Sunday, 29 May 2011
All political parties should defend motherland - Minister Navin Dissanayake
By Uditha KUMARASINGHE
Public Management Reforms Minister Navin Dissanayake said the UNP as one of the largest political parties that has been in the forefront of national development, has a responsibility entrusted by the people to fight against any international conspiracy against the country.
The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said if any foreign manipulations are made against the country, it is the responsibility of political parties to safeguard the motherland irrespective of political differences.
The Minister also stressed the importance of canvassing and enlightening international friends to overcome the challenges put forward by the Darusman Report. The Minister is confident that the Government would be able to overcome this challenge. At present some NGOs, INGOs and foreign Governments have manipulated various concocted stories about the Government’s re-construction and rehabilitation drive due to jealousy and malice.
Q: Parliament lays down policies for the bureaucracy to implement them. What are the management reforms contemplated to reactivate bureaucracy to produce better results?
A:The development goals of the Government under the Mahinda Chinthana have to be realised. In order to realise that, we need to get the public service on track. Public servants must perform in line with the policy framework of the Government.
Public servants generally do perform and we have a good public service as well. But there is lot of rooms for improvement in the public sector. We are doing this in two ways under the President’s leadership. One is by training public servants.
We want to have a perceptional change in their mentality. First they must understand that they are public servants.
They must serve the public with efficiency, dynamism and be free from corruption. We also want to have institutional changes. But it is not a 24-hour operation. We have already submitted our plan to the Cabinet.
We are doing a functional review of 60 institutions. The review will tell us the changes that should be made in these organisations. Once the review is completed we can have a dialogue with the heads of those institutions, trade unions and make those changes.
We are also going to establish Management Reforms Cells (MRCs) very soon. Through the MRCs, we will engage in consultation and dialogue to effect changes.
Q: The Opposition, civil organisations and other institutions attribute ‘politicisation’ to the decline of public service. Is there any truth in this allegation?
A: There is a truth in that. This has happened over a period of 40 to 50 years after we gained independence. But at present appointments to the public service are made strictly based on examinations. There is a minimum qualification for them.
The new recruits should have some basic qualifications to obtain jobs because they have to pass the exams. But in politics, there is no society or country in the world where a political party does not look after its political interest. In the Asian context politics play a crucial role in appointing people to key positions in institutions. That is the culture that we have. We must change that culture. But that will take some time.
Q: The UNP, JVP and sections of the trade unions have opposed the private sector pension scheme and leadership training for university students. Shouldn’t the Government launch a grass roots level awareness campaign to enlighten people?
A: As far as the leadership training program is concerned, that is a good program because it will help to change the attitude of youth entering universities. As we know, we have a free education system. So the youth must appreciate the move. New students are treated in a rude manner by senior students.
It should be stopped. Some of the students’ unions who facilitate to political organisations don’t want this system to implemented. Because it will weaken their hold on students. That is why they are opposing it. As we know President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake are keen to conduct this program. Parents and students are supporting it.
At present we are educating the workers on the Pension Bill. The President is very accommodative and flexible on this. If there are any clauses or amendments that have to be made, the Government is willing to consider it.
Q: The Opposition, NGOs, INGOs and even some foreign Governments cry foul that post conflict re-construction and rehabilitation have not benefited Tamils. Are these not concocted stories to discredit the Government?
A: I think the facts speak for themselves. When the battle against terrorism is over, there were nearly 100,000 people in rehabilitation centres. Six months later, it was reduced to 11,000.
At present it has come down to 4,000. It will be further reduced to at least 1,000 within the next two to three months. People have gone to their villages and they are now in the process of rebuilding their houses.
A large amount of funds are going into public sector development. The development of infrastructure facilities such as roads and electricity are taking place.
Naturally there will be some shortcomings in any development project. After 30 years of conflict the Government has to develop the North and the East. So the Government is keen to fulfil its obligations. It will take into account views of other political parties like the TNA.
The Government has laid emphasis on developing the North and the East. There will be tremendous development in the North and the East within the next five to six years. These are stories fabricated by NGOs and certain foreign Governments to promote racial hatred.
Q: Where the UNP failed President Mahinda Rajapaksa succeeded in eradicating the LTTE and restoring peace in the country. Should not the UNP as a patriotic party defend the Government against foreign manipulations?
