Moving to a new political culture:

From personalities to policies

Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda in an interview with the Daily News said after eliminating terrorism the country is on the threshold of a new political culture from personalities to policies

Sandasen MARASINGHE

Q: How confident are you of winning the General Election ?

A: The decision should be taken by the voters. I, on behalf of the Sri Lanka National Congress have forwarded an agenda to influence the Government. It is a policy but not an election promise.

Minister Milinda Moragoda

It is formed within the framework of the Mahinda Chintana. If the voters think that I should be elected to Parliament they would elect me. It is their decision.

Q: The UNP says it will form an alliance with the Democratic National Alliance in Parliament. Probably the TNA also may be a member in such an alliance. Will it be a challenge to the UPFA?

A: The people gave their mandate to the president to rule this country and it was a resounding victory. To rule the country the President should have a strong government. My assumption is voters who re-elected President Rajapaksa with a resounding victory in January would not do otherwise in April.

Q: The UPFA had faired poorly at elections in Colombo and urban areas. Do you think this situation will change in the forthcoming General Election?

A: We have to work at that. We have to study the previous elections and convince the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities, intellectuals and professionals and those from poorer areas in Colombo on the Government’s program.

There is a feeling among the voters in slums that the Government is interested in non urban areas. We are emerging with a special program to encourage development in those areas. I have been spending a lot of time talking to them. There are problems in the slums. For an example, there are about 15,000 drug addicts in the Colombo city, a fact that we have to be ashamed of. We have to work on these issues in Colombo and solve them.

There are several issues in urban areas of Colombo like drainage, housing, roads and traffic problems.

We have to offer solutions to them. We have to build voters’ confidence. Then they will support us. The main fact is we can’t take any thing for granted we have to work for that.

Q: The UNP is claiming it is the only party that has a policy of economic growth and will provide goods at lower prices. How do you compare this position with the UPFA’s record?

A: Any political party can bring in their arguments. But President Rajapaksa was able to build up consensus to win the operation against terrorism. That’s why we support him today.

President Rajapaksa will be able to win the consensus to build peace and economy of the country.

The people would probably give him the benefit of the doubt because he was able to achieve what he wanted. He made a promise to the people and was able to keep the promise.

He has promised to develop the country. He has already started developing the national road network, establishing power plants, developing ports and harbours. He can address these problems.

Q: President Rajapaksa has promised that the next Cabinet will be a small one. Do you believe that it could be done and if necessary will some ministers agree to be just Members of Parliament ?

A: The idea of entering Parliament is not to become a minister but to serve the people. In most other systems, members don’t want to be ministers and say they want to serve the people.

There are many other opportunities in Parliament to serve the people without being a minister. Therefore that mindset must be changed that the whole purpose of entering Parliament is not only to be a minister.

Q: What made you to leave the UNP and are you satisfied with that decision?

A: President Rajapaksa invited the UNP to form a coalition to solve problems in the country. There were different ideas in the UNP with that invitation and a group of us decided to join the Government to solve them.

We supported to eliminate terrorism and ultimately we think we took the correct decision.