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Q: Don’t you see a decline in the overall standard of Sri Lanka sports? What are the remedial steps taken to resurrect Sri Lanka sports? A: No, I don’t agree that there is any decline in the standards. Here people always measure standards when our sportsmen keep records. In the history there were periods where we had good sportsmen and there were periods, the country did not have good sportsmen. Then we cannot get an overall judgement saying that Lankan sports is not in a good standard. However, our athletes have reached Olympic levels though they could not secure medals. The best example is boxing and then badminton and shooting. If there is a decline in standards they would not have reached those levels. Therefore, we can be proud of the country’s standard in sports. But we have to do more to tap talented young sportsmen. Q: Besides cricket, athletics is one of the major sports in which Sri Lanka has won honours at international level. Unfortunately we have not built a good second string to take over. What is the reason for that? A: The need of the hour as I said earlier is to identify the talented young sportsmen and women in the country. The Ministry of Sports has drawn two plans for that. One is through sports clubs and the other is through schools. The ministry has asked all the sports clubs to submit details about sportsmen who have good track records. Sports pools will be held to select the best ones to represent the country at the South Asian Games. They will be given further training under qualified coaches and if necessary they will be given foreign training too. They will be selected to represent the country at Asian Games. Then the best out of this lot will be selected for the Commonwealth Games. So what we intend is to have first, second and third line ups for sports. From there we can decide who should go for Olympics. Those who are getting good records at other games will also be considered for the Olympics.The main reason is that there was no such line up for the next generation once the existing athletes quit the field. I want to change this situation and that is why I am trying to implement the two programs to tap the talented sportsmen at two levels -the club and school levels. The main objective of the school level program is to bring the young sportsmen and women up. This will be done through sports schools that will be set up soon. We have decided to open three sports schools in the country. The locations will be Madampe Senanayake Maha Vidyalaya, Dikwella Maha Vidyalaya and Piliyandala Maha Vidyalaya. Most of these youth who excel in sports winning, will just end their careers as there are less opportunities for them to pursue their talents. I want to bring these talents to the limelight and I want to have a group of talented sportsmen and women in the country. The best place is to tap that talent at school level. My target is to open these schools before end of next January. The Sports School in Piliyandala is nearing completion and all these three schools will get 400 metre tracks, swimming pools and all other facilities including residential facilities for 600 school children.Our target is to produce 600 sportsmen annually. There are 21 sports schools in Sri Lanka and those who are at these schools will also be trained. Those who have good records will be selected for further training under foreign trainers if required. Under this program we can assure we can produce highly talented sportsmen within the next six to eight years.Many of these youth from rural areas are coming from poor financial backgrounds and the ministry will pay an allowance to each of these school children so they will not be a burden to their parents. This allowance will be enough to cover the cost for the basic requirements in sports like buying shoes. My main intention is to create a background for the young sportsmen to continue their sports without burdening their parents who lack money. This way we can create a good mental situation among them too. Q: Don’t you think our athletes are not recognised enough? For example, when a cricketer performs against ten countries he gets promotions and big bonanza. But when an athlete qualifies for the Olympics among 200 odd countries that goes unnoticed? A: The Ministry has taken all the necessary steps to look after them. We will help them when they need our assistance. But we cannot offer cash awards like in cricket. But if somebody gets a gold medal, the Ministry will give a good allowance of Rs. 500,000. Like in cricket athletes will not get cash rewards. Cricket has been developed around the world to that level. Not only cricket but tennis players will get more cash rewards. But there are events where the athletes can get cash rewards. When they are selected to compete in events like Grand Prixs, the Ministry will sponsor the air ticket. Q: What are your plans to produce an Olympic medallist at least within the next decade or so? A: I have seen how those athletes from 240 countries perform. What I felt was that Sri Lanka needs to go ahead in sports to tap the talented youth from four corners of the country. That is why I have decided to implement the two programs which I mentioned earlier. Q: You directed the National Sports Council to scan performances of national sports associations before gaving the greenlight to go ahead with their respective AGMs and annual elections for 2008. When the NSC, headed by Dr. Maiya Gunasekera, has given clearance to go ahead with the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) AGM, why is the Ministry blocking it? A: No, what I highlighted was that there should be a big change in these sports associations. A sports club represents the whole country. What I found was that there are sports clubs where there are no sportsmen to the clubs and the membership is limited to less than six people. But they represent the country. Mostly the members are their uncles, aunts and sisters and brothers. So I directed that the membership be given to all the sportsmen in these clubs before the next AGMs. No sportsmen represent most of these sports clubs. The SLTA has only 10 or 12 sports clubs. I asked the SLTA to allow the sports clubs in rural areas to represent the SLTA. At the moment the membership of the Tennis Association is basically limited to Colombo and main cities. But rural players won’t get a chance to play tennis. I expect a change and want them to reach the village level. Swimming is also facing a similar phenomena. The talented