People feel Wickremesinghe will come back to revive the economy if it collapses -Ruwan Wijewardene

UNP Deputy Leader and New Democratic Front Gampaha District Candidate Ruwan Wijewardene

UNP Deputy Leader and New Democratic Front Gampaha District Candidate Ruwan Wijewardene spent some of his busy time with the Daily Mirror to talk about the upcoming General Election where he said people still have some faith in the previous administration headed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe despite the defeat at the recently concluded Presidential Election. 

“What people expected from the new President is not what they have got. The economy is still a great issue, especially the debt. Debt restructuring, though President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said he would renegotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), no one knows in what direction the country is going.  It is all up in the air at the moment. People have some faith in the UNP in such a situation. We may not be coming as UNPers as we are contesting under the gas cylinder this time. However, there is some faith in us as people know we did something good for the economy. This will help us at this General Election,” he said. Wijewardene stressed he will not harp on his family affiliations during his campaign. 

Following are excerpts from the interview

 We know you have been campaigning heavily for the upcoming parliamentary election. How is your campaign going?

It has been good so far but also challenging. We are straight after the Presidential Election.  We are hoping for a good result at the General Election. 

 You have been a Member of Parliament for some time. Unfortunately, the UNP could not win a seat at the 2020 General Election. Are you campaigning differently this time so that people could vote for you?

When the financial crisis hit Sri Lanka, people saw what Ranil  Wickremesinghe could do. There is some goodwill towards the UNP. People know that the UNP and  Wickremesinghe are good for the economy and the country. The economy is still one of the biggest issues where the country is concerned.   A new President has been appointed. It has been a little over a month since his appointment. What people expected from the new President is not what they have got. The economy is still a great issue, especially the debt. Debt restructuring, though the President has said he would renegotiate with IMF, no one knows  in what direction the country is going.  It is all up in the air at the moment. People have some faith in the UNP in such a situation. We may not be coming as UNPers as we are contesting under the gas cylinder this time. However, there is some faith in us as people know we did something good for the economy. This will help us at this General Election

 You are talking of a political crisis. We saw that when many leaders in the Parliament backed away Wickremesinghe came in and he performed. He performed at least temporarily.  You all campaigned heavily for him. However, he did not win the Presidential Election. How do you feel about it?

The result was not what we expected.  We expected that Wickremesinghe would win the Presidential election. However, the country decided that they would go along with social reforms.  This is not new if you take the example of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he won the war but he lost the next election.  People may feel somewhat comfortable that Wickremesinghe is still around. They feel that Wickremesinghe may come back in the event the economy collapses once again and resurrect the economy. Both among the UNPers and non-UNPers, this message comes through.  There is a big role for us to play in the future. Social reforms are needed but to bring in social reforms you need economic stability.  If not you will put the cart before the horse.  You may be looking at the judiciary, or education sector or health sector. All these sectors need reforms. You need money to reform these sectors. You cannot reform something by simply talking. You need economic stability to bring in the right reforms.  To do it the country needs a stable and robust economy. Then you can bring in social reforms, or you can couple it with economic reforms. Unfortunately, you don’t see economic stability at the moment.  The message coming from the government right now is vague. Confidence in the business community and in the people is not there. There is uncertainty at the moment.

 I remember we interviewed incumbent President Anura Kumara Dissanayake a week before the Presidential election, we questioned him as to how he is going to get the economy back on track. One of the answers he gave was if you stop corruption and recover all the money we will have money to restart. We are asking you this as there are allegations of corruption during the little time Wickremesinghe was governing the country. An example there was the visa fiasco and so on. What do you have to say about that?

Corruption is not something new to this country. Obviously, you have to make sure that it should be taken out of this country when it comes to nation-building and politics as well. Each country has issues with regard to corruption. You take the Western countries which are so-called ‘economically stable’ countries you get corruption. They keep on fighting it. Corruption has to be rooted out but the message Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his party put out was that the economy collapsed due to corruption. That is what people thought.  That was the message which was given to the people. They said that politicians enjoy luxuries while people undergo immense hardships.

 AKD campaigned heavily on corruption. What are your views?

