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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Janabala
Meheyuma - Not a threat to UPFA
Deputy General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake said that the objective of holding the Janabala Meheyuma was to mobilise people and agitate the Government to fulfil the promises pledged by them. by Jayantha Sri Nissanka
Q: What is the objective of the Janabala Meheyuma? A: The UPFA leaders gave promises to come to power, except promising the sun and the moon. The UPFA Government failed to fulfil these promises given to the people. We are now trying to mobilise the people and force the Government to fulfil its promises. Tsunami victims were not given adequate assistance due to the sheer inefficiency of the Government. Victims are still languishing in temporary huts. The UPFA partners have put the country into a political crisis. Now they do not have a majority in Parliament. What is important is to select a leader who can run the country. In short, the aim of the Janabala Meheyuma is to protect the country from the curse of the UPFA. Q: Every Government elected to power gave enormous promises. You blamed this Government too. When you come to power will the Janabala promises go with the wind? A: No. We have prepared many projects and proposals to develop the country. We require national policies to continue for at least 15 years on important subjects like peace, education, development, transport, health, etc. Q: Today you are today talking about national policies. But did the UNF Government address economic and social issues in the country during your two-year rule? A: The President had no reason to change the UNF Government in 2004. We had a 131-member majority in the House. The reason to topple the UNF according to the President was to protect the country from security threat and to reduce the cost of living. But she recently came out with the truth that she had to dissolve the UNF Government on the influence of the JVP. Q: The UPFA Government gave an enormous pay hike to the public servants. UNF Government only assisted the affluent. Have you given such a massive 70 per cent pay hike? A: UPFA leaders promised to grant 70 per cent pay hike to the public servants. But government servants are now staging picketing to get the pay hike. Why have they cheated innocent public servants. Now the SLFP and the JVP cannot get away from the false promises given to the people. They have the responsibility to fulfil those promises. The last Budget contained many fairy tales. The UPFA leaders boasted that it's a home-grown Budget and that they can run the country without foreign aid and also reduce the cost of living. Q: The UNP is today shedding crocodile tears on the cost of living and blame the UPFA Government. But UNF failed to address the same issue when they were in power? A: No government can bring down the cost of living to zero. But this government has no proper management to control and cushion the increasing cost of living. Control of prices and reduction of prices are two things. We need a good management to control prices. We must stabilise the rupee, then our imported food items will not be so expensive. The UNF took all measures to strengthen the rupee. That is how other countries faced the impact of high oil prices in the world market. We appointed a committee to study the cost of living and that committee recommended many steps to reduce the cost of living. Q: Your leader is demanding the Presidential election. How can you face it if a general election is called first? A: We have reorganised the party. We can face any election with confidence. The people who participated in the Janabala Meheyuma gave us tremendous encouragement. However, if the President tries to be in power illegally, we will take action. Q: Though your leader is urging for a Presidential election, the Government claims that elections will be held next year. What is your comment? A: The President nor the Ministers can decide on the date of the Presidential election. The people have the right to select their leader every six years. Her term ends this year. The Commissioner of Elections has to decide the date of the election. Nobody can influence him and it is his duty to hold the elections. There will be lots of trouble if the election is postponed. We request them not to put the country in a chaos, because ultimately it is the people who will suffer. The Elections Commissioner should issue the gazette notice on time. ****
Deputy Minister of Highways T.B.Ekanayake says that the main motive behind the Janabala Meheyuma was to pressurise the Elections Commissioner to hold the Presidential Election this year, in order to fulfil the Presidential dream of Ranil Wickremesinghe. Q: The UNP launched another Janabala Meheyuma against the Government claiming that the Government has not fulfilled the promises, and demanding the Presidential election. What is the government's response to their allegations? A: Our Government just completed one year in power. The UNP fears that they cannot come to power again once our projects are completed. That is why the UNP has organised such a protest. We have taken many steps to fulfil the election pledges. We have given 42,000 jobs for graduates who were agitating against the UNP government. The main purpose of the Janabala Meheyuma is to fulfil the Presidential election dream of Ranil Wickremesinghe. Otherwise, he is a man who has no pulse on the plight of the poor people. It was in the same place where the Janabala Meheyuma started that the former Minister, Mahinda Wijesekara broke the legs of graduates who were demanding jobs in Devinuwara during the UNF regime. That is how the UNP treated the graduates. Q: When will you hold the Presidential election? A: Even if President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga wants to hold the Presidential election this year, according to the Constitutional experts R. K. W. Gunasekara and H. L. de Silva she cannot do so. Therefore, how can Ranil Wickremesinghe make such a demand. Some people have petitioned the Supreme Court to give a ruling on this. Ranil Wickremesinghe is searching short-cuts to power. He has lost 12 elections in the past. He is going to add another defeat to his career in the next Presidential Election. He has launched all these agitation campaigns to protect his leadership. There are many threats to his leadership. Q: What is the future of the UPFA Government? A: There is no threat to defeat our next budget. The JVP defected only due to one reason. If we bring a development oriented budget I don't think that the JVP will vote against us because they do not want the UNP in power. If we introduce projects to use the Rs. 3 billion Tsunami fund, pay hikes, assisting Small and Medium Industries, alternative power generation, start of new industries, etc, the JVP will not vote against such a progressive budget. Q: How can you say that losing the majority in the House is not a problem for the government because there are 151 members in the Opposition? A: Anyone can count heads in the Opposition. That does not mean that all are against the Government. Many members in the Opposition are supporting our Government. For example the CWC, NUA, Chandrasekara, fraction of the JHU, Athaulla-group, etc. Q: UNP blames that the people find it difficult to bear the sky-rocketing cost of living, though you are boasting about the work of the Government. What action has your Government taken to address the cost of living? A: Our country is even importing essential items which we can produce here. We must move to produce those items in the country. We must move from consumer oriented economy to production economy. Our people are agitating against development projects such as Kothmale, Iranavila, coal-power projects, etc. We have to educate them and move forward. We have to reduce the gap between the income and the expenditure of people as a solution to the cost of living. Q: You are talking about Development Sangramaya. What have you done so far? A: We have completed rehabilitation of 10,000 tanks in order to give a production boost to the agricultural sector. We have given a stable price for paddy, we are now negotiating with China to revitalise the Higurana, Kanthale and Pelwatte sugar factories. We want to be self-sufficient in sugar. We have started to rehabilitate road networks. We are helping Tsunami affected farmers and small industrialists to restart their occupations. There are many more development projects which I can't spell out one by one now. 27 world leaders who came to Sri Lanka including the UN General-Secretary Koffi Annan said that when compared with other affected countries, Sri Lanka has properly managed the rehabilitation programmes. A: They are party men. They could not bring one million people to Town Hall because the Town Hall has a capacity only for 50,000 people. But People are not foolish. They read and think today. Nobody can deceive them and get their votes hereafter. Q: The UNP leader claims that he will give jobs to 300,000 youth after he comes to power? A: The UNP is shedding crocodile tears now. What has the UNF done during their two-year regime. Only that many Ministers became wealthy. Did Ranil Wickremesinghe give a single job to our youth? They only broke the legs of graduates who were demanding jobs. We recruited 42,000 unemployed graduates. |
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