By Charles S.Perera

 Minister Champika Ranawaka  had said at a gathering of scholars, scientists and business leaders, that Sri Lanka is currently implementing an economic system showing Lamborghini to people surrounded by poverty.  It is always pleasant to hear sweet words of praise , but when  those sweet words turn to bitter words of  criticism they should be taken seriously.   Ministers Champika’s  statement is a timely warning to which the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Ministers should pay urgent attention. 

 No body can deny the tremendous infrastructure development and economic growth of Sri Lanka ever since   President Mahind Rajpakse had been elected as  the executive President of Sri Lanka.  Sri Lanka government on its own could not have brought about this development process that astonish the critical opposition.  It was definitely the willingness of China, Russia, Japan, and Iran to  place their trust in President Rajapakse which enabled those countries to invest in Sri Lanka and  finance the Government projects that enabled fastest development of Sri Lanka in all its aspects.

 Even America  depends on loans from China to avoid another financial crisis , therefore the criticism of the Sri Lanka  Government  for taking loans  is incorrect, and  made solely to discredit the government.  Those loans have been utilised  well  and results are evident  for any one who had visited Sri Lanka five years ago and visiting Sri Lanka now.

 Mahinda Rajapakse has embellished the august position he holds as the executive Presidentof Sri Lanka with  no previous  Presidents or Prime Ministers had ever equalled.  No one can also deny  that despite  all  the derogatory adjectives his local opponents invent  to down grade the President, that  none of them are  or will ever  be able to equal the  visionary  role of Mahinda Rajapakse as  the  executive President.  He chased away fear,  providing the people with peace, and security. He developed  Sri Lanka to the extent of making enemies of the Western leaders  who were put to shame  with his remarkable foresight and success as a  political leader-a Statesman  of the modern world.

 The Executive Presidency–  that every one of his  opponents wants to abolish including a prelate who should better occupy the  vocation for which he had been enrobed,  than dabble in politics which is  by all means not  for which he had accepted to put on a  saffron robe,fits well for the President Mahinda Rajapakse . 

 There is no one amoung the  present day politicians of Sri Lanka that could have held that office more honourably than the present Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse.  It is better that the office of Executive President is abolished after Mahinda Rajapakse as it could be dangerous  in the hands of  an ambitious  characterless individual.

 The President Rajapakse is a very clever,  political leader   utilising his position not to embellish himself, but  use it to the maximum for the welfare of his country and his people.  If not for him we would not have seen  the now common innumerable lowly manifestations  shouting slogans against the President and his government. 

 If we had another executive President in his  place,   who not knowing how to end terrorism would have groped in political darkness in a  reduced space left to govern,  being  encircled by the advancing terrorist forces,  made fearless by their own collaboration with them.  

 It was the executive President Premadasa who armed the terrorists. It was  the executive President Chandrika Kumaratunge who  treated the terrorist as equal partners in the famous  P-TOMS agreement in distributing funds for reconstruction of  tsunami affected areas. And it was Ranil Wickramasing  not even as  a President, turning his back to the elected Executive President Chandrika Kumaratunga signed the CFA with the terrorist leader demarcating territories to  be kept under terrorist control.

 But Mahinda Rajapakse when he was elected the President knew what exactly he was going to do.  He knew how to make the government and the Armed Forces  take responsibilities,  one to govern and the other to provide security and eliminate terrorism.  He appointed able people for their proved ability, not because they were his family members,  to make them partners of his vision of Sri Lanka without terrorism .

 President Mahinda Rajapakse appointed Gotabhaya Rajapakse as the Defence Secretary not  because he was his brother,  but because he was a retired Lt. Colonel of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces twice decorated by the Executive President J.R.Jayawardhane. He could be  credited for his military experience having fought against terrorism for twenty years,  and trusted more than any body else being his own younger brother.

 After the elimination of  terrorism, Mahinda Rajapakse turned to  develop the country in a big way. As a true Leader he gave responsibility to those  who were selected as his  Ministers without interfering into their work.  Some of them may have erred, while  others have done well, but it is usual that if some thing goes wrong, the blame comes to the leader. 

 But the Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse withered accusation, and undeterred changed  Sri Lanka into a country well known in the World not bound to West or East but opening itself to rich as well as poor Sovereign States of the world as an equal without discrimination against  the forms of governments, their religious beliefs, or for their wealth or their military strength.  For that he earned the wrath of the Western Countries. But to day Sri Lanka is a friend of the countries of the Middle East, the Countries of Africa, the countries of Asia, and the countries of the East Asia and the Pacific.

