Sri Lankan President Takes Oath for Second Term

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda RajapaksaMahinda Rajapaksa took oaths for his second six-year term Friday as the first president to serve without the threat of war. A day after celebrating his 65th birthday, Rajapaksa was sworn in before Chief Justice Asoka De Silva in an outdoor ceremony on the steps of the old Parliament building facing the Indian Ocean.

“Our first task is to ensure lasting national unity and sustainable, permanent peace in our motherland,” Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa’s government in May 2009 ended a three-decade long war by militarily defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Less than a year after the victory, Rajapaksa won a second term in the presidential election in January, defeating former army commander Sarath FonsekaSarath Fonseka. In April, the president’s party won overwhelmingly in the general elections, giving Rajapaksa a near two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The inaugural ceremony was held in the midst of a week of celebrations. The government declared Nov. 15 to 22 a commemorative week and declared Nov. 19 a public holiday in the Western Province. The government organized activities island-wide to celebrate the president’s swearing-in; government buildings were lit up and large posters of the president were erected around the country.

In his speech after taking oaths, Rajapaksa spoke little of the war and focused more on expectations for the future, mainly development initiatives.

“We must move towards a future generation that is trilingual,” Rajapaksa said. “It is my hope to raise the level of computer literacy to 75 percent in the near future and make our future generation true heroes of technology in the modern world.”

Various international diplomats attended the inaugural ceremony, including the Bhutanese prime minister, the Maldivian president and special representatives from China and Pakistan. Queen Elizabeth of England congratulated Rajapaksa in a message sent to the British high commission in Colombo.

“I send my congratulations on your re-election as President of Sri Lanka,” the message said. “I wish you and the people of Sri Lanka peace and prosperity in the years to come.”

The main opposition United National Party, meanwhile, boycotted the swearing-in ceremony to protest government spending. At a press conference, the party’s deputy leader, Karu Jayasuriya, said they objected the use of state funds for ceremonial events.

Independent commentators issued statement of expectations for Rajapaksa’s second term. The National Peace Council of Sri Lanka (NPC) issued a statement on the day of the swearing-in ceremony titled “Changes We Like to See in the President’s Second Term.”

“From a peace building and even a development perspective, the main challenge facing Sri Lanka is to come up with a political solution to the ethnic conflict after the war,” wrote NPC Executive Director Jehan Perera. “This includes the active acceptance that all communities be they Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims have suffered, been displaced at various points in time and need to be compensated and re-empowered as individuals and communities.”