Exclusive Interview: PM sets out priorities, details on new form of Government

Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe has been on a busy schedule addressing election campaign meeting after meeting while criss-crossing the country.

Mr Wickremesinghe addresses a meeting at one venue and moves on to the next, mostly by road as the candidates of the respective area, organisers and crowds await his arrival. In order to keep to his schedules he addresses the meeting he moves on to the next.

As the leader of the United National Party (UNP), the request from party candidates to attend meetings in various venues have been many. He has addressed nearly 150 main rallies as the campaign was drawing to an end.

The Sunday Times was able to catch up with the Prime Minister as he travelled from one meeting to another this week. Mr Wickremesinghe after addressing meeting in Makola, Biyagama, spoke to the Sunday Times on his way to the next venue – in Maharamaga.

Mr Wickremesinghe responded to a wide range of questions from formation of a National Government to the proposals development projects.

Excerpts of the interview follows:

Q: Will you be forming a national government even if you get an outright majority at the forthcoming elections? A: I have said we will be getting an outright majority, nevertheless we will be bringing a new form of government in which the whole Parliament will become the government. That is the new system that we will apply, because all the parties will not join the Cabinet. Since we are having the Oversight Committees in Parliament, which will be able to give their recommendations on government policies and suggest amendments to Government legislations, they will be supervising and implementing the plans. Chairpersons of those Committees will be from all parties in Parliament. They will also be reporting back and the Cabinet will coordinate their work with the Chairman. All MPs will have a role in the Oversight Committees and therefore the whole Parliament becomes a Government. It is a consensus building approach which we require after the war to build a new country.

For this purpose what we have done is to take the conventional Westminster Parliamentary system, which is multiparty politics and combine that with the sermon given by Lord Buddha which is really the basis of multiparty democracies in Europe and America. So lets work it out and see how we can involve the whole Parliament in laying the foundation for a new country.

Q: They say this is fight between RanilWickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa. You would no doubt say it’s a fight between good governance and corruption. A: Firstly I am the leader of the UNP and the President is the leader of the UPFA. A group of UPFA members still have a hold on it. They are trying to protect Mahinda Rajapaksa , but it is really a tussle between Good Governance which we have established and having a Government looking at the development of everyone and their families, as against corruption, nepotism , breakdown of law and order and the spread of drugs and Ethanol. Therefore it is a very clear choice before the people. Even the SLFPers need not be worried because their leader will be the President and who will chair the Cabinet.

Q: What really were your government’s achievements in the past seven months that you would say is different from the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration? A: You breath freedom, Journalists are not taken away in “White vans’ or threatened, we have stopped corruption. We have reduced the Cost of Living.We have ensured the increase of wages.We have pumped in money to the rural economy . We have got international acceptance and again returned to being a fully fledged Democracy which we were even under the British rule.

Q: What happened to the Right to Information Law you promised within 100 days? A: That will be one of the priorities in the new government.

Q: During the presidential election campaign your party made a hue and cry about the corruption in the Rajapaksa Govt. Now you are being blamed for inaction against the culprits. Any reaction on this ? A: There is action, but we act according to the rule of law and according to the laid down procedures. Inquiries and investigations are proceeding. There has been over 280 complaints received, but we have had problems regarding the FCID . When the investigations were coming to a close and when they were able to arrest people, they have gone before the courts and applied for stay orders. The court has fixed the case for hearing in September and we urged the court to take all these issues up and give a final ruling .

At that stage we will decide whether additional laws are necessary. At the Bribery Commission there were 1,900 files which were not attended to , but now there is a deadlock between the new Director General and the Commissioners. Once the new parliament appoints theCommissioners the investigations will re-commence. The CID is carrying on its investigations and they too have to face some Fundamental Rights applications. We expected some litigation. Our procedures are such even with the best of our investigations we will require some time to file action.

Q: The Treasury Board issue under your watch is the subject of public debate. Would you do anything different if you knew it was going to cause such an uproar A: We laid down a procedure to be followed . The procedure was first an internal inquiry then followed by either a police investigation or sending it to courts or ask the Parliament to inquire into this.

The internal investigation which I entrusted to three lawyers from outside found that there was no wrong doing on the part of the Governor. Those additional inquiries were required into the Perpetual Treasuries on how the Bank of Ceylon gave them funds. At that stage some people went to the Supreme Courts to make a Fundamental Rights application alleging that there was fraud and the inquiry to be held . But the Supreme court rejected it during the preliminary hearing. That would have been enough to say to finish investigations and nothing more is required.

But, I had told Parliament, they have to exercise financial supervision and I submitted the report to Parliament for them to inquire into it. So I laid down the procedure . This is the procedure I would have followed in any case.

