Realising Mahinda Chintana goals:

Work as a team - Media Minister

If everyone in an institution from the highest official to the lowest grade employee work as a team achieving the goals outlined in the Mahinda Chintana - Future Vision it will become realistic, despite obstacles being made by certain international forces to check the development goals of this country, said Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwelle.

He was addressing the Mass Media and Information and Information Department staff recently.

The Minister said that the media has a great role to play for developing this country. He recalled that when certain local groups and their international allies were making concerted efforts to reverse the success of our security forces and cease the war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa personally telephoned him and wanted him to launch the media campaign against these elements and to rally the masses in support of the war. He enthusiastically undertook this task as the National Security Media Spokesman and with the help of the media, was able to carry out the task successfully until vanquishing terrorism from the country soil. He said that it was a time the people had no hope of a tomorrow and people left their homes to attend to their needs without any guarantee of returning alive. This situation has become history and any Sri Lankan can go to anywhere in the world now and proudly claim to be a Sri Lankan.

The Minister said although we have vanquished terrorism from our soil we should not remain complacent with that achievement, since the enemy forces are still very active in the international arena, and get absolute support from several international countries and organisations.

He said that it is because of this support that they were able to declare the so-called Transnational Government, Rudra Kumar as Prime Minister and some others as Ministers in the very soil of America which calls itself as the Guardian of Democracy and erect a statue for the terrorist Tamilselvan in France, another country that speak much of democracy. He said that the statue of this terrorist was declared open by none other than a Regional Governor of France.

He said that a minority still dream of a different Sri Lanka and invited them also to join the development struggle being launched for the benefit of the future generations.

Therefore, the Minister said that while giving every assistance and cooperation for the development of the country, defeating the international enmity is also very essential and the Mass Media Ministry should in partnership with the External Affairs Ministry intensely undertake this task. The Minister thanked each and everyone in the Ministry and in the Information Department for the unstinted cooperation extended to him during his previous term of office, and requested everyone to forget their personal differences and work as a team to achieve the difficult task.

Ministry Secretary W B Ganegala also addressed the staff and explained about the role of staff in achieving the Government's development objectives.