The elections will be a historical turning point I’m not a stooge of Wickremesinghe

The newest member of the UNP’s Leadership Council which was at one time hailed as a revolutionary change within the party, but in essence is currently perceived as another ‘white elephant’ although intended to circumvent the fortunes of the ‘Grand Old Party’, Wijedasa Rajapakshe spoke to the Daily Mirror on issues relating to his appointment, allegations cast against him and the future of the UNP.


Q:  Mr. Rajapakshe, the first thing that many people have been saying since you were appointed to the Leadership Council is the fact that you are not a thoroughbred UNPer. In this backdrop do you think your appointment is justified?
Nobody can say that am not a UNPer.  I started UNP politics in 1976 when there was a By-election in Mulkirigala, and thereafter I was appointed the Deputy Chairman of the ‘Balamandalaya’ in 1977. During this time I was also the Chairman of the Samawadi Shishya Peramuna, the UNP’s student arm for the Mulkirigala electorate. Thereafter, as a result of my profession, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike sought my services and I became acquainted with her. The acquaintance developed into a personal friendship which continued during the time of President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s tenure. During her tenure as the President and the Chairman of the SLFP I headed the disciplinary committee of the SLFP and was also invited to join the Working Committee. She wanted me to take up a Cabinet portfolio which I politely declined and instead accepted a seat from the national list. I was appointed to head the parliamentary watchdog COPE and during my tenure I exposed culprits who had robbed Rs. 38,000 million from our people. Even after the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa, he asked me to take up a ministerial portfolio and I refused. Instead I resigned and thereafter Mr. Wickremesinghe invited me to the UNP. My intention is and will be to serve the country and my resignation from the Rajapaksa government was due to the fact that I felt that from the inception all they wanted to establish was corruption.

After I joined the UNP I was offered a seat from the national list which I again refused. I do not want to be like G. L Peiris who would have taken up a ministerial position even in a government headed by Prabhakaran, so instead I contested. I was elected fifth on the UNP list and this was an election which two Cabinet Ministers and three former ministers lost.  Once I joined the UNP  I was involved in every facet of its functioning. I was a member of the 6-member committee appointed to reform the party, I am currently the Chairman of the Research and Policy Unit of the UNP and was responsible for the drafting of the constitution which we will adopt when we are in power. My appointment to the Leadership Council comes in this backdrop and was made by the Working Committee unanimously.





" I was appointed to head the parliamentary watchdog COPE and during my tenure I exposed culprits who had robbed Rs. 38,000 million from our people. Even after the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa, he asked me to take up a ministerial portfolio and I refused. Instead I resigned and thereafter Mr. Wickremesinghe invited me to the UNP. "




Q: But you are perceived to be a loyal backer of the incumbent leader, who according to many is past his prime and is responsible for the downfall of the UNP. Why do you continue to back Mr. Wickremsinghe blindly?
I am not a stooge of Wickremesinghe, I have never been a stooge of any political leader. I was never the stooge of the former President Chandrika Bandaranaike and even during the Presdiency of Mahinda Rajapaksa I was fighting him against the rampant corruption which existed, the nepotism and the abuse of power.  Therefore it is not justified and is imprudent to say that I’m backing Wickremesinghe blindly. The point is that I will support the leader whoever he may be. I will fight within the democratic and constitutional framework and raise my concerns at appropriate forums. I believe that one should not be branded as a supporter of the Leader, Deputy Leader or the dissidents. Such narrow angles of perception should be done away with.

The second point you raised was about the successive election defeats. This stems from the fact that there is a general perception that we have lost 29 elections continuously. This is wrong. If you have 9 elections separately for each Provincial Council, how could you count them as 9 separate elections?  All these elections should be held within one day islandwide, but that’s not what took place. If you are to calculate defeats in this manner then the SLFP lost 59 elections on the trot including the By elections previously.

The UNP is the only single party that has formed a government in this country and is the only party which can fight alone. The SLFP from their party symbol has not contested an election for the last 20 years, it’s a coalition which has been picked and chosen from various political parties which are contradictory in both their policies and ideologies. It’s a pickle and we don’t have that kind of problem. A similar situation to the present situation prevailed in 1976 and 77. If I’m to make a point, the SLFP headed coalition which was the Samagi Peramuna government, during the last by-election held in 1976 in Mulkirihgala, the coalition won by a majority of 4001 votes but eight months later when the General Elections were held the same electorate defeated the government by a thumping majority. When it comes to a crucial Presidential or Parliamentary election we know what we have to do in order to change this government and thereafter the country towards the better.




Q: Many including members of your party perceive the Leadership Council as a cosmetic change to a problem which needs to be addressed at the root. They believe that it is a white elephant of some sort. Do you not think that it is in fact a white elephant with no real power to circumvent the fortunes of the party?
That is how the government media tries to portray this change. I have attended only one meeting of the Council thus far, but I am aware that since its appointment in November last year, the Council has been taking its own decisions and on certain issues as a matter of courtesy the leader is informed of these decisions in order to seek his opinion. I know for a fact that the leader has never obstructed a single decision of the Council since it was appointed. Those who are against the UNP are hell bent on portraying a different picture to what the reality is saying that it is a white elephant. As far as I am concerned, I don’t bother it being a white or black elephant, the fact remains that it is an elephant strong enough to ensure victory for the party.




