Normalcy will return, PM assures

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaking to Daily FT, assured the strength of all intelligence services to ensure national security, noting that the Government and security forces are taking all possible action to bring back normalcy. 

As the country remembered the victims of Easter Sunday attacks and struggled to move forward, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke to the Daily FT regarding the current situation and how lapses in the past are being addressed. 

Following are excerpts:

By Chathuri Dissanayake 

Q: Prime Minister, there has been a lot of criticism against the Government about the breakdown in communication leading to the lapse in security resulting in the Easter Sunday tragedy. You have said publicly you were not aware of it. How do you view this situation?

If this information was taken, passed down and carried out we could have prevented it. I was not the Minister of Defense, I had to be informed because the Parliament had to be informed. If I was informed I could have told the parliamentarians and the ministers. But the fact is the security people got to know, Ministry of Defense had it, they passed it down and it was not acted upon. That is different, actually. Let’s say I didn’t know, but it was acted on, then everyone is happy. I can bring it out that I was not informed, but my being informed or not being informed had nothing to do with the security situation, maybe if I was informed, then I could have told the ministers and they would have looked at it. But the fact is, if the work was really done, then this whole thing of my being not informed and the tensions in the cohabitation of Government wouldn’t matter. 

Now the Minister of Disaster Management said they say there will be rains today and tomorrow. As long as they do it, it doesn’t matter to us. We have only got to give them additional support. So that is the relevance to this, because the instructions went out, I certainly didn’t have the means, I am not the Law and Order Minister and I am not the Minister of Defense. All I could have done if I was told was, I could have passed it down to the Minister of Christian Affairs and others and told the MPs of the areas to be careful. 

Q: However as the Prime Minister of the Country, the public holds you responsible, and there has been a breakdown of communication. How do you respond to the public?

We are responsible for the direction of the Government, and in this instance we didn’t have the information. So we couldn’t give direction. If we gave direction or it didn’t work out, that’s different. But in this instance, the Ministry did give direction but it was not carried out. Actually Ministry direction was sufficient if it was carried out. It was more than sufficient. 

Q: Why did not ban these organisations before this, if there was intelligence that they were engaging with terrorists abroad?

We don’t have the extra territorial jurisdiction now, not in the Penal Code, or the PTA. It was included in the CTA (counter terrorism act) but the CTA is being blocked. 

The CTA came to Parliament in 2018, but it has not been passed in Parliament yet. If this has been passed we could have arrested these people. This has been started in November 30, and there is only one person who has gone to Syria. All those who are connected are those who were in Sri Lanka like Zahran, or those who have gone to England and Australia. These are not people who went to Syria. There is no evidence to say they went to Syria. 

Q: The President has said that this Government has weakened the intelligence services, which is why this happened. What is your response?

I have said earlier also, that there are seven intelligence services and all of it works well. This is not an intelligence failure but of not acting on the information received. If you looked at it, by noon last Sunday so many have died. It is a small group which have gone in deep. There are two organisations, NTJ and JMI. 

Q: In this situation, factions in the Government are blaming others. Who is ultimately responsible?

This is what I said, even if I was not told, if the information was acted upon then this could have been stopped. I am not the one who was heading those [institutions responsible]. Even if I was not told, if the duties were carried out properly, then not telling me is a separate issue - an internal issue. It did not matter if I was not told, if the work was carried out. 

Q: Prime Minister, the issue here is they have not carried out their duty. What is the Government doing about that?

That is what we are looking into now. We are responsible for controlling the Government, this was not a decision of the Cabinet or anything.  On the other hand, this decision was given to the Ministry by intelligence and instructions went down but apparently what happened was not sufficient. On the other hand, if all the instructions were taken there may not have been these explosions, or may have been one explosion.

Q: Apart from the Easter Sunday attacks, weren’t you ever informed that there were Muslim extremists in this country?

We were aware of this group, but intelligence said that they did not have information that they were going into a violent, extreme phase. Till October we were aware of this. 

Q: The public is now scared and concerned about their safety, what will you tell them?

It is to assure them I am speaking to them through media. There is no need to fear now. We are now conducting operations, and culprits are being arrested. We have faced this before, we have faced the LTTE for many long years, and we didn’t catch the members of LTTE at once like this. You can say, that even if one is not arrested the person might carry out a blast, but that is a risk we have to take every day. In this modern world, another jihadi can come and blast. We don’t know. We thought it was normal people earlier, but now we know they are people with PhDs who are carrying out these. According to the information now even Hajjia (spice trader) knew, he distributed the lands of the sons, and we didn’t think he knew either. This has gone to some peoples’ heads. If some person wants they can come from abroad and blast a bomb against US embassy and kill people, if the person is against the Russian embassy, he can do it there, or the Chinese embassy. It can happen anywhere, you cannot stop it.

This could have been stopped to a great extent, I cannot say all of it, but to a great extent. Whether they told me or not the issue, I don’t have a ministry, the Government doesn’t have a ministry. 

Sagala resigned as his Ministry didn’t prosecute the charges after the persons were arrested. Ranjith after he took the Ministry did file a few cases, but what has happened since then? Nothing. There is the responsibility. 

Q: The business community has raised concerns about the conflicting messages sent out by the Government. They are concerned the Government has not spoken in one voice. How do you plan to tackle this issue to instil confidence now?

The Government has spoken, we have virtually said the same thing, although there have been differences.

But it is when we apprehend them and the security situation is under control that it comes. I mean we have seen this in ‘83 July that we spoke in one voice and it didn’t come back. It took some time. We saw it in ’89. It took a bit of time, we did our own reforms and people picked up. And after 2009, every one spoke in one voice and nothing came back when the war was over.

Q: What is the status of discussion on banning the burqa in the country?

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama and the Minister of Home Affairs is looking at it and it will be addressed. There is no blocking, it’s now up to them to put in place the regulations needed. 

However, we must not mistake that it with head covering it is not just Muslim women but others also wear head covering, Hindu women and others. It is the face covering that is the issue.