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Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 6.35 GMT |
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Sri Lanka is a
nation standing with its own strength -
President |
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Sri Lanka is a nation standing with its own strength. Today the scientists can work and conduct their research freely. Today, when a scientist conducts an experiment, its results could be infused into our economy, stated President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the research and scientific community at the Annual Presidential Research Awards Ceremony at Temple Trees yesterday (27 July).
Research will be meaningless if the people do not benefit by it or if there is no method to implement the results in accordance with the people's requirements. I am confident that we take that burden off the scientists, the President further stated.
Following is the speech by President Mahinda Rajapaksa :
This Awards Ceremony has high regard in the country as this is an occasion to recognize worthy scientific researches in the country.
I am aware that a number of Sri Lankan expatriates have also returned to the motherland solely to participate in this prestigious event. I am proud of those people who love the motherland and I applaud all sons and daughters of Sri Lanka, who conducted scientific researches in the country and receive prizes for their contribution to the scientific field today.
Friends,
We are engage in the gigantic task of building a new Sri Lanka. It can also be considered as a major research in political and socio-economic fields. We have already achieved results in the first such research.
I remember that during the Presidential election many people visited this place [Temple Trees]. A Sri Lankan expatriate who came here said, "even from these walls we smell the scent of freedom". We felt extremely proud on that occasion.
Friends,
We all agree that knowledge cannot be chained or drowned in an ocean of blood. Usually, scientists in a country are considered to be the people who feel freedom more than others. I feel that scientists and intellectuals require a free atmosphere conducive to research and experiment in areas essential for the development and progress. That can only be done if we are free of fear. Today we have that freedom. As a result of defeating terrorism, today it is possible for scientist in the North and East to conduct their experiments with absolute freedom and improve their knowledge.
We have an enormous hope for a free Sri Lanka. It is a duty and a responsibility to fulfill that expectation. Intellectuals born in this country have a major responsibility with the freedom achieved in Sri Lanka.
Friends,
As you know until now the world looked at Sri Lanka in a different manner. Sri Lanka was considered as an undeveloped, unintelligent country. Our knowledge was underestimated.
As such we used the knowledge and advice from foreign countries to build our roads, bridges, lakes and dams. Our own research and experiments could not be improved because of our dependency on foreign countries. Hence, our scientists did not come to the forefront in society.
Some people wanted us to receive advice from foreign countries not only in the scientific field but also in politics. There was an era in history where we received foreign advice on everything.
Today the constitution of the Maldives is non-operative. They have to go to the Parliament even to appoint the Head of the Science Council. A situation has arisen in that country where everything is at a standstill. The opposition is powerful in their Parliament and the ruling party has no place. When asked who made the constitution of that country, it was told that some other country made their constitution.
Sri Lanka is a nation standing with its own strength. Today the scientists can work and conduct their research freely. Today, when a scientist conducts an experiment, its results could be infused into our economy.
Research will be meaningless if the people do not benefit by it or if there is no method to implement the results in accordance with the people's requirements. I am confident that we take that burden off the scientists. I believe that we should look after all needs of the scientific community.
It is not enough to publish scientific work in a book or a magazine. While allowing them to work freely, we have a responsibility to infuse their work into the development of the country.
In the recent past we have seen financial difficulties. We were compelled to provide less money to some fields. But now we are ready to rectify that.
I believe that attention must be focused on these issues. We must involve universities and other institutions in this. That is why a single Minister has been given the responsibility of scientific research to strengthen research work.
Some research institutions have limited their work to providing test reports to hospitals. The hopes we had for those institutions have been diminished. Hence, we must think again about these things. We must arrive at an estimate. Do not think that everything is working smoothly. I believe that we must look into shortcomings, remedy them and move forward. I believe that in the forward march of building the economy, we must utilize the strength of scientists in a proper manner.
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