LG bodies could do more under UPFA - Rajitha Senaratne

By Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne is confident the UPFA will sweep all 23 Local Government Bodies on October 08 Local Government polls. A key factor for this significant victory to be achieved by the UPFA because the people have fresh hopes for a better Sri Lanka immense faith in the UPFA regardless of party affiliations. The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said the people can seen that the UPFA is united.

At present the Sajith faction has fielded their own lists under different symbols, thus the UNP is divided, causing votes to be divided.

The Minister said the UNP does not know who is going to be its future leader? He queried who will vote for a party like the UNP which does not know who the party leader will be after October 08. When Ranil Wickremesinghe is doing his level best to win Colombo and retain his leadership, Sajith Premadasa doing all he can defeat the UNP in all Local Government Bodies and gain party leadership. The internal battle within the UNP has become worse than the battle between the UPFA and the UNP at the election campaign.

Dr. Senaratne said the JVP is also divided and the majority of JVPers support the dissidents and not the Somawansa-Tilvin group. These political parties are divided because they don’t have an alternative to this Government and not because of a leadership crisis. They don’t have any hope for tomorrow, they don’t expect victory and are well aware that their symbols will be defeated.

Q: Certain countries are trying to take Sri Lanka to the dock regarding alleged war crimes. Do you see the President’s speech at the UN as a fitting answer to these attempts ?

A: It was a very fitting reply. If we anaylse the speeches made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Iranian Prime Minister at the UN, we can see the difference of how the West responds to the two speeches. When President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed the UN, they applauded because of the unique theme of his speech was the eradication of terrorism. The President tried to explain how difficult it was to eradicate terrorism in Sri Lanka and his contribution made towards world peace which paved the way to understanding and what really happened in Sri Lanka in that context. He appealed to the whole world to eradicate terrorism. The President’s words would have sunk into the minds of these world leaders. So I think it was a very fitting speech at a time when various predictions were made about threats and demonstrations against the President and the alleged war crime report was also brought before the UN Human Rights Commission. Even in such a situation, the President defended his motherland in a fitting manner.

Q: The UPFA has swept all the Local Government elections so far. What are your expectations for October 08 when some of the major Local Bodies will be holding elections?

A: It will be a repeat performance, this time around too.

The UPFA is under one united banner and is not like the UNP. Sajith Premadasa has also fielded certain independent groups under different symbols. Some of the groups carry Sajith's photograph. UNP votes are now dividede. They do not know who the next leader will be.

The internal battle within the UNP has taken a turn for the worse. It’s worse than the battle between the UPFA and the UNP.

The same thing has happened to the JVP as well. It is also divided. Why are these Opposition parties divided? It is nothing to do with the leadership crisis. It is a political crisis in the party. The crisis is that they don’t have any alternative to this Government.

Q: Some of these Local Bodies such as Colombo have been dominated by the UNP for decades. Will the UPFA be able to break this trend in Colombo and other places?

A: Already that trend has been broken. Cities which have been under the UNP right throughout, because minorities always voted for the UNP. But that trend is changing today. Actually it began from my electorate in Beruwala. Of the 20,000 who live in the Beruwala Urban Council area, 16,000 are Muslims. There are only 4,000 Sinhalese there. But the UPFA won Beruwala UC with a majority of 3,600 votes. If we do a sustainable election campaign, we can win.

If we take Harispattuwa, it is a predominantly Muslim electorate. But the UPFA won. Any other party has not won this electorate. The Muslims know how much the President has done for the country and it is not because of the SLFP. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also the President of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement.

They have also named one of their streets in Palestine as President Mahinda Rajapaksa Mawatha.

The President is the only leader who stood for the Muslims. Even at the UN having all these problems from the West and knowing that the West was not happy, the President stood with the Palestinians and their rights for a separate state.

Just on this count, the Muslims must vote for the UPFA and extend their support to the President to win all the Local Government Bodies.

Even the Tamil vote is divided at present because the TNA stands with Mano Ganeshan. Tamils who want to vote for the UNP will vote for Mano Ganeshan. Then votes will be divided.

Q: The UNP has traditionally depended on minority votes in Colombo. This time are you confident that the Tamil and Muslim communities are with the UPFA in Colombo and other places? Why do you think this is happening?

A: In elections in the North, the SLFP never had a stand in the North. It was under the Left and the UNP throughout.

Alfred Duraiappa was the only people’s representative from the SLFP. But he crossed over and was not elected under the SLFP banner. At the recently concluded Local Government elections, the SLFP for the first time obtained 30 percent of Tamil votes in the North.

With a few days of campaigning, the SLFP got 30 percent of votes which is a great achievement. We were competing with a traditional party like the TNA. It was the party that contested the North for the last 60 years like the SLFP and the UNP in the South. This is the trend which means that minorities are not in favours of the UNP. They are not going to give a blank cheque to the UNP. They are taking into consideration the leadership and not the SLFP.

Q: Both the UNP and the JVP have now split into several factions. With this development, do you think that they will be in any position to challenge the UPFA at the polls?

A: That is why I earlier said who will vote for a party which does not know who will be its Leader after October 08?

