'Govt's responsibility to eradicate terrorism'

Opposition parties and certain international Human Rights groups accuse the Government for the current wave of violence in society, amidst terrorist threats and economic instability.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, in particular, is accused of bad governance by the main opposition, the United National Party. This time 'face to face' focuses on what the two parties have to say about each other.

Q: Do you believe the country is experiencing a period of political insecurity now?

Tissa Attanayake: Political insecurity has increased. The prevailing war situation let the illegal armed gangs to roam around freely. According to reliable information we have received some security forces personnel are involved in several acts of violence. Certain politicians were involved in some of those ransom cases in the recent past.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa	Tissa Attanayake

The economy and the political system have collapsed. Law and order situation has deteriorated. The action taken by the Government to rectify these injustices is questionable.

During past three years, several politicians such as Joseph Parajasingham, Nadarajah Raviraj, T. Maheshwaran, were killed. These Tamil politicians brought their people's grievances to the attention of the Sinhala people. MP Maheshwaran's security was reduced to two from eighteen.

He strongly highlighted several abductions and killings that happened in Jaffna few days before he was killed. The Government removed the required security on his threatened life.

We are not trying to whitewash the LTTE but the Government must take action to stop such terrorist attacks. A Government that respects law and order cannot let terrorism Nadu rise. But the problem lies with misusing the attempts to eradicate terrorism to commit other violations.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: Throughout the history this was there. It is not a new issue. A number of politicians have been killed by terrorists on number of occasions.

Insecurity is a part of doing politics, part and parcel of our job. All over the world, be it the Asian region or the Western world, the politicians are the causes for its existence. This is not unique to Sri Lanka.

Q: How do you explain the happenings in the recent past - politicians assassinated and terrorism?

Tissa Attanayake: Within the past three years, many politicians such as Joseph Pararajasingham, Nadarajah Raviraj, T. Maheshwaran were killed. These Tamil politicians were the people who brought their people's grievances to the attention of the Sinhala community.

In MP Maheshwaran's case, security was lowered when he truly needed it due to threats against his life. How much the present Government assures that there is adequate protections no one can be sure. Even in the North and the East it is the same.

We are not trying to whitewash the LTTE. But we see that both parties, the LTTE and the Government, misuse this war situation. The way the Government handling investigations on these killings questionable.

We do not see any steps taken by the Government to prevent such happenings reoccurring in the future. The LTTE can be brutal but a democratic Government cannot act in the same way. People point the finger at the Government because the Government's actions are very suspicious in the eyes of the public.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: The rise of terrorism is a phenomenon all over the world. It has become a menace to democracy and the well-being of people. Therefore, it is the Government's responsibility to take steps to eradicate terrorism.

Protecting democratic traditions is another way to root out terrorism other than but seeking a military solution. Terrorists get a wider attention towards their cause by targeting politicians. Politicians are easy and good targets for this purpose.

Assassinations of Rajiv Gandhi in India and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan are good examples of such incidents. The definite solution is to strengthen the democratic system.

Q: Do you say that the earlier regimes performed well comparative to the present Government? Particularly, the regimes after 1977?

Tissa Attanayake: People live in more fear than any other past era, when we consider the last 10-15 years. Justifying these incidents comparing to the similar instances in the past is not correct. Intensifying them, is also wrong.

We see many methodologies activated to rectify the North and East conflict. Mahinda Rajapaksa regime is targeting to end the conflict through military strategies. Whether this is right or wrong is not the problem.

What matters is the solution. Even during the UNP regime we had great strategic leaders such as Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranajan Wijeratne. But the conflict situation has intensified at present. All terrorist activities should be obstructed and eradicated.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: In 1977, with a huge mandate the United National Party came in to power and people changed the governing system from the first past-the-port system to a proportionally elected system.

The country was open to free economy. Some argue that it is not a good development. But then the world order was changing. Even the socialist countries were converted to open economies.

It would have been much better that, the local factor, local industries emerging by then, were strengthened. In 1976 we started assembling cars when India or Malaysia have not even initiated such industries.

Those industries got affected with the open economy. Hence, we, as a country took a long time to revive - we totally lost the local industries. Social checks and balances also should have been considered. On the other hand there were negative effects too, when large quantities of heroin and other illegal drugs started to flow in illegally.

But with the start of the free trade zone and many industries through foreign investment, lot of job opportunities were created. If more focus was on people and their development, open economy would have served much better.

Our Government approach towards the poor people is deferent. We look at them in a different manner. Our focus is on strengthening the local industries.

We developed mega scale projects, such as the Norochcholai power plant, Upper Kotmale Hydro power plant, Port and Airport development projects in Hambantota, Kerawalapitiya power plant, Moragahakanda and Uma Oya reservoirs.

These did not get the assistance and backing from the Government for a long time. Development of the Eastern part of the country is another mega step in development.

Government is giving high priority and emphasis as it is a sector that was neglected for quite a long time. These are all in par with the existing open economy. It is actually a kind of a model. We are paving the way for the whole nation to live in peace and prosperity.

Q: In the backdrop of a heavily fluctuating world economy, do you think we could have performed well?

