Focus on broader picture when casting your vote

• Says country will lose if voted on basis of minor distractions 
• The people should always ask themselves who can rule this country effectively

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday stressed the people to focus on the importance of the broader picture when casting their votes instead of being distracted by minor distractions.  

In a statement issued yesterday under the theme “Defeating domestic and foreign conspiracies against Sri Lanka”, Mr. Rajapaksa said, “if we allow ourselves to be distracted and forget the broader picture even for a moment, the consequences could be disastrous.”   

“That is why I always stress the importance of the broader picture. If people cast their votes on the basis of various minor distractions, we will lose everything, our country, our nationhood, our religion, our culture and the future of unborn generations. The people should always ask themselves who can rule this country effectively, ensure economic development, eliminate terrorism and ensure the security of the nation? Who can safeguard democracy by holding elections on time? Who can build a Sri Lanka where future generations will be able to live freely and be proud of? I need not spell it out, every Sri Lankan knows the answer to those questions,” he said.   

The Prime Minister said if the Yahapalana leaders had won the 2019 presidential election, they would have implemented all detrimental laws and regulations and finished off Sri Lanka.   

“We need a very strong mandate at this election to conclusively defeat these conspiracies. You will recall that at the end of 2018 when the Yahapalana government began to break up, diplomats of certain Western embassies sat in the visitor’s gallery in Parliament and applauded and cheered the Yahapalana Speaker’s efforts to protect their investment. We must bear in mind that even though the conspirators lost the presidential election, they have not given up their quest.   

My request to the people of Sri Lanka is to always have the broader picture in mind when it comes to politics. Given the threats we are up against, we will be destroyed if we fail to distinguish between what is politically important and politically unimportant. Various things can be said about the question whether social distancing was observed in the proper manner at Mr Arumugam Thondaman’s funeral or whether someone had been guilty of fixing a cricket match back in 2011. However, these are not politically important matters.   

The biggest problem that we had to face after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came into power was the Covid-19 pandemic. What is politically important is whether that major issue was handled competently. I wish to state that we are right on top in the world in controlling Covid-19. Even New Zealand is behind us. Countries like Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan learnt how to contain pandemics like Covid-19 through the bitter experience of the SARS pandemic of 2003.   

We have managed to bring Covid-19 under control in this manner without much experience with such diseases. As of now the only possibility of another Covid-19 outbreak in this country will be if an infected person coming from overseas somehow finds his way into the general population. If the Yahapalana cabal had been in power, would they have been able to bring Covid-19 under control in this manner? If we are able to distinguish what is important from what is unimportant, and always have the broader picture in mind, our people will always be the winners.   
We saw the manner in which the Yahapalana cabal made a hue and cry about a comment made by Karuna Amman to the effect that he had been responsible for the deaths of thousands of soldiers in attacks on army camps when he was in the LTTE. This shows how easy it is to obscure the broader picture by bringing other issues to the fore. After I became President in November 2005, we destroyed the LTTE completely. 

• The biggest problem that we had to face after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came into power was the Covid-19 pandemic
• We have managed to bring Covid-19 under control in this manner without much experience with such diseases
• We must bear in mind that even though the conspirators lost the presidential election, they have not given up their quest