Sri Lanka: Sirisena Says Use Power For Public Benefit, Not For Personal Gains

A person who gains power should utilize that authority to empower the Public who vested that power with you, but not to accumulate more power for the personal benefits, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena said.

According to Sirisena, the character of late Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali is an exemplary for the society as a leader who never misappropriated the power vested in him, among the politicians who used the power vested with them to further strengthen their own power while destroying others.

Sirisena made these remarks while delivering the main speech at the commemoration ceremony of the late Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali held at the BMICH, on Monday.

“Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali will always live in the hearts of the people and he never involved in the acts of fraud, corruption and abuse of state resources,” the President further said.

The way he behaved in the Parliament and the statements he made as a real humanist are also exemplary to modern politicians, Sirisena added.

Among the projects he implemented the Mahapola Scholarship programme etched his name in the society. The President recalled that since then every Government that came into the power took steps to strengthen the Mahapola programme.

The Mah Sangha and other religious leaders, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Minister of Finance and President of the Lalith Athulathmudali Foundation, Ravi Karunanayake, Ministers, MPs, scholars and the family members of the late Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali participated in the event.