A: Definitely. That is why the people like Karu Jayasuriya, Gamini Lokuge and myself expressed this opinion within the UNP.
We all expressed this view in the UNP that we must support the Government to put an end to terrorism. But the UNP leadership at that time was not hundred percent forthcoming. That is why we joined the President and he was able to put and end to the conflict. If any foreign manipulations and conspiracies are hatched against the country, it is in the interest of any political party to defend the motherland irrespective of political differences.
Specially the UNP as one of the largest political parties has a responsibility to fight against international conspiracy.
Q: Even after you left the UNP, still the internal crisis is continuing. Would you like to comment on this?
A: Basically I don’t like to comment on what is happening within the UNP. But I am sad to see the rapid decline of a great political party to which my father was loyal. I think all the UNPers love the country. But I am sad to see the pathetic situation of the party today.
Q: Nuwara Eliya is one of the backward districts in the country. What steps are you planning to take to develop the district?
A: At the moment a massive program has been launched to develop the infrastructure facilities in the district. Three roads are under construction Hatton-Nuwara Eliya Road, Hawaeliya-Ragala Road and World’s End Road. All these roads will be carpeted.
We are also in the process of finalising negotiations for the construction of a hospital in Nuwara Eliya. A town development project is also in progress.
We are also going to develop Kandapola and Meethilimana villages as agricultural villages. During the next five to six years, a lot of development will take place in the district.
Q: The cost of living has sky rocketed. Does the Government have any plans to provide urgent relief to people by cutting down on luxuries and wasteful expenditure?
A: In a market economy, we cannot restrict the wants of people. We need to ensure that essential goods are available at affordable prices.
The cost of living is an issue mainly in the urban areas. It has affected the upper middle class and the lower middle class.
In rural areas, people cultivate their own food.
Prices will stabilise soon. During the past six months, so many issues came up due to floods and drought. That is why we were not able to control the cost of living. But I think it will improve as time goes on.
Q: The Opposition is pressing for the early withdrawal of the emergency. How do you view this?
A: PTA and the emergency have been there for the past 30 years to deal with the LTTE terrorist threat. So the Government has no need for maintaining any laws that are not necessary. Having said that we have already taken out certain clauses of the emergency.
As the Attorney General has said, further changes will be made to lessen the emergency. Ultimately there will be a time where the emergency will be completely withdrawn. But that will be done gradually by assessing the security situation in the country. It will be looked at objectively.
Q: Whatever is said and done, the Darusman Report has tarnished the image of the country. How will the Government respond to the allegations in the report?
A: The Darusman Report is biased. All sovereign countries which understand things know what is happening. The External Affairs Minister has undertaken to educate and brief overseas friends like India and China.
A vote will be taken at the UN Human Rights Council in July. I think this is what some of the western countries are planning to do. So we will have to canvass hard and enlighten our international friends to overcome this challenge. I am very confident we do it.
Speech made by Honorable Navin Dissanayake, Minister of Investment Promotion, at the National Forum on City Cluster Economic Development on 17th July 2009 at Galle Face Hotel.
Navin Dissanayake, Minister of Investment Promotion
It is a great pleasure to address you today, especially on a very topical subject. However, I wish to take your mind back to the ancient world history for a minute. Damascus, the capital of Syria is considered the most ancient metropolis in the world. It occupies that status as the most lasting continually inhabited city in our planet.
Ladies and gentlemen, when one talks about City Cluster Economic Development, one cannot simply disregard the growth and development of such ancient cities like Damascus in Syria, Athens in Greece, Rome in Italy, Pataliputra in India, Jerusalem in Israel. If we take a serious look at these cities and study their evolution from birth to the present day status, one wonders as to how these cities stand as living monuments to man’s capacity for exquisite planning, his ambition to excel, and his inexhaustible desire to improve on his creations. I am not here to give you a lesson in ancient history, for I am not qualified to do so, but I am more than willing and able to profess the enormous potential that the present cities carry with them. In the ancient world the administrative capital as well as the financial/economic capital was the one and same. But in modern times it is quite different.