swimmers in Chilaw, Ambalangoda and other areas do not have a chance to represent these clubs. Few clubs operate in Colombo and control everything. The trainers are the same members and if a child does not train under them he will not get a chance of going further. I have received lots of such complaints. Those who are trained under these club members will get the chance of representing the international tournaments. I firmly believe that this situation should be changed and the opportunities would be equally distributed among all talented sportsmen. Q: The Ministry removed Thilanga Sumathipala on the grounds of corruption and has on those reasons not permitted elections there. But even in the last Jayantha Dharmadasa interim committee administration massive financial corruption has been reported. What action has been taken by you to bring the culprits to book? A: No one has been removed for corruption during my tenure. The main problem is that those who talk much about corruption have not legally complained against any of these people. There is no Auditor General’s Report showing any corrupt deals either. If there are charges which could be legally proved I can take prompt action. But I can reply to this question soon as the Auditor General’s Report questioning the activities of some of the clubs have been submitted to the Public Accounts Committee. What I can assure is that if somebody is found guilty they cannot easily escape from me. I will take tough action against them. Q: Does the Sports Ministry look politically when appointing officials to sports bodies? A: No. There is no room for politicization of any of these committees under my purview. The reality is that politicians who have been appointed to some of these committees are sportsmen even before they come to Parliament.And they were members or officials of the those committees for years. I cannot stop them being appointed through their AGMs.But I am not going to appoint any politician to any of these committees. I can say I made such an appointment only once and that was Arjuna Ranatunge to the Cricket Board. Q: Are you at loggerheads with Arjuna Ranatunga because most of his decisions are blocked by you? A: How can one say that we have clashes? We discuss matters that arise and we take decisions after discussions. The other point is why should I block the decisions taken by him? I will never do that and I do not want to interfere as such. Q: Will the long overdue national sports policy be ever implemented? Are you serious to bring legislation to change the aging National Sports Law of 1973 which does not suit the modern world of sport? A: There are amendments to the Act. Several proposals have been submitted and the need for a change highlighted. But meantime there is some opposition to some of these amendments. I have asked the committee to look into these matters and advice about the possible actions to bring about the amendments. Q: The UNP is in a dilemma over the leadership. How do you think that the UNP can go back to its glorious past? A: I think the UNP is badly in need of a change in the leadership. The leader should be able to take firm decisions and he should be a leader who can think about the national interest. When the UNP D group was with the UNP we tried our best to bring these changes. We highlighted the need of working towards the national importance. But we failed to achieve our target as the UNP in the recent past is controlled by a few people to achieve their own targets. At the beginning we informed this to the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and he agreed with us. We told him that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa is taking the country in the correct direction and the UNP should help him to free the country from terrorism. We also told him that we should not run behind petty political agendas but need to give priority to maintain the unity. That therefore, we should help the government unconditionally to combat terrorism in this important juncture. Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed and signed an agreement with the government. But later he was talking about forming of a separate government. We realised that there is no transparency now in the UNP leadership and we have decided to give our fullest support to the government to maintain the majority in the Parliament. We had also proposed the UNP to change its constitution to accommodate these proposals to help the government. But all our efforts were not fruitful and we took a firm decision to support the government. Today people of this country have approved our decision. No one can say that the government rigged the polls in Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provincial Councils. People honestly approved the government’s efforts to eradicate terrorism and they voted for the government. First, the Opposition Leader should love the country and its people. Today, Ranil Wickremesinghe had failed to reach the people. People have lost faith in him. The UNP constitution should be changed to give more powers to the party members. During the days of J. R. Jayewardene, D. B. Wijetunge and R. Premadasa the UNP members had the right to select its leaders. But now the Opposition Leader will select leaders. The whole system in the UNP should be changed if the party intends to survive. The reality is that one cannot swim against the tidal waves. Q: If there is a change in the leadership will the UNP D group re-join the UNP? A: I cannot tell our decision now. But under whoever the leader we will assist the government in its efforts to bring peace. If the new leader is willing to help the government to combat terrorism we would help him but he has to agree to help the government unconditionally. Q: If the government goes for an election from which party are you going for the election? A: We have not yet decided but under the present situation we would join the government and go for polls. Q: You got elected from the UNP and how confident are you that you would be able to secure votes like earlier at a future election? A: We have to go for an election and decide our fate. People will decide all. But we are hopeful that the UNPers will definitely vote for us as they have already approved our decision. ***************************** Who is Gamini Kulawansa Lokuge Being a famous social worker Lokuge, the wealthy businessman from Piliyandala wanted all his nine children - six boys and three girls to become educated one day. He gave them the best he could to pursue their higher studies.
