Sajith Premadasa is seen by many as the next leader of the UNP. In the first part of this wide ranging, two part interview, he speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about the various accusations that have been levelled against him and his father with regard to the present sorry state of the party.Continued from yesterday
In the second part of this interview, Sajith Premadasa, widely seen as the potential successor to Ranil Wickremesinghe as UNP leader speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about what the UNP needs to put right if it is to make a political come back.
Q. You are now the leader in waiting of the UNP. If we look into this issue of why this party can’t reach out to the masses and why they can’t win elections, is there something wrong in what the UNP has been advocating and trying to do in the past?
A. Let me put forward some statistics which the UNP has to take into cognizance in formulating our economic and social policies. Around 79% of the population lives in rural areas. Over 53% of the GNP is concentrated in the western province. The richest 20% enjoys over 50% of the national income. The figure for the poorest 20% is 4%. What does this say? There is a huge social and economic and therefore political divide between the haves and the have-nots. In this political context government policy has to be formulated to promote overall economic development, but there have to be various policy instruments to ensure that there is adequate government intervention to redress the imbalances. Giving tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires while at the same time not giving any breaks to the farmers of this country in terms of the fertilizer subsidy was absolutely unacceptable.
Q. You are referring to the UNP government of 2001?
A. That’s one. Just because we have a short period of negative economic growth, and certain institutions tell you that you have to keep your budget deficit below a certain figure, that does not mean that you cut down on allocations for basic human needs. You don’t cut down on the health budget. You don’t cut down on education, roads, railways, rural and urban infrastructure. When my father was governing this country, the situation was worse. You had two wars on two fronts. People couldn’t go to work, factories were closed. The whole country was under a reign of terror, and anarchy prevailed. Despite all this he started giving free school uniforms to 4.3 million school children and introduced the midday meal, the presidential mobile service, the shelter programme which covered the whole country and the Janasaviya poverty alleviation programme. He managed to persuade the World Bank and the IMF to support his poverty alleviation programme, and they did support him. That’s how a Janasaviya Trust Fund was created. So the Premadasa era should be taken as an example - two wars on two fronts did not stop my father from implementing pro-poor, pro-people policies.
Q. You don’t sound like a free marketer…
A. Certainly I am not a fellow traveler of the new right. I am not an absolute free marketer. I do believe that the free market principle plays a pivotal role in the wealth creating process of a country. But once the pot of wealth has been created, it has to be distributed throughout the country. The redistribution of income has to be done with justice and fairness in mind. I don’t believe in this system of downward percolation. Trickle down can take place in countries where things will trickle down. But in this country once the national pot of wealth is created, there has to be a purposeful effort by the government to ensure that the basic human needs are met. It is very fasionable to talk of democracy, the right to speech, the right to have gatherings – certainly, these are political rights. But the economic and social rights of people have to be given the same recognition as political rights. There is a tendency for this new right thinking to expect the free market mechanism to automatically resolve the rural and urban unemployment problem, the issue of hunger - they think market forces will resolve all of that. I totally reject that. That has not been the UNP policy.
Q. No?
A. No. Not even during the J.R.Jayawardene regime.
Q. Are you saying that you are more in tune with the real UNP policy than the present powers that be?
A. We have to go back to the basics, to the grassroots, go back to being human where governance is concerned. We have to understand the needs of the common man and woman in this country, not just the economic and social elite, even though the latter performs an important role in the wealth generating process. Policy making should be aimed at meeting the needs of the vast majority of the people.
Q. In the past so many years the UNP has been getting alienated from the common people. The UNP is now seen as a westernized, capitalistic, non Sinhala anti national, set up. But when the UNP was in power in the early 1990s, both the two warring factions in the party one led by your father and the other by Gamini and Lalith, had tremendous public appeal. Why this difference between that time and the present era?
A. I have to emphasis that the UNP is a multi-ethnic multi religious party, which promotes inclusiveness. But as a party we have not been successful in maintaining good relations with any ethnic or religious grouping in the country. We have been on the decline among all the various ethnic and religious groups. We have to have a purposeful programme to make sure that our party is alive in all of these sectors, not merely in one sector. We have managed to alienate all ethnic groups from our party.
Q. Sooner or later, you are going to be left holding this baby. So what are you going to do about it?
A. Whether I or somebody else is going to be given the responsibility is for the party to decide. But it will not be an easy process at all to reorganize the UNP. If you take the parliamentary election figures, we have a base of around 2.3 million which is 29% of the electorate. We have to go back to the grassroots and adopt a people friendly approach that is acceptable to the vast majority of the public. It’s a hard task but it can be achieved.
Q. The problem most people pin point is the Sinhala Buddhist vote, not so much the Tamil and Muslim vote. So what do you intend doing to get the Sinhala vote back?
A. It is not as simple as that. I believe if we have an overall approach which is conducive to resolving the grievances of the ordinary people of Sri Lanka irrespective of caste, creed or religion, I think our party can succeed. I don’t think you need to have a specific approach as such to make sure that we are popular in a particular grouping. If we have an overall approach that is highly energized and led by the best and the brightest in the party, we can overcome any obstacle.
Q. Let’s get down to some specifics. One of the reasons for the alienation of the UNP from the masses was the policy adopted on the war. The war is now over but we can get some pointers to the future. Where did the UNP go wrong in its policy on the war?
