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uly 04, 2015
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who lost the Sri Lankan presidency earlier this year, plans to
contest the parliamentary election
and likely become prime minister. He spoke exclusively to Rediff.com contributor Nitin
A Gokhale.
Will you be a prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections? If
yes, will you be the SLFP candidate?
I will be contesting the parliamentary election with a view to forming the next
government. The United People's Freedom Alliance has extended an invitation to me
to contest on their ticket which I and the constituent parties of the UPFA along with the
majority of the former SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) parliamentary group have
decided to accept.
We contested the 1994 parliamentary election as the People's Alliance. Ten years
later, for the 2004 parliamentary election, we reconstituted our alliance as the UPFA. It
was being discussed whether a new alliance should be formed to contest the
forthcoming parliamentary election but that will not be necessary now that everyone
has made the decision to contest under the UPFA banner.
I have been a loyal member of the SLFP from the inception of my political career.
How do you assess your support in the country?
The most visible political phenomenon after the presidential election of January this
year is the groundswell of support that has built up for me in the country. There have
been unprecedented crowds at any event attended by me or held on my behalf.
The large number of politicians at all levels of government supporting me have done
their own assessments and they know that the people are with me.
In many ways this support is now more obvious than it was in 2005 and 2010 when I
won the presidential elections.
How is your relationship with President Sirisena? Have you mended your differences
with him?
The fact that politicians contest against one another does not mean that they have to
be enemies. I contested against Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2005 and I won. But I
office, to a more manageable 75% by the end of 2014, notwithstanding the massive
infrastructure development carried out by my government.
Per capita income had increased from $1,240 in 2005 to $3,650 by 2014. Many
foreign investors acknowledged that we had the one of the best run economies in
Asia.
But today, just six months later, everything is in shambles. The economy has slowed
down; all infrastructure development has stopped; foreign reserves are going down
sharply; unemployment is soaring; government finances are in complete disarray with
revenue in decline and government expenditure going out of control; the rupee is
sliding rapidly against the USD.
In addition to all this, the apex institution of the banking system, the Central Bank is
ired in a financial scandal that has so far cost the government over Rs 55 billion.
Never in living memory have we had an economic catastrophe of this magnitude in
such a short period of time.
What will be your main campaign plank in the upcoming elections?
We have three main priorities -- to put the economy back on track, to dismantle the
Police State apparatus set up by the UNP government and to restore democracy and
to deal with threats to our sovereignty and national security that have arisen since
January this year.
How will you win back the trust of the minorities who it is widely believed, voted in
large numbers against you.
My government rescued the Tamil people of the North and East from the LTTE. Now
their children are not being forcibly recruited by a terrorist organisation and they can
lead a normal life.
Many Tamil people realise this which is why the number of votes I got from the Tamil
people of the North doubled between the presidential elections of 2010 and 2015.
But for the past six decades or more, the Tamil people have been misled by their
leaders who have been showing them the mirage of a separate State.
At the presidential elections, the Tamil people are told to vote for a candidate who
would help them come closer to that goal. I can't compete with that. But what I can do
is to give the Tamil people the same facilities and opportunities that everyone else in
this country has, and there is no leader who has given the Tamil people more in that
respect than I have.
Our party used to get a certain proportion of the votes from the Muslim community,
either directly or through Muslim political parties allied with us. From 2012 onwards,
Western powers promoted various anti-Muslim extremist groups to disturb the peace
that our government had established.
The leaders of Muslim political parties saw this as an opportunity to increase their
votes and they spread the story that my government was sponsoring these extremist
groups. Many of the Muslims who voted against us would by now have realised that
my government had nothing to do with these extremist organisations and that the latter
are in fact opposed to me.
How do you see the recent US report that the LTTE's overground support network is
still intact?
We defeated the LTTE's war machine in 2009. But their overseas financial and political
networks based in Western countries continued to remain active. The LTTE rump now
uses these funds to buy influence in Western capitals through which they expect to
achieve their goal of a separate State.
Prime Minister Ranil has challenged you for a straight contest? Will you take up the
challenge?
Absolutely. Mr Wickremesinghe contested against me in 2005 and thereafter never
faced me at an election. This time around, he is compelled to face me because there
is no way of escaping the contest.
Will the India-China rivalry in Sri Lanka once again be a political campaign point in the
upcoming elections?
Sri Lanka has always had close relations with China from the early 1950s onwards.
India's concern about Sri Lanka's relations with China is a new phenomenon which
has come about in the past few years in the context of the rivalry between India and
China as the world's rising superpowers in Asia.
We need to maintain good relations with both India and China.
Sri Lanka will never pose a threat to India, and we have nothing to gain by helping any
other country to become a threat to India.
In this context I wish to recall the role played by our late leader Mrs Sirimavo
Bandaranaike who mediated between India and China in the Sino-Indian war of 1962.
My government was too absorbed with domestic issues such as the war against
terrorism and development to play a role in international affairs like Mrs Bandaranaike.
But the role that she played during the Sino-Indian war of 1962 has great relevance
today.
I intend doing what I can to be a bridge between these two rising superpowers.
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