S.B.Dissanayake needs no introduction, but following the recently concluded election to the central provincial council, SBD managed to chalk up another first. He is the first UNP politician in the past 15 years, to accept defeat after an election. In this interview, SBD speaks to C.A.Chandraprema on why the UNP lost, and the future prospects of the party.

Q: The way I see it, you contested the central PC election to get your civic rights matter sorted out expeditiously. This will now happen either way once the Supreme Court delivers its ruling. So from a personal point of view whether you won or lost the election, you are still a winner. If the Supreme Court declares in your favour, you will be a people’s representative once more with the prospect of getting back to parliament at the next election, and if the SC holds against you at least you’ll know for certain where you stand with regard to your civic rights.

A: Its not quite like that, but yes, even though my party lost, I have been able to emerge as a winner of sorts. I did not join the fray for the reasons you have adduced. I came forward as a candidate at these elections because the people of the upcountry have reposed their hope in me. This is my birthplace. A large number of monks in the Kandy area had also been pressing me to come to Kandy. But I knew at that time that my party would oppose such a move and that the politicians of the areas would also oppose it. So at that time, I did not bother to make such a request. But when the CPC election came up, people began to press me again. So I went to the party leader and asked him to name me as the chief ministerial candidate. He readily agreed. Having been named as the chief ministerial candidate, the courts solved 50% of my civic rights problem by creating an opening for me to contest. The government tried its level best to get the court decision postponed, or to have a ruling unfavourable to me delivered. But they failed. Then they tried to get the nomination papers annulled, but that also failed. When I entered the campaign, there was enthusiasm all around and UNPers who had been dormant for years came out. The party organisation at the village level was very weak. But I overcome all those difficulties and managed to motivate the organizers and the candidates to work together. The district leader Lakshman Kiriella worked with me with immense dedication. Our campaign took a hit when the president came to Kandy, took up residence at his official residence in Kandy, and began to bring people in groups to talk to him. But we met this challenge head on. We too went around to meet all sections of the population including the monks. By the last week, we were on top in terms of activism. But what happened was that the floating voter and the silent voters decided to vote for the government in order to help in the war effort. The vast majority of the silent voters are really UNPers. They probably felt that with the end of the war, many problems will be solved. Our stand was that while we do not oppose the war. The war had to be followed with a devolution package and that the Rajapakse regime was incapable of going in for such a package and therefore the only party capable of putting ethnic strife to rest completely is the UNP. We also made the point that the Rajapakse regime was incapable of reviving the economy. The policy of strengthening the state sector has been rejected the world over. These were our arguments. But the people did not accept them. What people felt was that they should help the government at this stage to win the war. We can’t blame the people for that. We must bow our heads to their decision. As for me, I addressed up to 40 meetings a day. The people of the Kandy district saluted me for my dedication. Of those who voted for the UNP, over 78% had cast a preference vote for me. In a situation where one of my brothers had gone over to the PA and two others had gone to help him, I fielded my youngest brother on the UNP list and both my brothers were elected, one coming on top of the UPFA list. That too is a result of my strength. So at this moment, I am riding high. I will not disappoint the people who reposed their trust in me. I have no intention of leaving this party. Only the UNP can solve the ethnic issue and develop the economy.

Q: One of the things that I noticed about the UNP’s campaign in the NWP and to a lesser extent in the CP, is that the old professionalism of the UNP has been completely lost. The party leader was not to be seen in the campaign at all until the last 12 days. Then those who had been assigned to assist in the campaign were not present in the electorates and so on. But the government took a different approach. They put in a great deal of effort into the campaign. The only person in the UNP who did what he was assigned to do was Karu Jayasuriya.

A: Our people worked very hard for the Eastern provincial elections. But the result was disappointing. They also worked very hard for the North Central Province and Sabaragamuwa Elections as well. People worked hard for the Central Province Election too, to a much greater degree than in the NWP, because in the CP, they had hope. There was also the problem that many of our peoples’ representatives had financial problems. When party activists turn up from other parts of the country to help in the campaign, our candidates were unable to feed and look after them. Money was short in the campaign. Those who usually gave one million, gave only one lakh this time. So there were two factors, the negative frame of mind created by the repeated defeats and the lack of money due to the prevailing economic situation.

Q: So what does this portend for the future? In the coming months there are going to be more defeats and even less money coming in as a result. What happens then?

A: If we are going to face future elections as well in the same manner, the situation is going to be bad. We must be prepared to give people a new hope.

Q: What in your view, is the new hope that can be given to the people?

A: There are many things but I don’t want to talk about it.

