A tower of strength to the masses

Dr. T.C. Rajaratnam

President Mahinda Rajapaksa 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 Rajapaksa 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 organised 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 grassroots 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 commercialise 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 every one 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 Rajapaksa being the Saviour of the Nation, is ably advised by Basil Rajapaksa the Vision and Guardian of the Nation and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-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.