During an occasion held today (Feb.
22) at Royal College, Colombo, President Ranil Wickremesinghe prompted all citizens, including politicians, professionals, teachers, those engaged in agriculture, the business neighborhood, and members of the security forces, authorities and civil servants, to interact to get rid of the current economic crisis and promote reconciliation efforts.The occasion was held to honour President Wickremesinghe, who is an alumnus of Royal College.
The President hired today generation of Royalists to dedicate themselves to serving the country and changing it into a place where they would like to reside.
He urged young Royalists to take up the obstacle and form the future of the nation.President Wickremesinghe likewise highlighted that Royalists are trained to live in consistency with all races and religious beliefs, stressing that the nation can not be divided on the basis of race or religious beliefs.
He invited all politicians who are also Royalists to collaborate with the federal government in its efforts to restore the countrys stopping working economy, highlighting that it was not a political invitation, but rather a require a collective effort to address the financial crisis.The declaration made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe is as follows: I have actually come here on the invite of the Prefects of Royal College to resolve you.
I understand that youre going to stand in the sun.
I wont make my speech long.
I myself have stood in the sun like this and stated when they will shut up so we can return to the classroom.
And I do not desire that to take place to me.
Knowing that the Prime Minister has currently stated that he will not speak, but he will be the Chief Guest at the reward offering, where you will be under a hall.Before I begin to say a couple of words, I must thank the principals who moulded me and the Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.
Mr Disa Bandaranayake, Mr H.D.
Sugathapala, headmasters of the Royal Primary, Mr Dudley Silva and Mr Bogoda Premanath.
We must thank them for all the impact that they and the other masters and lady teachers had on us in moulding our character.I needs to likewise thank another member of the previous Royal College Union Council, Mr Dian Pieris, who, together with me, stood up to save the name of Royal College and for all the other members of the Council who supported us.
Otherwise, you would have had another name.
But we honoured the intention that the nation must have a school named after the President.President Jayawardene in 1978 inaugurated the Presidents college in Sri Jayawardhanapura, Kote, the new capital.
I come here together with the Prime Minister to address you while we have also established another achievement of Royal College, where the President and the Prime Minister are from the same school and from the exact same class.Royals history in politics returns to about 1860 onwards.
A few years after the Colombo Academy began when a few of its impressive students became members of the Legislative Council.
They are, as you see in a few of their pictures, C.
A.
Lorenz, and James De Alvis both of who desired more power in the council.
Sir Richard Morgan, the first Asian to be knighted, member of the Executive Committee, acting Attorney General and also Acting Chief Justice and Sir Muthukumarasami.
The 4 of them dominated the politics of Ceylon for the first couple of years of our contemporary history.
We have Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan the very first member to be chosen by the Sri Lankans.
His opposing candidate who lost, Sir Marcus Fernando was also a Royalist.
It was a question of deciding which Royalists you are going to choose.1915 was the turning point in our history when we chose after the 1915 riots that we will become an independent nation.
It was Henry Pedris, a young old kid from this school who was performed by the British and we started the whole project.
Sir Ponnamabam Rahmanathan advocated him in the legal council, considering that he was also a Royalist.
E.W.
Perera and Sir James Pieris went to England to plead the cause of the Sinhala Buddhist leaders.
They were likewise Royalists.
All the key players on the Sri Lankan side in the 1915 riots were Royalists.
After self-reliance, we had Sir John Kotalawala as the very first Prime Minister after whom the Defence University is named, and we had President J.R.
Jayawardene.
It was in fact about, I would state nearly 44 years back when we put together at the quadrangle to felicitate him.So, Royal College today has in its records, 4 Prime Ministers and 2 Presidents.
This is an outstanding record for any school.
We likewise have a Sultan of Maldives who was also a Prime Minister, Muhammad Fareed Didi and the guy who improved the Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom spent a year or more at Royal College.
I think the disease of modernization, he should have obtained from Royal College.
Now, we are here as the Royalists from the exact same class.There is another record.
The very first republican constitution was prepared by Dr.
Colvin R.
de Silva, an old Royalist.
The 2nd republican constitution was drafted by J.R.
Jayawardene, his schoolmate.
Royalists have actually done it so well that no one else can change it.
Now I believe we have equalled that record, when the Prime Minister and I, together with the late Mr Anura Bandaranaike and Mr Malik Samarawickrama developed another record.
In between us, two people have held the presidency, some Prime Ministers and one has ended up being the Speaker, two of us have actually been Leaders of the House and two of us have actually been Leaders of the Opposition.So this is what education at Royal has actually brought us and I hope you will do even better than us.
That is my hope.
Records are meant to be broken and not to be kept.
Are any of you happy to break that record?So, I have actually come here to address you at a very difficult time.
A circumstance we have actually not seen in the last 400 years.
A total collapse of the economy.
I will not talk in general financial terms, however it affects all of you.
In all our homes, we didnt have fuel, and electricity and those who were farming didnt have fertilizer, we have to pay a lot of taxes and costs have gone up, inflation has come and every family has needed to deal with the repercussions.