Everybody has understood their dispute. That dispute is not only a leadership dispute, it is a political crisis as there is no alternative program to this Government.

Q: The UPFA has fielded many fresh faces and also people of the calibre of Milinda Moragoda who is well-known to follow election laws. It is a blend of youth and experience. How will this appeal to voters?

A: The reason why Milinda was selected was not only for October 08 but after. The UPFA can win the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). But the difficult task is to run the council and to give results.

That is why Milinda Moragoda was selected. He is a person who has a understanding about international politics and can adopt it to turn the CMC into a wonder. That is why the President invited Azath Sally to join the UPFA. Because he is a very good activist. He ran the CMC while being the Deputy Mayor. He mingled with the people and responded to them. Now there is one person to organise and another to take that program forward. The Government has nominated these people to get results.

The Government has taken into consideration their capability. That is how even when Lee Kwan Yu was asked-how did you create Singapore as the wonder of Asia? He said, “I created it because I selected the people I wanted and gave them correct positions to carry out their work.

They did the work and turned the country into wonder”. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the same. He said that he has never considered the past history of members, from which party they came and what they were doing earlier. The President only takes into consideration their capability.

Q: What are the advantages of having Local Bodies controlled by the UPFA in terms of development and welfare for various areas?

A: The UPFA needs these councils specially to improve infrastructure facilities at urban and at village level.

If there is an Opposition party which controls a Local Government Body, it can sabotage development work. As a result, something which can be done in a month will drag on far six months, thus delaying results. It is good to have these councils under the Government. At present, we are marching in a direction to change this country into the “Wonder of Asia”. We need the power of all these councils to realise this goal.

Q: If the UPFA wins a majority of councils on October 08, most of the country’s Local Bodies will be under its control. How will this help the development process?

A: Because we will use them and we will vest our countrywide programs for them to handle. If it is road construction, it always needs the assistance of the Local Government. The selection of sites for other projects such as water supply, electricity, and construction of houses comes under the purview of these councils. The approval of Local Government bodies is necessary to implement these projects.

Q: This election has seen very little, violence and even rivalry within the party is at an all time low, what is the reason for this change?

A: The Opposition election campaign is weak, the second thing is the people are more bothered about development than party politics. They know this Government is going pel-mel as far as development is concerned. Now development has taken priority over politics.

Q: There are allegations that the Government is planning to dissolve five other councils and have a Colombo Metropolitan Authority. What is your opinion on this issue?

A: This is another attempt made by the Opposition to mislead the people. What about New Delhi? New Delhi comes under a Metropolitan Council like a corporation. That is how they turned the former Delhi into the New Delhi. In the new Sri Lanka, we want Colombo to be made a ‘new’ Colombo.

Now Colombo, Kotte and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia come under one corporation like in New Delhi.

Both the council and a corporation are present in Delhi. They joined and rebuilt Delhi. We must have a separate body to have a single plan for Colombo. Because the Colombo Municipality has only five seats and since the other seats are divided in other urban areas, we must have a corporate body to rebuild urban areas in Colombo. Actually this is something which is not new to one Sri Lanka. These exist in most developed countries.

Q: There are allegations that the Government wants to evict residents from certain areas after winning the Municipal Councils so that high rise buildings, hotels etc., can be put up by foreign and local investors. Is there any basis to these allegations?

A: The Opposition does not want to evict them because when people are in poverty and live in shanties, they can offer drugs, liquor or a parcel of buriyani to get their votes.

If these shanty dwellers are shifted to a better place, giving them a better living standard, they can never buy their votes.

The Government is going to shift them to a better place. One shanty is about 80 square feet and it is smaller than even a room in a house.

This is the present standard of living of these shanty dwellers . A single house to be built by the Government for shanty dwellers in Colombo will be 480 square feet which means it is six times bigger than the area where they live.

They will also have pipe borne water, electricity, health and better ventilation. In addition, there will be facilities for their children to study as well. Therefore they will have a better living standard. Then no one will be able to buy their votes. That is why the UNP and other leftist parties are so upset because they can come to power when there is poverty.

Q: What is your message to voters ahead of the Local Government Polls?

A: My message is that the President promised the people in 2005 that he will liberate this country from terrorism. He successfully fulfilled that promise. The new promise given by the President is that he will make this country into the “Wonder of Asia”.

The program is being set up to make the country into a “Wonder of Asia”. All mega development projects such as international airports, ports, highways, irrigation projects and major power stations are being constructed.

The Government has also begun to provide basic infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity and housing for villages.

The “Divi Neguma” program has been started to improve nutrition levels of the people.

Under this program 150 families will be selected from each Grama Niladari division to implement these projects.

There will be around 1.5 million families throughout the country.

They will be given financial assistance for the initial implementation of their activities from Rs. 10,000 up to Rs. 50,000. These families will be taught to be self-sufficient and 50 percent of that food will have to be consumed by them to increase nutrition among them.

It is only for the successful implementation of that program, that we are asking the people to vote for the UPFA so that Local Government Bodies under the UPFA administration could carry out its program of work and give people a better standard of living.