Look at from Amirthalingam to Neelan Thiruchelvam....They were real human beings we must be proud of, to sit and discuss matters. Neelan during President Kumaratunga's time agreed on certain things. For that he was killed.

It is a mythical thing to think you can achieve peace with Prabakaran.Tamil people must realise that everything given to Prabhakaran will be used to further destroy the future of the Tamils in this country. Prabhakaran has deprived the basic right of the Tamil children to education. Tamil civilisation and culture has been one of the richest in value.

Today, the education of Tamils has been completely knocked out by Prabhakaran. Look at Thamilselvan's funeral. A ten year old girl, clad in military fatigue stands by the coffin.

On the contrary, Prabhakaran says he has no child soldiers. In whatever way you look at it, it is terror and terror must be dealt in the manner in which you should deal with terrorism.

At the same time, the Tamil issue should be given priority, priority and priority. Look at the East; we have considered recruitment of 30 per cent of manning police stations to the Tamil speaking people. That was a very thorny affair.

You go to a police station in the East; you don't have the facility to make a complaint in the language that you know. That's a very humiliating issue. It's a deprivation of basic rights. These are things that can be corrected and done.

There are many areas you need correction. Nearly 75 per cent issues are administrative. If tomorrow a group of people cry for peace, what will be their fate? They will meet with death. Therefore, you need to eliminate destructive elements for us to achieve what is called - peace. For that, you have certain methodologies to use. The defence establishment has taken this task as a duty by the country. I am happy about it.