Towards a prosperous civilization
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Speech at Oxford
Union on May 14, 2008. |
President Rajapaksa shares an emotional moment with elders |
It is with much pleasure that I address
you in these hallowed surroundings tonight. I must thank the Oxford
Union and Dilan Fernando for this opportunity. Many renowned speakers
have addressed you from here before me. I do not seek to match them in
their eloquence but I do wish to speak to you on a subject of much
interest to my country at the present time.
That is the empowerment of rural economy, a central theme of my
development strategy for Sri Lanka. Our development strategy towards
empowering the rural economy of our country, where majority of our
people live, has now become relevant to the global economy itself in the
context of the emerging world food crisis and environmental challenges
to our own survival. We have an additional burden. We are threatened by
the challenge of terrorism and the need to protect the rights of our
fellow beings.
Sri Lanka where I was born and bred is a country where our culture is
firmly rooted in rural tradition. The Sri Lankan culture has been
essentially conditioned by the great religion of Buddhism, but later
influenced by Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The concepts of loving
kindness, compassion and tolerance are at the heart of our psychological
make up. They nourish and sustain us through the uncertainties of life.
Our traditional greeting - ‘Ayubowan’ means – May you live long. It
is not surprising then that in a world where rulers constructed massive
castles and grand palaces to demonstrate their power and wealth, our
kings constructed huge reservoirs - Tanks, as we call them-to provide
water to sustain food production and ensure sustainable livelihood to
the people.
The great legacy left behind by our ancient rulers, and which is in
use even today scattered across three vast provinces of my island home,
is the massive irrigation network. This unique hydraulic civilization
which sustained an essentially prosperous rural society, was based on a
philosophy which has much to offer the modern world. Buddhism taught us
that we have no absolute ownership of the forests, the rivers, the
oceans and the atmosphere that sustain life; that every generation holds
the environment in trust, so that its abuse is prevented; and that our
duty was to hand down the environment. to future generations without
harm. Even today, over 77 percent of our people still live in rural
areas because of a wide range of attractions in our rural home base. I
myself hail from the Deep South, from an agrarian village with a
beautiful natural environment. I am extremely proud of that fact.
The attraction in our villages is not only the economic resources and
greenery, but also the traditional culture, arts, religion and
bio-diversity which are incentives to keep our people away from
migrating into urban townships. The horrors of poverty and suffering
that have engulfed many booming Asian cities have not affected Sri
Lanka.
Strengthened by the caring attitude inherited from our ancient
rulers, we were able to adapt to modern democracy with great ease. It
was in 1931, while still under the British, that Sri Lanka was granted
universal franchise. You will recall that Britain achieved this status
only in 1926. Since then we have continued to develop and strengthen
democratic institutions in Sri Lanka. Political pluralism has always
been fundamental to our democracy. We have parties of different
political views represented in our parliament. This diversity uniquely
enriches Sri Lanka`s political canvass.
The government, although elected by a Sinhala Buddhist majority,
represents a coalition of Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim communities and all
the religious groups in the country. You will be hard pressed to find a
similarly representative government in any of the other
democracies of the world. I am proud of our vibrant parliamentary
system, the strong judicial establishment, and the independent press.
Not a day passes without an attack on me, I must say totally without
foundation, from some parts of the media.
We have not hesitated to adopt global standards, collaborate with
international organizations such as the UN, ILO and the Commonwealth,
and participate in efforts to consolidate institutions designed to
protect the rights of our fellow humans.
Sri Lanka has contributed with vigour and creativity to the
development of the principals incorporated in international conventions,
through their work in international organizations and through the
International Court of Justice. We have always played our part in global
efforts to establish higher standards, and to make our earth a better
place for all, because we fundamentally feel that this is the correct
thing to do.
This is a reflection of our cultural traditions. Sri Lanka’s
conformity to global environmental standards has been commended time and
time again. Women in Sri Lanka enjoy equal opportunities with men. Over
60 percent of our medical practitioners are women. Over 80 percent of
our teachers are women. The nursing profession is dominated by women.
The legal profession too is increasingly dominated by women! Women have
also entered sections of the work force previously monopolized by men
such as, academia, engineering, computing, quantity surveying and
architecture.
I recall with great delight that Sri Lanka produced world’s first
elected woman Prime Minister in 1960. Her husband, S W R D Bandaranaike,
whose portrait hangs over there, was also a prime minister of Sri Lanka.
Ladies and gentlemen, for decades we have invested in education and
health. My country enjoys one of the highest literacy standards in the
world, while still being categorized as a middle income developing
country. 97 per cent of our children are enrolled at school.
Our infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate at child birth,
is on par with that of many developed countries. The country provides
free healthcare to all. Education is free and universal from childhood
to university. During the primary and secondary school life of every
child the government provides free text books and uniforms. One of my
long-lasting joys is the sight of thousands of children in crispy
white uniforms heading for school each morning. This is probably a
sight that one cannot witness in many other places of the world.
