Each step taken for development a step towards freedom – President
President’s Independence Day Message
All Sri Lankans now have the opportunity to celebrate the 63rd Anniversary of Independence with much glory. The unlimited sacrifices for the freedom and independence of Sri Lanka make today’s Independence Day celebrations one of great honour.
The aspiration of the nation is to make more meaningful the freedom won with much sacrifice.The first Prime Minister of Independent Sri Lanka, Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake taking over the nation said that freedom has been obtained to relieve the pain and increase contentment of the people regardless of ethnic, party or religious differences. This is the worthy aim of any nation that seeks freedom. It is of paramount importance to accelerate the work on nation building to fulfill this aim. The march towards making Sri Lanka the Wonder of Asia should speed up as each step taken for development is a step towards freedom.
We must set right the errors of both past and present in this march towards greater freedom. There is no victory we have won through divisions, which leads to the loss of freedom for us all. Therefore, building a united Sri Lanka is the best means by which freedom can be secured and given more meaning. We must .have the same commitment to building a united nation as we had in defending our country.
We are a nation with a heritage of glory.lt is filled with heroes who made great sacrifices for freedom. I take this opportunity to honor all those patriots.
HE the President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
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Mr President, this is all nice sound bytes. True freedom is freedom from hunger, disease, poverty, ignorance, lack of houses and jobs etc. If the wealth of the nation is shared only by the ruling class then there is no true freedom. The ruling class become exploiters like the imperial colonial West in the centuries gone-by. The nation becomes the exploited.
Mr President you have ‘bought’ yourself politicians of other parties who were disgruntled by their own party policies. You have frittered away the nation’s money obtained from IMF loans etc meant for development, in ‘buying’ yourself support of politicians who have left their own parties to enjoy the largesse you give them. These politicians are only fair-weather friends. As soon as your boat starts sinking they will scuttle like rats. You have shamlessly frittered away the country’s meagre wealth on these good-for-nothing fat old politicians, who enjoy more than a luxurious life style at the expense of the nation. They do very little work in their respective electorates to better the lives of ordinary people, who foolishly voted for them and have been cheated.
Mr President, you have drawn-up your policy called Mahinda Chintanaya Idiri Dekma. This is all nice and interesting to read. How about activating your policies now. The goons you have surrounded yourself with, get them to go out to do a decent day’s work among the people. Let them travel in jam-paccked buses and trains to experience the hardships and struggles of daily lives of ordinary people. Let them do some real hard practical work in their electorates, starting from the remote villages. Let them provide the rural areas better infra structure such as well constructed wide tarred roads, bridges, electricity, fresh water, hospitals, schools, decent government services etc.
Mr President, get off your back side. Go to these rural villages and see for yourself. Get your goons to develop the villages to begin with, and then the towns. Without such development at grass-root levels there is no economic development, there is no better quality of life for the nation, there is no economic victory to make SL the Star of Asia. Isn’t it time you did some honest work yourself instead of resting on your laurels that you got rid of the kotiyas. Don’t forget a new Sinhala kotiya may rise-up to topple you, like in Tunisia and Egypt!
Mr President, when are you going to implement your Mahinda Chintanya idiri dekma? Prices of essential commodities have sky-rocketed. A few lorry loads of coconuts to pricipal towns to sell at Rs 40, when the market price is Rs 60, will not serve to reduce coconut prices countywide. Army is now deployed to sell vegetables, bought directly from farmers. That is only in a few towns. How long is this going to be? What a joke! Will it solve the problem of high cost of vegetables? This is all eye-wash. The people feel cheated. The government is now blaming adverse weather conditions for lack of vegetables in the market. Coconuts and vegtables may be hoarded by the middle mudalali who buy them from farmers cheap and sell at exorbitant prices. This corruption should be stamped-out fast and furiously now, by the full weight of the law against hoarders and such malpractice. Cost of living has gone up but people’s wages remain same. Only the politicians enjoy a comfortable luxurious life on the back of the ordinary masses who are donkeys and bulls forced to carry the load of pot-bellied ministers and MPs enjoying life to the full.
When is this going to end? There is no party who is really patriotic. We thought MR government will be common man’s government and will redress the corrupt evil system that has prevailed in the country since independence. But MR, you have deserted your people. You are no longer the champion of the people. Once the LTTE has been vanquished you are resting on your laurels and doing F..k all. You are no better than the corrupt parties who ruled before you. You are now repeating your same old hackneyed mantras parrot-wise hoping to deceive the nation before the LC elections. People are fed-up to their back teeth of being cheated. Revolutions as in Tunisia and Egypt will only rsult in chaos, and make life harder for the people as there are no genuine patriots who will serve the nation with dedication to lift up their living standards.
Mr MR, you have now become corrupted. All your high ideals have been forgotten. You allow casinos to be opened and prostitution rackets to spread. There are corrupt ministers behind all these rackets with their armies of mafia gangsters to run these criminal activities. Tea waste is dyed brown and sold to the masses as genuine tea. This is a health risk. Mafia gangs and ministers and corrupt police are behind this crime also. Mr President you are looking the other way when all these criminal activities are taking place. You have actually ‘retired’ and doing nothing to develop the country.
You went to Britain to address Oxford University. Is this necessary for the economic development of the country? You were accompanied by about 30 sycophants in a Sri Lankan Airways plane, which stood idly by while you enjoyed life in a very expensive hotel with all the sycophants, at public expense from the IMF loans meant for economic development. OU slapped you in the face and kicked your arse home. Not satisfied with this snub you then went to Texas, USA, apparently for a rest, with about 20 sycophants, in a Sri Lankan Airways plane which stood lidly by while you enjoyed a ‘rest’. What a loss for the country! Most people in the country are struggling-by meantime to survive on their meagre wages.
Is it time for a revolution, in the style of Egypt to topple a corrupt government?
Dear Nicholas,
Thank you for your outburst. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
They are all the same. Just look how President Hussein is behaving in response to the Egyptian crisis? president Hussein, the Nobel Peace Laureate, continuing to massacre innocents in Afghanistan.
And the President of our beloved land leaving the majority peace loving Sinhala Buddhist Citizens to live in fear of gunpowder laden testicle bearing young men and dynamite padded bra wearing young women.
Guru,
The sacred Dhamma of Lord Buddha is as relevant today as in centuries gone-by because it is universal.
If all the countries in the world were to PRACTISE this dhamma in their daily lives, there would indeed be peace and harmony in the world. There would be no fear psychosis, paranoia, intolerance and wars. However, there are also Devaduttas today as in Lord Buddha’s time. These Devduttas are a minority but they are able to create hatred, paranoia, intolerance and wars among nations. Such is the unfortunate way of the world! Human history is a history of wars.