your excellency mr. president mahinda rajapakse: the

8/14/2019 Your Excellency Mr. President Mahinda Rajapakse: The

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Your Excellency Mr. President Mahinda Rajapakse: The

Ball is now in Your Court!

President Mahinda Rajapakse has reportedly told that his government would be focussed to

eliminate the term of remote village from the map of the country. He might have referred to

the land areas remote from the urban areas. In my opinion, urban areas are too remote to the

heart of the people and no better than remote villages. Development can not be achieved withthe displeased population and his government should be focussed and act upon to eliminate

the issues burning in the city life.

Apart from many serious problems i. e: economical, unemployment, inflation, salary

increments, budget deficit, etc, that would take time to settle, the country is still suffering

from even silly problems resulted from mismanagement of the authorities that can be resolved

in simple ways.

This is the country where no education policy, no public health & safety policy, no waste

management policy, no migrant workers policy, no road development policy etc and etc.

Elections gift one good thing to the people: to wake up the ministers at least to patch up the

things. Recent examples are the health ministrys wake up appointing National Task Force to

control dengue epidemic and environmental ministrys announcement to launch a waste

management project in Muthurajawela. You would see many such wakes up actions in this

election period.

Last October 2009, I was bored waiting in a quarter kilometre long queue in foreign ministry

to get attested some of my certificates. I had to waste whole one day from my short vacation

to Sri Lanka to get done the job. Many people were seen almost faint and irritated and surely

might be remembering the mother of the relevant minister. The same situation exists at the

passport office of Punchi Boralla where you will be exhausted by waiting to receive your

passport for whole day. If you know some inside broker, you can get the passport in 2 hours

by paying a ransom. These are the problems that can be solved easily by opening morecounters or offices but when the ministers are ignorant of these issues or unthinkable of

solutions, what helpless we can do. This is the kind situation that prevails in all state

institutions or departments.

Recently Foreign Employment Ministry decided to re-register all expats who are coming back

to Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, this ministry is incapable of thinking something new beneficial

to the country or people beyond the registrations and re-registrations. Many other ministers

are no better. President after the war was over, has been calling upon all expatriates to return

and invest in Sri Lanka while his ministries doing everything to defy the expatriates from

doing so and push them back to settle somewhere else free from hassles.

Some parents got self killed and some were on protests in past due to lack of schools withfacilities. While the government schools have been left to deteriorate or close down, country

is free for any body to commence a private education shop (international schools,

universities) with a set of untrained staffs and many of such institutions already operate island

wide without surveillance from education ministry or university grants commission (untold

misery). In this situation, it would be a hard game for expats to get a suitable college for their

children even if they return to the country.

People are suffering from garbage problem particularly in Colombo and many of them have

used to trespass others lands to dump their garbage as no proper waste management system

is still established.

Travelling in the two-way main roads like Galle road, Kandy road etc (except for ministerswho are escorted by security) is a self killing game as there are no line markings, way

separations, road signs etc (I am sure that one of the worst road net works is in Sri Lanka).


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There wont be another stupidity for a government than waiting to complete the southern high

way without doing little thing to improve exiting Galle Road.

Condition of government hospitals is rapidly deteriorating due to lack of medicines,

laboratory equipments and other facilities. If government is of insufficient funds to run these

hospitals satisfactorily, people wont be unhappy to make even a voluntary contribution for

each visit for service rather than leaving them unmaintained and closed. The government

lacks only the creative ideas to make the country comfortable place for the people.

A book can be written describing 1000s of (silly) issues like these that should have been

easily resolved but still not. Before, eying for billions worth projects, it is essential to run the

country with existing resources in a satisfactory level eliminating the mismanaged issues first.

People of this country who have been suffering all those difficulties and problems immensely

accepting the Governments excuse of LTTE terrorist problem can not be expected to suffer

further fancying the Harbour or Air Port being built in Hambantota and they need the relief

now.

I dont blame much for previous presidents but to previous ministers who have ruined this

country so far making their own benefit. Presidents are at fault for not selecting talented andmindful people as the cabinet ministers.

All those (written and unwritten) problems will remain same or worsen even after 6 years if

the Presidnet Rajapakse is going to rely on the kind of cabinet going to form in few weeks

time as they are the same or similar bunch of individuals that worked in previous

governments.

President Rajapakse pledged during the last presidential campaign that he would start to work

from 27th January 2010 itself once elected. I wish that this work include not only travelling

around the political meetings but to review the peoples grievances also. My appeal is for

President Rajapakse to show your Excellencys word happening now. Use your executive

powers and appoint a committee of professionals to research and recommend the ways toimprove the troubled areas of the country. This presidential committee should be fully

authorised to take peoples complaints and formulate the government policies in collaboration

with relevant authorities. Expatriates would be pleased to submit the ideal proposals from

their experience gained from different countries and alternatively, the committee members

can visit and see what other countries did to make the peoples life easier. This way,

President Rajapakse could easily prove that Executive Presidency is needed for the country

not only for war against terrorism but also for the development of the country.

This is not the first time that creative minded presidents in Sri Lanka have intervened and

given quick and nice solutions for countrys problems. A good example in this regards is the

architect of the Bamboo railway gates; former President R. Premadasa who has allegedly

ordered to install Bamboo gates for every railway crossings for safety of the commuters aftera school bus met an accident killing tens of students during his presidential regime. This

solution, although not much sophisticated, ensured the safety of the people as well as few job

opportunities for poor peoples.

In recent history, launching a budget air line Minhin Lanka is a great achievement of

President Rajapakse although there are issues reported in the management. A high admiration

is reserved for President for his fearless response given for the decade long terrorist problem

disregarding the severe pressure thrust by West upon him. For the same reason, President

Mahinda Rajapakse was re-elected from the trust and gratitude that people had on him.

However, it is worthy to add that no time would be taken for the people to turn back (like

what happened to General Sarath Fonseka) if betrayed to the country. Now the ball is in your

Excellencys court.


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By Manoj Lanka Hettige

your excellency mr. president mahinda rajapakse: the

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