UNP confident of victory at future election:

Sajith shouldn't have refused Leadership Council - J.C. Alawathuwala

By Jaliya Wijeyekoon

The Provincial Council system was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1987 by J.R. Jayewardene's government with the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, mainly to solve the long-drawn North and East problem. The desired results were not realised by the first North-East Provincial Council which functioned only for a short period under the Chief Ministership of Vartharajah Perumal; it was finally dissolved by the Central Government.

However, all other Provincial Councils took firm root in the provincial administration and now work quite cordially with the Central Government. Provincial Council elections are held once five years with six PC elections being held since the system was introduced in the country.

Elections for the Northern, Central and Wayamba Provinces were held last September and the ruling UPFA was easily returned to power in the Central and Wayamba Provinces while victory in the Northern Province was secured by the Tamil National Alliance.

Dayasiri Jayasekera was appointed by the UPFA as the Chief Minister of the Wayamba Province while the UNP reposed confidence in J.C. Alawathuwala for the post of Opposition Leader of the Council, replacing former Opposition Leader Shamal Senerath.

The Sunday Observer had an exclusive interview with the new Opposition Leader of the Wayamba Province, J.C. Alawathuwala with regard to provincial politics, party affairs and other matters. Excerpts:

Q: You are said to be the most senior UNP politician in the Kurunegala district, having started your political journey as the Chairman of the Rideegama Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) way back in 1991. Since then, you had been actively involved in politics and now, the party hierarchy has reposed confidence in you by appointing you to head the Opposition in the Wayamba Provincial Council, replacing Shamal Senerath. How do you cope with this situation?

A: I started local and provincial politics at a young age, as a student at D.S. Senanayake Vidyalaya Colombo, helping my father in his election campaign in the Dodangaslanda electorate. I would say that UNP politics is in our blood.

Though I was qualified to enter the university after my A/L examination, I couldn't do so as I was fully engrossed in local politics. After my father's retirement from politics, I was forced to contest the Rideegama PS election by President R. Premadasa in 1991. I did so and won with a huge majority and was appointed Chairman. I was the youngest PS Chairman at the time.

Then I was appointed Chief Organiser of the Dodangaslanda electorate. In 1993, I entered the Wayamba PC as a councillor and in 1994 I was elected to Parliament when most of our senior politicians lost their seats.

I continued as a Parliamentarian till 2000 during which period I did great service to the area and the province, irrespective of any differences.

I tried to consolidate the UNP in our district when it was shaky on many occasions. At the recent Provincial Council elections, I scored over 11,000 votes against the previous Opposition Leader, Shamal Senerath in the district. I also had the fullest cooperation from all our elected members. All these factors may have contributed to the party hierarchy to appoint me as the Opposition Leader of the PC.

You asked me how I hope to cope with the challenges of my new post as Opposition Leader. Well, I do not consider it a very big challenge. With my years of experience as a politician, I know what is expected of me by our party members, the public, the party leader and other stakeholders.

I always uphold the principles of my late father S.W. Alawathuwala from whom I learnt the ABC of politics. Honesty, loyalty, integrity and working according to one's conscience are what I have inherited from my father which I would respect till my last breath.

Q: The Wayamba PC consists of a large number of UPFA members. How do you hope to compete with them on crucial issues?

A: Although we are less in numbers, we proved our strength at the inaugural session itself. We managed to defeat the Government candidate for the Chairman's post and got the candidate proposed by us elected. That is the first victory we achieved in the PC.

Our team always meets before the session begins at the Council and discuss matters in detail before making public statements. I get the fullest support of all members and Shamal Senerath always makes his contribution on all matters.

Q: How are your relations with Chief Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who was in your fold till the last election?

A: My relations with him are very cordial and it will remain so in future too, on a personal basis. But politically, he is our biggest rival now in this province and I shall leave no stone unturned to defeat him whenever possible.

In my maiden speech at the Council as the Opposition Leader, I said very clearly that we shall render our fullest cooperation to the Chief Minister on any people-friendly and worthy issues, but we would definitely oppose, agitate against and obstruct, if they ever try to waste public funds on unrealistic and unwanted schemes.

If they resort to arbitrary action on any matter, we would not hesitate to take remedial measures to overcome them. Dayasiri was with us for a long time and he knows that I am a straightforward man who calls a spade a spade.

Q: Going by the results of the last few elections, we see a gradual deterioration of your party in all provinces. With such a situation, how do you hope to revive the party in your province, as the Opposition Leader?

A: Any democratic political party experiences ups and downs in its existence from time to time due to various reasons.

We had also faced many misfortunes, having lost our great leaders such as Ranjan Wijeratne, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake. The political vacuum created by their untimely demise is yet to be filled. Our party membership was demoralised over these misfortunes and that was the reason for us to remain in the Opposition for the last few years.

Q: Your present leader formed a government in 2001, but it was dissolved within just two years. What have you got to say about that?

A: Yes, Ranil Wickremesinghe is a far-sighted leader who made divisions in the LTTE fabric, weakening the movement through his Ceasefire Agreement. He tried to stabilise the economy which had reached minus growth at the time under Chandrika Kumaratunga's Presidency.

He negotiated a Rs. 4.5 billion interest-free loan facility from the World Bank to run the country smoothly. Then the JVP and SLFP realised that it would be politically suicidal for them and pressurised President Kumaratunga to dissolve the Government immediately. They carried out a malicious campaign and we were defeated in 2004. Since then, we have been in the Opposition.

Q: But the general belief is that your party is divided into groups and that is why you can't win elections. Your party is plagued by problem after problem over the leadership issue. Isn't that so?

A: Let me set the record straight. When any formidable democratic political party remains bogged down in the Opposition for a long time, internal problems automatically crop up against the leadership.

That is what has happened to the UNP today.

Anyway, with the re-organisational activities, we are quite confident of bouncing back to power at a future election.

Can't you remember what happened to the SLFP from 1977-1994? The SLFP was divided into a number of groups. Sirimavo Bandaranaike's leadership was challenged by her own son, Anura who said that she was not fit enough to be the leader.

Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga formed a different party with her husband. There were also factions such as the Maithree group and Kobbekaduwa group.

Their party headquarters were sealed over a Court case, the party had disintegrated very badly and the entire membership was disillusioned. But when the time came, they bounced back to power in 1994.

Now, our party has sorted out all problems and I am sure that we could win any major future election.

Q: How can you say that you have sorted out all your problems when Sajith Premadasa has refused membership in the Leadership Council?

A: Yes, he shouldn't have done that. I think he will realise it and join the Council soon.

Q: On what grounds do you say that your party could form a government at a future election when so much development work is carried out by the Government, all over the country?

A: What do the people want most? general development work or essential food items required daily and healthcare facilities? Consider the cost of living today.

Prices of all essential food items have skyrocketed and the poor have been driven from frying pan into the fire.

Government and private sector employees find it extremely difficult to balance their monthly budget with their limited remuneration.

In this backdrop, it is not impossible for us to mobilise the masses against the Government, presenting an alternative, viable program of work for the betterment of living standards of the common man. With the initiatives of the Leadership Council, our party is right now in the process of uniting the disintegrated factions of the party and we hope to bring everybody under the umbrella of the Leadership Council in the near future. Our next attempt would be to form a joint Opposition, leaving aside petty party politics to challenge the present rulers.

We are quite confident that we could form a UNP government at the next General Election.