Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha in an interview with the Sunday Times said it was foreign forces opposed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa who were behind the formation of the UNP/JVP/TNA alliance in an attempt to bring their candidate Sarath Fonseka to power but said he is confident of victory for the President in the January 26 poll.
Q: What kind of challenge does the common opposition candidate General (retd.)Sarath Fonseka pose to the re-election bid of President Mahinda Rajapaksa?
There is no challenge at all. The expectations of the opposition is to split the vote in the southern parts of the country but the majority of the people of the country are of the opinion that it is the President who got all the forces together to defeat LTTE terrorism. So the opposition is not in a position to attract the southern voters. We are confident of victory for the President.
Q: What other issues do you feel will be the deciding factors in the upcoming election?
The opposition is campaigning to abolish the executive presidency. To my knowledge the majority of the people are not bothered about the powers of the executive presidency. The present president has not abused his executive powers. He used the powers for the benefit of the country like to ban the LTTE and abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) that the UNP signed with the LTTE.
There were presidents who used the executive powers to take over ministries, postpone elections etc. The former Chief Justice has said in a recent interview that Sarath Fonseka cannot abolish the presidency himself but he can only curb its powers. There is a contradiction there between what the JVP says about abolishing the executive presidency and what the former CJ says even though they are all working for Sarath Fonseka. So we can see there is no consensus among them.
Q: DO you believe there is a secret agreement between the TNA and the opposition candidate?
Recently Sarath Fonseka, Ranil Wickremesinghe and the former Chief Justice toured Jaffna. It was reported in a newspaper in Jaffna that the former CJ had told at a meeting that it was he who gave the judgement to de-merge the north and east and now that there was peace, one can re-merge these two provinces. You can see the coincidence between this statement and the TNA decision to support Gen. Fonseka. Within 48 hours of the former CJ’s statement, TNA leader R.Sampanthaan announced the party’s decision to support Gen. Fonseka. The same conditions were forwarded to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by the TNA but they did not get a favourable answer. So they forwarded these same conditions to Sarath Fonseka and got a favourable answer, which is why they decided to support him.
Q:There are numerous allegations of corruption against the government, what do you have to say?
If you take the report of the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), you can see that all the cases that were probed and were found to be corrupt before the present president took office.
Q: What about Maga Neguma and other such large scale projects?
We allocate the funds for these projects through Divisional Secretariats and to the respective local authorities. It is they who are accountable and it is up to them to see that the money allocated is utilised fully for that particular project. It is the duty of the respective public servants to report back on the utilisation of funds.
Q:Do you feel there is enough accountability?
You have to take each case one by one to see if there is accountability or not .When you start development projects this type of allegations are made. There were allegations against the UNP regime as well. Take the privatisation of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation for example. The former CJ said this was the most corrupt privatisation of a public enterprise and cancelled it. The Apollo Hospital the majority shares of which were with the SLIC was given back to the government as well and the Defence Secretary was appointed Chairman of the Board. Now the Opposition has spread a story saying he has purchased the hospital which is not so.
Q: So are you admitting there is a problem of corruption?
There are over 500 projects under the Maga Neguma programme. There are project officers, technical officer’s, secretaries of ministries and many others involved in them. You cannot develop the country at the same time if the projects are stopped because of these allegations. Then you will have to stop all development work because you can’t spend money or allocate funds because there are allegations of corruption. Under the President’s Mahinda Chinthana 2 programme, we have said we will introduce new legislation to stop malpractice, corruption and bribery at all levels. There needs to be a new mechanism to stop this which the present Bribery Commission lacks.
Q: Rajapaksa family rule has been cited by the opposition often as part of its campaign against the President. What are your comments?
You can’t say that it is only the Rajapaksa’s who have had family members in government. Even the Gandhi’s and Bandaranaike’s were like that. So why do you only blame the Rajapaksa family. If not for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, defeating the LTTE would have been very difficult. He was able to take decisions unlike other Defence Secretaries because of the trust that was placed in him. He had battle field experience. Sarath Fonseka himself said that he and Gotabhaya were in the same battle field.
Gotabhaya managed the three armed forces and the Police and did his part. Basil Rajapaksa is also doing his part. He is in charge of the eastern reawakening programme and the northern revival .When they do a job of work there are those who blame them. But if you go to these areas you can see the development that has taken place. They should not be disqualified from working in the government just because they are related to the president. Take Cuba for example. Raoul Castro is Fidel Castro’s brother but does the JVP say that there is nepotism in Cuba?
Q: But aren’t you as a ministers feeling sidelined because of the influence of one family?
No. I have all the freedom to attend to my work. I have not been influenced in any way.
Q: The government has embarked on some very personal attacks on Gen Fonseka. Your views?
It was the opposition that started attacking the President and his family in a personal manner. The Opposition Leader in the first rally in Kandy cursed the Rajapaksa family. At a meeting in Vavuniya, he called the President a thief and asked him to go home. That was third class politics they engaged in. The President has not resorted to this kind of tactics. Seeing these personal attacks on the President, some people have come forward to expose Gen. Fonseka’s illegal dealings. An allegation has been made against Gen. Fonseka’s son-in-law and it is their duty to answer these allegations. They have not done that so far.
Q: What do you think of the UNP/JVP/TNA coming together to support one candidate?
It is very clear there are forces beyond our control that are behind this scenario. Even during the latter part of the humanitarian operations, many foreign forces tried to influence the President and at some forums some powerful countries got together and tried to influence the Sri Lankan Government. They are still doing it because of the influence of the LTTE diaspora in these countries.
We believe all these forces are working together and want to take revenge from the president for defeating terrorism and are hence supporting Gen. Fonseka. There are many foreign forces at work behind the formation of this alliance. How can the JVP and UNP come on one stage otherwise and how can (MP) Sampanthan support Gen. Fonseka? There is a vast gap between their economic polices and political ideologies. They are bound to fail. |
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