State Minister of Vehicle Regulation, Bus Transport Services and Train Compartments and Motor Car Industry Dilum Amunugama said Sri Lanka’s main Opposition party is the only such party in the world, which attempts to take undue advantage even from a trivial mistake made, especially during the time of a pandemic.
The State Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said when India faced a crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic, their Opposition was not asking the Government to quit. Sri Lanka is the only country where this happens and that is very unfortunate.
State Minister Amunugama said the main Opposition should be more focused on what is happening to their party because we see pieces falling off day-by-day. A few days ago, SJB Parliamentarian Chaminda Wijesiri said that if Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa does not change his stance and tries to make political grounds over dead bodies, they will not stand with him. The Opposition should stop doing politics over dead bodies during the pandemic and at least start assisting the country, not the Government, to get back on its feet, the State Minister said.
Excerpts
Q: It is obvious that some international organisations give priority to internal issues of Sri Lanka without paying due attention to the pandemic faced by the world. Would you like to comment?
A: In every country, these international organisations do some sort of assessment about the internal situation. There is no issue about it, but here, there are certain organisations which criticise everything. At the same time, there are some independent organisations which have appreciated how the Government is handling the pandemic.
You get parties in favour and against us. When they have other agendas, they tend to go against everything that we are doing. In general, we can see, more independent NGOs and other organisations appreciate the aggressive vaccination drive which is taking place in the country.
At present, the situation has improved. The country has turned into normalcy. Some INGOs turened a blind eye on positive developments as they are not too happy about the LTTE losing their battle and the Government winning the battle against terrorism. When it comes to Afghanistan, Israel and some other countries which pass human rights resolutions against us, they are the countries which are launching missile attacks on other countries. While launching missile attacks on other sovereign states, they try to push human rights resolutions on some other countries, which is a joke.
Q: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has failed to come out publicly and air her views with regard to the President’s recent request to the Tamil diaspora to engage in a productive dialog with Colombo. How do you view this?
A: That is nothing amazing because it is clear that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is biased towards the LTTE. They don’t want anything positive happening with the Tamil diaspora as they are still on the same separatism footing. That is nothing new. Actually, that should be expected from a person like that.
Q: The main Opposition, the SJB, has called on the Government to reveal the terms of the agreement signed with U.S. company New Fortress Energy to transfer 40 percent of shares of the Kerawalapitiya Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) power plant. Your comments?
A: That will be revealed. There is nothing to hide. Whether it is a U.S. company or whatever, it is a company of some other country. It is just another share issue and there is no problem. The Opposition can request in Parliament to reveal the terms of that agreement so that it will be done.
Q: The Cabinet of Ministers decided to lift the price control imposed on rice and import a buffer stock to prevent any possible shortage. Could you explain?
A: That was a good move. It is not possible to impose a certain price, especially on food commodities such as rice and get everyone to work for that price because the market value of any item including food items will be decided on the demand and supply.
This is a good example as to what the Government is trying to do. The Government is on the side of the consumer. We were viewing the issue at the point of the consumers.
When we try to view it at the point of the consumer, farmers get affected and find all sorts of complications.
That was a good decision taken by the Prime Minister to let the market decide what it is going to be and import a buffer stock on standby. If the dealers try to fabricate an artificial market, the buffer stock can be released. This decision should have been taken before.
Q: Some say that the retail prices for rice announced by the rice mill owners are unreasonable and it seems they attempt to exploit the Government’s decision to lift the controlled prices on rice. Your comments?
A: You could say that in one way, but it is both ways. Because when a food item is produced locally, you cannot impose prices or ratings on it. It is difficult for the Government and the rice mill owners to impose the prices. I saw rice mill owners were commenting on prices. Sometimes, the market prices of the rice might go below even those prices. If the benefit of this is transferred to the farmers, that would be a good move.
In a previous season, a kilo of Nadu paddy was bought for Rs.50. This time, a Kilo of Nadu paddy is bought for Rs.60. When a Kilo of paddy is purchased by the Government for Rs.60, private traders will have to go beyond that rate to get their stocks.
If they go to purchase a Kilo of paddy for Rs. 65 or 70, it is not feasible to supply a kilo of rice for Rs.95 or 98. It has been a good decision to let the market decide the price, but to have a buffer stock if an artificial market is created to blow it up.