 Years after these achievements it is time to take account of what has been achieved as well as where things have gone wrong. When things go well there is always the tendency to continue without change, without wanting to change the old habits. Along with progress and prosperity comes corruption, this is not surprising  in the field of politics. President Mahind Rajapakse is not unaware of what is going on, but he being a man who does not precipitate into action without looking at a problem from different  aspects would at the end find  an acceptable solution.  

 The Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse never  misused his executive powers, but his opponent  make mountains out of mole hills,  as there is nothing else they could invent to make the President unpopular. They have tried and continue to try to make an issue of  drug trafficking.  But drug mafia today is a global problem. No country has so far stopped the dangerous  large scale drug business. His opponents make use of religious conflicts involving the  Sinhala Buddhist Community and the Muslim Community . 

 This Muslim adventurism coming from the States of the Middle East is threatening even their own Islamic Governments. Wahabism, Boko Haram, Alquaeida, Caliphate  are dangerous  branches of changing Muslim political trends.  Sinhala Buddhists cannot turn a blind eye to it.  As much as the Muslim Groups defend the rise of  Islamic religious fanatism, the  Sinhala Buddhist Community has to take  defensive moves to  protect their own religion and culture. 

 These movements  are not sponsored by the Government, and so far the Government has managed to pacify the parties. The  Muslims cannot ask for  more privileges, like the Tamil Community had been doing  since Independence. The problem could be solved  by the Sri Lanka Muslim Community  taking into  account the  danger to their own religion coming from out side,  and stop  falling into situations like those of Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Central Africa , etc:, and  begin a peaceful dialogue with the other Communities, avoiding head on clashes, which would neither help the Muslim nor the Sinhala Community. 

 What appears to be wrong in Sri Lanka’s development processes is  in making  the development projects more tourism  oriented.  Infrastructure development of highways, railways, building bridges are highly appreciable as with those progressive projects  Sri Lanka is  opening itself to unimaginable opportunities in the future. 

 But we have to know when the tourism oriented development  should be deviated  to people oriented development  to give the masses the  benefit of  what Sri Lanka regained after  suffering under terrorism. The Ada Derena television show villages where progress of development has not still reached. They live in unmotorable areas and still lift  patients seated on chairs to  carry them to a doctor or a hospital. They have no medical aid. There  are many villages without proper  roads, without fresh water, and without electricity.

 It is important that  Sri Lanka constructs more hotels, more tourist resorts, open  elephant orphanages, etc. but to what extent should this tourist  oriented development continue.  There seems to be no lack of ideas to develop the country for tourism.

 Car racings are good in countries where ordinary people can  take part in this sport. This like Golf links would cater to some  tourists and few of the new rich, but the larger proportion of  the people will not benefit from such sports in whatever scale they are organised. Are these sports organised for the sake of the income they generate  or because of the prestige to the country that may come with them ?

 There are artificial off shore Islands being constructed  in the South and in Colombo spending large sums of money.  There  was a  proposal to make such an artificial Island exclusively for motor racing.  Some one had even proposed cable cars  in Sri Lanka to attract more tourists. How far will this tourist oriented development continue the people continue to ask ? 

 With all these tourist oriented developments Sri Lanka has  had only one million tourists in 2012 compared  to   Phillipine’s  4.3 million tourist, Vietnam’s 6.8 million and Indonesia 8 million tourists.

 The Minister of Transport had  stated that he was buying a fleet of Indian buses.  But the Minister  has never thought of buying small buses to ply on village roads.    The big TATA buses plying on village roads, damage the village roads and  are a nuisance for the poor villagers using the road for their daily errands as the bus takes the whole road and some times put the villagers in danger. 

 The opposition parties cry loud about commissions on development projects.  They have forgotten selling public enterprises to private individual for  amounts far lower than their real value, what happened to the difference in cash values of those enterprises.  DS Senanayake was supposed to  have kept with him documents showing the underhand dealings of his Cabinet of Ministers including that of G.G.Ponnambalam’s tractor deal which he  brandished when they were troublesome.

 There was recently a report in  Ada Derana television showing the living conditions of women working in the  Industrial Zones in apparel industry and such like. They live in almost shanties, without proper water, electricity and without any security.  This in a country where tourists have every thing they  want at their command, which  is not a fair deal for those  who bring in revenue to government coffers. The owners of these Industries should provide hostel facilities for these women at a nominal rate, as many of them come from distant  places and cannot return to their homes after their work.  That may also increase their productivity living and working satisfactory conditions.

 Therefore, Minister  Champika Ranawaka’s raising  of danger signals in good faith has to be taken seriously  into consideration by the President and the Government and make amends.