Ranil will introduce new blood and faces

By Roshan Peiris

Ranil Wickremesinghe who celebrated his fiftieth birthday last Wednesday 24 told The Sunday Times "I have repeatedly said that I will support all the constructive measures of the government. I have never tried to destabilise the government".

Mr. Wickremesinghe, who became a Member of Parliament in 1977 at the age of 28 and held many a presitgious post of cabinet rank, gave The Sunday Times an interview on his birthday.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Mr. Wickremesinghe, of late you have been talking frequently of a new look and new culture for the UNP. As leader of the party, can you explain what this really entails?

A: The first point I want to make is that the UNP must win the support of the electorate which was lost to some extent in 1994. Therefore to be successful at the next election, policies and programmes of the UNP must be oriented to the majority of the voters.

What I have done now, is examine our past and the party's performance and thereby identified both our strengths and our mistakes in our 17 years in power. Therefore I have now formulated policies and programmes to gain the support of the majority of the electorate. In fact I wish to look at Sri Lanka in the year two thousand and ten. With this fact in mind I have restructured the party, and I am now in the process of bringing in new blood and new faces. It is the sort of party that will appeal and stimulate the new generation.

Our basic policies are as follows (a) An agenda to strengthen the democratic freedom of the country (b) to have a Sri Lankan identity based on the equality of treatment and respect for all cultures (c) Next is the enforcement of law and order (d) Finally, a radical modernising revolution to take this country adroitly into the 21st century and to make it a developed economy.

This naturally entails a new political culture where political parties will promote their programmes and policies coupled with the process of de-politicising.

There will be the establishment of independent commissions for holding of elections, the Police and the Public Services. This is to ensure that we break out of the partisanship which has been synonymous with all governments.

Q: After the Wayamba disaster which was the worst election held in fifty one years of our independence, will the UNP evolve long term and far-reaching legislative plans to hold fair and free elections?

A: The UNP has already proposed the establishment of three commissions which I have referred to in my previous answer. These are elections commissions to conduct fair and free elections. This is one.

The police commission to prevent political intervention in the conduct of police work.

Besides all recruitments, promotions and disciplinary inquires and establishment matters will be brought under the purview of this commission.

The Public Services Commission will function similar to the Police Commission.

What is important is that the appointment of members to these commissions will be through a finely-toned mechanism such as joint Committees of the government and the opposition to ensure the absolute independence of these commissions. We will also strengthen the election laws.

Q: Are you optimistic of winning all five Provincial Council elections on April 6 cashing in on the general unpopularity of the government with the proviso of course that there will be fair and free elections and of course no intimidation of voters.

A: I am quite optimistic of the UNP performing well. There are many factors that will contribute to our winning the elections.

Q: Could you name some?

A: (a) Restructuring the party itself (b) Commitment to the principles of democracy, to mention, just two.

Q: Has the UNP drawn up a viable plan to end the ethnic war? Will you consider the possibilities of a dialogue with the LTTE - on a one-to-one basis for starters? Or do you feel or want the government to be associated?

A: It is the government in power that has to say that it want talks with the LTTE and consequently asked us, the Opposition, for its consent. As you know we have exchanged letters about this with each other.

After all remember that it is only the government in power that can talk to the LTTE. All we can do is to give our consent if we agree with the outcome of the talks. Inevitably the process of negotiations with the LTTE has to be with the government.

But I must here mention that the UNP is also preparing its own strategy in the North and East.

Q: In what way? Would you care to mention.

A: For example, the UNP will make use of all the options available for a political solution. This will be done by talking to the political parties in the South. For, it is inevitable that for any political settlement to be viable it must be based on a wide cosensus. Otherwise its success could not be guaranteed.

Q: In the interest of the country is there no possibility of forming a national government to solve some of the more outstanding problems of this country?

A: At the last election the people decided that the UNP should go into the Opposition. It was undoubtedly the electorate that decided so.

So the PA was entrusted with the task of governance. The electorate has answered in the negative against the UNP being in the government. So naturally it is not possible for us to be in the government, unless the electorate votes us again.

All the same I have said I will support all the constructive measures of the government. I can clearly say that I have never made any attempt to destabilise the government, though we have opposed and been critical of the government's conduct of the war. Then we have supported the Bribery and Corruption Commission. The government did not have the required two thirds majority to establish this Commission.

These are some of the incidents to illustrate that we have played a constructive role.

Q: There have been many conjectures that the UNP as a party is disintegrating and is not strong enough. Also that some of the old hands feel disgruntled that they have been sidelined by you. Your observations?

A: These conjectures and rumours have often been mentioned in the state-owned media and are of course not true. We are a strong party today coherently organized. We have no divisions as mentioned though we freely discuss different standpoints as any democratic party should do.

Everyone in the Party has a role to play in the build up of the party's image. Members of Parliament, whether they be members or new are immaterial. What matters is the all- round performance of the party and the UNP performance both within and outside Parliament has been pretty good and we could well be proud of it.

I will nevertheless bring in more new faces as candidates at the next elections. As I said earlier, we must make every effort to appeal to the new generation of voters at the next election.

Gen. Kalkat pessimistic about 'Op. Rana Gosa'

By Vaijayanthi Prakash, our correspondent in New Delhi

New Delhi: Gen. A.S. Kalkat, who was the overall commander of the IPKF in Sri Lanka, feels that the Sri Lankan army's decision to abandon the idea of opening the Vavuniya-Kilinochchi road in favour of opening an alternative western coastal road to the Jaffna peninsula, will only weaken the army's hold on the LTTE's heartland, namely, eastern Wanni.

Gen. Kalkat told The Sunday Times, that a western coastal road linking Mannar with Pooneryn, and then Jaffna, was not as valuable strategically as the A9, the Vavuniya-Kilinochchi highway. A9 cuts a good chunk of the northern province into half, he observed. It is the gut as it were. East Wanni and not the West is the heartland of the Tigers and the pressure on this heartland, which had mounted during Operation Jayasikurui (Victory Assured), has since eased, he said. During Operation Jayasikurui, the army was plonk in the middle of Wanni with the gut in its grip as it were, but this hold has apparently been abandoned. With pressure easing, the Tigers would clearly have a freer run of the place, he feared.

As Operation Rana Gosa progresses, troops will have to be withdrawn from the East Wanni for deployment in the West. And the manpower needs here may be quite high, because about 4 to 8 kms on either side of the road would have to be secured and defended at all times if the road is to be serviceable, Gen. Kalkat said.

The Indian General, who is now a strategic analyst, said that the western coastal road to Pooneryn might be easier to take, but its economic and strategic use was limited due to the fact that it would not be able to take heavy traffic. And as for the claim of some analysts that the road would give control over the Mannar coastline and the Palk Strait, Gen. Kalkat said that the Palk Strait and the Mannar coast were not of any great military significance because the LTTE was not using them to smuggle in weapons. Economic essentials may be, but not armaments. The LTTE operates now on the high seas and uses the north eastern coastlines to land lethal cargo. At any rate, no navy would be able to play a significant role in the Palk Strait, which was too shallow for it. Here the LTTE's speed boats would any day outmanoeuvre naval vessels, he said.

The Indian General said that there was no basis to the theory that the LTTE could be worn out by attrition and sustained pressure. No government, anywhere, could hope to wear out an insurgent movement in the absence of a parallel political dialogue on the underlying political issues. The underlying political question has to be addressed along with the anti-insurgent operations. If this was not done, even a weakened insurgent movement could come alive again with greater vigour, Gen. Kalkat predicted.

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