Children are precious to us. I believe they are our future. We have
ensured a massive investment in our children. My government firmly
believes that no child must be deprived of his or her childhood. We
have created a separate ministry to look after the welfare of our
children. We do not employ any children in our labour force, and no one
below the age of eighteen is recruited to our armed forces; unlike the
LTTE, which engages thousands in its baby brigades.
These children are robbed of their childhood, and brutality is
ingrained into their character, making them life-long misfits for
society. Sri Lanka has achieved a very high standard in the United
Nations Human Development Index, and we have already, to a large extent,
achieved the Millennium Development Goals. It was only last month that a
UN Report commended Sri Lanka for being well on its way to eliminating
malaria. We have a very low rate of HIV / AIDS infection.
I point these things out only because of the intense campaign that is
being conducted internationally, to describe my country as one that does
not care about our fellow human beings and human needs. Facts
demonstrate that this is far from the truth.
There are no signs of obvious starvation in any part of the country.
In fact for over 25 years, since the beginning of the LTTE’s violent
challenge to our very existence, to our sovereignty, the government has
been sending food, medicine and educational material to the two
districts dominated by the LTTE. Every single teacher, nurse, doctor,
hospital and government official in the LTTE controlled areas is
appointed and paid by the government in Colombo. Very few countries
grappling with terrorism have been so accommodating. This itself
illustrates the caring nature of our society. These noteworthy
achievements have been possible because of a holistic view of human
development to which we have always been firmly committed. We believe
that development becomes meaningful to the vast mass of the people only
when its fruits are capable of being enjoyed by all segments of the
people. That is why we have constantly tried not only to achieve growth
and expansion of our national wealth but to ensure that the resources
generated by our efforts are distributed among the people, especially,
in the rural hinterland, on an equitable basis.
Our development model as presented in my election manifesto, the
Mahinda Chinthana, signifies the empowerment of the rural economy. The
centre piece of this new strategy will be the development of modern
infrastructure throughout the country to provide a basis for development
of Agriculture, Industry, Construction, Tourism, SMEs and transport
services that will bring about new opportunities to our people in the
rural economy. Our strategy has enhanced the public investments over 6
percent of GDP to support ‘Randora’ – meaning Golden Gate – our
infrastructure development initiative — to develop new ports, power
generation and distribution networks, and integrated townships to the
link rural economy to the global economy and create new space for
growth. We have integrated strategies to promote insurance, shipping,
aviation, trade, logistic industries and petroleum explorations, and
above all, skills and knowledge to position Sri Lanka as an emerging
economic hub in south Asia.
Empowering people at grassroots level is equally important in this
whole development process. ‘Gama Naguma’, meaning revival of the
village, is an initiative to empower communities, adopting bottom up
programs originating from communities and reflecting their needs. A
series of rural development initiatives have been implemented,
permitting the community to prioritize their needs and objectives. These
initiatives are monitored by community leaders to ensure that a larger
volume of resources are productively used for the betterment of the
rural community.
The main thrust of this program is to retain people in rural
environments, rather than encouraging them to move into urban areas;
which has been the pattern in many developing economies. Why should
people move into urban areas and live in slums or sub-standard housing,
when they can live in very healthy environments in villages, and enjoy
clean air, water and pure and good food. It is my belief that rural
people are much healthier than those who live in urban cities.
Our approach to development takes into consideration the dangers of
destroying the green environment. Every project that is implemented
under Gama Naguma recognizes the value of green belts and the
preservation of the forest cover. The environmental protection programs
that are implemented throughout the island make a serious attempt to
ensure that rivers are kept clean, water ways are not dirtied and trees
are not destroyed. The bed rock of our development is maintaining and
preserving the environment.
Consolidating our achievements in human resource development, we are
now working towards a knowledge economy based on productivity, skills,
knowledge and technology.
Therefore, education and health is being undertaken at grassroots
level through multi-faceted government programs. In particular, I am
very keen to ensure that our children are able to become global citizens
through the use of Information Technology. In a novel programme called ‘Nenasala’,
a network of 500 rural tele-centers has already been established. I have
set a target to increase this up to 1,000 by next year. Three years ago,
Sri Lanka’s IT literacy stood at a little over 5 percent. Today I feel
accomplished that we have been able to enhance this to 20 percent. Which
means that more and more people will be able to enter the lucrative IT
job market. All this is being done to enhance the employability of rural
youth.
The essence of our rural empowerment program is to ensure that rural
infrastructure development takes place at a rapid rate. So far neglected
rural roads are being paved today with concrete to make them last the
monsoon rains that are common in our part of the world. Rural
electricity programs, community water supply schemes, minor irrigation
projects, housing and market facilities are included in our rural
infrastructure development drive.
