Lamborghini culture, Executive Presidency, the Villagers and village roads, and living conditions of women working in Industrial Zones.
Minister
Champika Ranawaka had said at a
gathering of scholars, scientists and business leaders, that Sri Lanka is currently implementing
an economic system showing Lamborghini to people surrounded by poverty. It is always pleasant to hear sweet words of
praise , but when those sweet words turn
to bitter words of criticism they should
be taken seriously. Ministers
Champika’s statement is a timely warning
to which the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Ministers should pay urgent
attention.
No
body can deny the tremendous infrastructure development and economic growth of Sri Lanka ever
since President Mahind Rajpakse had been
elected as the executive President of
Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka government on its own
could not have brought about this development process that astonish the
critical opposition. It was definitely
the willingness of China, Russia, Japan,
and Iran to place their trust in President Rajapakse which
enabled those countries to invest in Sri Lanka
and finance the Government projects that
enabled fastest development of Sri
Lanka in all its aspects.
Even
America depends on loans from China to avoid
another financial crisis , therefore the criticism of the Sri Lanka Government
for taking loans is incorrect,
and made solely to discredit the
government. Those loans have been
utilised well and results are evident for any one who had visited Sri Lanka five years ago and visiting Sri Lanka now.
Mahinda
Rajapakse has embellished the august position he holds as the executive
President of Sri Lanka with no previous
Presidents or Prime Ministers had ever equalled. No one can also deny that despite all the
derogatory adjectives his local opponents invent to down grade the President, that none of them are or will ever be able to equal the visionary role of Mahinda Rajapakse as the executive
President.
He chased away fear, providing
the people with peace, and security. He developed Sri Lanka to the extent of making
enemies of the Western leaders who were
put to shame with his remarkable foresight
and success as a political leader-a Statesman
of the modern
world.
The
Executive Presidency- that every one of his opponents wants to abolish including a
prelate who should better occupy the
vocation for which he had been enrobed, than dabble in politics which is by all means not for which he had accepted to put on a saffron robe, fits well for
the President Mahinda Rajapakse .
There
is no one amoung the present day
politicians of Sri Lanka
that could have held that office more honourably than the present Executive
President Mahinda Rajapakse. It is better that the office of Executive
President is abolished after Mahinda
Rajapakse as it could be dangerous in
the hands of an ambitious characterless individual.
The
President Rajapakse is a very clever, political leader utilising his position not to embellish himself,
but use it to the maximum for the
welfare of his country and his people.
If not for him we would not have seen the now common innumerable lowly
manifestations shouting slogans against
the President and his government.
If
we had another executive President in his
place, who not knowing how to
end terrorism would have groped in political darkness in a reduced space left to govern, being encircled by the advancing terrorist
forces, made fearless by their own
collaboration with them.
It was the
executive President Premadasa who armed the terrorists. It was the executive President Chandrika Kumaratunge
who treated the terrorist as equal partners
in the famous P-TOMS agreement in distributing
funds for reconstruction of tsunami
affected areas. And it was Ranil Wickramasing
not even as a President, turning
his back to the elected Executive President Chandrika Kumaratunga signed the
CFA with the terrorist leader demarcating territories to be kept under terrorist control.
But
Mahinda Rajapakse when he was elected the President knew what exactly he was
going to do. He knew how to make the
government and the Armed Forces take
responsibilities, one to govern and the
other to provide security and eliminate terrorism. He appointed able people for their proved
ability, not because they were his family members to make them partners of his
vision of Sri Lanka
without terrorism .
President
Mahinda Rajapakse appointed Gotabhaya Rajapakse as the Defence Secretary
not because he was his brother, but because he was a retired Lt. Colonel of
the Sri Lanka Armed Forces twice decorated by the Executive President
J.R.Jayawardhane. He could be credited
for his military experience having fought against terrorism for twenty years, and trusted more than any body else being his own
younger brother.
After
the elimination of terrorism, Mahinda
Rajapakse turned to develop the country
in a big way. As a true Leader he gave responsibility to those who were selected as his Ministers without interfering into their
work. Some of them may have erred, while
others have done well, but it is usual
that if some thing goes wrong, the blame comes to the leader.
But the
Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse withered accusation, and undeterred
changed Sri Lanka into a country well
known in the World not bound to West or East but opening itself to rich as well
as poor Sovereign States of the world as an equal without discrimination against
the forms of governments, their
religious beliefs, or for their wealth or their military strength. For that he earned the wrath of the Western
Countries. But to day Sri Lanka
is a friend of the countries of the Middle East, the Countries of Africa, the
countries of Asia, and the countries of the East Asia
and the Pacific.
