"WE HAVE PASSED the difficult land-marks of the defeat and eradication of terrorism from our land. Our heroic troops, a vital sector of our workforce, are completing the historic task of sweeping terrorism away from our midst. The people see a new promise of freedom throughout the land, a freedom that was for long denied for nearly two-thirds of our land and a third of our population and working people. Terrorism not only threatens peaceful society, it also gives rise to misery that is the enemy of progress, "said President Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the commemoration meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat to mark the 90th anniversary of the International Organisation (ILO)
He said, "In the past three and a half years we have responded to this challenge in different ways. We tried to have a dialogue and negotiations. That was rejected. We were then compelled to use force, the force that is the right of the State, force that is the only language that the terrorist seemed to understand. We used our force with great concern for the hardships it causes to the ordinary people, to the workers and farmers, to their children, and to their livelihood. We had to take hard decisions, and in the end those decisions saw victory against the evil of terror."
The president said, as he spoke, the country had passed the difficult land-marks of the defeat and eradication of terrorism from our land. The heroic troops, a vital sector of our workforce, were completing the historic task of sweeping terrorism away from our midst. The people saw a new promise of freedom throughout the land, a freedom that was long denied for nearly two-thirds of our land and a third of our population and working people. Terrorism not only threatened peaceful society, it also gives rise to misery which was the enemy of progress.
"Terrorism is widespread the world over today. It affects the rich, developed and the poor developing world. It is a threat that did not exist at the time the ILO was launched with such great hope 90 years ago. But today, this is also a threat to the conditions of work of the people that the ILO will have to take note of. Its commitment to social justice for the working people must put the ILO against all forms of terror, not only in the workplace.
"The fisherman deprived of his harvest from the sea, the cultivator, deprived of his crop from the land, the community, driven out through ethnic cleansing, the plight of the Internally Displaced. All of this is a new agenda that the ILO will have to address as it enters its tenth decade, and moves towards celebrating its century of service and progress.
"I have no doubt that the ILO is already looking at facing the crises brought about by the Global Financial Crisis, which in turn has brought about the Global Economic Crisis. These are grave issues. But in its 90 year span, the ILO has faced such challenges and grown wiser and sound in its policies in dealing with such issues.
"These two crises that were born in the Developed World are having grave impacts on the developing countries, through no fault of our own. We are being forced to suffer for the faults of others. It is in such situations that organisations such as the ILO reflecting the spirit of humanity that must drive our societies, will have to rise above others in showing the path of social justice, of protection for the workers and farmers of the world, of fair trading and fair practices in international economic relations.
The ILO has been such a force in the past. I have all the confidence that it will be such a force for the good of humanity in the future. I wish it every success in carrying out its mandate for ensuring justice for the working population of our world, today and tomorrow.
The President said as the ILO’s Decent Work concept rightly shows, the surest way to achieve this was to provide people with decent employment. It is significant to note that unemployment in Sri Lanka is at the lowest ever.
In order to achieve decent employment for people, the government in 2006 presented the ‘Ten Year Horizon Development Framework, the Mahinda Chinthana Vision for a New Sri Lanka". It was a vision when converted to reality, covers both macro-economic and pro-poor social development strategies.
It recognized the major development challenges before the country as being the eradication of poverty, the elimination of regional disparities in development, disparities that are stark in nature, with the single Western Province having the largest share of development in the last 61 years. The performance in the rural agricultural sector had wider implications, as it was the main source of employment and sustenance, where the greater part of the population lived.
"We have a commitment to change this pattern, to build on the success we have already achieved and create the necessary decent employment opportunities, especially, in this long neglected sector that is the reservoir of the strength of our people. We need to follow policies that will keep our rural people in the villages, giving them pride in the rural upbringing and more healthy environment. Infrastructure development must not by-pass the village but move together with the village and enhance rural life" he said.
