Following are excerpts;

By Wilson Gnanadass 

Q: Having been newly appointed as the lands minister, how would you describe the progress the UNF government has made so far?

A: So far we have been able to restore democracy. We have been able to bring some sort of relief to the people by way of cutting down on the cost of living. The prime minister's principal concern was to cut down on the cost of living and this is why we see Minister of Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake bringing down the prices of some of the essential goods.

Q: As the minister of lands, what are your priorities to the nation?

A: It is an important ministry. If you take the history into consideration, most eminent personalities have held this portfolio, like D.S. Senanayake, Gamini Dissanayake, Gamini Athukorale and so on. Having gone through the statistics of President Premadasa's mobile services, I find that 75% of the people have approached the president regarding land matters. On the other hand, when I go through the civil cases in Sri Lanka, there again, 75% of the disputes are related to lands. A high percentage of criminal cases are also based on land disputes. So I feel I've been assigned an important task.

All that the people want is a piece of land; either to build a house or for cultivation. And we are looking into the possibility of giving those who are landless, lands. Then there is another problem with regard to land encroachment. Now this happens because people do not have lands. An estimated 1.2 million plots have been encroached. What we want to do is to distribute such lands to those who had encroached before 1995. But in certain places, certain lands cannot be distributed. So we are helpless. My plan is to provide one million plots to people within a period of five years, like President Premadasa gave one million houses.

Q: How effective is the government's 100-day programme and what steps are being taken to fulfil the promises made to the nation under this programme?

A: It is a good thing that the new prime minister launched this 100-day programme. I must say that this is a good programme. Any government should have a target in mind. During the last seven years there was no target as such. The only other politician who ran the government based on time frames and targets was President Premadasa, and now we have another man, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. And my plan under this programme is to distribute 1000 acres of land to the landless. I have also decided to provide 10,000 deeds. Now this ministry is running like a machine. To do this, I have given my ministry officials certain tasks. I may ask the prime minister to set another time frame of another 100 days after this target is over. You see, with targets set before them, every one could work effectively.

Q: You were critical of the former People's Alliance regime and highlighted various scandals of the PA. Are you now committed to fight these issues?

A: Yes. Not only myself, some others also brought out some of the misdeeds of the PA at that time and we are committed to taking up those issues and bringing justice to the country. I am personally determined to ensure that necessary action is taken against President Kumaratunga, the chief justice and some others. I have not given up on that.

Q: A team headed by current Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya, Justice Minister Lokubandara, Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake and yourself at that time spearheaded the impeachment against President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Now that you have come to power, why are you silent on this issue?

A: Actually, we headed the impeachment against Chief Justice Sarath Silva. That was our first move. What we thought was to impeach the chief justice first and then to impeach the president. Because any attempt to impeach the president may be blocked by the chief justice when the issue is placed before him. Even today I have this in mind.

At the last group meeting I raised this matter and told the members present that we must move again to impeach both the president and the chief justice. Finally I said that President Kumaratunga was waiting for the very first chance to topple the government and I stressed something should be done before this happened. I in fact coupled this with the discovery of a cache of arms in Athurugiriya, where even an UN banned weapon was found. It may be that such weapons have been collected to kill either Ranil Wickremesinghe or someone from the party and for the PA to in turn point out that it was done by the LTTE because the government removed all the barricades.

This may have also been to sabotage the peace process. You see, the president still has some powers. She stopped S.B. Dissanayake from being appointed minister of Samurdhi. She can still decide to keep the service chiefs. But we must not allow that. We are going ahead with one aim: to impeach these people. This is also part and parcel of our 100-day programme.

Q: There was a specific allegation made against the IGP and other service chiefs in the run-up to the election on political bias and also corruption in their services. Why has not the UNF government taken any action on them?

A: I also took this matter up at the group meeting and it was well supported by Ministers S.B. Dissanayake and Ravi Karunanayke. The IGP is the cause for the pre and post election violence. He never handled this matter carefully. He never wanted to take action against the perpetrators. When the elections commissioner wanted some powers, he refused to give him those. He promoted violence. Now he and his men cannot take action against the UNPers who are resorting to similar things in certain areas.

What did the IGP do when we reported about violence to him? Nothing. He is a retired man and was brought from the private sector and also was given an extension by Chandrika Kumaratunga. So he is only a puppet.

Then take for instance the Army Commander Balagalle. He is the one who provided his own men to Ratwatte and they carried out the massacre in Udathalawinna. He sent a dispatch note to Jaffna for this purpose. In fact, I raised this matter in the group meeting. Had we not come to power, the commander would have said on this particular day all the soldiers were in Jaffna, so the case would have got thrown off. Even with regard to the arms found in Athurugiriya, he has tried to sabotage the investigations. Therefore he is responsible.

Then take the Navy Commander Daya Sandagiri. He has been harbouring the file of Sripathi Sooriyarachchi who was sacked from the Navy because he was a man accused of fraud in the Navy. After we came to power, I called the Navy commander and asked for the file on Sripathi Sooriyarachchi and he said it was with the president. When I asked for the copy file he said he does not have it. Now why is the president keeping this file? Is it to safeguard another rogue? Doesn't it mean that even the president is a rogue helping another rogue. I am now going to write to the prime minister and initiate an inquiry into this matter.

