A chat with Ranjan Ramanayake, Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare

Some of our readers I’m sure, will be very interested in getting to know the progress of the present government and the future plans of the Ministers. With the endeavour of creating awareness in this regard, Life Online met up with some Ministers and asked them a few questions. Their answers will be carried in this weekly column.

This week, a chat with Ranjan Ramanayake, Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare

There are so many subjects under your purview. Can you elaborate in general? 

When it comes to Social Empowerment and Welfare, there are many areas covered by my Ministry. The officials handling these matters have been doing a great job so far, so I let them carry on the good work and I overlook. For example, we give assistance to cataract surgeries, we provide wheelchairs and crutches to the disabled and monitor the two elders' homes run by the state and overlook the NGOs that handle the other three hundred and thirty four elders’ homes. Apart from these, there’s a huge amount of work carried out by our Ministry.

What is the biggest issue faced by your Ministry?

One of the major issues faced by our Ministry is this issue with the Samurdhi recipients. Samurdhi is supposed to be for people with an income of less than Rs. 6000/- per month. I don’t think there is such category now in Sri Lanka other than a small percentage who are disabled and the elderly. Anyone has the opportunity to earn more than that. 

Our people expect everything from the government. This is really wrong. People who have children working abroad, who have houses, land and jobs and everything, hide all of this and come to our Ministry and ask for Samurdhi.  Even people with two storey houses, tiled floors, lorries and tractors expect this benefit. We need to change this system. Most of the people on the list should not be getting this Samurdhi support.  These people are stealing from what we can give the more deserving people. 

If you have seen my facebook page you would have seen the story of the boy who sells orange juice we met on our way to Madhu recently. He makes about sixty thousand rupees profit for the month. This is a good example to affirm my above statement.  

In the past we have seen you very actively supporting the Middle East work force and their families, and looking into their welfare. Are you still involved with that?  

Yes I am very involved in that. Even for my Public Day, we get a lot of them coming with their problems. So I try my best to help them.  

Since you are in a place of power now, and have got a chance to make a significant contribution towards the wellbeing of the people, what area would you be most interested in? 

My main job is catching the ‘rogues’. I’m very busy with the investigations and finding information related to these matters. This is what actually interests me. Even in my movies, it is social injustice that I try to project.

You say you are busy catching the wrongdoers. But there is a common notion that nothing much is happening regarding this. What are your comments? 

Who is making these statements? The ‘rogues’ themselves! What else do you expect?  They have to say that. Some people in the media also keep defending the wrong doers. I don’t know why that is. This is a strange state of affairs and happens only in Sri Lanka. In other countries the media encourages and supports the person who is after the wrongdoers. Here, some media institutions will attack the person who goes to catch the wrongdoers. So sometimes we wonder if some people in the media are also paid off by certain people to do this. They will not report about the ‘catching of rogues’ we have done in this short period of time, but will go on discouraging and ridiculing us in our mission to catch these wrongdoers. 
 

If you take the famous case of Seya Sadewmi that everyone was talking about, the little girl who was killed in a very brutal manner, some media kept taking the side of the perpetrators.

When the narcotics go to catch a drug dealer, some journalists take the drug dealer's side and attack the police.  Also some senior Police officers build mansions which they can never do with their salary. How do they get this kind of money?  Why haven’t the journalists reported such matters of public interest in the past? Now we are fighting against these perpetrators, why don’t they commend us on our effort to eradicate corruption?
 

We have filed cases against many powerful officials and MPs in the previous government, and they will be charged. Even wrongdoers in our own party will have to face the same consequences. 

I say with full responsibility that there has been no Government that has caught the wrongdoers as much as this government has. We will not stop in our mission to catch the wrongdoers. We are working very hard to achieve the promise we gave the people of Sri Lanka.

Your theme has been fighting against malpractices. Can you elaborate?

During the previous regime, the most amount of money was spent on the opening ceremonies. If a road is carpeted, there’s more money spent on the opening ceremony than on the road. I have stated that it is not necessary for me to be highlighted at these state funded occasions, and that the officials of my Ministry should not to be emphasising my name on boards, as the work done by this Ministry is not from my personal funds, but of the people. I would like my name to be there if I do something with my personal funds which I have earned by my hard work, or to be highlighted for my roles in movies. 

I am a Deputy, but you people can see for yourself the place I live in. I haven’t got a big house or a car from the government because I do not want to use public funds for my personal wellbeing.  If I have abused the privileges bestowed on me by the public, I should get severely attacked as I shout so much about social injustice. 

With all your Ministerial work, other social obligations and your acting career, do you have time for your constituents? 

I go to Divulapitya to meet my people on Mondays and the people of Colombo I meet on Wednesdays.

Can you give me your opinion about this national government?

Compared to previous regimes, there is no political revenge taking place as the two main parties have agreed to work together with compromise and harmony. This system is working well. 

Did you know?

• Ranjan took the name Ramanayake as his stage name to rhyme with Ranjan, from the Director who gave him his first break in movies. 
• His movie Maaya was made to give a platform for the socially marginalised transgender group of people.
• Maaya has been the most challenging role he has played as he is by default a masculine action hero.
• He has won the Sarasaviya 'Best Actor Award' as well as the 'Most Popular Actor' consecutively for 14 years up to now.