BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The policy statement made to the parliament by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa especially mentioned four significant areas in political administration in which ordinary people may not clearly understand the meaning of such a strong statement and how should they respond at the next general election. The policy statement included the following four points.

• Parliament should be an exemplary institution – this means that parliament should reflect the sovereignty of people and the election system of representatives to the parliament must be consistent to safeguard the sovereignty of people. Does the current electing system operate consistent with this idea? It is obvious from the current practice of election does not reflect the sovereignty of people and changing or amending the current constitution to demonstrate the democracy and the sovereignty of people is essential and Mr. President and Mr.Mahinda Rajapaksa must give priority for this policy and must clearly explain to voters that to successfully achieve the principle of the sovereignty of people the current electing system of members to parliament, the government needs a TWO-THIRD majority to successfully amend the constitution and to treat the election result as a referendum.
• National security occupies foremost place – The stability of a strong government will be based on national security, which also ensures the unity of people. The experience after the political independence in 1948 national security subjected to challenges from various ethnic groups and political groups that used foreign supports of political, ideological, financial and other.  The constitution of 1978, which created a strong feature of executive presidency which provided brawny supports to the country was unwisely changed by the 19^th amendment, which showed good feature on the face but secretly included features that challenge the national security of the country.  Therefore, Sri Lankan must understand that the executive presidency will be a great feature in Sri Lanka’s presidency like in the USA and France.  It should be re-established to face challenges of security and a TWO-THIRD majority of the parliament is essential to the government of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
• Will create a safe and peaceful country – the wish of people is it peaceful without opportunity to harm anyone and to successfully participate in economic activities to gain individual benefits and get out of poverty.  Terrorist activities of the country monumentally influenced the safety and peace of the country thereby destroying the opportunity of people to participate in economic activities and get out of poverty and contributing to the economy and gaining a fair share from the economy.  Sri Lankans have a dream of becoming a developed nation, which provides prosperity to them as it happened in history. A safe and peaceful county will provide an environment strong conditions for investors, and increasing production and freely work price mechanism in the country with controls, freedom, justice with the democratic countenance.  No point talking about the era of King Parakumba without contributing to increase production with excess more than the demand.  The policy of King Parakumba was to create a safe and peaceful country and motivate people to increase production more than demand and export excess, control price fluctuations and creating a prosperous nation.
• We can never give up our independence –   As American evangelist, Mrs Joyce Meyer states always, Sri Lanka must not give up independence. Why independence important to Sri Lanka is a point that involved in historical and present information. Some stupid people in Sri Lanka may be saying that we enjoyed economic advantages and other benefits in the colonial era without independence.  Postmodern era people have covered from a disguise hegemony, which cannot be understood by many young people who are covered by cellulite products and ideas.  Independence brought expeditious changes to the economy in the Britain, Germany, France and Japan giving a strong ability to make independent decisions.  An economic historian, David Lands viewed that independence would bring five characteristics to a country, economic individualism, laissez-faire, obedience to natural law, freedom of contract and free competition and trade.  Such independence supported and motivated vigorous industrial policies during the period of the industrial revolution in the UK. Alexander Gerschenkron also expressed an opinion on independence looking at Russian experiences. The absence of political independence had contributed to a slowing policy initiation for industrial development and independence of Sri Lanka in the colonial era and at present the country is influenced or forced to give up independence by various agreements. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated in the policy statement Sri Lanka can never give up its independence and it is the right policy for economic prosperity.

Next general election will be a real turning point of Sri Lanka and many people have no understanding about the needs for constitutional amendments and for the amendment purpose the requirement of a two-third majority.  I watched SIRASA TV promoting a strong campaign and publicity against giving a two-third majority to the government of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They are reactionary elements and the supporters of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa need to educated people about these reactionary elements.