New type of Sri Lanka in the making – Kalam
A new type of Sri Lanka is in the making, and a land of unity and prosperity is taking shape, former President of India and renowned Professor of Aerospace Engineering Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam told the media at the Taj Samudra hotel yesterday. He explained that these were some of the main impressions he is taking back to India following his recent visit to Sri Lanka on the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He said that his main task in Sri Lanka was to participate in the launch of the 10-year National Action Plan and declaring of 2012 as the Year of Trilingual Sri Lanka, which is a brain-child of the President.
He said he had extensive interaction with a tight cross-section of the Sri Lankan public including the State in the course of which he exchanged views about the development process and connected matters in Sri Lanka.
The focus of Prof Abdul Kalam’s discussion in the area of development was his ‘PURA’ concept which is being tried out in India and which is an acronym for ‘Provide Urban Amenities to Rural Areas’.
Answering to a question he said that he had suggested to the Sri Lankan President a formula of enabling three days of fishing entirely for Sri Lankan fishermen and three days of fishing entirely for Indian fishermen during the week as a way out of the issues which have arisen in the fisheries sector between India and Sri Lanka. Elaborating on the issue, Prof Kalam said that the fish is nutritious for the people and that fishermen are drawn to the areas where fish flourish most. Citing the case of Iceland, he said that a fisherman in Ice land earns approximately 40,000 USD per month from his livelihood.
He expressed that the Icelandic fishermen store, pack and sell their goods in the high seas itself to buyers and thereby earn a substantial income. He also said that he had discussed the 13th Amendment and connected matters with the Sri Lankan President and that he had suggested that the North and East be empowered constitutionally as an approach to resolving the issues in the area.
He said that youth affairs is one of his favourite areas. He told the youth of Sri Lanka that their intent should be to supremely self-confident and that Sri Lankan youth were just that. Speaking on the question of poverty alleviation, Prof Kalam said that the Sarvodaya methodology needed to be considered by the State and suggested that it works along with the Sarvodaya.
Speaking on the issues with related to the plantation community, Prof Kalam said that trilingualism has the potential to empower this community. Once the language barriers are overcome through the adoption of bilingualism the communities of Sri Lanka could work together towards the national well being,? he noted. He said that the plantation community should be constitutionally empowered to play a significant role in Sri Lanka. Commenting on the advisability of setting up private universities, he said that universities should face competition and that setting up private universities of the type of foreign universities could serve this end. The value of a university is judged by its research and not by teaching alone. ‘The competition in the research field will benefit universities,’ he remarked.
Courtesy: Daily News
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Prof Kalam is a Muslim born in Tamil Nadu. He was the dynamic force in developing India’s misile systems to deliver nuclear bombs and also satellite systems.
However, I do not agree with several issues raised by Prof Kalam.
1. His solution to resolve the incursion of Indian fishermen into SL waters by allowing them to fish in SL waters for 3 days while our own fishermen also gets 3 days to fish in our own waters is ludicrous and should be totally rejected. The Indian trawlers are huge and many. They will deplete us of our valuable fish stocks/wealth. Our fishermen are few in number and their boats are no match to Indian trawlers. To allow 3 days for Indian fishermen to rob us and then 3 days for our fishermen to fish in our own waters is no solution at all. It is UTTERLY UNFAIR TO OUR FISHERMEN. GOSL should never concede to such a solution, whether it comes from Kalam or Manmohan. They are having a laugh at us!
2. If Indian fishermen are allowed into our territorial waters in large numbers, LTTE rump and supporters will also smuggle-in weapons and explosives on a large scale. Other contraband and drugs will also be smuggled in easily. Our navy is not large enough to control/manage this. This stupid plan of Kalam is fraught with great danger to security of SL, Kalam knows it and subtly encourages it, to our destruction, for the success of Tamil nationalists and autonomy.
3. Hindi is the official language in India in ALL the States. The native languages of the States are secondary languages. I would like Kalam to go back and suggest that each State has its own language as the official language while Hindi becomes a secondary language.
4. There is massive poverty and corruption in India. What is Kalam doing about it? He should find solutions to these problems on large scale in India before coming to advise us. We are doing very well in combatting poverty in SL, better than India.
5. Indira Gandhi tricked us by promising to take back 300,000 Indian Tamils in upcountry plantations, in return for SL giving 200,000 of them citizenship. She re-negged on her promise. That is how cunning India is! We ended up giving SL citizenship to all the Indian Tamils and their descendants.
6. What does he mean by “North and East be empowered constitutionally”? They already have self-government through Provincial Councils, constitutionally. N and E should remain separate regions. TNA and the diaspora Tamils of course want otherwise, in order to make it easier for them to fight for sovereignty one day.
I hope Hon MR does not succumb to this stupid ‘advice’ of Kalam, just because he is a renowned Prof and former President of India.
Dr. Kalam has patted our back stroked and caressed our hair but given one below our belt to meekily obey their command to poach into our waters to steal our harvest of marine food.He may be subtly resorting to solve their unemployment factor at our expense.GOSL must stand firm and allow the law of the land to stand without any mercy.