Years
after these achievements it is time to take account of what has been achieved
as well as where things have gone wrong. When things go well there is always
the tendency to continue without change, without wanting to change the old
habits. Along with progress and prosperity comes corruption, this is not
surprising in the field of politics.
President Mahind Rajapakse is not unaware of what is going on, but he being a
man who does not precipitate into action without looking at a problem from different aspects would at the end find an acceptable solution.
The Executive President
Mahinda Rajapakse never misused his executive powers, but his
opponent make mountains out of mole hills,
as there is nothing else they could
invent to make the President unpopular. They have tried and continue to try to
make an issue of drug trafficking. But drug mafia today is a global problem. No
country has so far stopped the dangerous
large scale drug business. His opponents make use of religious conflicts
involving the Sinhala Buddhist Community
and the Muslim Community .
This
Muslim adventurism coming from the States of the Middle
East is threatening even their own Islamic Governments. Wahabism,
Boko Haram, Alquaeida, Caliphate are
dangerous branches of changing Muslim political
trends. Sinhala Buddhists cannot turn a
blind eye to it. As much as the Muslim
Groups defend the rise of Islamic
religious fanatism, the Sinhala Buddhist
Community has to take defensive moves
to protect their own religion and
culture.
These
movements are not sponsored by the
Government, and so far the Government has managed to pacify the parties. The Muslims cannot ask for more privileges, like the Tamil Community had
been doing since Independence. The problem could be solved by the Sri Lanka Muslim Community taking into
account the danger to their own
religion coming from out side, and stop falling into situations like those of Egypt,
Kenya, Nigeria, Central Africa , etc:, and
begin a peaceful dialogue with the other Communities, avoiding head on
clashes, which would neither help the Muslim nor the Sinhala Community.
What
appears to be wrong in Sri
Lanka’s development processes is in making the development projects more tourism oriented.
Infrastructure development of highways, railways, building bridges are
highly appreciable as with those progressive projects Sri Lanka is opening itself to unimaginable opportunities
in the future.
But
we have to know when the tourism oriented development should be deviated to people oriented development to give the masses the benefit of what Sri Lanka regained after suffering under terrorism. The Ada Derena
television show villages where progress of development has not still reached.
They live in unmotorable areas and still lift
patients seated on chairs to
carry them to a doctor or a hospital. They have no medical aid. There are many villages without proper roads, without fresh water, and without electricity.
It
is important that Sri Lanka constructs more hotels, more tourist resorts,
open elephant orphanages, etc. but to
what extent should this tourist oriented
development continue. There seems to be
no lack of ideas to develop the country for tourism.
Car
racings are good in countries where ordinary people can take part in this sport. This like Golf links
would cater to some tourists and few of
the new rich, but the larger proportion of
the people will not benefit from such sports in whatever scale they are
organised. Are these sports organised for the sake of the income they generate or because of the prestige to the country that
may come with them ?
There
are artificial off shore Islands being constructed in the South and in Colombo spending large sums of money. There was a proposal to make such an artificial Island exclusively for motor racing. Some one had even proposed cable cars in Sri Lanka to attract more tourists.
How far will this tourist oriented development continue the people continue to
ask ?
With
all these tourist oriented developments Sri Lanka has had only one million tourists in 2012
compared to Phillipine’s 4.3 million tourist, Vietnam’s 6.8 million and
Indonesia 8 million tourists.
The Minister of
Transport had stated that he was buying
a fleet of Indian buses. But the
Minister has never thought of buying
small buses to ply on village roads.
The big TATA buses plying on village roads, damage the village roads
and are a nuisance for the poor villagers
using the road for their daily errands as the bus takes the whole road and some
times put the villagers in danger.
The
opposition parties cry loud about commissions on development projects. They have forgotten selling public
enterprises to private individual for
amounts far lower than their real value, what happened to the difference
in cash values of those enterprises. DS
Senanayake was supposed to have kept
with him documents showing the underhand dealings of his Cabinet of Ministers
including that of G.G.Ponnambalam’s tractor deal which he brandished when they were troublesome.
There was
recently a report in Ada Derana television showing the living
conditions of women working in the Industrial
Zones in apparel industry and such like. They live in almost shanties, without
proper water, electricity and without any security. This in a country where tourists have every
thing they want at their command, which is not a fair deal for those who bring in revenue to government coffers. The
owners of these Industries should provide hostel facilities for these women at
a nominal rate, as many of them come from distant places and cannot return to their homes after
their work. That may also increase their
productivity living and working satisfactory conditions.
Therefore,
Minister Champika Ranawaka’s
raising of danger signals in good faith
has to be taken seriously into
consideration by the President and the Government and make amends.
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