The Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa has said that he wishes all the beloved people of Sri Lanka the strength and courage to achieve the noble aspirations of re-emerging as a country.

Following is the message he issued wishing all the people a Happy New Year.

Happy New Year with new determinations!

We wish all Sri Lankans a Happy New Year as the New Year dawns after a year of many defeats as well as losses and sufferings as a country rather than victories.

Apart from sending heartfelt congratulations in accordance with our conscience, we believe that it is an insult to the people of Sri Lanka to make empty wishes for a false fairytale world for the people of Sri Lanka who are still undergoing distress and suffering.

We are facing dawn of a new year in the midst of the Corona disaster, with the loss of nearly 15,000 lives of citizens, witnessing the fact that the economy has gone bankrupt to the point where people will no longer be able to cook milk rice on the first day of the new year as usually practiced for a long time, the housewives are left hesitant wondering that at any moment a gas cylinder will explode, in a situation where even the last reserves of the country are lost and huge loan installments are to be paid to foreign nations at the beginning of the new year, in a situation where the number of children crying unable to bear the hunger any longer and the numbers of malnourished as well as low birth weight children are increasing, even the education of children has collapsed making their future a highly questionable issue, in a situation where young people have lost their jobs and are living in despair and frustration about the future, and farmers are sighing on their deserted fields and the entire working class has lost even the minimum privileges.

We reiterate that this critical situation cannot be tackled by holding the agenda of power in our own hands, but by building the country out of this dilapidated situation through a collective effort.

In the name of the generation of citizens of this country, we again call upon the government to embark on a humble people’s program instead of a narrow power mania at this moment of national catastrophe.

The time has come to reflect on how various countries of the world have risen from the ashes in the face of various disasters and we are reminded once again that the ultimate opportunity has come to act responsibly in the name of over two million people of this country and future generations.

Nature has also quietly taught us the lesson of new thinking for all the inhabitants of the world in these unfortunate times and we believe that the New Year must be transformed to achieve the feeling of a new beginning by thinking with determination about all of them.

We wish all the beloved people of Sri Lanka the energy, strength and courage to achieve the noble aspirations of re-emerging as a nation.

Sajith Premadasa