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| Sunday, 20 June 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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We are not going to privatise public institutes - Susil Premajayantha
Question: What are your views on the happenings in Parliament on Tuesday (June 8) and what is your response to the JHU Secretary's threat not to help the government in the future? Answer: Well, there was a restraining order from the District Court of Colombo on Ven. Akmeemana Dayarathana Thera not to go to Parliament and not to take oaths as an MP till June 11. The Ven. Thera obviously knew about the order and it was the duty of that particular thera not to come to Parliament. Instead of going to the High Court for a revision and coming to parliament as a clean man, he dismissed the ruling. We did not have any support from the JHU from the very beginning and therefore, these claims not to support the Government is not valid. The people who voted this government into power saw how the JHU assisted the government when the election of the speaker came up. Q: It had been reported that some government MPs had been given the task to ensure a majority in Parliament by June 08. But that had ended up as a non-event. How are you going to win over MPs to ensure a majority and who are they? A: I have no idea of government MPs being assigned such tasks by anyone. However, we do have the majority in Parliament. We have 105 MPs in the Alliance and five MPs from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, two from the JHU and one EPDP MP, have already consented to support us in parliament. One hundred and thirteen is the majority in Parliament, and we have it. Q: People are awaiting the radical changes promised by the government, especially the pursuit of the corrupt in the UNF regime. What action is being contemplated? A: As a minority government, we have to think about a number of aspects related to each action. The majority in Parliament is necessary to get a bill passed there and we would go for it. We have already appointed a Committee to recommend to the government whether we are going to amend the present Bribery and Corruption Act like in Singapore or to introduce a new Bill in Parliament. Now, we are in the process of doing that and within a couple of weeks we will be attending to the matter. The committee comprising lawyers and Justice Minister John Senevirathne, MP Wijedasa Rajapaksha, myself and several others are engaged in the task. Q: What is the government's policy towards privatisation? Is it a selective process? A: It is already a selective process. At the general election, we clearly stated that we are not going to privatise public institutes. So even, in the Power and Energy sector, we stick to that policy and it is fair for any department or ministry. We have no intention of privatising any government institution. The Alliance Government's position is strengthening the public sector to achieve the targets with high level of efficiency and effectiveness. And at the same time, the private sector will be provided infrastructure facilities. Q: Different views have been expressed about the Constitutional Reform process. What are the prospects of its succeeding? A: Yes. Once we show our majority in the House, the proposals will be brought to Parliament. A special team is working on the subject and they have already recognised areas on constitutional amendments. Two major amendments are the abolition of the Executive Presidency and the Electoral Reforms. If the main opposition party is agreeable to the electoral reforms, then we are ready to consider that. Q: You confidently predicted a UPFA victory at the April 2 elections. What are the government prospects at the PC elections? A: We will definitely retain power in provincial councils which were under the PA. This time our target is to win even the Central Province which we lost last time. A number of programmes have been activated to confirm the Alliance's victory at the PC elections. We have also planned to ensure that the voter turnout will not drop as it happened in Wayamba. This time they would be gathering to double the Alliance's victory. Q: As the Minister of Power and Energy you have had to face rising world fuel prices. How long can the Treasury cushion this? Or will market prices be introduced after the PC elections? A: The downward trend has already begun. I think that the world market prices will come to normal within a couple of weeks. Then we can maintain the same price. We will also be taking every possible effort not to burden the general public. Q: What are your plans as the Minister of Power and Energy? A: I must stress that we will definitely not be privatising the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). We are thinking of reforms rather than restructuring. The two problems we face at present in the power sector are finance and adequate power generation. We had several discussions with the Treasury to overcome the financial crisis and their assistance is confirmed. For the power generation crisis we are now fortunately getting rain and day by day the water levels are increasing. If the rain continues throughout June, we can increase the hydropower generation. It means we will be minimising the thermal power generation, reducing the present cost of power generation. We have to start the Kerawalapitiya Combined Cycle Project and we would be engaging in the process in due course. Some objections to the coal power project were made by religious dignitaries and NGOs, but we are now sure that we will be able to address the issues successfully. The original plan of the Kothmale project has been amended and now we are in the process of compromising with the protesting groups. At the same time, we encourage renewable energy projects. We produce 45 mega watts at present using mini-hydro power stations and it will be increased to 200 mega watts by 2006. Q: Anything special you have to add. A: Yes, we must always strive to depend on ourselves rather than on other countries. Therefore, we have begun an Oil Exploration project in our territorial waters. With the technology, we have already done a feasibility study and we will find gas or oil offshore from Mannar to Galle in 2006. We have also done several promotion campaigns in the UK and the USA and several oil companies have expressed their commitment to invest here in Sri Lanka for the project. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Power and Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha is well-known for his
capacity to accommodate dissenting views. His flexibility and able
coerciveness have won over those who objected to the coal power and
Kotmale projects and soon these long overdue projects will take off to
augment, in the long-term, a fast dwindling Energy capacity. In an
exclusive and extensive interview with the `Sunday Observer' staffer
DeepalL Warnakulasuriya the affable minister, talks about off shore oil
exploration, fuel prices, coal power project, Constitutional reforms,
provincial council election and says the Government has the necessary 113
seats to command a majority in the House.