In essence our strategy is to level the playing field between the
‘urban, organized minority’ and the ‘rural, unorganized majority’, in
the national development process. I am encouraged that our development
strategy – Mahinda Chinthana – Vision Towards a New Sri Lanka, sustained
a near 7 percent economic growth during the last three years, and
reached US dollars 1,600 per capita income in 2007. Except in one
district, people below the poverty line have declined drastically in
2007.
Unfortunately we are being challenged by “the most brutal terrorist
group in the world” as the LTTE has been described by the FBI. Suicide
killings using even women and children have become their hallmark. It is
this terror group that invented the deadly suicide vest for the suicide
killer. Having pioneered the suicide vest, they have freely given this
technology to other terror groups in the world.
This has now become a global menace. There have been hundreds of
innocents, civilians returning home after work, children going to school
and young mothers going to their weekly clinics, being maimed or killed
by indiscriminately exploded bombs in crowded centres or being targeted
by brain-washed suicide bombers. You need to see the carnage caused by
shattered limbs and burning human flesh, to understand the sheer
brutality that motivates this group of terrorists. They killed Rajiv
Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, and Ranasinghe Premadasa,
the former President of Sri Lanka. Most recently, a senior Minister of
my government, a Tamil speaking Catholic, was brutally murdered by a
suicide killer, along with a former Olympic athlete among many others
participating in a sporting event.
They also killed our former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a
scholar of distinction, and legal luminary, who once occupied this seat
as the President of the Oxford Union with distinction.
It has become incumbent upon us to confront this group to the extent
of our ability, deploying all the resources of the State, to protect the
people of Sri Lanka and their democratic way of life. I must add that
what I am doing is in no way different to what other democracies have
done before, and continue to do, in the face of terrorism. However, I
must to state that the LTTE is the most brutal terror outfit the world
has ever seen, and defeating them requires global support. What Sri
Lanka is doing, in my opinion, is fighting this terror outfit single
handed to ensure that democracy and respect for human life prevail in
the world. If we fail in our war against the LTTE, the world will fail
in its fight against terrorism, and democracy will be the victim. This
is the plain truth.
Our development thrust unfortunately has had its own obstacles, the
main being the brutal terrorist threat that makes us, a developing
country, to take a heavy toll. It is time that the world, raising its
united voice, expressed its utter revulsion of the barbaric practice of
suicide bombings. It must be made absolutely clear that this form of
political expression, if it could be described as such, is utterly
unacceptable in the civilized world.
There is a considerable challenge to the security forces of my
country, whose goal is simply to protect the innocents and their simple
way of life. We need to understand that our security forces do not go
out of their way to harass innocents, or to discriminate
against a minority. They take great personal risks constantly. The
fear psychosis created by the LTTE terror, may cause some lapses in
judgment, but by and large, independent observers have always commended
the efficiency, politeness and courtesy of the men in uniform.
We must remember that there are no methods or solutions which are
universally applicable to situations of this nature. It is the principal
duty of a government to assure the public of security of life and limb.
It is the terrorist group that decides when to strike:
They decide the time, the place and the opportunity. They are in no
way constrained by the values and procedures which rightly control the
responses of democratic governments. These realities must be taken into
account as the basis of a fair and objective assessment of Sri Lanka’s
situation.
Although many have said that the LTTE is invincible, we have freed
our Eastern Province of their terror. Within one year we have restored
democracy there after nearly two decades. Only last week we conducted
free and fair elections to the first ever Eastern Provincial Council,
contested by several political parties.
As our forces seek to defeat and disarm the LTTE, we are firm in our
resolve to have a negotiated solution to the crisis in Sri Lanka. I do
not believe in a military solution. We have attempted talks with the
LTTE on several occasions – thrice since my election as the President –
but they have not reciprocated. They have always left the talks with
lame excuses. We are still ready to talk, once we are certain of their
genuine intent for a political solution… and their readiness to give up
arms.
As young leaders, you will take on increasing responsibilities in
later life. Destiny will place you in circumstances where you will be
called upon to lead and defend your countries. As someone who has been
nurtured and strengthened by an ethical and caring culture, I wish to
leave with you with some thoughts.
You and I are privileged to be what we are today, but, there are
millions of our fellow beings who are not that fortunate, and who need
our guidance, leadership and caring. Leadership to these masses of
people will have to be given by you. Your leadership must be one that
reflects your cultural and religious values, sense of integrity,
dedication to the cause of eliminating human suffering, and a sense of
generosity.
In conclusion, let me say that our chosen path to development of my
country, especially the rural areas, continues to be a challenge for all
of us, particularly with threats that are both internal and external.
Ladies and gentlemen, the protection and advancement of human rights
continues to be a challenge for all of us, not only in Sri Lanka but
globally. I only seek to encourage you to think of Sri Lanka as a
country that has achieved considerable success in caring for its people,
in the face of a most brutal challenge thrown at us by terrorists. We
will continue to comply with the highest standards in keeping with
values and traditions we hold to be sacrosanct. |