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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 01.20 GMT |
At Oxford Union
We fight terror single handed to let
democracy prevail
– President |
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“The LTTE is the most
brutal terror outfit the world has ever
seen, and defeating them requires global
support. What Sri Lanka is doing, is
fighting this terror outfit single handed,
to ensure that democracy and respect for
human life prevail in the world, said
President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he
addressed the Oxford Union yesterday (13)
“I must add that what I am doing is in no
way different to what other democracies have
done before, and continue to do in the face
of terrorism. If we fail in our war against
the LTTE, the world will fail in its fight
against terrorism, and democracy will be the
victim. This is the plain truth,” the
President said.
The President, in his address, outlined the
key characteristics of the holistic
development strategy pursued by the
Government, especially in empowering the
rural areas where the vast majority of the
Sri Lankan people live.
“Our development thrust unfortunately has
had its own obstacles, the main being the
brutal terrorist threat that makes us, a
developing country, to take a heavy toll. It
is time that the world, raising its united
voice, expressed its utter revulsion of the
barbaric practice of suicide bombings. It
must be made absolutely clear that this form
of political expression, if it could be
described as such, is utterly unacceptable
in the civilized world,” the President
added.
Here is the full text of the President’s
address :
It is with much pleasure that I address you
in these hallowed surroundings tonight. I
must thank the Oxford Union and Mr. Dilan
Fernando for this opportunity. Many renowned
speakers have addressed you from here before
me. I do not seek to match them in their
eloquence but I do wish to speak to you on a
subject of much interest to my country at
the present time.
That is the empowerment of rural economy, a
central theme of my development strategy for
Sri Lanka. Our development strategy towards
empowering the rural economy of our country,
where majority of our people live, has now
become relevant to the global economy itself
in the context of the emerging world food
crisis and environmental challenges to our
own survival. We have an additional burden.
We are threatened by the challenge of
terrorism and the need to protect the rights
of our fellow beings.
Sri Lanka where I was born and bred is a
country where our culture is firmly rooted
in rural tradition. The Sri Lankan culture
has been essentially conditioned by the
great religion of Buddhism, but later
influenced by Hinduism, Islam and
Christianity. The concepts of loving
kindness, compassion and tolerance are at
the heart of our psychological make up. They
nourish and sustain us through the
uncertainties of life. Our traditional
greeting - ‘Ayubowan’ means – May you live
long.
It is not surprising then that in a world
where rulers constructed massive castles and
grand palaces to demonstrate their power and
wealth, our kings constructed huge
reservoirs -- Tanks, as we call them -- to
provide water to sustain food production and
ensure sustainable livelihood to the people.
The great legacy left behind by our ancient
rulers, and which is in use even today
scattered across three vast provinces of my
island home, is the massive irrigation
network.
This unique hydraulic civilization which
sustained an essentially prosperous rural
society, was based on a philosophy which has
much to offer the modern world. Buddhism
taught us that we have no absolute ownership
of the forests, the rivers, the oceans and
the atmosphere that sustain life; that every
generation holds the environment in trust,
so that its abuse is prevented; and that our
duty was to hand down the environment. to
future generations without harm.
Even today, over 77 percent of our people
still live in rural areas because of a wide
range of attractions in our rural home base.
I myself hail from the Deep South, from an
agrarian village with a beautiful natural
environment. I am extremely proud of that
fact. The attraction in our villages is not
only the economic resources and greenery,
but also the traditional culture, arts,
religion and bio-diversity which are
incentives to keep our people away from
migrating into urban townships. The horrors
of poverty and suffering that have engulfed
many booming Asian cities have not affected
Sri Lanka.
Strengthened by the caring attitude
inherited from our ancient rulers, we were
able to adapt to modern democracy with great
ease. It was in 1931, while still under the
British, that Sri Lanka was granted
universal franchise. You will recall that
Britain achieved this status only in 1926.
Since then we have continued to develop and
strengthen democratic institutions in Sri
Lanka. Political pluralism has always been
fundamental to our democracy. We have
parties of different political views
represented in our parliament. This
diversity uniquely enriches Sri Lanka's
political canvass.