Absolutely. When you look at the whole picture of the economic collapse corruption is a minute part of it. Bad policy-making, bad management, and it was the amount of loans that we have taken from the Paris Club, World Bank and we found that there was no revenue coming to the government. There was no way we could pay off the loans that we had taken. We went bankrupt. So corruption was a part of it but a minute part. Corruption has to be rooted out but if you want economic stability you need proper economic policies in place. That was what Wickremesinghe was trying to do.  He had to make very unpopular decision seeing the presidential election coming. He came in at a sensitive time.

  Who is Ruwan Wijewardene? People still don’t know who he is and what he intends to bring to the table. If people are to vote for you they need to know you.

I am not like those politicians who scream and shout just to gain attention. I serve the people in my electorate and district to the best of my ability. I have been in politics for nearly 20 years. I think people have some faith in me. I have come up from the ranks of the party from being the President of the Young Professionals Association, the youth leader and now the Deputy Leader of the Party. I worked hard to come up in the ranks. I am not a person who lives off politics.  There are allegations against various politicians and various ministers. Even though I am a politician, when I was a state Minister under the Yahapalana government I was using my own private vehicle, I did not take an official residence or a vehicle from the defense ministry. When I worked as an Advisor to the President I did not take an official vehicle from the Presidential Secretariat nor did I take a salary. I volunteered to work for  Wickremesinghe in my capacity. I don’t see myself as one of those typical politicians.

 There is an allegation of nepotism as you belong to a family that is affiliated to a former ruling class. How do you take these allegations?

I cannot change my family affiliations. I am not going to say that I am a great grandson of late Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake and people should vote for me. Certainly he did a great service to the nation but that does not mean people should vote for me. If they think I can work for them, they will vote for them. It is up to them. I think I will be able to win the votes of my electorate and the district.

 You are young in the race. If you win what would you like to see in the political culture of the country?

The political culture of this country has changed after the ‘Aragalaya’. Especially the youth. There is no party politics anymore.  They are looking for people whom they can respect. They scrutinise everyone. That is good.  That is how people should vote members into power and to the opposition. A change in the political culture is good for the country. During the time of the two-party system, there was some stability. There is confusion when it comes to elections today.  However, still when it comes to voting I think people need to look at the character of the person they are going  to vote for.  In the past people voted for a person from a party who used to give handouts. They did not think about the policies of the contestants and the service they could get from a politician. That amounted to corruption. Under the Preferential voting system those who spend more stand a  chance of getting elected. Certain levels of corruption creep into such a situation.  Everything has to be looked into. This is why I admire  Ranil Wickremesinghe as he introduced the Anti-corruption Bill. It takes into account not only politicians but the whole system. The country needs it today. 

 We hear that quite a few from your camp are saying that President Dissanayake is more or less carrying out the economic policies of your government. Has he spoken to Ranil Wickremesinghe before or after the Presidential Election?

A: There was no such discussion. Anyone could speak to Mr.Wickremesinghe, not only AKD. If anyone wants to speak to Mr. Wickremesinghe they can always do so even through the phone. Dissanayake was very critical of  Ranil Wickremesinghe during the Presidential election.  That is why he said he would change policies, especially the process of debt restructuring. He said he wants to renegotiate with the IMF. He gave a lot of promises but we don’t see the delivery of these promises. They only talk of privileges enjoyed by former Presidents.

 What do you think about the way they are handling the economy

It seems they are not handling the economy well. Mr. Wickremesinghe managed the debt restructuring process well.  He negotiated with everyone concerned. Now this government says they want to re-negotiate the agreement with the IMF.  There seemed to be no direction. This has brought about uncertainty. The third tranche of the IMF assistance has been postponed to next year. The Hamilton Reserve Bank which is one of the ISB holders filed legal action against Sri Lanka. However Mr. Wickremesinghe came in and discussed with them and they suspended the action. However, the bank has restarted the lawsuit against Sri Lanka after the present government said it wants to renegotiate debt restructuring.  There is so much uncertainty and that is affecting our economy. 

 There are hard-core Marxists or socialists in the NPP while there are moderates as well. Will there be divisions within the government in the future?

Marxism and Liberalism are two different things. Marxism has not achieved its goals. This is what you see when you look at the world. Democratic countries seemed to have survived.  Only a few countries such as Cuba are holding on to Marxist policies. The JVP has been telling us that they follow Marxist policies. I think at some point the JVP politburo will fire shots eventually.