Q: How do you respond to the JVP’s claim that the Government has no solution to the cost of living issue and there is a shortage of goods in the country?
A: I wouldn’t say there is no problem. There is a problem when it comes to consumer items due to various reasons. The main reason is we have a lack of income avenues due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That is why we don’t have the purchasing power that we used to have some time back before the pandemic. The only way out of this is to get over the pandemic as soon as possible and regain the purchasing and financial liquidity. This is exactly what we are trying to do. In the midst of this situation, you find certain food items running out of market.
The prices of certain items might increase. The prices of some other items will drop. You find variations when there is turbulence. We are in a financially turbulent period. The only way out of it is to fly through the turbulence.
There is no other way out. That is what we are doing. There is a slight hike in certain items, but we hope to get all this under control by the end of the year or the beginning of the next year. We are confident that we would be able to fly out of this turbulence and have a smooth sailing thereafter.
Q: Will the forthcoming Budget introduce strategies to rescue the country from the present crisis situation?
A: Yes. We are coming up with suggestions. I wouldn’t say that is to rescue, but try to survive. It is more trying to survive than rescue. Unless we get back our tourism industry, manufacturing industries, foreign employment and start getting back on our feet, there is little space to play around. It will be more a survival Budget which will try to cut down unnecessary expenses, but try to minimise the burden of the public till we start our smooth sailing.
Q: Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera has called for an inquiry into the incident where the CID had interrogated journalists of two leading national newspapers on a news report published on the alleged ‘Garlic Scam’ despite instructions not to do so. Would you like to elaborate your views?
A: This is not questioning in the manner which they are trying to portray. It is not like arresting media personnel and taking them into custody and questioning. It had been a fact finding mission.
However, the CID should have got the IGP’s or someone’s prior approval before they question media personnel. The media personnel should have the freedom to report, but this inquiry had not been done in bad intention. They wanted more details about this alleged fraud. It was more a request for assistance and information from the journalists rather than questioning.
However, it should not have been the case. Because the Police can gather information from wherever they want. They should be able to find information by themselves based on news reports rather than questioning journalists. However, the Opposition attempts to take undue political advantage even from this incident.
Unfortunately, this is the type of the Opposition that we have today. I think this is the only Opposition in the world which attempts to take an undue advantage even from a trivial mistake made, especially during the time of a pandemic. If we take India, it went into a crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic. But we didn’t see that their Opposition was asking the Government to quit. Sri Lanka is the only country where this happens. That is unfortunate, but that is how it is.
Q: How do you respond to the Opposition claim that the economy has collapsed to a point where the country cannot run?
A: When we handed over the Government to them in 2015, the GDP was at 7.5 percent. When they handed over the Government back to us, they had brought it down to mere 3.2 percent.
That is without any pandemic or whatsoever. This has come down to about one percent now. The economy had drastically come down when the Opposition was in power rather than due to the Covid-19 situation. This is clear when you look at the Central Bank reports. That a party and a group like that is trying to advise us at a time of a pandemic, is an absolute joke. It should not be taken seriously.
They should be more focused on what is happening to their party because we see pieces falling off day-by-day.
A few days ago, we saw SJB Parliamentarian Chaminda Wijesiri making controversial remarks saying that if the Opposition Leader does not change his stance and tries to make political grounds over dead bodies, they will also not stand with him. As said by his own MPs, they should stop doing politics over dead bodies during the pandemic and at least, start assisting the country, not the Government, to get back on its feet.
Q:Have you decided to issue special guidelines to operate buses and trains as the countrywide lockdown was lifted on Friday?
A: We had a discussion with the health authorities on Wednesday. What they wanted us to do from October 1 was that the crossing of provincial boundaries will be barred for another two weeks. There won’t be buses and trains operating across provincial borders.
The health authorities wanted the trains not to be operated within the provinces as well. Private and CTB buses are operated within the provinces. We will increase the number of trips and the buses since we have to accommodate the passengers who used to travel by trains as well.
The health authorities requested us not to run interprovincial buses and not to operate trains whatsoever for another two weeks. After two weeks, we would see the number of Covid-19 positive cases. Based on that, the health authorities will instruct us whether to go ahead or what we should do.