President tells Norochcholai project opening:

Unite and contribute to development

by Shanika Sriyananda

Can you remember learning about how the ancient kings of Sri Lanka disguised themselves and mingled with the public to feel their agony? President Mahinda Rajapaksa too has started to make moves to get a first hand feel of the people’s burning problems.

He had heard enough about the vehicular conduct of VIPs on the road that has become a real menace to many others on the roads and last Wednesday, on his way to Parliament, he took just one of his vehicles, leaving his convoy of security and backup vehicles behind.

The President was surprised to see how the security convoy of a prominent Minister, who was rushing to Parliament, almost knocked his vehicle.

“What I have heard was true. Now I can feel how these VIPs harass ordinary people. See how he was driving recklessly and almost hit my vehicle,” he said angrily and warned the ministers to instruct their security to stick to speed limits and not to cause problems to the public on roads.

Sources said that he would continue to carry out sudden checks to redress some of the problems of the people.

Norochcholai opening

“Sri Lanka is the only country which has a 24-hour power supply in the Asian region and electricity will never be an election slogan in the future because within the next two years, we’ll be self sufficient in power”, President Rajapaksa said, opening the first phase of the 900MW coal-fired power plant in Norochcholai - Lak Vijaya.

The first phase of the Lak Vijaya power plant, funded by the Chinese government, generates 300 MW of electricity to the National Grid.

President Rajapaksa called all Sri Lankans to be united, shedding their differences and contribute their maximum to the country’s development in the aftermath of the conflict.

“Over 87 percent of households in the country are supplied with electricity and it would be increased to 100 percent within two years.

“We are providing all infrastructure facilities to the rural areas. The Government has to defeat many forces which are trying to hinder the country’s development by making false allegations.

They were lobbying to stop the GSP Plus facility, foreign aid and other financial support to the country to stop the country’s progress. But the people of this country have proved that such forces have no long life and they were defeated at the previous elections”, he said.

President Rajapaksa mentioned Government plans to generate electricity using alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.

President Rajapaksa said that the country faced insurrections and terrorism due to the lack of a proper mechanism to develop the country.

“We did not have a proper program to build the country and this led to youth upheavals in 1971 and 1988 and terrorism which engulfed the nation for nearly 30 years,” he said.

President Rajapaksa said that the country has been in the path of progress since the victory of the UPFA Government, led by him, in 2005.

Future generation

President Rajapaksa stressed the importance of having an intelligent and disciplined future generation who can face any challenge, to achieve the Government’s goal to make the country the ‘Wonder of Asia’.

He said schools have a responsibility to mould children in this sphere and the Government has taken every step to ensure a quality education to children by providing facilities and granting their rights to education.

The President, who opened a building complex ‘Dandina Samarasinghe Memorial Shilpa Medura, at the Gunaratana Madya Maha Vidyalaya, Palatuwa, Matara to commemorate his late mother on March 24 said material resources alone would not bring about proper development of a country unless the people especially the younger generation were rich in moral and spiritual values.

“A disciplined human resource is the secret behind the development and success of any country and the program to achieve this must start from the school”, he said.

“We claim that students are poor in Mathematics while there is a shortage of teachers in almost all provinces. Some suggest that we should reduce the pass marks for Mathematics and make the syllabus easy for children, but I don’t see any logic in these suggestions.

The solution is to provide enough teachers for these schools. The Government has taken several steps to ease the shortage of school teachers”, he said.

Recalling how he learnt ABC from his mother, who was an old student of Palatuwe Gunaratana Vidyalaya, he said schools were developed when they were administered by qualified and capable principals and teachers.

“This school will be a good example. There is competition among parents to send their children to popular schools in the city, but there are no such schools in the Palatuwa area; this school is one of the best though it is in a suburb.

“Today there are claims that children give priority to tuition, but if school teachers are dedicated we can put an end to this tuition culture.

“If competent teachers were provided and subjects such as Mathematics, Science and English were properly taught in schools there won’t be a need for students to attend tuition classes. I think our responsibility is to create an environment to give children a better education.

We have brought the resources, hitherto restricted to Colombo and the Western Province, into the village now. Today schools and infrastructure in the villages are well developed and it is up to you to make maximum use of them for your progress and welfare”, he said.

