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We were able to bring back a sense of purpose: Chandrika

V.S. Sambandan

After 11 years as Sri Lanka's Executive President,Chandrika Kumaratungaspeaks of her days in power and plans for the future. In an exclusive interview on November 7, Ms. Kumaratunga said she does not intend to hold any position in any government and that she is very concerned over the emergence of political extremes in the Sri Lankan polity. Excerpts:

What would you highlight as your one legacy for Sri Lanka?

If you ask me where were we able to do the most, then I would have thought of two or three areas. But if you ask me to put it into one, I would say the main thing we did was that when we took over the government the country was floating about without a purpose, without any dreams, without any goals, and certainly without any decency. We were able to bring back to the country a sense of purpose, objectives. At that time [1994] Sri Lanka was a killing field, the government was practising state terror against those who were their democratic opponents as well as some violent organisations. It was like a police state. Full stop. I think the biggest thing we did was that they were able to breathe freely under our regime, which means everything.

Your largest contribution to the peace process was making federalism acceptable. As Sri Lanka faces another Presidential election, what are your views on the past and on what the future holds?

My views have not changed one bit. I don't think they will change much unless somebody can come up with a more feasible, viable-looking alternative solution. At the moment nobody has been able to give anything other than what we have proposed, well, apart from war.

Are you concerned that the concept of a unitary state is being talked about?

Very concerned, and I have told our party candidate [Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse], but there are some extremist elements — three parties that I would lump together — the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and the Sinhala Urumaya. They always have been extremist groups but now they are saying it openly, probably they were shy to say it. I did not allow them to get close to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Peoples' Alliance (PA) until they agreed to at least look at devolution.

I never had anything to do with the JHU and the SU and I never will. Then I might as well have something to do with Adolf Hitler. But these people [JVP], though they are not very different, they were showing that they have changed, that they have learnt their lessons. But they have proved beyond doubt that they are not willing to change. It is very, very worrying. I am very concerned.

As leader of the party trying to balance these things, I do not believe ever directly or indirectly going against a candidate I myself proposed.

Is it a matter of great pain to you that a concept so dear to you is being disregarded in the election discourse?

It is not a personal pain. For lot of people, politics is personal. It was for me also because I am a very passionate person in what I believe in from the time I was a child. I used to take up various causes and get all impassioned about it. But now, I have received so many knocks by destiny, by fate, by life itself that I tend to take life with equanimity. I have learnt not to let things go beyond a certain point. I have many psychological curtains that fall. I don't allow it to hurt me personally. What would hurt me personally is if I see that the majority of the people of our country are following this lunatic fringe. But for the moment they are not.

Are you confident that a secular Sri Lanka will prevail?

In the political history of a country there are moments of sliding back. There are moments of defeat of a grand project. I call it a grand project only if it is what is required for the country, and I believe it is.

There may be moments of defeat — temporary defeat — but I think the project is so big and, in the last 11 years, we have worked sufficiently hard for it to have gone too deep into the hearts and minds of our people for it to be turned back. But there may be a temporary phase of chaos on this issue. I sincerely hope not. Here this is not the political leader who is talking; this is a student of politics.

So it is a cause for concern?

It is cause for deep concern. I don't intend to hold any position in any government. I will not take any position at all. I have decided about that a long time ago. I have given a lot of myself to the country's cause. After that, seeing all this being thrown out of the window, without a better alternative ... if there is a better alternative, I would have been the first person to put up not just one hand, but both hands. In any case I do not want any position.

If actually the policies I believe were the right things for the country were being taken forward, with whatever amendments required, as I told Mahinda, and I had confidence that the government will have some kind of clarity and purpose, I may have agreed to be there as an adviser or something, not in the government but from some distance. But now I don't want to be part of a lot of trouble.

What has Presidency meant to you?

Personally? The good part first. I must tell you, I get no personal pleasure out of glory. It may be because you had it for a long time, one can give various reasons to it. Absolutely no pleasure, in fact I laugh. All this glory is a joke. One thing which gave me pleasure is in seeing the things we were trying to do being realised and coming to fruition. That was my greatest pleasure.

The negative side was the lack of personal freedom. I hated it. One day I actually came inside the house crying. The lack of time — that is entirely my fault nobody else's — for my friends, my family, my children. The fact that I did not give myself enough time to live my life during that time, I lost out during the teens of my children, and you know all that. Those are the things I regret. Nothing else.

Do you think the core of the peace process is irreversible?

Yes. But it could be temporarily changed. The historian, the political historian, the political scientist, the philosopher, and the practical politician in me tell me that it cannot be changed. The course cannot be changed permanently. There could be temporary deformations. That is the history of the world.

What is your message to Sri Lankans on the eve of a major election?

Please stay the course. They will have to have a lot of perspicacity, a lot of insight. Not to get misled by the cacophony of the extremists.

Sri Lanka's politics has to a large extent also been the story of the Bandaranaikes — who next?

In the dynasty? Trust me, I don't believe in dynasties. By the way, strange, but we hold a Guinness Record for an unbroken representation of one electorate for 78 years by father, mother, daughter, and now son, and of father, mother, and daughter leading a party for 57 years unbroken.

Are your children interested in politics?

They are very interested in what is going on. My son reads every day, my daughter doesn't. They read it on the websites, they call me and give their opinion — sometimes very critical. But I have, from a very young age, brainwashed them against it. I don't want them to come into politics as long as it is so dirty as it is in Sri Lanka.

The attempt on your life (in December 1999) was a personal and a political moment. How do you look at that now?

I haven't actually begun to analyse it. What I did then was to go on doing the same things. I had to pluck up the courage not to think about it and get scared about it and look over my shoulder all the time thinking that somebody is going to kill me. I went into, without thinking about it, some amount of emotional, psychological denial, just closing the door on it and going. Now that the end is drawing near for my political career, I will have to start thinking about it.

But after I had to govern with the UNP [between 2002 and 2004], my daughter [who, the President said, had cared for her after the assassination attempt] said: "I can see your spirit broken. That is very bad for you. I can see you listless." I think after that I did not quite come back. You know a lot of people break after one shock. I probably had the resilience of 100 or 200 people. Bouncing back and wanting to do things, but there comes a time when the vessel is full. To a large extent the spirit was beaten and hammered.

That is also another reason why I want to get out. Knowing myself, having had so much of spirit, faith, confidence, commitment, verve — I never took no for an answer — because of that commitment and spirit we got a lot of things done. For me, for CBK, without that, going on is not right. I will have to call it a day. There comes a time. I have lots of things to do in life.

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We were able to bring back a sense of purpose: Chandrika

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