After winning the war and a strong leadership:

Lanka needs stable Government

Nadira Gunatilleke

Sri Lanka is the first Asian country which was granted Middle Income Country status by the International Monitory Fund (IMF) and India will be the second Asian country when it receive this status in future, Construction and Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. He said Sri Lanka’s poverty was 29 percent in 1995 and it is only 15 percent in 2009. This will bring to zero by 2015.

Addressing the weekly UPFA press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo yesterday Minister Senaratne said each and every household will enjoy electricity by 2012 and the electricity bill will come down drastically by the same time. The Government requested only US $ 1.9 billion as a loan from the IMF and it granted USD 2.6 billion to Sri Lanka. This shows the confidence the IMF has placed in the Sri Lankan Government. According to Xinhua, it is not an easy task that Sri Lanka developed 22,422 kilometres of roads during the war.

According to Minister Senaratne, the Government will definitely obtain the two-thirds majority in the upcoming General Election and if not another group of UNPers are already waiting to join the Government to complete the two-thirds in Parliament.

The people gave 1.8 million majority vote to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and defeated a foreign conspiracy.

The workforce of Korea was not adequate to meet the employment demand and Sri Lankans received the opportunity to work in Korea. It was the strong leadership that developed those countries. Now Sri Lanka has both, a golden opportunity after winning the war and the strong leadership. Only a stable Government is required now.

Now the UNP and the Opposition is worried about the two thirds majority. They are not interest in winning.

They are now interested in not allowing the Government to obtain the two-thirds majority. A weak Opposition with a weak leader will help Sri Lanka to walk forward and achieve economic development without any trouble.

The Government is asking a two-thirds majority to prevent thugs and crooks coming into Parliament. The Government will introduce a new system that each and every electorate has its own representative in Parliament and only reputed people get access to Parliament, the Minister said. Earlier there was a myth in the country that only the UNP is capable of developing the economy. Today this myth has been completely demolished. President Rajapaksa will take Sri Lanka from a Third World country to a developed country through his strategy, the Mahinda Chintana.

We need to reach there and now there is a way to do so. On that day no Sri Lankan youth will come with job applications begging for employment because all Sri Lankan youths will have jobs, the Minister added.