BEING THE ONLY POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
THAT SPRANG FROM THE DEEP SOUTH HE HAD TO TAKE DEVELOPMENT TO THE RURAL
POOR SAYS THE PRESIDENT
By Walter Jayawardhana
Los Angeles:
While Sri Lanka’s past political leadership before him had come
from the Western Province his was the only leadership that came from
the deep South springing from its indigenous people thinking said President
Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing more than one thousand Sri Lankan expatriates
assembled at the Carpenter Performing Art Center Auditorium at the California
State University at Long Beach.
“For some people Thoppigala was a big jungle but for me it was
the key to take development to rural poor, once again bringing back
Sri Lanka’s ancient granaries into today’s reality and develop
its stunningly beautiful beaches turning in much needed foreign currency,”
President Rajapaksa told the gathering converged on the auditorium from
all parts of California to listen to him.
The President said, although the government was able to win the military
war against the terrorists it has not been able to win the propaganda
war against Sri Lanka and appealed to every expatriate member to be
an ambassador of the country to protect the good name of the country.
He said while some people were surrounding banks not to release money
for development the international community has extended its hand tor
the rural development and out of the 140,000 displaced in the Eastern
Province 110,000 have been already settled and the others are only left
until all terrorist landmines are cleared from the area, the President
said.
Civilian administration is already established in the area with police
stations being opened and in Batticaloa alone 250 Tamils have been recruited
and are being trained to handle the police stations along with the Sinhalese
and the Muslims, the President said.
He said fulfilling rural aspirations he would take development to the
village but that does not mean urban development would be forgotten
and a monorail project for rapid transportation and work on the Colombo
harbor to make it to be one of the best harbors in the area will be
started.
He said Hambantota, Trincomalee and Puttalama will be developed at
an unprecedented development under a 10 year scheme and the International
Monetary fund and the Asian Development Bank have accepted them as progressive.
The President said in 2010 the country would face a dearth of electricity
and he was able to restart the Norochcholai Thermal Power station and
Upper Kotmale hydroelectric power station abandoned by other governments
due to political opposition. He said he did not believe in postponing
development just because there was political opposition to them.
He said he was also expediting Kerawalapitiya power scheme due to electricity
schemes abandoned and not being implemented. The government had to produce
a unit at the expense of Rs. 29.00 and sell it between 12.50 and 7.50
using imported oil , he said, further burdening the people’s coffers.
The President said the project like Deduru Oya, Veheragala have been
already started.
The President said there is only one international airport for the
country and in an emergency all aircraft have to be diverted to India’s
Chennai airport. That was one reason to start the international Airport
at Hambantota.
He said, his government was not ready to sell off state property. The
budget airline Mihin was started to ease the air transportation of civilians
on easy prices. Already the airline has transported 85,000 passengers
the President said.
The President said the government has filled all vacancies in the armed
forces, the basic minimum salary of the employees has been raised to
11,750, even a father gets a weeks leave at the child birth of his wife
, the President said.
He said The government is determined to devolve the power of the government
under a unitary state.
He said the government program of Mathata Thitha , against all intoxicants
is already showing results. Few years agao , the President said no Musical
concert could be held without an incident of violence like stabbing.
Today, no such incidents are reported. The government has dropped the
taxes of 15 items to keep the prices down. But , he said, items imported
heavily, like milk powder, wheat flour, petroleum cannot be kept down
in prices since the prices are constantly going up before the items
enter the country. He said, when he was a kid he never had powdered
milk and it did not affect his health. He said Sri Lanka should gradually
get used to fresh milk by producing more milk.
The President said, the human rights situation in Sri lanka is absolutely
different, from the situation in 1970-80 when bodies of thousands of
young people were burned, on pyres of used tires, after extra-judicial
killings. Sri Lanka is having extremely disciplined security forces
today, and he is proudly say that the Vakarai area was captured without
causing a single injury to the civilians. He said what you hear most
of the time are simply unsubstantiated trumped up reports of violations
of human rights today. He said recently a Colombo District parliamentarian
charged that a young woman has been kidnapped in a white van. The investigations
led to a Matale guest house where the young woman has been spending
time with her boy friend , the President said. But the President said
the government was always ready to investigate into genuine cases like
the four student deaths at Trincomalee and 17 aid worker deaths in Muttur.
He said the government has started serious investigation proceedings
into those incidents to bring the culprits to the books.
Despite the large attendance of expatriates, the smooth conduct of
the meeting was well-commended by the participants for the well disciplined
manner it was conducted. Participants said the small staff at the Los
Angeles Consular General’s office and its head Jaliya Wickramasuriya
should be commended for the excellent organization. It was conducted
with heavy security provided by the US Secret Service.
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