President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has described the current state of the government as “a pile of rubble” and announced sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing the public sector. Speaking at the National Youth Conference today (12), he revealed that the Cabinet has already approved the recruitment of nearly 62,000 people into the public service as part of this transformation.
“We need a government that is capable of creating an economy which can generate jobs in our public service and create a social corporation. If we take our government today, it is a pile of rubble. Therefore, we are modernizing the government. The Cabinet has already approved the recruitment of nearly 62,000 people into the public service to bring it to modernity.”
He stated this while addressing the National Youth Conference today (12).
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who addressed the National Youth Conference, further said:
I think this is the conference that has generated the most discussion and controversy about a youth conference in recent times. Generally, many sectors in our country were aligned with the power needs of a certain political authority. There was absolutely no opportunity for a young person to come forward through their talents and aspirations in this youth movement.
When you went to the districts, who was given priority in holding the political leadership of your district or the leadership of other institutions? Priority was given to the daughters, sons, or relatives of the old political leadership. Therefore, the youth movement was significantly aligned with the political needs of those authorities. For a long time, this youth movement was built as a tool to protect their political power, family power, and to keep relatives in power.
However, with the new political transformation in the country, this youth movement has no longer become a puppet of political interests, but has transformed into a movement that produces leaders who are ready to take charge of the future of the country. This has been marked in the journey we have taken up to this youth conference.
It is not surprising that some are worried. Indeed, what we are doing today is building a youth leadership that is responsible for our youth — their place, how their future should be created, and what responsibilities they should bear. Otherwise, you should not be building as part of a task to preserve power for a long time for the ruling families.
There is a saying that the future of the country lies in the hands of the youth. But our ambition is to make you the true guardians of the future of our country, which is said to be in your hands. In particular, we would like to clarify one thing here. Today, we represent the presidency, the ministerial positions, and the parliament. However, when we sit on this chair, we have taken our seats with the day in mind when we will step down. We do not intend to occupy these chairs forever. We have a very clear goodwill. This country was in the hands of a very destructive group. Political power has been transferred from that group to us. We have taken our seats in these chairs with the expectation of handing over that exchanged power that baton to you in the near future. We do not expect to remain stuck in these chairs as if we have been glued to them.
Therefore, we must create a new generation of young people who have the ability, competence, honesty, and conscience to take over this country. We must create a generation that is ready to take over this country after us. What kind of generation do we need? One, the world today is rapidly generating, developing, and expanding knowledge. If we look back at ancient history, great leaps in knowledge were made over long years. But now, the knowledge that has been acquired is rapidly generating new knowledge. At the same time, new knowledge is rapidly developing and expanding. However, this country should not be handed over to a young generation that is not ready to take over that great leap in new knowledge that is growing and expanding.
Therefore, our hope for this youth movement is to create a new generation that can rapidly absorb the new knowledge that is growing in the world and adapt to it. We are determined that the future of our country should be handed over to that generation. Also, we must have humanity and compassion within us.
Our education system, our struggle for life, all of these have trapped our young generation in a selfish, narrow family mindset. Such a group does not have compassion for society. Therefore, we need a group of young people who truly have compassion for the general society. Selfishness has drowned many qualities in our society in ice water and killed them. All good things have been destroyed.
In order to take our country forward and achieve social development, it is imperative to create a society with compassion. This youth movement has a big role to play in creating that society. I believe that you should become citizens with compassion.
Also, the thirst for justice and fairness that is inherent in the young generation must be reawakened. Where there is injustice, it should be possible to raise one’s voice for justice. If that raising of voice is not a lie, one must first become a just and fair person. Today, our society is surrounded by a considerable amount of lies. We try to stand up for justice by talking about common justice. But we must think about the extent to which we have been able to embody justice and fairness in our practice.
Raising your voice for justice and fairness does not transform you into a just person. The first factor in transforming yourself into a just citizen is how just and fair you are. Therefore, raise your voice for justice, stand up for justice. Before that, you must become a young man or woman with a conscience who truly represents justice and fairness. We should not hand over this country to a mere floating group of people. We should hand over the future of the country to a new generation of young people who can connect our state very closely with the world and have compassion for society. Therefore, our exercise is to build a youth movement that is qualified to hand over this country. I request you to become a group of young people who have fulfilled the necessary qualifications for this.
Today, the issue of employment has arisen. I went to the Maldives the other day. Nearly 30,000 of our young people are engaged in jobs there. However, they are not in government positions. The government has built a separate foreign economy. But we have long failed to build an economy that creates jobs for those with foreign skills and talents. As a result of that failure, the state has become an institution that provides jobs. We should not forget that the government is not an institution that provides jobs, but an institution that creates jobs.
We all know that great transformations took place in the world in the 20th century. Before that century, scientists assumed that a state with such technology would be created. Politicians and academics assumed that such a political world would be created. Instead of a government with state governments, a government chosen by the people would be created in the world. Similarly, economic experts in the world assumed that such an economic situation would be created in the world. In this way, we mostly encountered imaginations about the future world in the 17th and 18th centuries. These assumptions were transformed into reality only in the 20th century.
This transformation in technology, science, the market, and people’s lifestyle created a huge market in the world. However, we became a nation that failed to capture that market. Therefore, an economy was not built abroad. Accordingly, the state became the only institution that provided employment.
We must bring the state, which has become a pile of rubble, to modernity. For this, we have given Cabinet approval to recruit nearly 62,000 people to the public service. The employment problem will not be solved there. An economy that generates jobs must be created abroad through the government process. We have prepared plans for that.
We expect 2.5 million tourists to visit our country this year. We expect 4 million tourists to visit this country by 2030. With this, an economy based on tourism is being built abroad. The economy generates jobs.
We also expect to grow the digital economy to $15 billion by 2030. Our expectation is to provide 12% of our country’s national product through the digital economy. We also expect a major transformation by incorporating digitalization into agriculture, fisheries, and small and medium-scale industries. For this, a young generation with knowledge and skills in information technology is needed. Job opportunities will be created there. We have also planned a large economy based on a number of other fields, including a port-centered economy. Accordingly, our plan is to build a country where the government intervenes and creates jobs.
We expect to create job opportunities in the country for our youth to engage in a profession of their choice based on their abilities and lifestyle. We have also succeeded in building an economy that has established trust in the country today. Today, we are ready to begin the journey of transforming this country into a prosperous state based on this stability. As young people, you have a great responsibility.
You have knowledge and energy. We are ready to start the program to make you the leaders and participants of this development through this youth movement. You are not those who have been left out of development. You are not human dust in development. We aim to make you the main participants in the development path that we have prepared.
After a very turbulent background, you have appointed a leadership council. I wish you all the best for overcoming the challenges ahead, believing that these young people will have the ability to lead the youth movement of our country very well.
