By Walter Jayawardhana

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said it was a great victory for Sri Lanka to obtain the IMF loan passing the executive board hurdle defeating all conspirators against the loan within and without Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa said ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-When we applied for an IMF loan certain Sri Lankan leaders brought pressure to stop it. They are not personally hitting me by delaying the IMF loan but were trying to hit the working classes of Sri Lanka by attempting to deprive the loan to the nation,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ addressing a huge gathering of government servants from Badulla District at the Official residence of the President in the hill capital of kandy.

The President asked, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Could any politician worth calling Sri Lankan do such a mean act of depriving the people of Sri Lanka of any rightful benefit they are seeking?ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

In an obvious reference to the opposition United National Party the President said that they do not have any right to harm the down trodden masses of Sri Lanka acting out of personal spite.

The President declared that while only five countries abstained from voting for the loan at the executive board all other countries of the world whole heartedly supported Sri Lanka to obtain it.

The President said, when he presented the budget last time he had told very clearly that to decrease the six per cent budget deficit the IMF loan was very essential.

He said the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-person who does not believe in democracyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ was conspiring against no one else but against Sri Lanka. The President said first the enemies wanted to brand Sri Lanka as human rights violator before the UN human rights council and when they were badly defeated they wanted to stop the IMF loan on the same false allegations. Now the President said all Sri Lankans could walk with their heads erect, calling them proud Lankans.