Time Magazine survey:
President among top 10
A Time Magazine survey has placed President Mahinda Rajapaksa sixth
among top 10 world leaders, influential persons, celebrities, including
Hollywood stars and sporting icons, leaving US President Barrak Obama
trailing far behind at 47th position and other international leaders who
failed to figure in the top 10 line up.
President Rajapaksa has been ranked sixth among the 100 most
influential persons of 2011 leaving behind all top political
heavyweights and Hollywood superstars.
Among those who were ranked below the President were such stalwarts
as Hillary Clinton, US Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin and tennis ace
Rafael Nadal. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Israel Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi together
with Hollywood starlets Sandra Bullock and Natalie Portman were all
pushed way down the list.
Leading the list was Rain with 446,716 votes, while President
Rajapaksa obtained 89,759 votes to be just below entertainer Beyonce in
fifth position. Others ahead, included, Jay Choy (Susan Boyle (158,696)
and Cheng Yen. Barrak Obama trailed behind to a distant 47th obtaining a
mere 8,701 preferences outvoted by first lady Michelle Obama who
received 16,483 votes. Sonia Gandhi at 97th position hugged the bottom
of the list with Ricky Gervais, Christine Loh and Lovon Helm.
The Time Magazine asked its voters to “cast your votes for the
leaders, artistes, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the
most influential people in the world”. President Rajapaksa’s elevation
among the elite list has been largely attributed to his success in
eliminating terrorism, that plagued Sri Lanka for three decades, the
only national leader in modern times to have rid his country of the
scourge.
Meanwhile ‘Asian Tribune’ adds: Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa has reached much popularity leaving behind all other top
political icons and celebrity stars in the world and some Hollywood
superstars in 2011.
Rajapaksa is on top of ‘Robin Hood of the information age’, Julian
Assange who acquires secret and often controversial documents from
government and corporate sources and then releases them to the public
via whistle blowing site WikiLeaks.
President Rajapaksa who pioneered Sri Lankan island nation’s crush on
terrorism had reached top among the United States rulers, including
President Barack Obama, who received Nobel Peace Prize for none other
than talking in 2009, American First Lady Michelle Obama, US Vice
President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Secretary
of Defence Robert Gates and US potential presidential candidate
Republican Party’s most dynamic star Sarah Palin.
With so little power Mahinda Rajapaksa achieved so much and pushed
Sri Lanka to greatness during last six years. When he got elected; with
a narrow margin over his challenger, his party couldn’t even elect the
Speaker of the Parliament; and the ruthless terrorist group LTTE was
running wild in the country, bombing buses and public places filled with
civilians. Within several years, Rajapaksa managed to win the excess
majority of the Parliament to his side, defeated the world’s most
ruthless terrorist group (according to FBI) and generated an economic
boom in the island nation, while the whole world was tumbling into the
worst recession in recent history.
His visionary leadership in Sri Lanka had doubled the per capita
income, lead the country to middle income status; made the Colombo Stock
Exchange the best in the world and had initiated massive development
programmes including ports, highways and large scale leisure projects
convincing the peace and harmony to the country.
Rajapaksa’s influence rippled globally, he held his ground against
western superpowers who tried to rescue the ruthless megalomaniac
Prabakaran, didn’t yield to economic sanctions threats like cutting GSP+
tax incentives by European Union for alleged human rights violations in
warfare by Western nations, Rajapaksa defeated western powers at the UN,
by forming a novel coalition against western imperial powers. President
Rajapaksa’s influence has already altered the course of Sri Lanka and
perhaps the whole world as per many Sri Lankans.
In TIME 100 poll, Rajapaksa is also ranked above the Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi who is being alleged liaisons with younger
women in luxurious, so-called “bunga bunga” parties, Burma’s icon of
democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Director-General of Pakistan’s
Inter-Services Intelligence Ahmad Shuja Pasha, an anti-war gadfly
12-term Republican Congressman Ron Paul who is a master of the online
money bomb and to be married Royal couple Prince William and Kate
Middleton.
Rajapaksa is also above the Egyptian democracy advocate and possible
presidential candidate, former head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency Mohamed ElBaradei who helped fuel the twitter and facebook
rebellion that younger Egyptians eventually seized to bring an end to
Hosni Mubarak’s oppressive regime. Rajapaksa has also reached top above
Wall Street billionaire Warren Buffet and Indian Billionnaire Mukesh
Ambani among TIME 100 votes whilst leading the former Boeing executive
Alan Mulally who restructured Ford to a US $ 6.6 billion company in last
financial year.
The Sri Lankan President has received votes from TIME 100 people
polls more than the Brain behind the social-media giant, Facebook’s
26-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Physicist Stephen Hawking, Qatar based
television Al-Jazeera and Bollywood actor and producer, Aamir Khan who
made a profit without superstars from satire on farmer suicides titled
Peepli Live. |