Q: All previous UNP leaders were confronted with pushovers as SLFP leaders. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sirima Bandaranaike and even Chandrika Kumaratunga could win elections, but they could do little else. So confronting them was easy because they usually brought themselves down with little or no help from the UNP. Would you be prepared to concede that what the present UNP leader is confronted with is the kind of SLFP leader that no other UNP leader had to contend with?

A: No. I don’t have first hand experience of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, but what I have heard is that he was an unpunctual, indecisive person very much like his daughter Chandrika. He may have failed in the economic sphere but he did some things at the social and cultural level. People like myself managed to enter university because of the changes initiated by him. But Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike had a formidable personality and was loved by the people. She was punctual, a good decision maker, and honest in her financial dealings. She also possessed the virtue of not forgetting those who helped her. Chandrika was different. People had doubts about her integrity, and she was an unsuccessful leader. Mahinda is an attractive, friendly leader. But we now see him as an unsuccessful administrator. Moreover people have no faith in the financial dealings of his family. He also never allows ministers to make decisions and interferes in everything. I do not think the top levels of the SLFP have the same love and respect that they have for Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike. He takes decisions on military matters and so on. But when it comes to looking after and respecting the views of others in the party, he falls short. Economically, he has brought ruin upon the country. Nobody has been given a proper ministry. Either Basil or Dulles interferes in the work of all other ministries. It is Mahinda Rajapakse who has appointed the heads of institutions coming under all ministries. So these ministers have given up making decisions and have fallen to the level of making some money and maintaining a low profile. I could never have been in a government like this. When I was a minister, I never allowed even a ministry secretary to be appointed without my approval under both Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremasinghe. I made these decisions because I was the minister. What has happened under Mahinda Rajapakse is that some secretaries do not show any respect to the ministers. So the ministers have no control over their secretaries, the government is corrupt, the president is inept in administrative matters, and ignorant about economics. Then there’s his regionalist nationalism, false patriotism, extremist positions on religion and so on. The president honestly thinks that one can build the economy of the country by expanding state institutions. That is sheer stupidity. Then he thinks that after smashing the LTTE, there will be no need to devolve power and that he can continue as at present. That how he thinks. He is thinking only of himself and his next term. But all this has been overlooked because of the triumphs on the battlefront. Once the war factor is removed, no one knows what will happen to Mahinda. He is in my view, an unsuccessful leader. He’s not a patch on Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike.

Q. Even though you reduce everything to the success on the war front, there are many other things that this government has done which previous governments could not do. Now take Norochcholai, upper Kotmale, the Hambantota harbour and innumerable medium and small infrastructure projects. So while succeeding on the war front, they are also builders like the UNP government of 1977. Nobody can deny this…

A. I say its not so. Norochcholai is not money given to Mahinda. It was given a long time ago, but no government could do anything because of opposition from the Catholic population. But Mahinda went ahead. I fully agree with that course of action. But this is not money that the president brought in. Then upper Kotmale was started by Karu Jayasuriya and it was the UNP that got the money. Even that was shelved because of Thondaman’s opposition but the president shook it off and started the project. All that came to the UNP, not to Chandrika Kumaratunga or Mahinda Rajapakse. Some of the projects have disappeared. Where is the Colombo-Katunayake expressway? Where is the Kandy-Colombo highway? This is a project that has to be given priority. Ranil Wickremesinghe understood this. So he went and signed an agreement with Malaysia for a highway which would enable people to switch to the highway from Kiribathgoda and go to Kandy in 40 minutes on a road with 14 tunnels. This has not even been mentioned in Mahinda Rajapakse’s ten year plan. The UNP had a vision, that was ‘Regaining Sri Lanka’ which was based on the open economy and privatization. Most countries in the world raised their heads through such policies. No country has got anywhere through the middle path. Why is Venezuela stagnating? Why is Gaddafi, who embraced the middle path, now inviting investors from all over the world? Mahinda Rajapakse has not yet understood this. So the ADB, the World Bank and the IMF do not give even a cent for Mahinda’s economic policy. The donor countries do not give either, and they are reluctant even to meet because there are human rights issues. So he is an unsuccessful leader. But I am not reducing everything to the war - in our country, the main issue is in fact the war. This has to be put to an end. I see a lot of inhumanity in the war. But war is like that so I am not going to be critical of the war. But as a ruler, Mahinda Rajapakse has failed within his party and within the country.

Q. At an ideological level, you are very close to Ranil Wickremesinghe. You think alike on economic matters, on the political solution to the ethnic issue and on the involvement of foreign countries like Norway. Despite all this, there is this feeling in the country that your leader does not work closely with you.