World News | Sri Lanka's Ruling Party Lauds Service Rendered by Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. The ruling party of crisis-hit Sri Lanka on Friday lauded former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the services he rendered to the nation and highlighted his decisive role in bringing peace to the motherland by ending 30 years of terrible terrorism.
Colombo, Jul 15 (PTI) The ruling party of crisis-hit Sri Lanka on Friday lauded former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the services he rendered to the nation and highlighted his decisive role in bringing peace to the motherland by ending 30 years of terrible terrorism.
In a statement on the resignation of Rajapaksa, who resigned hours after landing in Singapore on a "private visit", Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said that political leaders in the world of politics mostly attempted to take political power, and relinquishing power and positions was a very rare sight in the world of politics.
The 73-year-old former president resigned two days after the embattled leader fled the country in the face of massive protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country.
Referring to the civil war with the LTTE, it pointed out that Rajapaksa played a decisive role in bringing peace to the motherland by ending 30 years of terrible terrorism. He also won the last presidential election in 2019 with a historic mandate, the SLPP noted.
The SLPP said the former president, embattled in the worst economic crisis in the history of Sri Lanka since its independence in 1948 had reached that difficult decision and signed the letter of resignation with half of his term remaining.
"In the history of the country, no executive president has left office before the end of his term. It is indeed a difficult decision," the Colombo Page newspaper cited the party statement as saying.
It said the former president of the bankrupt country had to face the complex challenge of saving the lives of his fellow countrymen from the Covid epidemic even before three months had passed since assuming the office of the eighth executive President of Sri Lanka.
Rajapaksa was the first person with the army background to be elected as Sri Lanka's President in 2019.
The Podujana Peramuna mentioned that even the international community had accepted that Gotabaya had succeeded in properly managing the Covid disaster that left millions of people dead across the world.
Sri Lanka's foreign exchange problem, which was in the making due to long-term reasons, developed into a serious crisis in the face of the Covid disaster as the country's economy took a hit due to border restrictions and loss of tourism.
Saluting Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his service as a war hero on the battlefield, as the State Defence Secretary and as the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna also emphasised that a dialogue about the values of an honest man like him will definitely be created through the conscience of future citizens.
The 73-year-old leader on Thursday emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the city-state on a "private visit".
On Saturday, Rajapaksa had announced to step down on July 13 after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, blaming him for the unprecedented economic crisis that has brought the country to its knees.
He, however, fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office. From Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)