A. Being a Sri Lankan - forget about party politics - I would have certainly supported the war, and I did support the war. I was very vocal in my support and on many occasions I was lambasted for it. Political stooges of various people were used to sling mud at me, just as they are trying to sling mud at me right now because I am trying to take the UNP in a new direction – a patriotic, pro-development, pro-poor, pro-masses direction. While supporting the war, we could have criticized the misconduct of the government. That would have been the right thing as far as the country was concerned. That was the thinking of the common man and woman in Sri Lanka.
Q. Don’t you then believe in being anti-government? There is this belief that it is only if you go hammer and thongs against the government that the people will see you as an alternative to that government.
A. I really don’t believe in that at all. While agreeing with the positives that are there, we have to criticize the policies that lead to corruption, maladministration and mis-governance. I will never ever get up in parliament or on any political stage and criticize the government for the sake of criticising it. That’s not my political style.
Q. How then do you build up your anti-government credentials?
A. If the people want a different approach, they are free to have anyone else leading the party and governing the country. I will not compromise on my principles and on my understanding of good and bad. I will vehemently criticize negligence and the shortcomings of the government but I will never create an artificial argument against something that the government is doing right. How could anybody in their right mind do that? You were talking about establishing my credentials. I think one should establish one’s credentials in terms of propelling the country towards speedy development. I have such credentials. You don’t establish credentials merely by criticizing the government. Politics is not just criticising the opponent. We have to have the visionary thinking to provide an alternative which is more people-friendly. The people will put the two sets of policies on a scale and ascertain the pluses and minuses and come to a decision.
Q. Assuming that you are a potential leader of the UNP and leader of the country, I will ask you some specific questions as these are crucial issues for the future. There are calls from certain western nations and various international organizations for war crimes investigations. If you become the leader of the country, what will be your policy on that?
A. If ever such crimes were committed in our country, the perpetrators have to face justice. There is no doubt about that. But those issues can be solved within Sri Lanka. We don’t need international humanitarian experts and institutions interfering in the internal affairs of our country, and telling our country what to do. When terrorism was flourishing and our citizens were being indiscriminately massacred by the LTTE, nobody came and gave advice on how to eradicate terrorism but a lot of advice was given on how to appease terrorism. So if war crimes were committed, the perpetrators have to brought to book but that procedure has to be an internal Sri Lankan procedure.
Q. What then is your stand on the UN secretary general’s ongoing attempt to appoint an advisory committee to advice him on so called accountability issues in Sri Lanka in relation to war crimes?
A. I think the UN secretary general would be better advised to appoint a special panel to allocate more funds to north eastern rehabilitation rather than wasting his time and the funds of the international community in appointing humanitarian consultants to look into this war crimes issue. It is far better that these funds be allocated for the reconstruction of the north and the rejuvenation of the north eastern communities. As a citizen of Sri Lanka I don’t support the process of appointing a UN panel to look into war crimes.
Q. I get the impression that some western countries are waiting for a UNP government so that the Rajapakses and the key figures in the war will be handed over to an international war crimes tribunal like what happened in Serbia. Are you going to be the UNP leader who does that?
A. Anyone who has done any wrongdoing, will have to face the music within the Sri Lankan judicial structure and not beyond that. The accusation of war crimes is a very serious accusation, and the Sri Lankan government has to have a transparent and ethical procedure that looks into this matter. I am not going to shy away from that. But there is no way that I will support any international interference in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka be it war crimes or otherwise.
Q. The present day UNP has a tendency to go running to the western embassies in Colombo at the drop of a hat with tales (kelang) that the government is doing this or that. What will be your approach to this? I remember a time when the UNP was different.
A. If I may go back in time, there were times when members of the SLFP ran behind various western embassies complaining of the various things that were going on within Sri Lanka. Now just because the SLFP politicians behaved in that manner, it does not mean that we have to follow in their foot steps. A far more positive approach would be to run after various countries that are able to fast track Sri Lanka’s economic and social development and get as much aid as possible and make sure that our people have a better tomorrow. That is not something that only the government has to do. The opposition also can play a significant role. There are a lot of people who are shedding crocodile tears on behalf of the IDPs. I am glad to say that I have gone beyond merely articulating their needs verbally, and implemented a programme with the support of international partners, to help the IDPs to come out of their situation. We have a very positive role to play with international partners, even while being in the opposition. The opposition can play the role of being the alternative government, If our party has all these great contacts, and superb relations with donor countries and donor institutions, why not take the next logical step and play a primary role in practicing what you preach? We talk about poverty alleviation and development, eradicating malnutrition but why not go that extra mile and contribute in terms of practical action? It may not be on a massive scale, but will be an example of what the people can expect under a future UNP administration.
Q. What if somebody tells you that that is welfare, not politics and that in politics you should recruit the help of your international friends to bring down the government?
A. All I can say is that I am a different politician. Of course the misconduct on the part of the administration, has to be criticized, but it should remain within the shores of Sri Lanka.
Q. If there are foreign organizations or countries that are willing to help why not use their support to overcome your opponents?
A. If you are to succeed politically, you have to realize that this is an internal process. Every six years a president and parliament is elected. You don’t need international intervention to achieve domestic political goals.
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