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| Sunday, 18 January 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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President in Interview: 'Fresh oath taken on legal advice'
Question: You returned to the island after attending the 12th SAARC Summit in Pakistan only the other day. Are you satisfied that the deliberations were of any benefit to Sri Lanka? Answer: Yes. Certainly. For a long period of time i.e. for 20 years SAARC Summits have been limited to discussions on a number of issues in the political and economic fields. But nothing happened. This time we were able to see eye to eye on three to four issues and sign agreements. For example, the SAFTA Agreement. This is a follow through of the agreement between Sri Lanka and India which I signed a few years ago. This is to set up Free Trade Zones within the seven SAARC countries which would bring immense benefit to our country. Then the SAARC agreement to combat terrorism signed in 1987 - we renewed it and gave more teeth to it. We also signed a Social and Economic Charter to uplift the abject conditions of women and children and draw plans to implement it. India pledged financial support for this. Action plan For sometime now SAARC has been working on poverty alleviation. This time a comprehensive report on this issue was presented and accepted. So, you see we were able to address a number of issues and regularise agreements for the benefit of Sri Lanka. Q: Did you discuss plans pertaining to defence between Sri Lanka and India? Did you come to some agreement on this issue? A: We have been addressing this issue for a long period to see whether it was possible to have a program in respect of defence between the two countries. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe when he visited India had taken up this issue. We are continuing that dialogue and trying to implement the outcome. Elections Q: Many call the year 2004 an Election year. Provincial Council elections are due within the first few months of this year. Many speculate that there might be a snap general election. Yesterday (January 12) the lead story in one of the daily newspapers was that Parliament will be dissolved on January 27, giving more credibility to speculations on a snap poll. Is there any truth in this? A: What is this newspaper that you are referring to? It is the UNP leader's family newspaper. You have to ask those who wrote the story. I for one have not decided on dates to go for a general election and there is no such decision at all. A Parliament dissolution phobia has developed in the UNF government. Two years ago they expected me to dissolve parliament and they planned to bring an impeachment motion against me to prevent dissolution. When they are unable to run the country amidst mounting problems, economic problems,the break up of the peace process they raise this bogey of an election. I will not take any responsibility for the mess. After the March meeting, I was compelled to take over the Defence Ministry because of wrongs they have committed. There had been no meeting since then for eight months to discuss the security of the country. There was no progress in the peace process. When they find it difficult to run the government, they come out with the idea that "President will dissolve Parliament". This is a bogey they raise at their whim. Q: You are certain that there has been no decision taken to dissolve parliament. A: There has been no such decision. But if it becomes necessary to hold a general election, then we will have to hold it. For the present we are getting ready for the Provincial Council elections. PM and MoU Q: There is feverish discussion on a statement made by the Prime Minister at a public meeting where he had reportedly said that he would have to withdraw from the MoU he signed if you as President fail to hand back the three ministries taken over by you. But you have not issued an official statement in response. Any comment? A: I as the Head of State have no time to keep on replying to various statements made by politicians at public meetings. I would like to add that one should not take statements uttered by politicians who entered the political arena in 1977 seriously when a dirty political culture was enthroned. The Prime Minister has not officially informed me. If he does I will have to take some action. He has uttered something in some place and then got his family newspaper to publish it. Neither I nor the LTTE has been officially informed of this by the PM. Q: Do you really think that the Prime Minister is finding it difficult to carry forward the peace process as you have taken back the Defence Ministry? A: I will reply that. But I wish to add to what I said earlier first. The MoU is not a private agreement between Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Velupillai Pirabhakaran. This is an agreement between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on behalf of the Sri Lanka Government and LTTE Leader Pirabhakaran. Whoever is in power is bound by this agreement. Until this agreement is violated even if Ranil Wickremesinghe or anybody else says that "I don't like the MoU now; I will withdraw"; such utterances cannot be accepted as a statement of the government. He signed the agreement on behalf of the government. I was kept in the dark. But I wrote to him. There was no press freedom then to carry them in full and the newspapers carried only parts deemed necessary. The MoU is not a private agreement. I wrote to him after he gave me a copy of the MOU he had signed. It was unconstitutional and illegal to have signed the MoU without consulting me. But I am a person who is more dedicated to peace than the Prime Minister. When the draft Constitution was presented in Parliament