The government, although elected by a
Sinhala Buddhist majority, represents a
coalition of Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim
communities and all the religious groups in
the country. You will be hard pressed to
find a similarly representative government
in any of the other democracies of the
world. I am proud of our vibrant
parliamentary system, the strong judicial
establishment, and the independent press.
Not a day passes without an attack on me, I
must say totally without foundation, from
some parts of the media. We have not
hesitated to adopt global standards,
collaborate with international organizations
such as the UN, ILO and the Commonwealth,
and participate in efforts to consolidate
institutions designed to protect the rights
of our fellow humans.
Sri Lanka has contributed with vigour and
creativity to the development of the
principals incorporated in international
conventions, through their work in
international organizations and through the
International Court of Justice. We have
always played our part in global efforts to
establish higher standards, and to make our
earth a better place for all, because we
fundamentally feel that this is the correct
thing to do. This is a reflection of our
cultural traditions. Sri Lanka’s conformity
to global environmental standards has been
commended time and time again.
Women in Sri Lanka enjoy equal opportunities
with men. Over 60 percent of our medical
practitioners are women. Over 80 percent of
our teachers are women. The nursing
profession is dominated by women. The legal
profession too is increasingly dominated by
women! Women have also entered sections of
the work force previously monopolized by men
such as, academia, engineering, computing,
quantity surveying and architecture. I
recall with great delight that Sri Lanka
produced world’s first elected woman Prime
Minister in 1960. Her husband, Mr. SWRD
Bandaranaike, whose portrait hangs over
there, was also a prime minister of Sri
Lanka.
Ladies and gentlemen, for decades we have
invested in education and health. My country
enjoys one of the highest literacy standards
in the world, while still being categorized
as a middle income developing country. 97
per cent of our children are enrolled at
school. Our infant mortality rate and
maternal mortality rate at child birth, is
on par with that of many developed
countries. The country provides free
healthcare to all. Education is free and
universal from childhood to university.
During the primary and secondary school life
of every child the government provides free
text books and uniforms. One of my
long-lasting joys is the sight of thousands
of children in crispy white uniforms heading
for school each morning. This is probably a
sight that one cannot witness in many other
places of the world.
Children are precious to us. I believe they
are our future. We have ensured a massive
investment in our children. My government
firmly believes that no child must be
deprived of his or her childhood. We have
created a separate ministry to look after
the welfare of our children. We do not
employ any children in our labour force, and
no one below the age of eighteen is
recruited to our armed forces; ---- unlike
the LTTE, which engages thousands in its
baby brigades. These children are robbed of
their childhood, and brutality is ingrained
into their character, making them life-long
misfits for society.
Sri Lanka has achieved a very high standard
in the United Nations Human Development
Index, and we have already, to a large
extent, achieved the Millennium Development
Goals. It was only last month that a UN
Report commended Sri Lanka for being well on
its way to eliminating malaria. We have a
very low rate of HIV / AIDS infection. I
point these things out to you only because
of the intense campaign that is being
conducted internationally, to describe my
country as one that does not care about our
fellow human beings and human needs. Facts
demonstrate that this is far from the truth.
There are no signs of obvious starvation in
any part of the country. In fact for over 25
years, since the beginning of the LTTE’s
violent challenge to our very existence, to
our sovereignty, the government has been
sending food, medicine and educational
material to the two districts dominated by
the LTTE. Every single teacher, nurse,
doctor, hospital and government official in
the LTTE controlled areas is appointed and
paid by the government in Colombo. Very few
countries grappling with terrorism have been
so accommodating. This itself illustrates
the caring nature of our society.
These noteworthy achievements have been
possible because of a holistic view of human
development to which we have always been
firmly committed. We believe that
development becomes meaningful to the vast
mass of the people only when its fruits are
capable of being enjoyed by all segments of
the people. That is why we have constantly
tried not only to achieve growth and
expansion of our national wealth but to
ensure that the resources generated by our
efforts are distributed among the people,
especially, in the rural hinterland, on an
equitable basis.
