President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a charismatic leader:

People won’t be misled by NDF propaganda campaign – Johnston Fernando

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday called upon the people, especially the middle class and those who live in urban areas to take an intelligent decision at the January 8 Presidential election and not be misled by the false propaganda campaign launched by New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Maithripala Sirisena to hoodwink the public.

People in the villages cannot be misled by such campaigns. They should analyse what Sirisena says - whether it is true or not, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

If a leader such as President Mahinda Rajapaksa could govern the country for another 10 or 15 years, Sri Lanka would also turn out to be a country like Singapore or Malaysia.

These countries were developed as one leader ruled them for a long time. At present, Sri Lanka too has such a charismatic Leader, the Minister said.

The joint Opposition says that NDF candidate Sirisena will win the Presidential election to mislead the public. They adopted the same strategy at the 2010 Presidential election as well. The common Opposition candidate, at the time, Sarath Fonseka also went to the villages having earned some credit for the war victory.

But when the election results were announced, the President had won the election by 1.8 million majority votes.

During the 2010 Presidential election campaign, some print and electronic media gave the impression that Fonseka would win the election. Today a certain section of the media is also propagating the same ideology on Sirisena. However, the real situation is completely different as the vast majority of the people in both urban and rural areas are with the President.

“Unscrupulous elements who are behind Sirisena’s campaign are trying to bring the Arab Spring to Sri Lanka similar to how they adopted it in Libya and Iraq. As long as the people repose confidence in the President, they would never realise their vicious goals in Sri Lanka.”

After Independence, the highest number of mega development projects had been launched during the tenure of President Rajapaksa. President Rajapaksa is the only leader who could develop the country. If somebody wants to divide the country, he could vote for Sirisena. Those who wish to rebuild this country and ensure their security would definitely vote for President Rajapaksa.”