Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Monday, 11 November 2024 00:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Gampaha district candidate from the Sarvajana Balaya alliance Dilith Jayaweera claims that the National People’s Power (NPP) doesn’t have a vision and a strategic plan to define ways and means on how the Government can solve the issues and keep people’s promises.
Jayaweera, who is striving to make Sri Lanka an entrepreneurial nation and has drawn his political strategy around entrepreneurship, said that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) is just delivering mere statements as the NPP doesn’t have a defined strategy on how to deliver promises and how to find funds for them.
“Having a strategic plan means where you manage human, material and financial resources efficiently. Therefore, Sri Lanka needs to have a strategic plan where we need to manage all these resources carefully, methodically and scientifically,” he said.
In an interview with the Daily FT, explaining the importance of having a well-designed strategic plan for a Government, he said a nation without a strategic plan fails to address their issues.
According to Jayaweera, the Government has promised to increase salaries of public servants but hasn’t mentioned how it finds financial allocations to do so.
Being a strategist and an entrepreneur, Jayaweera while claiming the NPP does not have a cohesive strategy for the country, urged President AKD to immediately work on a strategic plan.
“We can support the NPP to draft and craft a strategic plan,” he said.
Following are the excerpts of the interview:
Q: How is your campaign progressing so far and what is the response you get from the people?
People embrace us so well as they have identified us as those who are doing real politics that they dreamt of.
We are getting a very good response from the people as they know that we are the only party which is available for them. All other political parties are made to die and the Gas Cylinder does not operate as a political party because they are campaigning as an independent group, which doesn’t have a leader, a manifesto and their candidates are contesting individually.
There is no future for them while Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has lost their theme now. SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa contested to become the President. His voters expected him to win but he lost. At the forthcoming General Elections, I don’t think that his voters will vote for him to make him the Opposition Leader once again. It is now obvious that they can’t get the majority or even him to think of getting votes to become the Prime Minister of this country. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) are over. Therefore, we are the party for the voters who lost their faith in all those parties to vote. We strongly believe in a positive future for us.
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Gampaha district candidate from Sarvajana Balaya alliance Dilith Jayaweera
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Q: Being the richest political candidate in the campaign, according to the asset declaration, why do you really want to step into politics?
I say I am the honest candidate. I recollect what the US President Donald Trump once said. “Unless you go to battle, you can’t expect the voter to win.” You have to fight from the front. I believe that we should not be criticising politicians but have to be in the game. On the other hand, I am convinced of the fact that most of the politicians think that they have political experience but they don’t have management skills, creativity, risk taking ability and exposure. They are not committed to do things differently. If we are to do the same old practice that others do, how can we expect a new different outcome?
I am in it wholeheartedly and genuinely believe in this philosophy and I drive a proposition that if Sri Lanka is to come out from this mess, we have to become an entrepreneurial State. A State without an entrepreneurial mind set will face issues with creative solutions. Every challenge will turn into an opportunity, which will make the process of delivering the best for the people easy.
Q: What are the initiatives that the Saravajana Balaya proposes for economic revival to steer Sri Lanka towards a sustainable future?
The main thing is to have a strategic plan without being adhoc. Having a strategic plan means where you manage human, material and financial resources efficiently. Therefore, Sri Lanka needs to have a strategic plan where we need to manage all these resources carefully, methodically and scientifically. A nation without having a strategic plan fails to address their issues well.
Economic revival of a country is the revival of the people. That is why we use the word motivation as we have to motivate Sri Lankans to get them involved in the game to share the real picture and share the dream with them. Then we can share all the material resources and physical resources with them.
We are happy as President AKD also now talk about digital platforms. I am insisting that we do that sooner than later otherwise there is no future because we need to have effective collection of data. Without data you can’t make decisions. The other important fact is that without bringing people into one platform you can’t manage anything from healthcare to finance to education to agriculture. This is the sole reason why I have been fighting from the beginning and promoting this unique platform.
Therefore, I am happy that the NPP has taken that from our manifesto, which is our strategic plan. But, my worry is that he is taking bits and pieces of everything without having a Master Plan.
Q: How can you claim so, as the NPP has clearly stated that they have a comprehensive manifesto which has plans for 38 areas that need to make changes and develop?