Let’s take for instance the three regions that Asian Development Bank has chosen for study and analyses. They are Delhi metropolitan region in India, Metropolitan Dhaka and Metropolitan Colombo. New Delhi is the admin capital of India, but her commercial capital is Mumbai; Dhaka is the admin capital of Bangladesh, but the commercial capital is Chittagong and Colombo enjoys the status of being the commercial capital of Sri Lanka while its admin capital is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte. I, of course, have not studied in depth the development and the current status of Delhi and Dhaka, but I possess a fair knowledge of our own Colombo city and its suburbs.
What is the status of our City region? Can we be content with our city’s development pace, are we tackling the day-to day problems of our city, leave alone the large scale economic/socio progress of our city and its dwellers? I am sure, some of these questions will be asked in these sessions and you will ponder as to how these issues can be best addressed in the overall context of the geopolitical picture. Delhi and Dhaka are very large cities not only in terms of physical size, but also in terms of their respective populations. The very large populations that these two cities, Delhi and Dhaka have are a major contributory factor to the challenges that these cities have to grapple with. The city of Colombo pales in comparison to the size of Delhi and Dhaka. But the problems of all three city-regions are similar in nature; traffic congestion, air pollution, over-crowdedness, slow pace at which infrastructure is developing, lack of jobs, hooliganism and underground mafias; these in a sense are really not the disease, but symptoms of a much deeper and more acute malady. We try to treat the symptoms forgetting that the major illness does not cure by suppressing one single symptom by way of a pill or a Band-Aid. Therefore, it is imperative that we adopt a very unconventional and unique approach. Looking at the whole and adopting a macro approach to the resolution of the issues will definitely help us in this venture. It is in this context that, what this program, CLUSTER CITY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE IS DOING, becomes very significant and vital.
For instance, I ask you a very legitimate and bold question. Can you be content with our present status of our city region? Everywhere you look, you see, if not deposits of debris, at least room for improvement. That is only in the sector of infrastructure needs. Some illegal structure is coming up on a daily basis; some new dump yard is being created for lack of organized and well-planned trash collection and disposal, buildings are coming up with no proper provision for parking, and callous indiscipline in traffic is causing havoc in the city. Let me be very candid, I am not happy with this status, in fact, I am very disappointed with the status quo.
Take for example the way the construction of buildings is taking place in the city. Individual plans are approved by the authorities, but there is no attempt to see if these buildings will fit into a cohesive macro plan of the city. One has to look at the cities in the United States, large or small. Every street runs north-south and every avenue runs east-west and so forth. Such meticulous planning is not only vital; it is the essential ingredient in the recipe of meaningful development. So, taking into consideration this entire scenario, how can you plan and achieve your objective? The Asian Development Bank has appointed Strategic Planning Management Services Ltd. of Australia to lead a research project to develop a framework to support innovative interventions for Clustered Cities Development in South Asian cities and three national partners have been incorporated to undertake this venture. Our neighbors India and Bangladesh are the other partners. I am sure the contribution that this National Forum would render will be invaluable. I take this opportunity of commending them for the tireless efforts they have lent to this project.
You will remember, at the very outset of my address I mentioned the city of Damascus as one of the ancient cities and considered to be among the oldest continually inhabited metropolises. In fact, Damascus was one of the ten cities that formed the famous Decapolis of the ancient world. The Decapolis was a group or a cluster of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Palestine, and Syria. The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status. The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture. With the exception of Damascus, the “Region of the Decapolis” was located in modern-day Jordan. And Damascus is still continuing as a major metropolis in the world. It may not be a waste of time if you examine the significant features of this city that made it last such a long time. In order to achieve the objectives of your project one must look at those centers that lasted so long a time without any break. Surly, the economic characteristics of the cities you have chosen for study, namely Delhi, Dhaka and Colombo, and the study of major challenges in City Cluster Development for sustainable urban development in this region will help you find the solution that you seek in order to attain the objectives of your program.
My ministry plays a very vital role in the national development effort. As a matter of fact, it is the single most important ministry that brings foreign investment to this country, by way of offering various benefits and privileges to the investors to attract them to invest. These investments will not only make profits for the investors, but it will also introduce new ways and means of manufacturing, new modes of marketing, and new avenues of employment. There is a very compelling need for a program such as yours in the current context.
I thank the Asian Development Bank for taking the initiative in this and the organizers of this National Forum for inviting me to be your Chief Guest today. I applaud you and offer my sincere thanks and best wishes for the success of this forum.
