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| Sunday, 11 April 2004 |
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EXCLUSIVE : Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa says Pledges made to people will be upheld
by Deepal Warnakulasuriya Q: When we met last, in response to our question about your chances of being Prime Minister you said that you were sure of receiving a place in the highest echelons of the next regime. Your expectations have now been realised. How do you feel being Prime Minister? A: I am very happy that President Chandrika Kumaratunga has reposed confidence in me. I am deeply conscious of the immense responsibilities that have devolved on me. With the co-operation of my parliamentary colleagues I hope to steer a programme of work that will meet the aspirations of our people. I am indeed very happy to have got this opportunity. Q: Looking back on the period from 1970 when you entered Parliament as the youngest MP up to now what are your thoughts? A: What is uppermost in my mind is that right throughout my political career with its attendant ups and downs the people stood by me. That was a source of great encouragement to me. Then the media. I greatly appreciate the support extended to me by the media at all times. I have no doubt that their support has gone a long way in this journey dating back to that day when I stepped into Parliament in 1970 as the babe upto today when I took my oaths as Prime Minister. Then of course it was hard work and above all patience to await my turn that saw the dawn of this happy day. Q: Your loyalty to the SLFP has been demonstrated during these long years when you had to overcome numerous thorns and thistles. What would you consider to be your achievements? What were the problems you faced? A: My biggest achievement is to have campaigned for my party the SLFP islandwide. My commitment and loyalty to the party has been uppermost in my mind and that has been the driving force that kept me going. I did not think in terms of a personal agenda. As for problems I cannot recall encountering any big problems. Whatever I encountered were surmountable. Q: The UNF Government was defeated by those who could not bear the rising COL, increasing unemployment among the youth, the neglected farmer and the rural population. What immediate measures will be taken to redress this situation? A: We will honour our pledge to the people by providing immediate relief as set out in our election manifesto. These will be in the areas of housing for public and private sector employees, relief to cultivators in the form of waiving off balances of bank loans on an identified priority basis, restoring of the fertiliser subsidy supplying seeds and agro-equipment at concessionary rates to farmers, establishment of purchasing centres and a guaranteed price scheme for paddy. Employment opportunities for 25,000 graduates will be provided within three months. 5000 non-graduate school leavers will be trained as field officers in the agriculture sector and another 10,000 in the tourism sector. An accelerated skills development programme for 25,000 school leavers will also be implemented with the assistance of the private sector. Salary anomalies and pension anomalies will be corrected by us immediately. Q: The Freedom Alliance is seen as a minority government. You will have to walk the tight rope to gain the confidence of the majority in Parliament. Will the Freedom Alliance have to change the course set out in the manifesto to achieve this? A: There will be no change. The pledges made to the people will be upheld. That will be the priority. Q: Under a first-past-the post system the Alliance would have had 2/3 majority. Does not this alone make stronger the need to change the constitution? A: Yes, we have set our minds on a course of action to change the constitution as stated in our manifesto. Q: Can the Alliance fulfil its pledge to set up a Constituent Assembly and proceed with abrogating or amending the 1978 Constitution? A: We will be setting up a Constituent Assembly very soon. The Executive Presidency will be abolished. All Government Members of Parliament will support this move. We expect the Opposition also to support us. Then we will go before the people for their consent at a Referendum. Q: What about the peace process? The UNF was rejected as it was seen to be giving too much too soon- a weak bargainer. A: President Kumaratunga will take charge of the peace negotiating process. As Prime Minister I will be giving her my unstinted support and co-operation to ensure that success is achieved. Q: What have you to say to those peace activists who say that the UPFA will drag the country into another hot war? A: This is wishful thinking, bordering on mischief. We must draw a distinction between those self-proclaimed peace activists and the broad mass of the people who are all peace activists, who yearn for peace devoid of any personal agendas. A solid foundation has been laid to avoid a hot war. Those who say that a hot war is inevitable under a UPFA regime are out of their minds. Such predictions are bordering on lunacy. The babe grown-up When I first saw Mahinda (then a teenage schoolboy now Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa) he was bare-bodied, clad in a sarong playing a supervisory role walking behind a bullock drawn cartload of coconuts at Medamulana, Weeraketiya in the family country seat. It was nut picking day there. That was in the early 1960s when I had had my own youthful curiosity aroused over the birth of a 'buddha puthraya' and joined some friends who were motoring down to Medamulana from the nearby town Tangalle to see this phenomenon, which is another story. Father DA spotted me, beckoned me to a side and whispered in my ear what all the commotion was about. We all had a hearty laugh and retreated. Those were the 'kavi kola' days when pamphleteers were quick to pick on a sensational story. For a brief period then, van loads of people were emptied into Medamulana. Some enterprising villagers cashed in to do a short lived but perhaps 'flourishing' business in terms of those days hawking refreshments to the visitors until interest petered out as in the case of a wayside drama. In the days of the Legislative Council and first State Council it was this writer's ancestor who represented the deep South until Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's uncle popularly known as DM in his simple dress and 'kurakkan' shawl ousted the top hat and tail coat attired overlord. It was only the other day that the Mahanayaka Theras of the Asgiriya and Malwatta Chapters alluded to the 'govi' (farmer) background of the Prime Minister. It was to this same country background that this writer alluded when in December last year Mahinda Rajapaksa launched his web site opening a window for discourse to test the waters as he made a bid for national leadership which he has now attained. To quote: When Mahinda Rajapakse picked up the threads from where his elders had left them he did not have to break new ground for his father DA and uncle DM had clearly identified themselves with the masses that had been held in bondage by the colonial rulers and their lackeys that helped to perpetuate a feudal system that gave little thought to the travails of the suffering people who toiled under harsh, drought stricken conditions in Hambantota district, to eke out a meagre living. 'Jana Goshas' may not have been the style of the soft spoken, mild mannered father DA who was content to be in the shadow of his leader SWRD who took that decisive step in 1951 to provide an alternative democratic government to the people but son Mahinda has set his sights on national leadership so he has to emerge from the shadows and arrive in the capital Colombo - from distant Medamulana to central Colombo via the Internet. It is not that Colombo holds any forbidding, awesome barriers for Mahinda. He spent the greater part of his school days and turbulent times at law college in the metropolis." So with the step he took in 1968 at the sudden and sad demise of his father, Mahinda Rajapaksa has reached the pinnacle of his political career having steadfastly stood by the party - the SLFP that was his launching pad. His resilience to the vicissitudes of political life so amply demonstrated over the years will surely see him through to achieve for those millions who backed the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the hustings just concluded, all that has been pledged in the (UPFA) election manifesto. - Lalith Edrisinha |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was catapulted into the political
arena in his early twenties at the sudden demise of his father D. A.
Rajapaksa who had represented Beliatta for decades and served in various
capacities in SLFP/MEP governments. So Mahinda was no stranger to politics
and the people of the deep South then. In this, exclusive interview to the
Sunday Observer given within hours of his taking oaths as Prime Minister
35 years after his initiation he looks ahead at the immediate future and
beyond and spells out his plans to uphold the pledges made to the people
at the recent General Election.