You can study the NPP’s manifesto but it doesn’t have a cohesive strategy. Manifesto is different from a strategic plan, which is a defined destination and a scientific roll out. You can say the things that you intended to do but how you deliver them should be clearly mentioned in a strategic way.
In the NPP’s manifesto, they have proposed to bring the electricity cost down by 40%. But, it doesn’t have a plan on how to achieve that target. The Government is willing to look at increasing salaries of Government servants in every six-months but they haven’t mentioned on how the Government is going to do so and how it will get financial allocations for it. They are just mere statements by President AKD. Therefore, when we talk about strategic plans, they are clearly different from their manifesto.
Q: You have claimed that the NPP has given only broken promises so far. How far to criticise them as they are still a few weeks old and without giving them time to deliver?
No, I am not criticising like the rest of the politicians. I bring in a point here. My question is that President AKD’s NPP is very similar to the rest of the political parties as his manifesto doesn’t have an underline strategy to achieve certain things that they have promised or talked about. They also don’t have a vision for this country. If President AKD has a vision for Sri Lanka by now, we should be able to know about it and how his Government is going to achieve it. I don’t criticise them on issues like egg prices going up or the scarcity of coconuts. Being a strategist, I talk about rational politics. We don’t want to get into the game of just blaming the NPP just like the rest of the politicians.
Q: Can the Saravajana Balaya become the Opposition in the Parliament rather than the SJB?
Yes, that is our main objective and striving factor. But, since it is still a question whether the Saravajana Balaya alone can do it, we would invite the rest of the political parties to join us on our platform to form an efficient Opposition. The first important thing is to change the role of the Opposition without becoming irrational critics and irresponsible acting. We have to bring a new culture as the Opposition which in fact drives the nation on an agreed platform. We will not be behaving like the rest of the political parties including the JVP, the way they have behaved in the past. Therefore, we want to change that culture.
As a responsible Opposition, we are ready to take care of the Government in a crisis situation and will not run away when the country is at risk like how the SJB Leader Premadasa behaved in the past.
Q: People have rejected many senior politicians and wanted a fresh set of politicians to represent them. How do you see this trend as you are also a new face in the Parliament, if you are elected?
As Albert Einstein said ‘if you do the same thing time and time again and if you expect different results it is called insanity’. Like that I request people not to send those old people again to whoever is contesting repeatedly, especially those who don’t have substance to represent people. It is not a question whether they were in the parliament before or not but think whether they carry substance and will that can impact the lives of people when they represent the people of this country.
We have fielded candidates representing all walks of life and they have no corruption charges. We contest for all 22 districts and have fielded the most successful entrepreneurs in all districts. Among those contesting in these districts are seasoned politicians, who don’t have corruption charges, youth, females, artists, differently abled people, farmers and mechanics. We have proposed completely fresh solutions for issues unique to those districts, which are persisting for decades.
Q: You have said that if your team is elected, you will serve free for the people. Since you are rich you will be able to afford it but will your other candidates say no to facilities and perks, if they are elected?
People wanted to have a clean Parliament with Parliamentarians with no corruption charges and also those who use no perks and privileges like salaries, official bungalows, vehicles and many security personnel.
According to our policies, those who are elected to the parliament are doing a service to their people. The JVP has built this mindset among people. Or else people’s representatives in the parliament should also do service like a job with a sufficient salary.
In the Sarvajana Balaya we work as a team. The rich entrepreneurs in the party can look after those who can not afford to serve people free of charge. We have an interdependent approach and our party will officially look after them as we have a required mechanism to compensate them. Then they will not be under obligation to anyone.
We need somehow to get people to change their attitude towards politics and people must also help to bring a change in the way they look at politics. Some people don’t give a proper value to their vote. People’s right to franchise is a life changing vote for them and people should use this opportunity by voting for the right people without wasting their votes.
Q: Your entire campaign and the party are drawn on the entrepreneurship ideology. How important is it for Sri Lanka to develop a sustainable country and is it a possible dream?