in 2000, he got MPs to tear it into bits and abuse me for well over one hour and forty five minutes. I was committed to peace even at that time. I am for equal rights for all.The Prime Minister spoke of peace only recently. I have campaigned for peace for well over 20 years. So I told him at that time that I was not opposed to his signing the MoU as a person who is committed to peace. If I had opposed it the MoU would have been inoperative. There are a number of key weaknesses and three main defects that are detrimental to the Sri Lanka Government. The LTTE could create problems to the Sri Lanka government,to the people of this country, the Tamils, Muslims and other civilians. The MoU has a clause specially in respect of the use of the coastal belt. Already problems have surfaced as envisaged. While problems cropped up, I said as Head of State I would not oppose but asked them to try to amend the MoU. I reluctantly agreed to the MoU and supported it as deemed necessary, whole heartedly. Supposing the person who signed the MoU withdraws from it, it means nothing. Even if a new government comes into power, it has to abide by the agreement. If in fact the Prime Minister has said that he would withdraw from the MoU he signed... once he said that he would bundle me up and hand me over to Pirabhakaran, but he did not do that. I don't take all his statements seriously. But indeed Pirabhakaran tried to kill me, take charge of me. My position is even if the Prime Minister informs me officially that he withdraws from the MoU, this government is bound by the agreement. Take over of ministries Q: A powerful Minister of this Government keeps on saying that your taking over of the Defence Ministry along with two other ministries, has hindered the progress of the peace process. It has also affected the economy. Do you really think that your taking over the Ministries has had an adverse impact? A: This is a foolish utterance.I cannot understand why they say that they cannot proceed with the peace process due to my taking over of the Defence Ministry. Do you remember that in 1994 when the People's Alliance came into power D. B. Wijetunga was the President. Within nine days of the PA coming into power I wrote to Pirabhakaran and we began discussions. At that time D. B. Wijetunga was the President. I never asked for the Defence Ministry.I know the law of the land. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe kept on pestering me. I never did. But I informed President Wijetunga about the peace process and he was very pleased and asked me to go ahead. While he was holding the office of President and the Defence Ministry for the balance four months until the Presidential election I continued with our discussions on peace. There was no problem and we went on. We had an agreement to cease hostilities. It was signed immediately after the Presidential Election. Our discussions for peace commenced in August 1994 with the PA coming into power. There was an agreement for cessation of hostilities from that time onwards. There was no problem although President D.B. Wijetunga was not very much in favour of peace at that time. In my case I have given the backing to Prime Minister for two long years. I have officially informed him that I would give him in writing my backing to continue with the peace process and that I would continue to give all necessary support from the Defence Ministry to proceed with the work. I will not allow the LTTE to bring arms and ammunition as they did while they had the Defence Ministry. I will allow them to engage in legal activities. As both of us were from two different political parties I suggested that if there was any doubt, we could talk it over and I proposed to prepare a list of duties expected from the Defence Ministry. All the while we have been talking about issues as they cropped up and there was no proper agenda. I said I am prepared to discuss, put them in writing bring about amendments to them if they have and would sign and give him. But the Prime Minister insisted that I hand over the Defence Ministry. I made four or five proposals. He refused the first then I made the second and said that I would go further even to do things which the Constitution did not empower me to do to solve this problem. I proposed to have a Cabinet Minister to handle listed matters pertaining to the armed forces. I said that I did not mind even if the Prime Minister proposed one who would be able to work with me or otherwise I asked the PM to takeover that Ministry. I was prepared to issue a gazette notification of the areas pertaining to the peace process for its smooth running and hand over the new Ministry. Politically and according to the Constitution I could not give the Defence Ministry. But the PM was insisting. I gave him that Ministry earlier knowing well that I could not give it to him, for he was pestering me. Talks Q: There were several rounds of talks between you and the Prime Minister. What we see now is that talks have collapsed. But talks between Mano Tittawella and Malik Samarawickrema continue. Will it be beneficial to the country? A: I would not say that the talks have broken down. Not so far. It was a temporary halt. Not only Mano Tittawella and Malik Samarawickrema but my Secretary and Secretary to the PM are also in it. I have been told that they would commence talks within this week. Q: What progress have these talks made? A: There has been considerable progress. I proposed to form a government of reconciliation and reconstruction including all political parties represented in Parliament. I said while retaining the 30 UNP Ministers enlarge the Cabinet of Ministers including a few more from all other political parties. Thus all will be given responsibilities. If there was anyone disagreeing with this