You can live in peace and harmony - President

by P.Krishnaswamy

“Never in the future will there be a situation of terror and disharmony. You can live in peace without fear.

The Government has launched `Navodayam’ development program in the East and ‘Vasantham’ program in the North. Democratic governance has been restored in the North and East. I am your friend and let us unite to build up our motherland.”

These were the words President Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke in flawless Tamil addressing the two-day `Sri Lankan Expatriate Forum 2009’ at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday. His speech in Tamil received a rousing ovation from the fully packed audience of expatriate community.

The Government has insisted time and again on the need for learning Tamil so that we can talk to members of the minority communities in their own language, he added.

The President also launched the website www.connectsrilanka.net for the Sri Lankan diaspora.

“I laid the foundation to build peace, communal harmony and brotherhood. Terrorism has been completely wiped out.

After we achieved so much certain unpatriotic elements are behaving in a strange manner. You are living in countries far away but you know who these elements are. Many countries that were calling themselves champions of democracy also started criticising us after we eliminated terrorism and restored democracy”, the President said.

Everyone in the country knows that he spent a major part of his political career towards protecting and promoting human rights but malicious propaganda was being carried out in foreign countries that he supported HR violations, he stated.

Unhampered by pressures from certain members of the international community, the Government was going ahead with its development programs, he said. He called upon the expatriate community to contribute their share towards the economic prosperity of their motherland. He pointed out that children of the war-torn areas were brought up in an atmosphere of gun culture. The Government had introduced several programmes to change their mental outlook, the President said. The expatriate community too had a responsibility by them. The Government had identified development areas in various sectors, including tourism and investment promotion and this opened wide opportunities for the members of the expatriate community. This is a new country not the one that was there 30 years ago and not the one that was there three years ago, the President said. It is a pluralistic society based on brotherhood and mutual understanding. “You are now in a new country which is free of terrorism and also free of communal, religious and linguistic differences”, he said. Ministers Rohitha Bogollagama, Nandana Gunatillake and Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga also spoke.