President urges all patriots to join hands with Govt

17th SLFP convention:

Rohan MATHES

* Democracy and peace vital for Motherland

* Country, party will never be betrayed

* Govt defeated all conspiracies

MAHARAGAMA: President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday urged all true patriots, groups and organisations to join hands with the Government to work on a single agenda for the sake of the motherland.

President Rajapaksa made this observation when he presided and addressed the 17th SLFP National Convention at the Youth Centre in Maharagama yesterday.

“Democracy is the world’s most priced commodity and peace is similarly costly. To obtain both these for your noble Motherland, all of us should join hands together, consolidate the party and forge ahead,” he said.

The President stressed that the SLFP was a strong party built on a solid foundation. The SLFP and freedom are synonymous and the freedom won in 1948 was made meaningful by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike when he forced out the British military camps at Katunayake and Trincomalee. With the introduction of the Republican Constitution by Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1972, independence became a reality.

“Today, we are liberating the country from the clutches of the separatist LTTE who are linked with local and international conspiracies,” he said.

The President said that the identical forces who in 1964 conspired against Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Government and paved the way for UNP’s victory, are now operating again, at this decisive moment.

“Think of those casting aspersions on me on the ‘Helping Hambantota’ project. Finally we emerged victorious due to the independence of the Judiciary. From the party’s inception, there had been diverse conspiracies, betrayals and changes from time to time.

However, we succeeded in overcoming all of them and grew from strength to strength throughout its long history to date,” he added.

The President said that following his victory in November 2005, the Government was in a minority in Parliament and it had to take measures to join the UNP in certain instances to solve the burning issues of the country.

Nevertheless, realising later that the UNP and its leadership was unreliable, he did away with this dependence and invited some of the UNP members who were willing to join the Government.

“By this process, we did not betray our party. No harm was done to the party. We became strong in Parliament with your consent. Only Jeyaraj Fernandopulle opposed it then,” he said.

He categorically stated that the Government could now take bold decisions unitedly and collectively, sans any influence from anyone, for the country’s sake. Nevertheless, these decisions had to be taken with understanding, sans envy and hatred, as otherwise they are bound to fail.

He pointed out that there is a definite class struggle, a division, where the elite class has been badly affected due to the indigenous and rural style of leadership now being promoted.