proposal I said we could form the government without them. The Prime Minister said that Ministers had refused to give up the Ministries they were holding. I then suggested that at least the UNP and PA get together and work for a period of time and then depart. We do not want to be with the UNP permanently. But the PM refused. I am concerned about the country. I said none in the PA wants any Ministerial posts and without asking for any single ministry I said we were prepared to support him for the sake of the country to put a stop to war and bring about peace according to a set agenda. Members of our party wanted me to say so. Minister G.L. Peiris said in Parliament that the government did not want anybody's support. Once we have signed with the LTTE, if you like you can vote for it, he said. That was their attitude. We made a lot of headway in discussions and have prepared a framework within which we could work. I told the Prime Minister that as a Government we should decide what was the maximum we could give the LTTE. Without doing that, I said, that neither myself nor our party could agree to anything. We had an idea of what we intend doing very much prior to the commencement of peace talks. So at least we should decide a frame work within which to operate. Finally after two long years the Prime Minister for the first time came out with his plan. It was an achievement in itself. I will not say what it is right now. This much I can say: It is something that the PA can agree. I will not come out with it until both parties agree. It is clearly something that we can agree. We have reached that stage. Although we agreed with what the Prime Minister has in his mind he said that it could not be implemented without having the Defense Ministry with the government. Because of that our talks failed. I would not say that we achieved nothing as a result of our talks. Although we proceeded with our discussions the Prime Minister keep on asking me for things both politically and constitutionally impossible. I cannot do that. They claim that the people of this country had given the United National Front Government a mandate. The mandate they have received is very minute. But this country has a President who received a peoples' mandate twice. I have a duty by the people to fulfil that mandate. If I cannot do that I must go home. What I tried to do was something, which was not illegal, something in between. We have not reached a final decision. We are yet trying our best. Q: All those who are for peace, the Ven. Mahanayaka's civil society, and in fact all sections of society urge the President and the Prime Minister to work together... A: I have a made a very big sacrifice to tread the path of peace. I find it difficult to work with the United National Party. In the year 2000 they treated me like a dog in the street. Ministers abused me in rant filth. Foreign Ministers were shocked. Finally delegates from India and America came down and advised the Prime Minister to put a stop to all that. They thought I would run away. I find it very difficult to work with the UNP, which treated me badly. But I agreed to work with them for I was very keen to do it somehow for peace. No change? Q: Some are of the opinion that apparently nothing much has changed since you took the Ministries. Especially in respect of media..... A: We have taken a policy decision to give at least half an hour every month to each political party represented in Parliament. They can use that half and hour even to reprimand the President. That is media freedom. I have advised the print media-newspapers. There is hardly anybody in the Lake House today to do the right thing, because of the mistakes of all governments. We have no option but to appoint competent people to do that. I have also issued instructions to television channels to see that at least 50 per cent of their daily news bulletin gives prominence to the good work carried out by the Ministers. It does not matter whether it is about the work of Ministers Ravi Karunanayake or S. B. Dissanayke who keep on yelling at me. Give publicity to their good work for the benefit of the country. About 30 to 35 per cent to be devoted to provincial news and the rest for community news. Thus we have already taken our first step to bring about a vast change.Some valuable items belonging to the Government Information Department are with a big wig of the government run media unit. All newspapers in Sri Lanka carried 830 false news items about the President within the first six months of the UNF assuming office. They carried only eight of our corrections sent for publication. Q: A murder took place within the Magistrate's Court recently. Former Interior Minister has said that nothing of that sort ever took place while he was holding the Ministry. He has further said that incidents of that nature have occurred after the President took over the Ministry... A: He must be out of his senses. While he was the Minister, in broad day light around 10 o'clock in the morning within the High Security Zone where the President's House is found, a Provincial Minister was murdered in cold blood. WPC Member Sunil Mendis was murdered in his own residence. A Chairman of a Pradeshiya Sabha within his area was murdered and the people pointed their finger at this Minister. But now the crime rate has come down. I am really sorry about the killing within the Magistrate Court premises. But the suspect is already taken to custody. Police have been informed of the network to prevent occurrence of crime. Q: The Police department comes under you. Politicians and their children go to Police stations and take the law into their hands. Do you follow the same old path pursued so far? A: A son of one Minister behaved in that way then. At that time we never allowed them