Brighter Future

Maithripala Sirisena

The memorable occasion when the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa is sworn-in for the second term of office falls on the 19th November. Mahinda Rajapaksa is the national leader who has won the heart felt affection and admiration of the people since Sri Lanka achieved Independence.

Similarly, he is the only leader who accepted as a challenge the most serious political crisis the country had faced since Independence, and resolved it completely. When he accepts office for the second term, he faces the new challenge of building the country that he has so far successfully defended.

With his long political history which shows his qualities of leadership that are capable of facing problems and overcoming any political challenge, he will no doubt overcome this new challenge of building the nation. Therefore, the beginning of his second term of office is in fact a decisive milestone in the history of our country.

The political path that Mahinda Rajapaksa has traversed so far has been no bed of roses. In order to obtain the strength and political maturity in the position of a national leader, he has been engaged a long period in the service of great importance and responsibility to the public.

One of the key decisions in his political career was his selection of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party as the centre of his political growth and development. The SLFP is the party that has the largest popularity in the country.

The keen and incisive interest he showed in organizing various people’s fronts to ensure the political power of SLFP, stands out significantly in the political history of Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 90s.

Mahinda Rajapaksa made a selfless commitment to safeguard the SLFP and the progressive forces that gathered around it, and thereby ensure their progress and final victory. In this task he had to undergo much suffering and hardship. He was imprisoned.

He suffered many threats, obstructions and insults. However, in moving forward through a long political journey he was able to transcend these hardships and in turn saw the love of the people steadily move towards him.

The management of public enterprises, service as a Member of Parliament, the contribution to national development as a Minister, his commitment to democracy as the Leader of the Opposition and the immense capabilities in statecraft, stand out as exceptional landmarks in his political life.

When he was elected to the office of President in 2005, Sri Lanka was a single country only on the surface. In practical terms, the country was divided into two and a state known as Tamil Eelam was emerging. It was not a nation-state by any description but a dictatorial, murderous and fascist state.

It was a threat not only to our country but also to the South Asian region and to the peace of the world. none of the leaders before Mahinda Rajapaksa were able to defeat the project of his separatist, fascist state.

They did not even have a clear understanding of how this could be defeated. Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted this challenge with a clear and calm mind. On many occasions in our history, when the country had been divided and made unstable, it was the single-minded and unlimited faith in the nation of our rulers at the time that saw our nation brought together and unified.

The great tasks of the past successfully carried out by Dutugemunu, Vijayabahu, Parakramabahu the Great and such other kings are carried out today by Mahinda Rajapaksa. The people gave him an unprecedented and massive majority for the second term of office because Mahinda Rajapaksa personified that historic greatness. People understood it clearly.

Having saved our country from terrorism, Mahinda Rajapaksa was similarly committed to protecting the dignity of our country. He did not bend before any foreign or external forces. He was not ready to betray the sovereignty of our country even before the most powerful of forces. Some saw this upright quality of Mahinda Rajapaksa as unsuitable to our times.

It is this quality of unshaken firmness that helped us defeat the international front of an enemy aligned against us in a massive war of separation.

Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown a clear path with regard to national development. Before his ascent to power you have seen the politics that believed in selling the assets of the nation in the name of development. Mahinda Rajapaksa, having altered this trend and tide in politics, is now taking the country in a direction where every inch of land, all assets of the country, will be closer to us and owned by us.

He will succeed in achieving development on our land, our seas and our skies. He has directed the country toward five-fold centres of development based on trade and economics, naval and maritime, aviation, power and energy, and knowledge. This is not development that is limited to statements or policy documents but one that could be vividly seen around us today.

All neglected paddy fields are under cultivation and most importantly the villages and towns are linked with many roads. Electricity is now spread throughout the country. Similarly, electronic communication is also spread islandwide. Our cities that were an eyesore due to an abundance of garbage are now fast being transformed into cities of beauty. The country is being freed of epidemic diseases.

Education, health, transport and such public services are being developed both in quality and quantity. We are now laying the foundations of the society where our younger generation will grow, giving the highest priority to ethics and coexistence, enriched with intellectual and spiritual values of progress.

The country is now directed towards a pattern of social justice ending the era where the dividends of development were distributed among a very thin layer of privileged people confined to cities. But it is now spread amongst people in a just and reasonable manner.

This is why Mahinda Rajapaksa finds himself having the overwhelming support of the general public, as well as those of the opposition who have abandoned their outdated politics of the past.

The leader who defeated terrorism in our land made “A Brighter Future” his political theme for the second Presidential Election this year. What we see rising before us today is this Brighter Future which will be the Brighter Future of our children, too. What will personify his second term of office will be this Bright Future for our beloved land.