Q: There have been allegations against you of malpractices during one of your examinations, why did such allegations surface?
To date I have never been informed by the university or any law-enforcement agency regarding any malpractice of the said examination. There was only one candidate for this subject  and accordingly a place was allocated for me. Some people fling these accusations and in fact I filed action against one of them and was awarded compensation too. Those who have never seen the colour of a university nor been in a university even during a rain are trying to tarnish the image of those who have succeeded and come the hard way in life both academically and professionally. This is exactly why I called for a public debate but none of these people are willing to debate this issue with me in a public forum. Instead they resort to malicious and a defamatory campaign of mudslinging and I have made all arrangements to file defamatory action against them.




" The UNP is the only single party that has formed a government in this country and is the only party which can fight alone. The SLFP from their party symbol has not contested an election for the last 20 years, it’s a coalition which has been picked and chosen from various political parties "




Q: Another issue that surrounds you is the fact that during the impeachment you betrayed the cause by visiting the President on the eve of the vote for the impeachment against the ousted Chief Justice. Why did you go to meet the President that evening, and do you not think that under your leadership the BASL in fact betrayed the cause that it stood so vociferously for?
During the history of the Bar Association- judges have been killed, lawyers have also been murdered in broad day-light. During these instances did we see a finger raised by the lawyers? No. they did not strike even for an hour. During my period as the President of this august body of individuals, we faced many unique and disturbing situations. The attack on the Mannar court, the assault on the secretary of the Judicial Service Commission and the impeachment of the Chief Justice are a few glaring examples of situations that prevailed during my tenure. As a protest to these issues I was able to consolidate the support of lawyers from the length and breadth of this country, with all of them boycotting courts on six working days. Furthermore, these decisions that I took as the Chairman, were not arbitrary, instead they were unanimously agreed to by the Executive Committee, each and every decision taken in this regard was consensual. When we took a decision during the impeachment through an Extraordinary General Meeting, 3400 lawyers participated in it and all resolutions were passed unanimously. If somebody calls this a betrayal then the entire legal fraternity has betrayed the cause.

 I didn’t go and meet the President on my own volition, neither did we go to meet him and the speaker for a personal benefit. We went there to explain our stand and to tell them what a disastrous step they have taken in this regard. The entire executive committee decided to meet the President and the speaker and the only purpose was to inform them the consequences of interfering with the judiciary. That was the only idea and aim of this meeting.




Q: But looking back today isn’t the general notion that prevails in this country, to the effect that Lawyers are a selfish breed who would not let anything take precedence over furthering their personal ambitions justified, following their actions or stoic silence as a community in the aftermath of the impeachment?
All of us have to work within the legal framework which exists in this country. Today the Supreme Court has passed a judgment against the decision of the Court of Appeal which held that the COA has no right to pass judgment on this issue. We raised this issue both in parliament and in public through all possible means, but that is all we could do. There is nothing more that the BASL could do. Now my successor however, is successfully defending the former Chief Justice in the magistrate’s courts in the case filed against the Bribery Commissioner. What else can you expect? This is a country in  which no notion of Law and Order exists. The government pays no regard to the constitution so what else could we do as a community?.

How many years did this government function without appointing a single commission which was mandatory under the  17th amendment? If you take the Foreign Service, the Administrative Service, and even Secretaries to Ministries they have all been turned into politicians. The police and the three forces are all working for political leaders and not the law. What more can you expect in this backdrop from the legal fraternity?




Q: Moving on, what steps has the UNP taken to ensure that it comes into government and if not at least make a formidable opposition against the government?
There were some reasons for the losses of the UNP. When the SLFP was in the opposition and J. R Jayewardene was at the helm, the SLFP was broken into pieces, not only was the SLFP broken into pieces the Bandaranaike family was broken into three. The family was in three different parties with the old lady isolated. The key of the SLFP headquarters was in the custody of the police. The UNP has not stooped nor has it fallen to such depths. Similarly when J.R was the leader of the opposition he had to face many obstacles even losing the party membership and he had to ultimately seek recourse in courts to get his membership. The dissidents at that time were strong and formidable unlike today’s mediocre voices. Despite all of this the UNP was reformed within a single year and came back to win the 1977 election with a stunning majority.

Also, the government has won every election  by putting forward the strength of the entire state machinery and its resources. The Temple Trees was turned into a ‘Dansala’ and trumpeting the war victory.

The people have now had enough of this nonsense. The people have realised that this government has ruined the economy of this country under the pretext of its war victory, they have ruined the good relations Sri Lanka developed with the rest of the world and brought this country to the mercy of the international community. The people have realised this. They have used the entire state media machinery to vilify and maliciously defame the opposition while trumpeting lies. So the people have realized this and we are confident of a turnaround.




Q: But what has the UNP done, or is doing in order to change its electoral fortunes?
We have started programmes, started branches in each polling booth; each and every organizsational arm of the UNP is being revamped including the youth front and the women’s front. We are also affecting the most potent form of disseminating information which is to talk to the people directly. Therefore we have organised house-to-house visits in order to educate the masses and engage with them directly. This we believe is the best form of media, and is more comprehensive and direct than any other media be it electronic or print, these are a few of the many operational exercises that the UNP is currently conducting in order to achieve victory.




Q: So are you realistically hopeful of a victory in the upcoming Provincial Council elections?
Yes of course I am. Most certainly. These elections are going to be a turning point similar to that of the 1993 Southern Provincial Council elections which were the running point for the then UNP government.  This election will be a similar turning point in defeating this government in the forthcoming national elections.  The feedback we have received during this campaign was overwhelming with many hardcore SLFPers telling us that although they have never voted for the UNP in their lives they would this time because they are fed up with the actions of this government.