to behave the way they behave now. I hear that within the past few days two sons of ministers had got involved in a fight and some are in hospital. I have ordered the Police to arrest them and to implement the law. Q: The issue pertaining to the Millennium City was the talk of the town and there was a big hullabaloo.There is anxiety and doubt in the minds of the public whether this report also would suffer the same fate as those before it and whether it will be pigeonholed. The report contains the findings and recommendations in respect of treacherous activities. Will you take some action with regard to this Report? A: Due process of the Law will be activated. One cannot act merely on a Report. We have already completed our investigations as to who should be dealt with. Instructions will be issued to relevant authorities within a few days. We can act legally according to this Report. Recommendations could be sent to the National Police Commission to take appropriate action. They will take decisions through the intervention of the Inspector General of Police. Q: Many talk about the PA- JVP Alliance. Is it a likely occurence ? A: I think it will happen. For about ten months we have been talking. We have discussed all issues that might crop up We do not like to form an alliance that would break up within a day or two. We have resolved all the issues. When will it take place in practical terms is the point. There is no need to ask for dates and the times. Q: It is said that the signing of the alliance will take place on 20th of this month? A: Ask those who wrote about it. This should have taken place a long time ago. President's term Q: There is huge publicity to say that you were sworn in 1999 and in 2000 as President of this country. But you kept silent all this while. Minister S. B. Dissanayake has said that he should have known it, if such a swearing in took place as he was very close to you at the time. He says nothing of the kind happened... A: I do not know how many people are there in this country that accept what Minister S. B. Dissanayake says. He is uttering anabsolute falsehood. In my Cabinet there were about eight chosen Ministers who were my confidantes. Minister S. B. Dissanayake was not one of them. If there had been a swearing in, he says he should have known it. I do not use politicians to organise my official ceremonies. Q: Did you take oath as President twice? A: I had to take my oath twice. The swearing in; in 2000 was the valid one. The first time was when I suffered a bomb attack. One Desmond Fernando, a lawyer who has connections with the UNP made a public announcement that the Chief Justice should be asked to make a statement to the effect that as Chandrika Kumaratunga was disabled she couldnot become President. At that time on legal advice I took my oath. My legal advisors wanted me to take the oath to show the public that I was having only a problem with my eye and nothing else. They also told me that taking that oath was not valid and it was not an official swearing in. When I suffered the bomb attack masses came to the streets carrying arms, knives and rods to wreak vengeance on the Tamils and UNPers.I vaguely heard my Secretary Mr. Balapatabendi saying it. I was not fully conscious at that time. I told him to make a statement on television that I was not seriously injured and appeal to people to remain calm and if they had concern for me to go to temples, religious shrines and offer pujas on my behalf and on behalf of those who suffered with me. I did not ask for pujas for my sake. But going to such religious places would lessen their pain of mind. If I did not do that control of discontent would not have been possible. I complied with the advice offered by my lawyers. Within two hours of my taking oath and addressing the nation I was taken to the airport in a wheel chair and to London for treatment. My legal advisers said that I was asked to take the oath to pacify the masses. They further said a valid swearing in had to be done in the year 2000, when my first term ended. The oath taking was not done in secret. I had taken the oath at first and the speech I made immediately after became so popular that there was no need for me to address the nation a second time. I had to take the oath at that time.It was publicly discussed that I should not have taken the oath in 1999.The opinion then was that if I did not take the oath at that time I could not proceed. That is correct. If I had not taken the oath officially in the year 2000 I have no official right to be in this position. There are one or two Presidential hopefuls who have no patience until the year 2006. They are not concerned about the country. When will I go? I decide when I should go. I do not want to remain in decayed politics for long. Q: The people are burdened with the high cost of living. You have been Finance Minister for seven years. How do you see this situation ? A: You should ask them. They say I should keep my hands off all these things. Wrong economic policy is the root-cause for this state of affairs. Five times I stopped attempts to privatize the CTB in a corrupt way. I told them at the very beginning. Having failed to do it within one and a half years time now they admit I was right. I would not go to tell them more. I go for Cabinet meetings like going to a slaughterhouse. We would not have handled the economy this way. Our economic policy has now been drawn up. That had to be done to face PC Elections. It has been done successfully. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was interviewed on
television by ITN Chairman Newton Gunaratna on Tuesday January 13 covering
a range of issues from snap polls to private oath taking ceremony for her
second term of office as President. Here is a translation of that
interview.
