New promise of freedom

After victory over terrorism:

President Rajapaksa

We have passed the difficult land-marks of the defeat and eradication of terrorism from our land. Our heroic troops, a vital sector of our workforce, are completing the historic task of sweeping terrorism away from our midst, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the International Labour Organization (ILO) at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.

“The people see a new promise of freedom throughout the land, a freedom that was for long denied for nearly two-thirds of our land and a third of our population and working people. “Terrorism not only threatens peaceful society, it also gives rise to misery that is the enemy of progress,” he said.

“In the past three and a half years we have responded to this challenge in different ways. We tried to have a dialogue and negotiations. That was rejected. We were then compelled to use force, the force that is the right of the State, force that is the only language that the terrorist seemed to understand.

“We used our force with great concern for the hardships it causes to the ordinary people, to the workers and farmers, to their children, and to their livelihoods. We had to take hard decisions, and in the end those decisions saw victory against the evil of terror,” the President.

The ILO which enters its 10th decade has a new agenda.

That is a struggle against all forms of terror including that in the work place to ensure that working people will have no threats to the conditions of work. Referring to the Global Financial Crisis he said is impact is deeply felt in the developing countries.

“The ILO will have to rise above others in showing the path of social justice, of protection for the workers and farmers of the world, of fair trading and fair practices in international economic relations,” he added.

Sri Lanka's development strategy

"A significant aspect of Sri Lanka's development strategy is our concern with the human aspects of progress.

This is clearly seen in our indices of Human Development, in the widespread literacy in the country, in the ready access to good health services to all sections of society, in the advances being made in industrial health, in retirement benefits, the legally guaranteed right for workers to organize, and the advances in the laws that govern retrenchment and redundancy and other terminal benefits.

In a world where there is increased attention focused on working conditions in countries that export products, especially, conditions in factories that have been set up by foreign investors from the West, Sri Lanka is proud that there are no fingers pointed at us for harsh or adverse labour conditions.

Our compliance with the highest global standards in working conditions is such that garments, an industry that makes up one of our largest exports, are proudly and rightly presented as "Garments without Guilt". Similarly, tea, that our island is most famous for, is a "Blend without Shame".