Sirimavo led the SLFP through all weather
Rasika SOMARATHNA
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday asserted that Sri Lanka today
is a country which protected and accrued on its State assets instead of
selling them in line with the policies propagated by the late Sirimavo
Bandaranaike who became the Worlds first Woman Prime Minister 50 years
back.
The President was speaking at the 50th Commemoration of the late
Sirimavo Bandaranaike becoming the first female Prime Minister in the
World, held at temple trees with the participation of Sri Lanka Freedom
Party members and leaders.
The President addressing the gathering said that Sirimavo
Bandaranaike was a person who had led the country and the Party both in
good and bad times with equal commitment and courage. While identifying
the SLFP as the strongest political party in the country today the
President said that this was due to the leadership given at the
beginning by both the late S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and later Sirimavo
Bandaranaike among others.
While identifying the late Premier as a fearless leader the President
said that her economic policy was based on giving pride of place to
local industries and protecting and further developing State assets. He
noted that several prominent State institutions had come to be during
her tenure such as State Banks, Sri Lanka Insurance corporation etc.
President Rajapaksa also fondly remembered that it was the late
Premier who had backed him to get his first nominations to contest an
election when the odds were against him.
He said that the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike had been a tower of
strength to the Party and was a leader who had a thorough understanding
of the Party cadre and was conscious to their needs.
He said that even today her policies were a tower of strength to both
the Party and the country.
He said that the Government was intent on restoring State assets the
people lost and infrastructure which was destroyed in all parts
including the North and East.
J.R.P. Sooriyapperuma MP making the memorial lecture took the
gathering down the memory lane relating important and interesting events
concerning the late Premier Sirimavo Bandaranaike. He was followed by
Kamala Ranatunge MP who used poetry to pay tribute to her late leader.
The SLFP General Secretary cum Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena too
spoke.
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