President Rajapakse has accused “people” of using the freedom of expression given to them to slander him. Speaking at an election rally, Rajapakse said that he could not understand how some could call him a dictator, as they were free to express those views in the country at the same time.
“I don’t understand how they could accuse me of being a dictator while casting such allegations in public on a platform within the country itself. If one takes a paper or a website they slander me using obscene language which is not even found in the Sinhala language. But they have been given that freedom to do so.
“Every citizen of this country has the right to do as he pleases, our aim is to preserve such democratic values and that is why we conduct elections. We give the responsibility to the people to choose who should govern them. However, these few people use this democracy and freedom to slander.
“We have had to fight again to protect our country because of these people. Just as we were rebuilding our country these people portray us to the world as being destructive people. Their main agenda is to portray our country in bad light.
“There are no racial and religious barriers because each and every province and village is reaping the benefits of the development that we are carrying out. But a few people cannot bear this fact and therefore are engaged in discrediting and slandering us internationally. However, never can this government be made to kneel through such slander,” he said.