There was an overall collapse of the nation and when I took control of the country, Mr Dinesh Gunawardane ended up being Prime Minister, as I discussed it was our responsibility to put the nation initially.
I believed that I will take whatever decision that needs to be required to bring the economy back to a minimum of be recognized in the world as no longer being bankrupt, within one year.It was a tough call, but I did not desire it to go on for much longer.
I do not want youll to suffer.
We want to start resisting and we want to have an economic resurrection.
So I took all the choices we needed to take and the Prime Minister supported me.
I knew the choices I take are going to be unpalatable.
It will make me out of favor.
But, without those choices, the nation might not come right.
Whichs what I found out in Royal College, do what is appropriate and do what benefits your nation.
Keep in mind that.
Every decision I have taken I have thought twice or thrice on what is the problem it will trouble us.
How out of favor should I end up being? Should I even take this choice? And when I felt that it was in the nations interest, I took it due to the fact that my very first task and our first task is to bring the economy back in order.
We cant be an insolvent country.
We cant be a beggar nation, so we have to discover that there are hard decisions to be taken in life and those choices need to be taken.
And I assure you we will by this year, see an excellent enhancement in our financial condition and then we will set the phase for the economic recovery of this country, not to go back to an old system which brought us down, however to a new system.When I initially came here and I occurred, it was not even a ten-minute walk for me to come from there to here and we stood here in the hall, I realized one problem that all of us knew at that time.
We thought we were in one of the very best nations in the world since when we became independent, we were 2nd to japan and the London Times stated, we will be another Switzerland.
So we were here at that time.
Today, we are a nation which has only Afghanistan listed below us.
We do not know what the future is.
When we build this future, its an economy that must last for 25 years.
It should be a new Constitution that must last for 100 years.
It should be a society not for us.
None people here are going to live for 25 years.
Its country for youll.
The majority of you here, in the first row, I dont believe you will be even 45 years old in the next 25 years.And those in the back rows, the seniors will be around 50-55 years.
That is the country you will need to live in and I desire youll to choose what country we will live in.
Not for us.
That is the challenge you need to take.
I want youll to take that difficulty and decide the future of the nation.
Just as much as President Jayawardane told us in 1977, youll choose what your future should be.
I desire you to be there and many of you here are living in a time when young people desire to go abroad.
They dont see a future.
They wish to go away.
However, we are Royalists and we should resist.
Thats what we have actually discovered to do.
As you understand, we need to combat both alone and with numerous to support the values that we are devoted to.So a number of you will travel for studies and some of you will remain here.
You should remember that this school made you a man and come here.
I studied at Royal and I could have travelled to a university but I didnt.
My dad wanted me to travel however I remained here since I valued what I had.
And after I passed out I did not go abroad, I stayed here since I owed my education to the state which spent for me and which sentient to the Royal College.The Prime Minister travelled and studied there however he remembered his commitment to the nation, so he came back.
Which is what you have to do.
All of you come here to this school and for each of you chose, there were another 100 that were left behind.
The country picked you to come here.
The school picked you to come here.
You have the obligation to come back to your country or remain in your country and construct a brand-new Sri Lanka.Are you as Royalists, prepared to do that? That is your job, you ought to return.
You must fight the chances and proceed since we have 2 uphill struggles in this nation.
One is to put the economy into order and the other is reconciliation.
We cant be divided by race or religious beliefs.
Royalists are not.
Let us not do that and let us all get together.
For all of you who return, take your location in society and do your best.
Whether you are at the highest level or whether you are running a normal business thats what you have to do.So, first I would like to ask all the old Royalists, to forget the differences and collaborate in bringing this country up.
I remain in no other way telling all those in politics to join me, I am just asking all of them to get together to overcome this recession.
I am asking those in the business world, those who are doing a small business, those who are continuing their agriculture, and those who remain in occupations to join us to get over this crisis.
I am asking those who are in the military services, police, public service and teaching services to join us in getting over the crisis.
That is to overcome it now.But, I desire youll to come back and make sure that you construct the country again to an established economy in 25 years.
That is the job that you have.I will not speak to you anymore but I want to conclude with the words which we understand of the oath taken by the young men of Athens, which all of us needed to discover in our days.
I do not understand whether you learn it now.
I would like to repeat the dedication that they gave there which we likewise have to follow.
We will transmit this city not only, not less however higher, better and more beautiful than when it was transferred to us.
That is the responsibility of all Royalists.
The welcome speech was provided by the Principal of Royal College R.
M.
M.
Rathnayake while the vote of thanks was delivered by Head Prefect of Royal College Kavisha Ratnayake.Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickremanayake,, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, State Minister of Justice and Prison Affairs Anuradha Jayaratne, Members of Parliament Rauf Hakeem, Gevindu Kumarathunga, Priyankara Jayaratne, Duminda Dissanayake, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Dilan Perera, Yadhamini Gunawardena, Kavinda Jayawardena, and Senior Adviser to the President on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake, were also among those present at the occasion.-- PMD--