Our development model as presented in my
election manifesto, the Mahinda Chinthana,
signifies the empowerment of the rural
economy. The centre piece of this new
strategy will be the development of modern
infrastructure throughout the country to
provide a basis for development of
Agriculture, Industry, Construction,
Tourism, SMEs and transport services that
will bring about new opportunities to our
people in the rural economy. Our strategy
has enhanced the public investments over 6
percent of GDP to support ‘Randora’ –
meaning Golden Gate – our infrastructure
development initiative -- to develop new
ports, power generation and distribution
networks, and integrated townships to the
link rural economy to the global economy and
create new space for growth. We have
integrated strategies to promote insurance,
shipping, aviation, trade, logistic
industries and petroleum explorations, and
above all, skills and knowledge to position
Sri Lanka as an emerging economic hub in
south Asia.
Empowering people at grassroots level is
equally important in this whole development
process. ‘Gama Naguma’, meaning revival of
the village, is an initiative to empower
communities, adopting bottom up programmes
originating from communities and reflecting
their needs. A series of rural development
initiatives have been implemented,
permitting the community to prioritize their
needs and objectives. These initiatives are
monitored by community leaders to ensure
that a larger volume of resources are
productively used for the betterment of the
rural community.
The main thrust of this programme is to
retain people in rural environments, rather
than encouraging them to move into urban
areas; which has been the pattern in many
developing economies. Why should people move
into urban areas and live in slums or
sub-standard housing, when they can live in
very healthy environments in villages, and
enjoy clean air, water and pure and good
food. It is my belief that rural people are
much healthier than those who live in urban
cities.
Our approach to development takes into
consideration the dangers of destroying the
green environment. Every project that is
implemented under Gama Naguma recognizes the
value of green belts and the preservation of
the forest cover. The environmental
protection programmes that are implemented
throughout the island make a serious attempt
to ensure that rivers are kept clean, water
ways are not dirtied and trees are not
destroyed. The bed rock of our development
is maintaining and preserving the
environment.
Consolidating our achievements in human
resource development, we are now working
towards a knowledge economy based on
productivity, skills, knowledge and
technology. Therefore, education and health
is being undertaken at grassroots level
through multi-faceted government programmes.
In particular, I am very keen to ensure that
our children are able to become global
citizens through the use of Information
Technology. In a novel programme called ‘Nenasala’,
a network of 500 rural tele-centers has
already been established. I have set a
target to increase this up to 1,000 by next
year. Three years ago, Sri Lanka’s IT
literacy stood at a little over 5 percent.
Today I feel accomplished that we have been
able to enhance this to 20 percent. Which
means that more and more people will be able
to enter the lucrative IT job market. All
this is being done to enhance the
employability of rural youth.
The essence of our rural empowerment
programme is to ensure that rural
infrastructure development takes place at a
rapid rate. So far neglected rural roads are
being paved today with concrete to make them
last the monsoon rains that are common in
our part of the world. Rural electricity
programmes, community water supply schemes,
minor irrigation projects, housing and
market facilities are included in our rural
infrastructure development drive. In essence
our strategy is to level the playing field
between the ‘urban, organized minority’ and
the ‘rural, unorganized majority’, in the
national development process. I am
encouraged that our development strategy -
Mahinda Chinthana – Vision Towards a New Sri
Lanka, sustained a near 7 percent economic
growth during the last three years, and
reached US dollars 1,600 per capita income
in 2007. Except in one district, people
below the poverty line have declined
drastically in 2007.
Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately we are
being challenged by “the most brutal
terrorist group in the world” as the LTTE
has been described by the FBI. Suicide
killings using even women and children have
become their hallmark. It is this terror
group that invented the deadly suicide vest
for the suicide killer. Having pioneered the
suicide vest, they have freely given this
technology to other terror groups in the
world. This has now become a global menace.
There have been hundreds of innocents,
civilians returning home after work,
children going to school and young mothers
going to their weekly clinics, being maimed
or killed by indiscriminately exploded bombs
in crowded centres or being targeted by
brain-washed suicide bombers. You need to
see the carnage caused by shattered limbs
and burning human flesh, to understand the
sheer brutality that motivates this group of
terrorists. They killed Rajiv Gandhi, the
former Prime Minister of India, and
Ranasinghe Premadasa, the former President
of Sri Lanka. Most recently, a senior
Minister of my government, a Tamil speaking
Catholic, was brutally murdered by a suicide
killer, along with a former Olympic athlete
among many others participating in a
sporting event.
