The Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment, Manusha Nanayakkara, stated today (15th) while participating in the ‘Jayagamu Sri Lanka – To Chilaw’ program organized by the Labour and Foreign Employment Ministry, that the national anthem will be sung in both Sinhala and Tamil languages in every place where the Sri Lankan community lives, regardless of language. He emphasized that this initiative is not being done for any political purpose.
Addressing the youth community who participated in the ‘Smart Youth Club’ program held at chilaw Shirley Korea Stadium, the Minister further said:
“There are plenty of opportunities for young people in Puttalam. Build your life. What we don’t have is the goal, the determination. We are used to learning through free education, going to university and waiting for government jobs. We are not yet ready to adapt to the modern world.
Draw a face on the other side of a paper with a map of Sri Lanka. Now tear it to pieces and try to rebuild it. Ceylon map cannot be made. But if the side with human face is built, Sri Lanka will be built automatically
I started with myself, the President with the himself, and every officer with themself. Only if we do that, we can win this country. This morning, when the national anthem was sung in Sinhala, the national anthem was also sung in Tamil too. You may find it strange. Often when going to Jaffna, Northern Province and Eastern Province, the national anthem is sung in Tamil. We do it in this province too, 30, 40 percent people use Tamil language. But it is a problem when you often cannot sing the national anthem in your own language out of pride for your nation.
When we go north there is one, when we go south there is none. No matter where we go, north or south, if it is an area where Tamil people live, if it is an area where Tamil is spoken, we sing the national anthem in Tamil as well. That’s because we want to respect everyone. If not, we cannot make that difference. 2015 When Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe decided to sing the national anthem in Tamil, everyone opposed it. It became a political issue for him.
There are 200 languages in India, so the country should sing the national anthem in both languages. But, we did not change that decision. Because of the language issue, lack of understanding, we were divided as a country. In order to eliminate it, this reconciliation must become a reality from somewhere. Some people say they give 13 when they go north. When he comes to the south, says no to 13 . But we say the same thing.
When going to the north, the national anthem is sung in Tamil and Sinhala languages. Even when they come to the south, they sing the national anthem in Tamil-Sinhala language. We protect that right not for lies, or politics, party politics is not relevant to us. We only have one country. Color, party politics, caste and religion are not relevant to us. We only have the concept of starting with me to build this country. It needs to be changed only as a country. We want to think about the achievements of the country.
If we can make a small part of a Tesla car owned by Elon Musk, we don’t need to go to the abroad. If you give a little support in their satellites, you don’t need to leave the country. Young people are now learning new subjects. President Ranil Wickremesinghe asked him to come to Sri Lanka and buy a small place because of the idea of bringing a small part of this to our country. Then a group of people who were not allowed to do things in the country every day said, ‘He is an economic killer – don’t let him come to Sri Lanka’. These people do not allow our youth to build a country.
They have opposed Ella Wellawaya Road, Colombo – Mattala Road, MCC agreement. They said a hole in Uma Oya. They protested when the thermal power plants were being built here. They said there is a stone at Hamabnto port. Our country fell economically because of these economic killers. Our youth were caught in those waves. Sixty thousand of our youth were caught during Indian expansionism. Went down the wrong path. They died. There are no Indian conspiracies today, only the indian chat today . Young lives were lost.
Now they said sorry about Uma Oya, sorry for not being able to build thermal power plants. They say we will build new thermal power plants. But in the modern world, thermal power plants are not given loans. It is given only to wind farms. Kaiyanayaka’s are not updated….” the minister said there.
Member of Parliament Pyankara Jayaratne, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment Ananda Wimalaweera, popular singer Iraj Weeraratne and officials of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau and other agencies affiliated to the Ministry attended the event.