‘The Government is striving to eliminate terrorism’
Shanika SRIYANANDA
The Charges on bribery and corruption and the waste of public money
levelled against the Government by Opposition parties were 'Just Claims'
not with concrete evidence, Chief Government Whip and the Highways and
Road Development Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said.
He said that amidst these baseless charges the Mahinda Rajapaksa
government which wowed to end terrorism and to solve the national
problem giving more power to provincial council would remain for its
full term. "The government is very stable", he said in an interview with
our sister publication 'Sunday Observer' just one month before his
untimely death. Here are excerpts from the interview.
Q: Will there be a Cabinet re-shuffle next month ?
A: No, I am not aware of anything but certainly there won’t be a
Cabinet re-shuffle. However, new Ministers will be appointed and there
will be small changes. But there won’t be a major re-shuffle as such.
Q: Former Auditor General S. C. Mayadunne is reported to have
resigned from his present post as the Consultant to take up duties at
the Constitutional Council. So why is there still a delay?
A: There is no indication that he is prepared to resign. What I
gathered was he wants to serve in both places - the Parliament and the
Constitutional Council. Several members of the COPE and PSE have
requested him not to resign from the Parliament. I do not think he can
serve in both places. But, he has not indicated that he is prepared to
resign from the Parliament.
Q: So, this means there will be further delay in filling the vacancy?
A: As far as the Opposition parties are concerned, they have found
Mayadunne but he is not the only suitable person for this post. They can
find another suitable person.
Q: Under the Constitution only eminent persons who do not belong to
any political party can be appointed to this Council. Do you think of
Minister Mervyn de Silva as a suitable candidate?
A: If Mayadunne says that he will resign from the Parliament and is
willing to accept the post as a member of the Council, in the same way
Minister de Silva has said that he is prepared to resign from the SLFP
and accept the membership there. If Mayadunne’s stand is correct, then
Minister de Silva’s stand is also correct.
Q: What is the progress of the disciplinary inquiry against Minister
de Silva?
A: Two days back Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and W. D.
J.Senevirathne met and got evidence from some of the employees of the
Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation. So the investigations are proceeding.
Q: The opposition has claimed that Tamil and Muslim businessmen are
fleeing the country due to abductions and demands of millions of rupees
as ransoms by some armed groups. What are the actions taken by the
government to control these incidents?
A: I do not think that there is any truth in these allegations. We
challenge the Opposition to name any such businessmen who have fled the
country due to this so-called situation.
Q: But they accuse the Government directly saying that these armed
groups operate under the patronage of the government. What is your
comment?
A: These armed groups including the LTTE and various other groups are
operating in Jaffna also. The government is not responsible and we
cannot take any responsibility for the armed groups.
In 1989 during the UNP regime, lots of armed groups were operating.
The government cannot be held responsible for that. But the government
is trying to apprehend all these people who are armed with guns.
Nobody can take up arms except the police, and the three forces. If
there are armed groups, the government will take appropriate action to
take them into custody.
Q: Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa wants to ban the LTTE
immediately. But you have opposed it. Why are there contradictory
opinions within the same government?
A: There can be contradictory versions and different people cannot
have the same opinion. My opinion is that we must not ban the LTTE as
when the outfit is banned the government cannot talk to them and even
cannot meet them. If by any chance, we are to start peace talks we
cannot talk to them as they are a banned organisation. We should not ban
them. If we ban them we are pushing them to a separate state.
Q: That is your view. What is the view of the government?
A: I do not know. That is the view of the most of the people in the
government.
Q: Is there any need to resume negotiations at this juncture when the
military is successfully defeating terrorism?
A: The military is going ahead for their self defence. They are not
waging a war against terrorism. The government is prepared to talk to
the LTTE any time. As the President has said we are prepared to resume
talks without any conditions. They cannot say that the government must
stop attacking them.
When they attack the government, the military will retaliate. But the
doors are still open for negotiations. That does not mean that we are
preventing the actions against terrorism. The Government is fighting to
eliminate terrorism.
Q: Once you have said that if there is stepmotherly treatment for
minorities by the Government, you who represent them would resign. Are
you satisfied with the way the Government looks after minorities?
A: Yes. I am neither a Buddhist nor a Sinhalese and I am a member of
the minority community. I personally feel even under former President
Chandrika Bandaranaike and now under President Mahinda Rajapaksa there
is no discrimination against the minorities. That is why I can be happy
with both of them.
Q: Are you still opposing the proposals by the All Party
Representative Committee to solve the national problem?
