Garvin Karunaratne former G.A.Matara

Some are aghast at the news trickling in that Basil Rajapaksa is to be anointed with a Ministerial position.  

But when one thinks of things actually done, Basil Rajapaksa stands out. 

It was no other than Basil that created a political party from scratch when both Chandrika and Maithripala were holding on to the SLFP.

 Again earlier when his brothers Gotabhaya and Mahinda had won the war, there was a mass of some three hundred thousand refugees- Tamil people moved from their hearth and homes, dragged at gun point as a human shield by the LTTE when their forces were defeated and pushed from Batticaloa in the South and Mannar and Vavuniya  to the shores of Mullativu. It was then Basil that took charge of finding temporary accomodation for them, finding their homes and putting them back.  Go to other parts of the world and one can find refugees in tents without finding their roots for decades despite attempts by the prestigious United Nation attempts. 

Take what is happening right now- who directs the major operation to provide food etc to people in their thousands, confined to the curfew areas.

I am certain that all these were difficult tasks.  These words come from a son of Mother Lanka who has experience in attending to difficult tasks. I know what it takes to do something worthwhile.  It was I that designed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh, starting from scratch, without any funds, scraping the barrel for savings in budgets to implement a new programme that has today stood the test of time- three million youths guided to be self employed.  

The achievements of Basil Rajapaksa detailed above, to me, show him as a person of steel that can tackle our problems, a person who cannot be derailed. Our Motherland needs him. I am fairly certain that our Motherland will eventually grab him back. 

 Good Luck dear sir,

May I wish him luck and I am certain that Sri Lanka’s economy will find a major contribution from him.

Garvin Karunaratne

former G.A.Matara

3/11/2020