President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that a system which the youth think is unfair cannot be carried on, and that the politics in Sri Lanka must change.
“We have to recognize one fact. That the youth were dissatisfied with the system. I don’t blame them. I’m also a politician. All politicians were making promises for the moment. No one looked into future. Other countries did not do that. Not in Singapore. Not in Japan, not in India. We just made promises, came into power and lost the next election and made promises to win the election after that.”
He also pointed out that Sri Lanka which was once only second to Japan in Asia, has come into a level which is only tops Afghanistan.
He said it was obvious when the economy collapsed when the youth had high expectations that they showed their disgust by rejecting the prevailing system.
He made these remarks at the District 306 C2 Leos Mass Induction and Leo day Celebrations which were held at Nawaragahala, Royal College Colombo yesterday (11) to recruit over 6,500 new Leos members from around the country.
” When we won the election in 1977 I was 28.When we were talking about the future President Jayawardene told us, ” Look , the future belongs to you not to me.Get it done, what has to be done” and we did that.”
“All I can tell you now is that Its your future, not mine. So then we have to build a future that suits you not me.” The President added.