“The CEB has recorded great financial stability during the tenure of the former Chairman”

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The JHU maintains that people in the North and East have to be given democracy and basic needs before speaking of power devolution that has been pushed by some Tamil political leaders. After resolving the recent crisis at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), JHU General Secretary and Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka in a candid interview with The Sunday Leader said that while standards have to be set and technical audits need to be conducted at the CEB, with regard to reconciliation, the government needs to adopt three Ds – de-militarisation, democratisation and development.
“There is no ethnic issue in the country. It is Chelvanayagam who created this ideology and Prabhakaran started to fight for it. The TNA is still towing that line and speaks of merging the North and East and devolving power. The people in the North and East want democracy and their basic needs, and are not interested about power devolution,” he said.
Excerpts:

Q: Following the recent controversies at the CEB, what is the current position of the Board?
A: A new Chairman, General Manager and a Board of Directors were appointed to the CEB on June 8. In June 2010, the CEB formulated three action plans – short term (six months), mid term and long term. An action plan covering 10 areas were identified to be implemented in the short-term plan to move towards the mid term plan. Although the action plan was formulated after a brainstorming session, there were issues in implementing them. There have always been issues at the CEB with regard to the authority on implementing plans. Conducting an audit at the Board has been a long-standing issue. A normal audit is not suitable for a technical institution like the CEB. An audit needs to be carried out with technical knowledge. Therefore, discussions have been held on many issues and there are ideological clashes as a result. We are now looking at taking all the areas in the action plan that have a common consensus and implementing them as the first step.

Q: The appointment of a new Chairman and a Board of Directors for the CEB is an admission that there were some shortcomings in the Board. How do you respond?
A: In Buddhism there is a concept called Upeksha, where you have to learn to accept what is not desirable to us. However, the CEB has recorded great financial stability during the tenure of the former Chairman.

Q: The former CEB Chairman has alleged that there was massive corruption by the Board. Do you agree?
A: Allegations have to be proved. Sri Lanka is currently in an era where it is moving towards becoming a middle-income country. Therefore, the debate now is if the monies are invested properly and if the proper development programmes are being carried out. We need a proper technical auditing system where we could review if our actions related to development programmes have been proper, for example whether we have purchased proper equipment or material for a specific development programme. These issues have affected the Mahaweli project. We need to set proper standards and conduct technical audits. If such a technical reference line is not put in place there would once again be accountability issues. I believe that this issue needs to be addressed before the Right to Information Bill. We need a proper body established for this purpose. The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) that was established to regulate and monitor the CEB cannot do it alone.

Q: How close is the CEB to achieving 100% electricity coverage in the country?
A: We are now taking feedback at district level. Our aim is to give electricity to every village and reach 100% electricity coverage by 2012. We can create the accessibility to receive electricity. There are difficulties in providing electricity to every household in the country due to various reasons. If a house is located on unauthorised land, in a village with no road access, etc., there are difficulties in providing electricity to such areas. There were 76,000 houses without electricity in the Colombo District. Most of these houses were unauthorised structures without a tax number. However, we managed to provide electricity to some of the houses that were included in the voters’ list. The number has now been reduced to 46,000.

Q: As the Secretary of the JHU, do you believe that the 13th Amendment is the solution to the ethnic issue?
A: There is no ethnic issue in the country. It is Chelvanayagam who created this ideology and Prabhakaran started to fight for it. The TNA is still towing that line and speaking of merging the North and East and devolving power. We all have to move forward from this point. The people in the North and East want democracy and their basic needs and are not interested in power devolution. Chelvanayagam made the proposals for the people at the time, but now the situation is different. The Tamil Eelam ideology created by the likes of Chelvanayagm has pushed back the Tamil community socially and economically. Eelam and power devolution has made the Tamils lose their standing in society. When you consider the Muslims and the Up Country Tamils who have co-existed with the Sinhalese, they have developed in many areas. They have been empowered. If they had also opted for a separatism move, their standing in society would have also seen a decline. Extremist ideas are never successful. Malaysia and Afghanistan are two Muslim countries, but the levels of development achieved by the countries are different. Malaysia has developed. The extremist groups have dragged down Afghanistan, and the TNA is doing the same to the Tamil community in the country. The Tamil community needs some one like Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia.

Q: The JHU has been identified as a Sinhala Buddhist extremist party?
A: When the Sihala Urumaya was formed, the Indian High Commissioner at the time invited party members Thilak Karunaratane, Udaya Gammanpila, Kotakadeniya and myself for a meeting. He said that a university lecturer had said the party consisted of vagrants. During the discussion, the High Commissioner said he identified the party to be similar to the Jan San Movement that formed the base for the BJP. Buddhism is not fundamentalism, it is pragmatic. But we are firm and we have a backbone. Sinhalese are a community that can live in harmony. This can be seen by the manner in which other countries have acted during wars. England’s Churchill bombed Dresden when Germany was on the brink of defeat. The Sinhalese have not acted in such a manner.

Q: Do you think that the issue over the 13th Amendment would strain relations between Sri Lanka and India?
A: India needs to understand that the country cannot act only on pressure from Tamil Nadu. India has a strong trade link with Sri Lanka and exports a lot of its goods to the country. India has a lot of areas to consider in relation to Sri Lanka. People in Sri Lanka’s South begin to doubt India when they speak excessively of the Tamil issue. However, people in the North have now started to doubt India’s role in Sri Lanka given the dispute over fishing in the North. Indian fishermen encroach on Sri Lankan waters and the fishermen are not allowed to carry out their livelihood by their brethren in Tamil Nadu. The likes of Jayalalitha have not considered the plight of the Tamil fishermen in Sri Lanka’s North. We have to build a Sri Lankan identity. Everyone has made sacrifices. The Sinhalese have also made immense sacrifices. Thousands of LTTE cadres who had committed a large number of murders through out the years have been pardoned. People in the North are provided with electricity free of charge when soldiers who fought to liberate the country have to pay to get electricity connections to their houses. People need to understand this reality.