Interview: "There is No Peace at All"

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r the past 18 months Mahinda Rajapakse, 59, has risen from opposition leader to Prime Minister and is now vying to become Sri Lanka's next President. Personable and gregarious, Rajapakse has allied himself and his party with hard-line Sinhalese nationalists for the Nov. 17 vote and shocked many, including the leader of his own party, outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga, by vowing to end the current four-year-old ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E). He spoke to TIME's Alex Perry on board his official helicopter as he flew to an election rally in Bulathsinghala in the southern heartland from where he draws his bedrock support.

TIME: Let's start with the basics. What exactly do you stand for?
Mahinda Rajapakse: People will have a better deal with me. It's very clear in my manifesto. I get my ideas from professional people. It's not just words or promises. And it's not left or right. It's for the people.

TIME: The main perceived difference between you and Ranil is your different attitudes to the peace process.
MR: There is no peace at all. There is a ceasefire, but the killing is still going on, violations are going on, people, policemen, army men, politicians are getting killed. It's not war, but it's not peace. People are living in fear, children cannot go to school, mothers cannot go to the hospital and fathers cannot work in the fields. It's a lawless situation. [Rival candidate] Ranil [Wickremesinghe] is just not a person who can solve problems. He just lets them drag, and eventually Ranil will give them [the Tamil Tigers] a separate state or the Tigers will walk out. I say we must discuss with them what they want, and both parties must agree to a settlement.

So what I say is: I want to see a new approach. Within three months, I will get all the parties in the South together for a discussion. I have already got almost all the parties with me on the same platform. Only [Wickremesinghe's] United National Party is still to come, and they will come, even Ranil can come.

Then I will meet [L.T.T.E. leader Vellupillai] Prabhakaran. I am ready to discuss with him. And I will bring strength, rather than a weak leader who is giving them any and all, without even solving the problem.

TIME: Aren't you taking a big risk, ripping up the current ceasefire agreement and asking the Tigers to meet you when you are allied with their sworn enemies?
MR: I don't think so. That's just propaganda [put out by Wickremesinghe]. He is trying to spread fear psychosis. Everyone wants [what I propose]. Even the L.T.T.E. wants it. They're not happy with the current situation. And I do not think the nationalists are dangerous. They have accepted the principle of devolution under a unitary state.

I have a strong feeling, that if the South gets together with a strong will then we can come to a consensus. As for Ranil, if the South does not accept his solution, then Ranil will not be able to offer anything; then there is no solution and the bloodshed will go on.

TIME: Given the long-lasting rivalries between the parties in the South, isn't your plan a little ambitious?
MR: I have already brought people together. You need to bring the South together for there to be any chance of a peaceful solution to the conflict.

TIME: What is your solution, exactly?
MR: I have a vague idea but I am not going to just dictate it, I am not just going to implement only what I want. That's why I say I will get all the parties together and within three months we will be speaking with one voice.

TIME: How come your own President is distancing herself from your campaign?
MR: We have no personal problems. I am above that. [Laughs]

TIME: Your strength is that people basically like you, right? You connect with people. Is your massive security getting in the way in this campaign?
MR: It does. I am used to getting out and meeting people and discussing with them. It's my strongest point. I can come to people very easily, rather than Ranil...  Ranil does not know the common people. But I don't want to get personal.