President tells people:

Join nation building

Asela Kuruluwansa, Indika Polkotuwa and Sanjaya Maturata

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday requested all sections of the people to come forward and become active shareholders of the nation building effort. The Government is totally committed to develop the whole country on an equitable basis without any communal or regional distinctions, he said. The President was addressing the Muslim community in the Badulla district at a meeting held at the President’s House in Kandy.

“This is the land of our birth.

It is here that we will also die and be buried. So as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Malays let us join hands and make a combined effort to develop our motherland and usher in prosperity for all” the President said.

The President said when he is in the midst of the muslim community his thoughts go back to the last Presidential election campaign. At that time several conspiracies were hatched to distance the Muslim community from him. When those conspiracies failed a rumour was spread to drive fear into the minds of Muslims saying their religious rights would be denied if Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected President. “It was a deliberate attempt to tag the communal label on us”. All such insidious attempts had been defeated and the Muslim community had realised the truth, the President said.

President Rajapaksa who recalled that certain local Muslim leaders feared to utter a word on behalf of the palestinians who suffered from Israeli oppression in the past said it was he and the SLFP which held demonstrations and raised a voice on behalf of the Palestinian people from the 1970 decade.

This prudent policy was today paying dividends and Muslim countries have reciprocated by standing firmly behind Sri Lanka whenever it faced problems in the international field.

Acting an example the President said when Sri Lanka faced liquidity problems in the wake of escalating fuel prices in the International market Iran supplied crude oil on credit under a 7 month interest free loan scheme. Today Sri Lanka had cordial relations with all Middle East countries including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and also Iran and Libya.

The President said the thinking of the Muslim community seemed to have undergone a major transformation with the true situation unfolding before their own eyes. A person will understand another person’s agony if he himself had undergone such difficult times. That is why we were deeply shocked on hearing the LTTE massacre of Muslims in a Kattunkudy mosque and when Muslims were evicted from Jaffna within two hours notice.” During the Presidential election campaign I promised that I will not allow one community to be subjugated or held hostage by another.” I have fulfilled that pledge”.

The President said when Muslims were evicted from Muttur the Government re-settled them in their original lands within 42 days. But Muslims evicted from Jaffna during the previous regime were still living in camps in Puttalam.

This proved the difference between the two Governments, the President said.