Then take the Air Force Commander Jayalath Weerakody. He gave the aircraft to bring Anuruddha Ratwatte and his family from Kandy after losing the election. The Air Force commander must be thinking that the Air Force is Jayalath Weerakody's private property. Who would have paid for the trip? We are not going to just keep quiet. We will take stern action against these men.

Q: Now, would not the behaviour of these men bring discredit to the UNF government especially with the police being accused of high politicisation and corruption and especially with DIGs Punya de Silva and Mahinda Balasuriya who have been highly political in their duties? In this context, how can you continue with these men at the top of the armed forces?

A: We can't continue with these people. These are all either corrupt or incompetent elements. You need political support only if you are corrupt or incompetent. So these men have proved beyond doubt that they are unfit to hold their offices. We have had commanders who stood for their principles. But not these men. I don't think we can improve this country with these type of stooges at the helm of power.

Q: The Director PSD, Nihal Karunaratne, has also involved himself in numerous acts of violence and is considered one of the most corrupt policemen, having even taken over several petrol stations through government patronage. Does your government have a secret deal with Karunaratne. If not, why not take action against him too?

A: He has also got himself involved in criminal activities. You see, Nihal was in touch with me during the elections. It should not mean that he should not be investigated into. I think the criminal activities of the PSD should be probed into. Nobody knows how many members are there in the PSD. When I asked some of the former ministers, even they could not answer this question. I understand some 3,000 to 4,000 men are there in the PSD to safeguard one individual. And they were involved in attacking journalists. Three people were identified and photographs were given. Now this government must inquire into this. In fact, these are the men who were despatched to kill S.B. Dissanayake.

When 41 PSD members were sent to Anuradhapura I asked Nihal the reason. He said it was to improve the morale of the SLFPers. This was not to improve the morale of the organisers but to attack the opponents. The PA thought that the elections could be won through terror tactics. This was Ratwatte's technique. But now he is wondering how to get out of the arrest order.

Q: Why has not the UNF government taken any measure to deal with the Ratwattes, who have been accused of getting involved in murder and other acts of violence?

A: The law should be applied to them also in the proper manner. Now the government has been able to get at the sons. Once the sons are dealt with, it would be easy to deal with the father as well. Even the Supreme Court has not acceded to the fundamental rights case filed by the Ratwattes. So we have to wait and see. It is the defence ministry that should get cracking with the job.

Q: You were one of the most vociferous critics of President Kumaratunga on issues relating to corruption and abuse of power. But is your criticism only confined to words? If not, what action do you intend taking since your credibility is at stake?

A: I have made it public that I am willing to sacrifice my ministerial portfolio for the sake of the country. I am ever ready to continue my fight against all these people. I will even resign from my post and continue. So nobody should think that I am not doing anything about it. I'd rather be a good politician than a minister. I am also concerned about my credibility. My post comes and goes, but not my credibility. As I have fought against the corruption of the previous regime, I will continue to fight against corruption if there is any even under this regime. I said that we should never allow the opposition to point their fingers at us at the group meeting.

Q: Are you in a position to tell the nation the real cause for the delay in impeaching the chief justice, the president and taking action against the chiefs of the armed forces including the IGP?

A: Yes. The prime minister feels that it is important to initially give relief to the people and ease the tension and then deal with these corrupt people. I too think that is the correct way. When the people are hungry, we can't be running round the bush, trying to find fault with such corrupt people. But we will also deal with this at the correct time. The previous government did only one thing. Picked on the UNP and neglected the country. We can't do the same thing. In fact at the first cabinet meeting the prime minister said that he was concerned about three things. One is peace, which he is handling. The other is bringing down the cost of living, which Ravi Karunanayake is looking into. The third is to maintain law and order.

Q: While the UNP criticised the PA of being involved in acts of violence, your own party members have been involved in intimidating and preventing PA sympathisers from entering their workplaces. Former Minister Alavi Mowlana himself has made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission saying that the members of the JSS have done this. Therefore is there not a big gap between theory and practice in the UNP?

A: Where was Alavi Mowlana when our supporters were assaulted after the 2000 election at every CTB office? Our supporters were forced to get SLFP membership by one thug. Where was this Alavi Mowlana at that time? Alavi has no role to play here. It is the SLFPers who did this at that time and now it is the reaction to that action. Every action has a reaction. But in my electorate, not a single complaint has been made in this connection. If I find something of this sort, I will take drastic action against those UNPers.

Using psychological concepts to improve organisational effectiveness

A: I believe that there is no one strategy. There are many. However, the fundamental stress management strategy is the development of emotional intelligence and the ability to think positively and realistically. This is absolutely important because it is invariably our thoughts that determine how stressed we feel. Therefore, the more emotionally intelligent one is, the more he or she is able to handle stress appropriately rather than being weighed down by it. Other than this primary method, having good social support, mediation and a regular exercise programme are also other useful methods.