Lokuge Jr, who had his primary education at Batakeththara Primary School and passed his Advanced Levels from Ananda Sastralaya, Kotte, was a popular young politician in Madapatha who represented the UNP youth organisation. Determined to help those in need of help, Gamini climbed the ladder of politics step by step following his father, who supported Somaweera Chandrasiri to win the polls. “What my father taught me was to think about our own people, especially the villagers of my home town”, says Minister of Sports Lokuge, who wanted to primarily serve the villagers to give their children a good education. Before stepping into active politics he looked after the family business involving hotel trade and was in the director board of their own business institutions. When Dharmasena Attygalla resigned from Parliament, Gamini got nominated and he won at the General Elections. Since then he was a MP and was the Minister of Tourism too. Strongly following the ‘teachings’ of late President J. R. Jayewardene, Minister Lokuge says a leader should always be ‘brave’ enough to take firm decisions. “That is what I learnt from JR and I have seen this quality from the President Mahinda Rajapaksa too. A leader should take decisions otherwise it is very difficult to rule a country. The other person that I always adore is late President R. Premadasa. He always listened to the ordinary people and they could easily reach President Premadasa. At any given time he would answer the phone and he was ready to listen to them. What the country needs are those kinds of leaders”, he says. The most unfortunate period in his life was the days during the JVP unrest. “During those days our lives were under threat and no one could guarantee that we were coming back home. Today the JVP asks people to vote for them, but how many innocent people were killed by the JVP during those days”, questions Minister Lokuge adding that despite threats he did not flee his home town and he looked after over 200 people whose lives were at risk due to JVP terror. “I sheltered and fed them”, he says. Apart from developing sports, his main target is to help people, especially to offer more facilities for the villagers to educate their children. Being a proud father of two educated daughters - one is a barrister and the other is a civil engineer - Minister Lokuge wants to introduce more educational facilities for the children of his electorate. “Telling the truth is the most important quality that should develop one who wants to become a politician”, advises this matured politician who requests politicians not to mislead the voters giving them broken promises for jobs. “I never issue a letter if there are no jobs that I can give them”, he says. “The other factor”, he stresses is “no politician needs the support of the underworld kingpins to win an election. The power of youth is more effective than the support of the underworld goons. The magic wand that makes one a politician is the hard work done for the people of the country. That will bring him up the ladder”, he emphasises adding that he knows most of the famous underworld gangs, but never used them in political victories.No time for enjoyment, he reads books and magazines and browses the internet whenever he has time to learn more about sports, which he admits he did not know at all when he was sworn in as the Minister of Sports. He believes that when a new ministerial portfolio is offered to a politician he should not say no even if the field is not his cup of tea. He should consider what he can do in that particular field and identify the areas that he should work., says Minister Lokuge who stopped doing sports after his schooling. Minister Lokuge firmly believing his fate, says that he will surely sit on the chair of the Prime Minister or the President if his fate takes him there. “Who will refuse if these posts are given to somebody accidentally like the way the former President D. B. Wijetunga got them all. I would not mind becoming the PM or President of this country ”, the Minister giggles. |
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Lokuge wanted his second son - Gamini to be a doctor or an engineer
but he took a different turn becoming a young politician. 