“Today everyone is talking about exams. Only five percent of students, enter the universities and what will be the fate of the remaining 95 percent? The Government has taken steps to ensure a sound future for them through vocational training programs to facilitate them to seek employment.

We need to identify the hidden talents of each child as it will help direct them to proper vocational training. We have to identify the areas in which we can generate more job opportunities and need to make children aware of how to tap those resources”.

President Rajapaksa requested parents to be more committed to their children and always appreciate their talents to encourage them whether in education, sports or in simple acts of good behaviour.

“There is no purpose in indulging a society where our children will become a burden to the country, with no respect for religion or moral values even if we could reap the fruits of development. Above all it is our prime duty to ensure a society endowed with moral rectitude”, he said.

Ethnic harmony

President Rajapaksa, addressing editors and media heads of the print and electronic media on March 25 at Temple Trees, in his monthly series of meetings said the Government would reach a mutual agreement after considering proposals from all Tamil political parties for post-conflict reconciliation.

He said a little has been reported in the media about the prevailing ethnic harmony among communities, but more space or publicity was given to false allegations.

“There are steps to appoint a Tamil-speaking police officer in each police station in the North to facilitate the Tamils to lodge their complaints. Reports submitted to the Courts in the North are filled in Tamil. We have taken these steps to promote post-conflict reconciliation, which was appreciated internationally”, he said.

At the meeting the President revealed of attempts being made by organised anti-Sri Lankan groups to tarnish the image and the good work of the Government which fosters peace and development.

“These elements, which have the support of various influential organisations and individuals, propagate negative publicity against Sri Lanka with the help of some international media, which avoid publishing positive stories about Sri Lanka. Lankan diplomatic staff in those countries are trying hard to counter these allegations”, he pointed out.

At the meeting, the President emphasised the right and responsibility of the Government to monitor the ways and means of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) obtaining funds and how they are utilised in projects.

He said that millions of rupees come into the country on a monthly and yearly basis and there was no mechanism currently to monitor the funds.

“There is no other country in the world which allows organisations to bring large amounts of money into the country and spend them on projects of their own without any monitoring by the government. We are to introduce a policy, to monitor their activities soon. This is not an anti-NGO policy but a mechanism to ensure that those funds are utilised properly to meet the specific target”, he said.

“The Government was compelled to inquire about three NGOs which received over Rs. 618 million. When an ordinary person brought into or took out of the country even smaller amounts of foreign currency, he/she had to answer a lot of questions and account for the funds.

Therefore, there was no reason why these NGOs should make an issue about being questioned by the police”, the President said, adding that the Government took these moves to make the NGOs more accountable and transparent.

He also said that the controversial preferential voting system could be replaced with the old electoral system once the new legislation gets clearance from Parliament, but it was not possible to conduct the next round of Local Government elections under the new system.

“Due to lack of time, we will have to follow the preferential voting system at the next round of Local Government elections. But once the amendments to the Election Law are made by April, we will be in a position to hold all future elections on the old electoral system and do away with the preferential voting system which affects solidarity among contestants of the same party,” he said.

Explaining to what extent the Manape or the preferential votes had influenced intra-party rivalries, President Rajapaksa said the Government had to breach its policy when appointing heads to the Local Government bodies.

Refuting allegations that some candidates had tampered with the preferential votes, he said the tough counting process, in which votes were counted in the presence of candidates, prevented any illegal activity.

Distributing a chart ‘Election related incidents: Comparative Analysis’ prepared based on statistics by the Police, he said incidents of election-related violence had been very low this year compared to the past elections.

“At the 2004 General Election, 2,422 incidents of election-related violence had been reported, but they were down to 347 at the General Election 2010 and at the March 17 Local Government elections, only 221 were reported. Most of them were intra-party incidents”, he said.

The President said Ranil or Sajith or any one could not be a challenge to the Government and congratulated the Opposition Leader for his re-appointment as the UNP Leader.

“This is good news and I think it is good to have an experienced leader such as Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Opposition Leader”, he said.

Responding to a query by an editor, ‘whether Sajith Premadasa could be a challenge to the Government, President Rajapaksa asked “Are you joking? How can a person who could not even secure his stronghold, Hambantota, be a challenge to the Government?”