Cleanskins hope to take a new broom through parliament
It is time to restructure the governing system and make it fair for everyone rather than a few, said civil rights activist Navin Gooneratne who is contesting the election from Colombo as part of the Campaign for Clean and Competent Candidates (CCCC), whose candidates were drawn directly from public choice.
Mr. Gooneratne, who is convener of the independent group, which has a torch as its symbol, said the CCCC hoped to bring in positive change by representing different groups including minorities.
He has been in politics for more than 30 years, working in committees under former president J. R. Jayewardene and as a member of the Chief Delegation for North under former president Chandrika Kumaratunga. He also incorporated the Sama International Trust, a foundation for peace. “We believe in peace and unity of the country. For this we need a new structure to the country,” he said. The CCCC was formed following newspaper and social media advertisements calling for the public to nominate a candidate of their preference to represent the parliament. Mr. Gooneratne said this was the first time full democracy was given to the public with people asked to select the people they believed were best to rule the country.
From the nominees the “most suitable, clean and competent” candidates were chosen, Mr. Gooneratne explained.
“After advertising we received well over 200 nominations with over 95 per cent being professionals such as doctors, engineers, architects or lawyers. We selected 22 of them to take part in the elections from Colombo. Since the elections were announced sooner than we anticipated we did not get enough time to find candidates to represent all districts,” Mr. Gooneratne said.
The 22 candidates include the owner of Park Hospitals (Pvt) Ltd, Dr. Sanjaya Munasinghe, ayurvedic doctor Indrani Senaratne, attorneyat-law and Chairman of Saddha TV, Sudath Jayasundara, Shaveen Bandaranayake, who is the son of former chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake, the former Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam and a former LTTE cadre, Radika Padmanadan.
“Most election candidates are focused on mudslinging rather than working for the benefit of the general public,” Dr. Kariyawasam said.
He said it was time to elect professionals into parliament to represent all sectors: a doctor, for example, understood health issues and an environmentalist un- derstood environmental issues.
“We have to think about improving the basic needs of the people rather than making big plans. This is why we need professionals in parliament. Today the parliament has administrative personnel who only push papers around. It is time this changed,” the doctor said.
During his service at the CMC he was able to see what needed to be done to improve people’s living standards.
More than 60 per cent of Colombo’s population were under- served communities, Dr. Kariyawasam said. These people should be given proper houses to live in rather than being put into “vertical” buildings which would only worsen their condition.
Justice is the priority in his campaign, Dr. Kariyawasam said. There were police officials who stopped threewheel drivers or motorcyclists when they violated road rules but let a person travelling in a more expensive vehicle go; this had to stop.
Dr. Kariyawasam said more attention needed to be given to the care of pregnant mothers and infants born underweight. Primary school education in every division needed to be improved.
“I wish to improve the employability of the youth. While I was serving at the CMC I had bio-technology graduates working in clerical jobs. This should not be the case. We need to improve this situation,” he said adding that women needed to gain a fair share of jobs and encouraged to stay home with their children rather than seeking foreign employment.
The CCCC’s objective was not to criticise other parties or candidates but to work to improve and develop the country, Dr. Kariyawasam said.
The group will make its manifesto public by next Friday.