BY
DILANKA GUNATHILAKA
pic via: facebook.com/hirunika.e.premachandra (Oct-2014)
Provincial Councillor Hirunika Premachandra said that the citizens of this country deserve a free, fair and just society and therefore she has decided to lend her support to the Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena to achieve it.
Excerpts of that interview:
Q:
You won the first place in the Western Provincial Council election contesting on the UPFA. So why did you decide to quit the UPFA?
A: My father and the other fathers alike, who were brutally killed, have up-to-date, not been afforded even basic justice. The people of the country need a free and fair society. I support the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena based on these two objectives.
Q: Does that mean you have common as well as personal objectives also to support the common candidate?
A: Yes. We all have common as well as personal objectives. My father as a Presidential Adviser inherited the fate not even an animal is deserving of. My personal aim to seek justice for my father.
Q: Was there any outside influence, or an appeal from anybody coercing you to arrive at such a decision?
A: No. It was an independent decision. Nobody invited me. I thought it out independently considering the changes that the country is in need of and I believe I took the right decision at the right moment.
Q: Do you say so because you came to support the Common Candidate on the day the nominations were filed?
A: No. I had decided to support Maithripala Sirisena on the day he was named as the Common Candidate. Rajitha Senaratna asked me to join the opposition at a convenient time of my choice, when I asked him about what time that I should join them.
Q: Did you tell your decision first to Rajitha Senaratna?
A: Yes. I told him. He told me it was not so urgent and to come on a suitable day.
Q: What did your closest associates say about this decision?
A: I thought at last to take this decision. Some advised me not to crossover and to fight remaining in the alliance. Some others proposed me to quit the government. I took the best decision for the country and it will not be changed.
Q: Have you discussed with Maithripala Sirisena about your father’s case in which justice was not seen to have been served?
A: Many were afraid to talk about us by the time my father was killed. About 10 people spoke first. After that the number dropped down. Several persons including Maithripala Sirisena and Rajitha Senarathna spoke to us continuously. They knew everything about these issues.
Q: Will you start to criticize the government?
A: I don’t approve of mudslinging in politics. The other fact is that, the supporters of the common candidate have never asked me to criticize the government.
Q: Your base is in SLFP and now it has vanished.
A: I will not quit SLFP. My base will remain there. My father worked for the SLFP for 30 years. I received the highest preferential votes from Colombo district thanks to my father. It was only after the murder of Bharatha Lakshman that people knew that he had a daughter.
Q:
Now the voice for your father has lessened, Why?
A: Many ask this question from me. They ask why I do not fight for my father now. I am a female and I need to gather courage for that. I did not have that strength then. Now I have a polite and colourful leadership for that struggle. That is the common Presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Now we can fight for my father’s injustice without fear.
Q: The supporters of the common candidate speak of various discontents. What are they?
A: SLFP has no senior leaders now. It now comprises of those who had crossedover. SLFPers have no place in the party. They are not even offered a job at least.
Q: Do you honestly think that Maithripala Sirisena will herald in a better future for our country Sri Lanka?
A: Yes. His victory will be a victory for the country. It will stop all the corruption, fraud and atrocities that are running rampant at present.
Q: What do you have to say, isn’t there any way to keep those who are dissatisfied within the party itself and appease them?
A: One strongman who knew I was getting ready to quit the party, came over and said that if I quit the party, the murderers would be set free. Another said that a big change would not occur due to my quitting. Another showed me I had no big vote base. They actually pushed us away from the party. They did not have any methodology to keep us in the party.
Q: Your father was a strongman of the SLFP. Why was justice not granted to him?
A: That is the situation of the country now. There is nothing to talk about the general public of this country in this context. The murderers frown at us when we attend the hearings of the case regarding my father’s murder trial, as if we are the murderers. How could we continue to stay there with them if we have a clear conscience?
Q: What will happen to your electoral organizer position of Colombo Central?
A: They will sack me.
Q;JHU also left the UPFA. What will happen to the power balance of the Western Provincial Council?
A: We will sit in the opposition of the Provincial Council after the Presidential election. Then we will be able to decide.
Q: That will mean that you have left the SLFP.
A: No. We have not left the SLFP, and we will not do it. We have departed from the President.
Q: Are you not afraid of this decision? Will it be changed in future?
A: No. I have taken a right decision and it will not be changed. I am not afraid. I am not a person who changes decisions.
Q: That means you are ready to admit any challenge in the future?
A: Yes. From tomorrow, my father will be the worst man in the world, and I will be the worst woman in the world. I am ready to face all the mudslinging when expressing my support to the Common Candidate and departing from the President.
Q: Do you have confidence that Maithripala Sirisena will win the Presidential?
A: Yes. We all have that confidence, and we devote our lives for his victory.
Courtesy:Ceylon Today