Masses hail President Mahinda Rajapaksa

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will complete 44 years in politics on Tuesday. He entered Parliament for the first time at the general elections on May 27, 1970.

The dynamic Mahinda Rajapaksa not only won the Beliatta electorate but also set a new record by becoming the youngest parliamentarian at the age of 24. He won the Beliatta electorate with a convincing majority of 6,626 votes, polling 23,103 votes compared to his closest rival Dr. Ranjith Atapattu of the UNP who mustered only 16,477 votes.

Born on November 18, 1945, he was the third son of former Minister of Agriculture and Lands D. A. Rajapaksa. Young Mahinda grew up in a deeply religious environment and had his early education at Richmond College, Galle, Nalanda College and Thurstan College, Colombo.

Having entered the Sri Lanka Law College in 1973, he was instrumental in setting up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Lawyers' Association and took oaths as an Attorney-at-Law in 1976.

From the day the SLFP was founded by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the late D.A. Rajapaksa along with a few others, no other party leader had toiled for the

betterment of the party and the working class than President Rajapaksa.

He was a political prisoner after the then UNP rigged the Mulkirigala by-election and was imprisoned at the Magazine Prison in 1985. He languished in prison for more than three months. His mother Dandina Samarasinghe Dissanayake passed away while Mahinda was in prison and the callous UNP regime at the time did not even permit him to see his dying mother.

During the UNP's 17-year regime, it folded the electoral map and rigged even the few elections it held. Mahinda Rajapaksa spared no pains to bring back the SLFP into power in 1994.

On March 16, 1992, he launched the Pada Yathra - the famous protest march against the State-terrorism unleashed by the Premadasa regime. His eight-day protest march ended triumphantly at Kataragama at a time almost all Opposition politicians feared to utter a word due to the State-sponsored thugs at the time.

He also launched a spate of mass protests such as Human Chain (from Colombo to Ratnapura) and Jana Ghosha, paving the way for a SLFP-led President and a Government in 1994.

As a champion human rights activist, Mahinda Rajapaksa fought against the numerous involuntary disappearances during the 1988-1989 period of UNP terror. He was a tower of strength to thousands of mothers who lost their sons and daughters due to State terror prevailing at the time.

No other leader in mainstream politics today - be it in the government or the Opposition, could match the gigantic achievements and superior track record of President Rajapaksa.

His illustrious political leadership to crush LTTE terrorism and save our nation went down in history as the most outstanding milestone. Had it not been for his political sagacity, Sri Lanka would have been still plagued by ruthless LTTE terrorism.

The Security Forces, under his leadership, fought tooth and nail against terrorism and protected Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity. If not for his fearless

leadership and far-sighted foreign policy which had won Sri Lanka new friends across the globe, Sri Lanka would have been at the receiving end of Velupillai Prabhakaran's barbaric terrorism even today.

The manner in which he won new friends across the globe and the support Sri Lanka received during the 2006-2009 battle against terrorism was a commendable achievement which no other leader had accomplished earlier.

Had it not been for President Rajapaksa's illustrious leadership, his steadfast friends in the international community and the right foreign policy envisioned in the Mahinda Chinthana, some Western nations would have made Sri Lanka a colony of theirs again.

Over the years, several Western nations had attempted to interfere in Sri Lanka's internal matters but the President stood his ground and did not yield to undue pressure.

At a time the Opposition is making a big hue and cry on a so-called common candidate for the next Presidential election, there is no doubt that President Rajapaksa is the only leader who is loved by one and all. Be it the UNP, JVP or any other political party for that matter, there are a large number of senior leaders from those parties who pledged support to the President's leadership.

They joined the UPFA because they were convinced of the President's illustrious leadership which none could match. Even former LTTE leaders who had given up arms and reposed faith in democracy have joined the UPFA to support the President who treats all communities as equals. Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has already declared that the UNP would field its own candidate at the next Presidential election. This implies that the JVP, Democratic Party or TNA leaders or any other religious or social leader would be unable to contest the next Presidential election as a common candidate with the support of the UNP. Despite the internal power struggle, Wickremesinghe would be the UNP's obvious choice.

The Democratic Party leader Sarath Fonseka has declared that the UNP and the JVP should support his candidature at the next Presidential election as they had done earlier. Fonseka is under a delusion that the UNP and the JVP are obliged to make him the common candidate merely because they had supported him at the 2010 Presidential election. The JVP has openly declared that it would not support anyone with political affiliations at present or in the past as the so-called common candidate. This means that the common candidate would not receive the support from any of the major parties in the Opposition as these party leaders are not willing to forgo their chance of contesting.

Hence, it is evident that the daydreams of sinister forces funded by the West have ended. A common candidate who could command the support of the UNP, JVP, TNA and the Democratic Party would never materialise. Even if such a far-fetched goal is achieved, the person fielded as the common candidate could never even in his wildest dreams pose any challenge to President Rajapaksa.

It is natural for any leader to lose his or her vote base after being in power for many years. In contrast, President Rajapaksa increased his vote base to over 57 percent when he contested the Presidential election for the second time in 2010 - a little over five years after his first election.

This was purely due to the people-friendly Mahinda Chinthana policy statement which had helped the masses in far flung areas. With terrorism a thing of the past, the country is moving towards new economic horizons. The masses are now reaping the rich dividends of peace with the purchasing power of those in the North and the East improving considerably.

The masses continue to repose implicit faith in the leader who has been always close to them and feels the pulse of the common man. The President has always gone that extra mile to reach out to the poorest of the poor and find solutions to their pressing needs. This has been the President's hallmark for the past 44 years; from the day he entered Parliament as the youngest member of the House.

In this scenario, President Rajapaksa would undoubtedly fare even better when he seeks a fresh mandate from the masses.

His soaring popularity has been a poser not only to the Opposition which had lost 29 elections since 2005 - including two presidential elections, but also those sinister forces in the West which continue to daydream of a regime change. Since they find it increasingly difficult to win elections as the masses strongly support the President, they invariably resort to various undemocratic means for a regime change.

The masses would by no means permit the LTTE rump and their Western godfathers to achieve their vicious goals. The people will always continue to support the leader who had ushered in peace and developed the country which no leader had done since the country gained independence in 1948. In this context, President Rajapaksa is undoubtedly the best Sri Lankan leader since independence.