Young politicians can change present corrupt political culture: Duminda Attygalle

By Shanika Sriyananda

The majority of those within the Unite National Party are educated and knowledgeable politicians and are the cream of the country’s legislators, according to Duminda Attygalle, the UNP’s candidate for the Colombo Municipal Council, Cinnamon Gardens Ward.

In an interview with the Daily FT he invited the educated youth of the Colombo District to rally around the UNP to change the present political culture.  The 27-year-old said that the UNP was confident that its mayoral candidate Rosy Senanayake would become the Mayor of Colombo. Following are excerpts of the interview:

Q: As a budding politician what are your views about the present political culture which is full of thuggery and corruption?

A: The UNP is engaged in a process where its politicians are trying to prevent violence and corruption in politics by making the media more powerful than ever to expose such misdeeds. This is why there is more freedom for the media to expose such acts among those in political circles for people to know what is going on in politics. This is one way of reducing corruption and the UNP is doing it.

Q: Recently all the leading party leaders were accused of awarding nominations to candidates with criminal records to contest from Colombo. What do you have to say about this allegation?

A: I personally believe that if there are such candidates they shouldn’t be given nominations to contest from any political party. There may be accusations but until they are proven no one can pinpoint them as criminals. If they are convicted for any crime I don’t think any of the political parties will nominate them to contest at the forthcoming local government elections. I strongly believe that such people are not qualified to represent the people in their respective areas.

Q: Do you think that candidates like you can change the present political culture which people do not have faith in for good governance?

A: Well, I am fully confident we can change this in the future. I have gone to a respectable school, trained myself to be a leader through education and sports and I want to encourage and motivate the youth like me to enter politics and change the present political landscape. I want more youth to rally around me to engage in politics to govern the country. 

The UNP has also given a nomination to Shavin Bandaranayake, who is also a well-educated candidate, to contest from Colombo. He is also a young politician with a good vision, therefore I think he and I can work together and do a lot atthe council.

Q: Why did you elect to contest the election from the UNP?

A: The majority of UNPers are educated and knowledgeable politicians. I think the cream of the politicians are in the UNP. Politicians should not be short-sighted but need a long-term vision on how to drive the country toward prosperity. It is not for today but for years to come. The UNP’s vision is that and that is why I wanted to contest from the UNP.

Q: Can you spell out the UNP’s plans for Colombo? 

A: Our main vision is to make Colombo a smart city. We have a comprehensive plan to digitise the entire administrative process of Colombo to have a transparent and corruption-free system. By implementing this system we intend to boost the efficiency in the administrative system to provide a quality service for the people in Colombo. We believe this will be the first move towards reducing corruption. 

Q: You recently conducted a survey in your respective area. What were the issues you identified that need to be addressed?

A: Yes, though a door-to-door survey we found that one of the major issues in the CMC areas is garbage collection, which is not done properly. The residents said it should be one of the top priorities of the CMC. Irregular garbage collection has become a hassle for them as the food waste gets rotten when the CMC garbage collectors get delayed. Garbage sorting is also an issue for them as the collectors do not follow the instructions on waste separation and put all waste together while the residents give them the sorted waste. We need to implement a proper monitoring system to correct these issues to make the people happy.

We want to address the dengue menace and also to regularise fumigation to cover all areas under the CMC.  

Q: Some say that the city beautification projects done during the previous government have now been neglected. 

A:UNP mayoral candidate Rosy Senanayake has a good vision and a series of plans to make Colombo a clean and beautiful city. It is good for the residents of Colombo to elect her as the Mayor. I am happy to work with her to make Colombo city beautiful and also make the people here happy. We will definitely continue with all the projects and programs to make the city beautiful and I do not see any reason to stop the ongoing beautification projects.

I have a proposal for the CMC to put bus route information at all bus stops and also increase parking space in the CMC area to encourage people to use public transport to ease traffic congestion. 

Q: How does the UNP address the issues of slum dwellers and also the drug menace in the areas that you are going to represent?

A: I already have a planon how to address the issues among underserved communities in my areas, which has four areas named ThaaraWatta, Highland Watta, Bans Watta and DevatagahaWattawhich has a vote base of 872 registered voters out of my total vote base in Cinnamon Gardens of 5,251 registered voters.

We have found that there are small children with poor educational and hygiene facilities. Sanitation is another issue among these communities. Slum dwellers in ThaaraWattaare the most neglected with no quality sanitation facilities and they are being moved out for flats. I think all these people should be properly compensated and given decent houses to live in. This has been done and we will continue to provide them with facilities. 

We will implement a proper rehabilitation program for drug addicts while having some awareness programs for schoolchildren and young adults on drugs and their repercussions. We want to educate the children about drugs to control the drug menace 

Q: With the recent Bond Scam allegations do you think the UNP can secure an easy win?

A: Yes, we are fully confident that we will win and we will have Rosy Senanayake as the Mayor of Colombo. I don’t think I should talk about the bond issue but I want to tell that people now that it was happening since 2008 but no allegations came up as there was no media freedom to expose those scams. They were never transparent in their deals. Our voters are well aware of what happened and there is no threat to our vote base.