They also killed our former Foreign Minister
Lakshman Kadirgamar, a scholar of
distinction, and legal luminary, who once
occupied this seat as the President of the
Oxford Union with distinction.
Ladies and gentlemen it has become incumbent
upon us to confront this group to the extent
of our ability, deploying all the resources
of the State, to protect the people of Sri
Lanka and their democratic way of life. I
must add that what I am doing is in no way
different to what other democracies have
done before, and continue to do, in the face
of terrorism. However, I must to state that
the LTTE is the most brutal terror outfit
the world has ever seen, and defeating them
requires global support. What Sri Lanka is
doing, in my opinion, is fighting this
terror outfit single handed to ensure that
democracy and respect for human life prevail
in the world. If we fail in our war against
the LTTE, the world will fail in its fight
against terrorism, and democracy will be the
victim. This is the plain truth.
Our development thrust unfortunately has had
its own obstacles, the main being the brutal
terrorist threat that makes us, a developing
country, to take a heavy toll. It is time
that the world, raising its united voice,
expressed its utter revulsion of the
barbaric practice of suicide bombings. It
must be made absolutely clear that this form
of political expression, if it could be
described as such, is utterly unacceptable
in the civilized world.
There is a considerable challenge to the
security forces of my country, whose goal is
simply to protect the innocents and their
simple way of life. We need to understand
that our security forces do not go out of
their way to harass innocents, or to
discriminate against a minority. They take
great personal risks constantly. The fear
psychosis created by the LTTE terror, may
cause some lapses in judgment, but by and
large, independent observers have always
commended the efficiency, politeness and
courtesy of the men in uniform.
We must remember that there are no methods
or solutions which are universally
applicable to situations of this nature. It
is the principal duty of a government to
assure the public of security of life and
limb. It is the terrorist group that decides
when to strike: They decide the time, the
place and the opportunity. They are in no
way constrained by the values and procedures
which rightly control the responses of
democratic governments. These realities must
be taken into account as the basis of a fair
and objective assessment of Sri Lanka’s
situation.
Although many have said that the LTTE is
invincible, we have freed our Eastern
Province of their terror. Within one year we
have restored democracy there after nearly
two decades. Only last week we conducted
free and fair elections to the first ever
Eastern Provincial Council, contested by
several political parties.
As our forces seek to defeat and disarm the
LTTE, we are firm in our resolve to have a
negotiated solution to the crisis in Sri
Lanka. I do not believe in a military
solution. We have attempted talks with the
LTTE on several occasions – thrice since my
election as the President – but they have
not reciprocated. They have always left the
talks with lame excuses. We are still ready
to talk, once we are certain of their
genuine intent for a political solution… and
their readiness to give up arms.
As young leaders, you will take on
increasing responsibilities in later life.
Destiny will place you in circumstances
where you will be called upon to lead and
defend your countries. As someone who has
been nurtured and strengthened by an ethical
and caring culture, I wish to leave with you
with some thoughts.
You and I are privileged to be what we are
today, but, there are millions of our fellow
beings who are not that fortunate, and who
need our guidance, leadership and caring.
Leadership to these masses of people will
have to be given by you. Your leadership
must be one that reflects your cultural and
religious values, sense of integrity,
dedication to the cause of eliminating human
suffering, and a sense of generosity.
In conclusion, let me say that our chosen
path to development of my country,
especially the rural areas, continues to be
a challenge for all of us, particularly with
threats that are both internal and external.
Ladies and gentlemen, the protection and
advancement of human rights continues to be
a challenge for all of us, not only in Sri
Lanka but globally. I only seek to encourage
you to think of Sri Lanka as a country that
has achieved considerable success in caring
for its people, in the face of a most brutal
challenge thrown at us by terrorists. We
will continue to comply with the highest
standards in keeping with values and
traditions we hold to be sacrosanct.
May the Noble Triple Gem Bless you all! |
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