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'We can show how to topple a govt'

08 Apr 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The opposition’s expectation for a regime change through a Arab Spring kind of uprising will not succeed in Sri Lanka and there is no need to go to Harvard or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to learn how to topple governments, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today.

“If they come to Medamulana I will teach them how to topple a government,” the President said amid laughter from the audience.

In the keynote address at the Central Bank auditorium during the presentation of the Central Bank Annual Report 2013, he said the opposition was awaiting the collapse of the government like the jackal going after the goat but could never catch it.

The President said the opposition had predicted a change of government every March since 2005 but nothing appears to have happened.

Commenting on the Government’s achievements in the economic front during the past few years, President Rajapaksa said the economic policies and programmes had to be changed to adapt to the new economic trends in the world.

“For instance, after the war victory in 2009, officials set the tourist arrival target at one million by 2016 but I said I am not satisfied. My target was a minimum of 1.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016. We are to achieve the 1.5 million tourist arrival target even before 2016 and by 2025 we will host 2.5 million tourists,” he said.

The President expressed concern at the increasing income disparity among the people with rapid development and said economic planning must focus on reducing this gap. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)

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'We can show how to topple a govt'

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