A: No. I did not oppose. What I said was the ideal solution to solve
this was the Indian system. That was my personal view. But the view of
the party was something else. Now the APRC has proposed implementing the
13th Amendment, which we are obliged to implement.
They have suggested the implementation of the APRC proposals and we
cannot oppose now. This is an ideal situation. Although the 13th
Amendment is there, powers were not given to the authorities. But we
cannot give a separate state for them. All those powers should be given
within a unitary government.
No MP of any political party can oppose the implementation of the
13th Amendment to the Constitution. Whether he belongs to the UNP or the
JVP or the TNA, all of them had sworn to protect the Constitution. The
important factor here is to devolve power to resolve the problem. I do
not think that there is any use in naming the system to solve the
problem as unitary or federal. The need is to devolve power.
Q: The JVP warned about corruption and waste and said President
Rajapaksa will not survive long. What is your comment?
A: There is nothing to comment. This government will survive long and
will run the full term. Allegations on corruption and bribery and waste
of public money are just claims. If they need to accuse the government
they should pinpoint those, with evidence. But they do not do that. They
just claim that the government is corrupt. Anybody can say that the
government is corrupt.
I agree there is a certain amount of corruption taking place in the
government but politicians are not responsible for them. A lot of
corruption take place because of the officials and not because of the
politicians or the Ministers of this country. And no one can put the
blame on the leaders of the party or the politicians of this country for
those.
Q: Is there any attempt by the Government to cover up some Ministers
who are confronted with charges of bribery and corruption?
A: No. Why does the government need to hide those? We do not want to
hide any such allegation against any politician. Recently a Chairman of
a corporation was produced before the Courts. He was a Deputy Minister
one time and also a very senior member of the party, we could have
hidden that easily. The government does not cover up such people.
Q: Former President Kumaratunga claimed that you would do anything to
please President Rajapaksa to become the Prime Minister of this country.
Are you?
A: I am doing the same to President Rajapaksa what I did for
President Kumaratunga. There is no change of my duty.
The other thing is that I am a member of the minority community so I
do not have any hopes of becoming the Prime Minister of this country.
Q: Once you have said that Ranil Wickremesinghe will never be the
leader of this country?
A: I still maintain that. He has lost 14 times. In last November he
tried to topple the government with the help of the JVP, but he could
not do so.
Again in December 2007, he tried to do the same with the help of the
JVP, but he failed. The UNP complains that the JVP betrayed them. The
UNP is trying to come to power with the help of the JVP.
The main problem is that he does not realise the real problems of the
country. For an example he has started a poster campaign on Valentine’s
Day. What ever poster they have put up on the Valentine’s Day is
contrary to Sri Lankan culture. That may be good in a Western country.
But he does not realise that and he is not doing serious politics.
He is not serious and taking things as jokes. Because of this people
also do not take their campaigns seriously. Either he is not getting
correct advice or he is not adhering to advice given by someone.
Q: According to you, who is the best politician after President
Rajapaksa to lead this country?
A: There are lots of leaders to take over from President Rajapaksa. I
do not want to mention anybody’s name but there are lots of leaders. Our
doors are open as the President said this party is open to anybody to
become the leader of the country. From 1951 to 2005, the party
leadership was restricted only for the Bandaranaike family but that era
is over. Now this is open for anybody.
Q: You are popular for making bold statements. Do you think certain
statements by you have affected the country’s image and became a
hindrance in getting the support of the International Community?
A: I am not the Foreign Minister to please the International
Community. I am not here to please the International Community.
So am not expecting any votes from the International Community.
Whoever who made such wrong statements either by the Western countries
or other international organisations I have to reply.
They go and kill and violate human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq and
other countries and they are trying to be very fair here. They are just
talking and trying to build a different image. So, we have to reply
those charges.
Q: As a senior politician what’s your comment about the misbehaviour
of some of the MPs in Parliament?
A: There has been misbehaviour since the inception of this
Parliament. This is not a new thing. Even in the Indian or the Pakistani
or the Western Parliaments there are MPs who misbehave. These MPs are
not elected according to their behaviour but due to their popularity. I
cannot find fault with anybody for this matter. These happenings are the
same all over the world and are not special incidents in Sri Lanka.
If people see that those whom they vote are misbehaving they can take
action at the next election, But what happens today is they elect the
same wrong person over and over again. So no one - the government or the
political party - can be blamed for that. People of this country have
the weapon to take action. They can do justice.
Q: What do you think about the present political situation of the
country?
A: The Government is stable and we try our best to curb terrorism.
The Forces are collectively taking action and going ahead defeating
terrorism. I think by the end of this year we can eradicate terrorism
from this country. |