It is the only way and no developed country has become developed without having entrepreneurial mindset. Every country needs people with an entrepreneurial mindset. It doesn’t mean that every citizen is going to become a businessman. What we say is that we have to transform the mindset of Government servants to an entrepreneurial mindset. Not that he has to engage in businesses but then they can behave differently as they have space for creativity and right thinking.
Q: Political critics say President AKD’s Government is no different compared to Governments of former Presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. What is your comment?
President AKD comes from the JVP, which is a Marxist party. All their policies are based on Marxism. Now they have become a hybrid party with the coalition of the NPP. Today, the NPP’s percentage of influence on their policies is much greater than their original Marxism thinking. Therefore, now two ideologies are clashing. What has overtaken this game, policy wise, is actually there is no difference between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s policies.
As Ranil Wickremesinghe said openly that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya is like their representative. They speak the same language and belong to the same class. Harini looks at the issues from a very similar point of view of Wickremesinghe. Her approach to economics, culture and society are very similar to Wickremesinghe. She has been declared as the NPP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. According to what I see, there is no JVP in the NPP now and it is Wickremesinghe who is the de facto leader of the NPP, today.
Q: You are tagged as a confidante of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. What went wrong in his Government and can Sri Lanka afford to have such mistakes again?
Sri Lanka always had the worst mistakes. What happened during former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure is also a mistake. But he is not making the same mistake for some times the public is talking about. Many times, I have mentioned that he is the real genuine man who came into politics in Sri Lankan history; after the late Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike was Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He came from a very genuine background and genuinely wanted to change the country.
Long before President AKD doing those little changes to make people happy, Gotabaya Rajapaksa genuinely did things like removing of all the pictures of politicians hung on the walls of Government offices, removing large fleet of security personnel and used only one vehicle with a single backup, worked in the office till mid night, was very committed and a simple man and most probably he didn’t have media shows. Although he was the most genuine politician, the corrupt system and the Rajapaksa family, which wanted to get rid of him from power, made him fail.
A similar contribution also came from Anura Kumara Dissanayake as he didn’t support any of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s positive moves. Instead they behaved like a conventional Opposition and made his life miserable. Had he been supported by Anura Kumara Dissanayake and others in the Opposition, being in a more responsible manner, he would have implemented the right things as he wanted to do things differently for the benefit of the country than other past Presidents. Most importantly, then we could have saved him from other Rajapaksas – Basil and Namal.
Q: What are your recommendations to the Government to come out of the present economic crisis?
I urge President AKD to sit and work on a strategic plan and get the support of everyone without being selfish politically. We can support the NPP to draft and craft a strategic plan. The NPP Government now can’t continue to behave like this manner as it is totally ad hoc. President AKD should take time for a minimum of one- month to plan out a strategy to move forward.
Q: What do you think of the IMF process and will it continue to give us the rest of the loan if the Government goes ahead without a strategy as you claim?
Yes, definitely, the Government will get the rest of the loan as they are continuing with the same process. But, people didn’t expect so and wanted it to be revisited as the JVP promised to do so. However, the Government is moving forward with the IMF process following the same way that Wickremesinghe engaged with the IMF.
Q: If you are not elected what will you do?
We are very confident that we will be elected but if not we will continue with our political journey. We are a very new party, which is only 11 months old and we will continue to work harder to build up the party.
Q: The NPP’s entire campaign revolves around anti-corruption slogans. How are you looking at it and will you support President AKD to bring corrupt people before the law?
Yes, I will support him 100% as we are also striving to have a corruption-free country. But, just because the system becomes non-corrupt, it doesn’t mean that the system is good at delivering all the things that people expect. We work with so many people who are not corrupt. But while being non-corrupt, you need to have an efficient delivery model.
They came into power on an anti-corruption platform. When compared to serious issues like economic stability, debt restructuring, etc., anti-corruption movement is actually a minor thing and it is one of the things that the Government should look at. But in terms of management, anti-corruption can’t be the main product. We have to look at what is the product that the NPP is going to deliver in a non-corrupt background. This, they should tell to the people.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the real genuine man who came into politics in Sri Lanka’s history after the late Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike. If he was supported by Anura Kumara Dissanayake and others in the Opposition, Gotabaya would have implemented right things for the country and most importantly, we could have saved him from other Rajapaksas – Basil and Namal