Tissa Attanayake: It is the Government's duty to bring in the good world economy changes in to the country, its people, we should be strong enough to stand against the fluctuations in the world market.

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan encounters same changes more successfully. Our Government should take action for the rupee depreciation. Investments should be increased, infrastructure should be developed, local production should be increased. Government expenditure should be curtailed.

The Government expenditure is 4.4 billion rupees. We have necessary large Cabinet of Ministers - now 109. During the UNP regime, we were able to significantly lower the exchange rate, specially the US$ rate. At present India is the best model.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: Sri Lankan economy is growing at 7 per cent at present. A great achievement considering the local factors, such as terrorist threats, natural disasters. With such achievements we can deftly shoot up to a 10 per cent annually growing economy.

The main global factor affecting all the countries is the oil price hike. In any part of the world it is a shock. Their industries, transportation and day-to-day life of people are severely affected. But the world will recover from this. On the other hand, food items used as bio fuels cause a price increase in food items in the world market.

Our best option is decentralisation - more industries should reach the rural areas. This is a very good time period for production specially for farmers because of this demand for food items to generate bio fuel. On the other hand it can be bad for consumers. There is always some goodness and comparatively a bad effect about any factor. But this shock, affecting the whole world, I believe is temporary.

Q: Don't you think it is high time for Sri Lanka to have steady policies on issues of national interest, so that the country can move forward irrespective of party politics?

Tissa Attanayake: There are main issues that definitely need a national policy that would not change. The Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006 October by the UNP and the SLFP was one such move towards agreements on national interests. It failed mainly because political motive topped national interests.

As a party we supported the Government for 24 months. We agreed to support the Budget that was totally unknown by then. Now it is hard to trust the Government after seeing their responses and actions towards the MoU. It is very important to derive Public service from becoming politicised.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: I agree there should be a common understanding among the politicians on several key areas - such as education, economy, agriculture and so on.

A common view is needed through discussions. The main reason I see for not having such consensus is the highly polarised political ideologies. The distance between the opinions of political parties is considerably large. It seems to be a result of the healthy democratic system in the country. I believe, a changing point can be favourable.

Q: Do you believe your party has strong proposals that can rectify the mishaps of the current economy, security situation, political instability and find lasting peace?

Tissa Attanayake: We believe that the war has to end. What matters is not how we end the war - it can be military or political. Yet as long as it is genuinely played and put a full stop to war - that is important. It is not only the high expenditure on war that gives negative impact to the country; the disaster caused by conflicts affects a lot.

The Government costs should be restricted. Issues like spending Government budget, limiting the number of Cabinet of Ministers, controls in giving power to ministers should be more concerned if the economy to be lifted.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: The Government has to intervene when the local investors are putting effort to enter into the world trade. People are getting increases in their incomes when we consider the per capita rates.

Government believes in a political solution and hence, the President directed the All Party Representative Committee to come with a solution by 23rd of this month. We believe in a political solution and it should enhance the Sri Lankan identity, securing the traditional identities.

The biggest obstacle we face is terrorism. The armed forces are engaged in lessening the terrorists and they are marching forward victoriously.

Q: Where do you plan to place Sri Lanka in the global arena? Where does your political party take the country in the international level?

Tissa Attanayake: To be at par with the other countries of the region we need to uplift the economy, eradicate poverty and bring in many reforms to the present system in order to get out from this level our country is at. Mega projects such as the Mahaweli Development strengthened the economy more and more.

We want this country to be economically strong. For that it requires a smart and genuine team and a leadership. It needs short term and long term strategies and plans.

Discipline is a must for us as a nation. It is essential to protect law and order and principles and plans for such should be put in to action genuinely. We need strong long term strategies. If a Government genuinely focus on developing our country it can be done in ten years. The strategy we, as a party, believing in, can achieve this.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: A country with a high level of social democracy. We will strengthen the democracy and we continue to do so. This is our ideology. For that we will need many reformations to the system. Yet, we want to create a country where all can live together with peace and prosperity. We want this country to be a beautiful island where everyone of us can peacefully live.

Q: Time to time, political leaders talked about new political cultures where they agreed to work together irrespective of their party colours? Why have you failed to implement such an agenda for the betterment of the nation?

Tissa Attanayake: Weak strategies of politicians where personal motives overrun the broader aspect of political motives. Politics was never looked down as it is happening now.

There were instances where politicians changed their political parties but that was with a clear vision. Today one will talk for the party in the morning and late in the day walk to another or express something totally contradictory.

Common people get attracted to party colours more than to the party policies. Yet there is a decline in the number of people who are emotionally supporting a particular party.

Many do not express their support in public. They take their own decision. This is a good sign.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa: High division of political idealogies. For one issue, we find so many, variety of ideas. This factor itself proves that we are truly a democratic country.

Political ties can emerge and end. It is not an extraordinary since political parties are made of different ideologies.

Our ordinary citizen is a highly intelligent voter. Sri Lankans are not emotional. Asians are so democratic in their mind. It is proven throughout the history. Hence, they are highly capable of choosing the best to lead a nation.