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President's Birthday Tribute
PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE - THE SAVIOUR OF THE NATION
Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam
President Mahinda Rajapakse has served as a Minister in a rare combination
of portfolios. He has been the Minister of Labour and Vocational Training,
Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, Minister of
Ports, Shipping and Fisheries. He has been the Leader of the Opposition
and the Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
President Rajapakse has been a tower of strength to the poor, the homeless
and the destitute people of Sri Lanka regardless of race or religion.
He has a deep sense of responsibility and has performed his duty with
commitment, determination and courage to bring about a lasting solution.
It is his inherent duty to protect the Nation as a whole.
There was so much chaos and conspiracy to humiliate and persecute him
but he has overcome all adversities and adversaries owing to the faith
the Nation has of him.
Politics has become more and more fractured and pluralized just like
our lives.
As we divide into more sharply defined organized groups around more
stratified issues as we communicate with people in extreme rhetoric
through the media, it is difficult to determine the conclusion that
our political system is producing the sort of discussion that will give
us the kind of results required for a nation.
The nature and role of the Government should be affirmative. If one
wants to maintain public response there must be an effort to change
but not eviscerate the Government. A democracy requires a certain amount
of common ground.
There should be analysis, assimilation of ideas and complex questions
cannot be solved at grass roots level or at a national level or anywhere
in between if there is too much extremism of rhetoric and excessive
partisanship. Times are changing, we have to be alert.
We need to be flexible. We need to have new solutions based on old
values. Consensus is important at group discussions.
No progress can be made unless a common ground is established. To endeavour
to establish common ground certain specific responsibilities on the
people and political leaders should be imposed. More of our people must
set an example. People should be made conscious of their conduct.
We must learn to discuss matters with those who are different to us.
Not just people who agree with us but with somebody who is different.
We need more conversation and less combat.
When we differ, we ought to offer an alternative. We should say what
are for and just not what we are against. We ought to look relentlessly
at the long term and remind the people that the problems we have developed
over a long period of time.
We have to move beyond division and resentment to common ground. We
have to go beyond cynicism to a sense of possibility.
There should be only one race - the human race - all religions speak
of compassion, love, forgiveness and good conscience - let us not segregate
and commercialize religious values which are not to be labelled but
borne in our mind. Religion is a subject that should not drive us apart.
Religious freedom is a necessity - a human necessity within the legal
norms. The Government has an obligation to protect that freedom. It
makes a difference in the way we live and the way we function and our
ability to overcome adversity.
The people have elected a leader to fulfill the promises and their
aspirations. We must pave way for the process and progress of the mechanism.
A Government that is smaller, lives within its means and does more
with less. The mission of our Government is to give the people an opportunity
to build better lives.
We have to come out from behind locked doors and shuttered windows
to help reclaim our streets from drugs and gangs and crime and everyone
of us must assume personal responsibility - not only for ourselves and
our families but for our neighbours and our nation. Our greatest responsibility
is to embrace a spirit of oneness.
We should not succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions
of the soul. We must overcome them.
The President has the wisdom and will to act in the best interests
of the Nation. He will take affirmative action in the best interests
of the Nation.
The purpose of affirmative action is to give the Nation a way to address
the systematic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their
gender or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute.
Affirmative action is an effort to develop a systematic approach to
open the doors of education, employment and business development opportunities
to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have
experienced longstanding and persistent discrimination.
When affirmative action is done right, it is flexible, it is fair and
it works. The law does require fairness for everyone and we must see
that it is done.
President Rajapakse being the Saviour of the Nation, is ably advised
by Basil Rajapakse the Vision and Guardian of the Nation, Defence Secretary
Gotabaya Rajapakse-the Defender of the Nation .
We must be Patriotic. We must uphold and defend the Constitution and
the Head of State-the President. We owe allegiance to the President
and the Constitution as Citizens of Sri Lanka. We must uphold the norms
of the Constitution
We have a history with a long history of unity.
We must look for diplomacy. Those who are opposed to us are not considered
as our opponents. We must find a compromise with such people, meeting
of minds-understanding so we would have a just objective as a unitary
Nation.
*[ Dr. T.C.Rajaratnam LL.B(SL)., LL.M(Lond).,
Ph.D(Lond)., Solicitor (England & Wales) ., Barrister & Solicitor
(Australia)., Attorney at Law (SL/ US)was the Co-ordinating Secretary
to the Chief Government Whip of Parliament, Late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle;
The Member in charge of the English Media of the Media Observation Unit
founded by Late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle for the Presidential Election
Campaign of President Mahinda Rajapakse in 2005; Candidate for the Colombo
District for SLFP-PA in the 1994 Parliamentary General Elections; Author;
Orator; Member of the World Lawyers & Poets Society ; International
Legal Consultant; CEO of the Chambers of Academic & Professional
Studies] E mail: tcrajaratnam@gmail.com
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