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“I state with great pride and responsibility that we have the strength to achieve this. It is necessary to make this country secure for your children and future generations,” President Rajapaksa said.
The President added that we are now preparing for a major transformation within this country. Having achieved real freedom the entire country was now joined through an infrastructure network built under the conditions of the peace, he said.
“Our next phase is to have major industrial development on this foundation of success that will enable an economy to generate employment for 100,000 per year. In the recent Budget, the Government provided opportunities for 150,000 advanced level qualified youths to obtain state employment in order to strengthen the public service. It is necessary to enrich this country,” the President stated.
“I have not signed a single agreement or accord to betray the nation. I don’t have an abundance of agreements. I have only one agreement. It is only this Mahinda Chinthana. This third phase of my Presidency is that of building the country for a new generation. In order to achieve this it is necessary to give priority to strengthening the Rule of Law, eradicating corruption and fraud through institutional structures, and both strengthening and widening national unity to ensure that Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and all communities obtain the benefits of development and good governance.
“This is the clear vision of this Mahinda Chinthana – ‘Lova Dinana Maga’. I make a commitment to ensure participation of the Maha Sangha, religious leaders, people’s representatives, intellectuals, civil society and trade unions for the task of constitutional reform.”
Full text of the speech:
When we now plan the future for our country I remember when the Mahinda Chinthana was first presented in 2005.
Having brought together the patriotic people of
this country we then on behalf of the country, handed over the Mahinda Chinthana to the people of this country at this same venue. That was a very decisive juncture. The Mahinda Chinthana was presented to the public at a time when the Motherland was on the verge of being divided. We presented the Mahinda Chinthana to the people at a time when our national assets were sold at prices amounting to robbery and the citizens of our land were made mere boarders of this country.
On that occasion I promised the nation that I would bring an honourable peace to the country. It not a peace that one accepts on bended keens having betrayed one’s county. The pledge I gave that day was to build unitary Sri Lanka and achieve a peace that would protect the pride of the nation.
Accordingly, in four years it was possible to defeat the world’s most ruthless terrorism that existed for 30 years and bring freedom to this country. From that day we were able to wholly eradicate the fear of death that prevailed among our people.
Forward Vision
In 2010 I presented the Forward Vision of that same Mahinda Chinthana. Our pledge given with this Forward Vision was to secure the freedom won and utilise this freedom for the maximum benefit for the people. In keeping with the Forward Vision of that Mahinda Chinthana, in the next four years we have provided all that is required to build a wonder of Sri Lanka.
Today we produce all our country’s food requirements. We have cultivated thousands of acres of paddy land and brought fresh cultivation to thousands of agricultural lands. Electricity was available for less than 66%. Today 99% consume electricity. Per Capita Income then was $ 1,200. Today it has risen to $ 4,000.
Just as the highways and expressways we have also built clean and well developed cities. This country has now become one where people from many nations and countries can travel freely. These are the results of the Mahinda Chinthana.
In the political history of Sri Lanka, election promises are matters that are forgotten in the matter of a few months. However, we have for the first time proven in our political history that the Mahinda Chinthana is not a document that is thus forgotten. This is very special experience in Sri Lankan history.
We say what we do, we do what we say.
We now have built a country where we do not have to give fresh promises on power supply, water, roads and poverty. We have built a country where no promises are required about removing discrepancies and faults in education. We have built a country where there is no need of promises about rural infrastructure. This is because we have achieved all of this in our country today. We hear them on platforms today. There is no necessity for promises about them today.
I will give you an example. When the People’s Alliance established a Government in 1994 there was an economy that promised giving a loaf of bread at Rs. 3.50. Today we have been able to obtain a common public understanding to eradicate poverty and raise the level of this country to that of a modern state. We have fulfilled just as we stated. The pledge we then made about ethics in society has been entirely fulfilled.
Beginning from stopping smoking in public places, we have enforced the difficult decision to prevent consumption of alcohol in public and prohibit advertising of cigarettes and alcohol in programs associated with sports and education. I state with great pride that this hand of mine has not issued a single license to a casino or bar. Yet today the truth is being covered by untruth.
I will leave no room for the fear of death to emerge in the minds of our mothers again. We will not allow children to be herded in refugee camps anywhere whether in the North, South, West or East. We should protect the national assets that we saved.
Stronger public service
At that time there were only 700,000 in the public service. Today that figure is 1.4 million. What has been done is peopalisation. We cannot go back to a state when the public service is pruned or cut down. We cannot leave room for policies such as Temasek that prevails abroad to open the door to privatisation and thereby have a policy of selling off the country.
We will not allow this massive development that had been launched to be stopped. That is my responsibility. I cannot allow this country to be a Libya, Afghanistan, Egypt or Syria.
We can see today that the forces against the country who have always joined the foreign forces that made efforts to divide this country getting together again. Charges of war crimes are being brought against us who gave freedom to the country by defeating Tiger terrorism. One has to accept such forces when seeking to build the country. It is not just against me. Those powerful forces brought similar allegations of corruption through their newspapers against Anagarika Dharmapala, the greatest son of Sri Lanka of the last century. You know this history. No one has forgotten that. They attacked Anagarika Dharmapala until he left the country.
Similar charges were made against even great leaders such as Ilangarathna who we respect and whose socialist principles we followed to build Peoples’ Bank and the Insurance Corporation. You know how he spent his last days.
Is there any greater corruption than selling off the national wealth of this country at prices amounting to robbery? Those who have committed the gravest crime in this country are those who sold national assets and institutions to racketeers and pocketed the money. One should not throw stones when living in glass houses. The public, this will not be forgotten. I saved this country from national level corruption and put an end to privatisation.
There cannot be good governance in a country that has terrorism. Democracy is also not possible. It is by eradicating terrorism that democracy and good governance has been established in this country. It is because of this prevailing democracy that people can today talk of good governance. This is the common right of all who love and work for the country. Whatever it is, no one says that we did not protect the country or work for the country. No one can say that. To state that this great work was done for no purpose is revealing their own crooked hearts and thinking.
I have not signed a single agreement that betrayed the country. I don’t have many agreements. I have only one agreement. That is this Mahinda Chinthana. I had a political background when I came before you in 2005. We did not earn from politics. We all made a significant contribution to the country’s progress.
This third phase of my presidency is that of building the country for a new generation. In order to achieve this it is necessary to give my priority to strengthen the Rule of Law, eradicating corruption and fraud through institutional structures, and both strengthening and widening national unity to ensure that Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and all communities obtain the benefits of development and good governance. This is the clear vision of this Mahinda Chinthana – ‘Lova Dinana Maga’. I make a commitment to ensure participation of the Maha Sangha, religious leaders, people’s representatives, intellectuals, civil society and trade unions for the task of constitutional reform.
We are now preparing for a major transformation of this country. Having achieved real freedom the entire country is now joined through an infrastructure network built under the conditions of the peace. Our next phase is to have major industrial development on this foundation of success that will enable an economy to generate employment for 100,000 per year. In the recent Budget, the Government provided opportunities for 150,000 advanced level qualified youths to obtain state employment in order to strengthen the public service. It is necessary to enrich this country.
This third stage of Mahinda Chinthana seeks to raise the standing of our nation to that among the developed countries of the world. I state with great pride and responsibility that we have the strength to achieve this. It is necessary to make this country secure for your children and future generations.