The Parliament inquiry was proved to be useful though we could not finish it. It established that, Perpetual Treasuries from its inception, had former Governor AjithNivard Cabral’s sister as a member of the Board of Directors. Now that raises some other issues. So in the next Parliament there will be a new Select Committee , all those who served in the old Parliament and re-elected will come back to it, the rest of the members will be decided having discussed the issue with the party leaders. This is the way that it should be done and we have followed it.

I can’t find anything wrong in the procedure. As far as I am concerned let justice be done. During the last regime there was no question on what the Central Bank has done and the media was not allowed to open its mouth. As far as we are concerned we followed the procedure and see what the final outcome is.

Q: You have spoken of a ‘living wage’ to private sector employees rather than a ‘minimum wage’. Can you explain this proposal ? A: ‘Minimum wage’ was what was said earlier by the trade unions and a government decide the minimum worth of a worker’s effort was for the day or for the hour. So they set a ‘ minimum wage’ and the workers also had to rely on government subsidies. For instance today when you calculate the wages we go on the basis that transport is subsidised. But, No, today you get lot of private transport , you pay the commercial cost, or the company has to subsidise the transport. So this concept has been going on for some time and now come under challenge and many countries are working towards a what they call a ‘Living wage’. This is the basic needed for the week, some countries it is fixed at 40 hours , some are more than 40 hours to have the basic necessities of life. The standards of living of any employee has improved.

Everyone has a TV . For instance we do not take into account the need to pay for education. We all think education is free but we have to pay for tuition. So you are taking what is needed for a person, the basic needs of a person to live and on that basis you work out the salary and the payment , then ofcourse enterprises workout the productivity that is needed.

Therefore the basic required by an average class family for a normal life is what is taken into consideration . We want to introduce this gradually over a period of time it cannot be introduced overnight. That means adjustments with the wages and with the companies having to improve productivity . Therefore we have decided to set up an Employment Council chaired by a minister of high level withgovernment representative who will work to gether with senior representatives of the private sector and trade unions to work the new conditions of employment.

Q: You have promised a wage increase to state sector employees. There is concern that we don’t have the financial resources for this A: We did one and already paid for it. We gave Rs 10,000 in two stages as allowances and it will be incorporated into the wages for the pension. We raised the funds and paying for it.We are having a new look at all our revenue sources . Lot of people are not paying taxes, so we have to work those out.

Q: What is the status of the mega projects like the Port City project that are on hold? A: We have gone into the Mega projects, we made some adjustments and got some price reductions. In the case of the Port City the investors have agreed that they will abide by the law and we are waiting for the environmental impact report. We will decide according to that report.

Q: You embarked on the Kandy- Colombo expressway project a fortnight before elections. From where will the funds come? A: For the Central Expressway we renegotiated it and we called for Expression of Interest . There was a Chinese company which was willing to do the first stage for about 60 per cent of the cost which was originally estimated . That’s uptoMirigama. UptoKurunegala we are getting ADB funding again at concessionary rates and from Pothuhera to Galagedra we have spoken to the Japanese which leaves us to fund Kurunegala to Dambulla. If we do not get the concessionary funding. So as we resort to concessionary funding and reduced the cost for stage one there is going to be considerable saving.

Q: How do you hope to tackle the UNHRC Resolution? A: Lets see what the report says. Lot of speculation. Some people say the report is already out. It is not so, it is getting prepared I think it will be out by end of August.We will get the advance copy and then it will be tabled at the session. Once it is officially tabled we will be given a time period to respond . We are working out responses, but on the basis that Sri Lanka is not a party to the Statue of Rome and therefore the jurisdiction is internal .

Now one of the issues that keep coming up is the independence of the judiciary, this the problem that the Rajapaksa regime created . So we are gradually ensuring that we will be able to show that the Judiciary is returning to normalcy and we will give a proposal on any mechanism that will be acceptable to all sections of the Sri Lankan society and people as well as the international community. But looking at the numbers involved we are also looking at a Truth Commission, so we are looking at South African experience where we can design a Commission which can suit our needs.

Q: What would be your immediate, short-term and long-term plans should you win the elections? A: This is the plan which we have put forward to the people as our manifesto . We will start from day one . We have the five areas described in the manifesto- we will start on all five areas and will conclude it before the 60 months are over.

Q: What will be your priority ? A: As I have always said, it will be employment .

Q: How do you see the campaign, since it commenced ? A: Now the people have taken an interest and we can see a shift in opinion. The UPFA campaign is falling apart.Their campaign has collapsed, lot of them were under the impression that the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is going to be a big draw. It has not worked out.

What is surprising is that the very same people who were criticising PresidentMaithripala Sirisena and attacking the ‘Yahapalanaya’ (Good Governance) are now running advertisements about ‘Maithri Palanaya’. That shows the extent to what it has moved thesepeople, who are trying find it necessary to identify themselves with the incumbent Presidentinorder to get themselves elected.

– By Anthony David