Sri Lanka has the wisdom to solve its own problems, President Rajapaksa says

Sri Lanka has the inherited wisdom to tolerate all opinions and take mature decisions and the country has a tradition of understanding its problems and conflicts and finding solutions for them, the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa said today.


"We are not a miniature of a developed country. We are Sri Lanka. Our motherland is Sri Lanka," the President told the nation today following his inauguration to a second term in office.
Aiming at the critics of Sri Lankan government on its resolution to the ethnic conflict, the President said Sri Lanka understands its problems with perceived wisdom.
"We understand our problems with perceived wisdom, based on realities. The expectations of the people are not those of the terrorists," he pointed out.
President Rajapaksa highlighting the development work carried out in the North and East said all development work in the conflict-affected region is a closure of a highway to terrorism.
He said he strongly believes that the infrastructure development in those areas to banish poverty is a major part of a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
The President observed that the people of the North were able to use their franchise in freedom at the Presidential and Parliamentary elections and assured the right to vote freely and elect their representatives in the forthcoming local elections.
President Rajapaksa said he seeks a country where people can travel from one end to another in a few hours and an era which provides a good income for the people.
He told the nation to rise by making Sri Lanka the hub of development in the five-fold areas of naval, aviation, commerce and trade, power and energy, and knowledge.
When children are brought up with all facilities with love and friendship and provided shelter and security, there will be no room for hatred on politics, community, caste, or religion, the President noted.
Speaking of foreign policy, the President said Sri Lanka's policy is non-alignment and during the war-ridden era Sri Lanka worked with many nations in agreement and friendship for national security.
The President said now the country is entering into a development era and invited the friendly countries to assist Sri Lanka with that endeavor.
"There will be no development in the absence of peace, nor peace in the absence of development. Therefore, we will strengthen already existing relations between nations and are ready to establish new relations for national security and development," the President said.
Addressing the children of the country, the President asked them never to call this is small country, as Sri Lanka, a land with great history, had won the freedom from its powerful imperial masters and more recently defeated the most ruthless and savage terrorist group in the world.
(Photos by Sudath Silva)