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Friday, 14 August 2015 05:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Himal Kotelawala
In achieving reconciliation, a United National Front (UNF) government elected in the wake of next week’s Parliamentary elections will not opt for a federal solution but instead seek to devolve power at the village level, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
Speaking at a special media briefing held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI), the Prime Minister, flanked by high-ranking members of the UNF coalition, laid out the party’s plans for the future of the country in the event of a UNF victory on 17 August.
“We got together to preserve the gains of the 8 January revolution, to ensure that good governance was carried on and your future was secured. We have gone around the country and the joint assessment is that no one wants Mahinda
Rajapaksa. People are confident that the UNP and the UNF are capable of building a new country and they are willing to give us that chance,” he said.
Responding to a question posed by the Daily FT on national reconciliation, Wickremesinghe said his government’s plan would be to devolve power to religious and other organisations in individual villages, in what he called a “pokuru gammana” (cluster village) model.
“It won’t be a federal solution. But we will devolve power to the villages. Not to politicians, but to organisations and religious institutes in the village such as temples, kovils, mosques and churches,” he said.
This would mean the amalgamation of the approximately 25,000 villages in the country into 2,500 cluster villages, he elaborated, adding that a ‘gramaradhi’ committee will be appointed to head each cluster village.
The visibly upbeat Prime Minister also expressed his confidence that the UNF would go on to win the upcoming polls.
“All I know is we’re winning. We’ll have a comfortable majority. The shift really took place about last Friday,” he said.
The numbers are only increasing and will continue to grow over the next four days, he added.
Reaffirming the party’s commitment to a unitary state, Wickremesinghe said he had no plans to deviate from that.
“I have never signed pacts with Prabhakaran. I never gave him money. He told me he’d make me president if I agreed to his conditions. I didn’t. So if I didn’t do it then, why would I do it now when I know I can win?” he asked.
UNF candidate and Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka also reassured the media that the country was not in any danger of being divided.
“The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is trying to instil fear in the minds of the people by implying that national security is under threat and that there will be a reawakening of the LTTE. We can state with certainty that we have absolutely no double standard when it comes to the LTTE, which was the case with the previous regime,” he said.
When dealing with the LTTE, the previous administration, charged Ranawaka, would take one course of action above 
the table and another underneath. He questioned the political connections the then leadership maintained with foreign and domestic LTTE funds before and after the 2005 presidential election, and then following the LTTE’s defeat in 2009.
“We don’t do deal politics. Not when it comes to national security, which takes absolute first priority. And it won’t be just with respect to the LTTE; any form of terrorism or violence aimed at democratic institutes will not be tolerated. We assure you that deal politics, both abroad and here, with the LTTE will end come 17 August,” he said.
The Minister further said that the culture of violence prevalent over the past few years had ended with the advent of Good Governance and will continue under a future UNF administration.
“It wasn’t just the LTTE that roused fear and suspicion in the people. Government sponsored underworld gangs and white van gangs also had the same effect on the public. There were kidnapping rackets operating with political backing. As of 8 January, there have been no reports of disappearances, killings, abductions or white vans. So it is evident who was responsible for these things,” he said.
The UNF also criticised the UPFA for using President Maithripala Sirisena’s image in the latter’s election campaign.
Responding to a question by the Daily FT in this regard, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said it was within the UPFA’s rights to do that as President Sirisena was party leader, but it should’ve come with an apology for their conduct.
“He’s their leader. All they have to do is first publicly apologise for what they have done and say ‘we reject Mahinda Rajapaksa’. Then they take wholesale ownership of that – not only of the photograph, but of the policies as well,” he said.
Confirming newspaper reports that the President had expressed his wishes to see the return of a UNF government next week, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne insinuated that the Rajapaksa-led UPFA was trying to piggyback on President Sirisena’s popularity with the people.
“The President said ‘jaya wewa. I expect to see this Cabinet again. The 8 January mandate will go forward’ at the final Cabinet meeting. Now they’re trying to hijack him. They are using his image in their campaign, replacing Rajapaksa’s picture. This shows their bankruptcy and defeatist mentality,” he said. In a new and related development, President Sirisena yesterday sent a hard-hitting letter to Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa reminding him that he would not be appointed Prime Minister in the event that the UPFA gets more than 113 seats in Parliament.
In this letter, the President accused certain non-Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) candidates of the UPFA of riding Rajapaksa’s vote base into power, adding that he was aware of them using his image in the campaign trail.
“I observed with equanimity how, while trying to highlight a non-existent division within the SLFP, these elements used my photograph in the UPFA’s promotional material towards the latter stage of the campaign,” President Sirisena said in the letter.
