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STATEMENT
BY HIS EXCELLENCY
THE PRESIDENT AT THE SLPP DELEGATES CONFERENCE
ON SATURDAY 3RD SEPTEMBER 2005
MR.
CHAIRMAN,
MR. VICE-PRESIDENT,
CHAIRMAN OF THE PARTY,
MEMBERS OF THE SLPP,
MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS,
DISTINGUISHED LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
I should first of all like to thank the Paramount
Chief and elders of Bombali Shebora Chiefdom as
well as the District and Town Council chairpersons
and Councillors for the kind hospitality they
have so generously extended to us since our arrival
in Makeni.
2. I should also like to extend my profound gratitude
to the entire membership of the Sierra Leone People's
Party and particularly those who supported me
and insisted on my being the Party's flag bearer
in 1996. Their patience and understanding in convincing
me to agree to serve the Party as its leader is
much appreciated. The successes which we have
achieved together are shared with all members
of the Party.
3. I believe that those who supported me and our
party did so in the belief that only the SLPP,
under my leadership, was capable of moving this
country forward after several years of decadence.
It was this conviction that propelled me also
to accept the Party's leadership and consequently,
that of the country.
4. To those members of the Party that supported
me in 1996 whose personal problems I was not able
to solve, I crave your understanding. I believe
that the fact that they had access to me should
be regarded as sufficient compensation since we
shall all share in the positive achievements and
praise attributed to the Party.
5. Makeni is not new to me. When I returned home
in 1959 after my academic studies in the United
Kingdom, Bombali District was my first posting
in the then colonial administrative service. From
Makeni I was transferred to Moyamba, Bo, Kono,
Kambia and finally, Freetown. I was in Freetown
in 1964 when the SLPP decided to organise its
Convention here in Makeni. The then Prime Minister,
the late Sir Albert Margai, had just assumed office
and asked the following civil servants to accompany
him to Makeni: Dr. Peter Tucker, Late John Kallon
(younger brother of Mr. Maigore Kallon) Late S.B.
Daramy, Late Morkeh Yamson and myself. Our mission
was to prepare the Prime Minister's Keynote Address
since, as senior civil servants, we were very
familiar with government policies. On that occasion
a prominent APC member saw me in Makeni and said
that I was to cease regarding him as a friend
because we belonged to two opposing political
parties. I was surprised by his outburst because
I believed that the process presented challenges
for opposing political parties to sell their programmes
to the people on behalf of their respective parties.
I considered it strange that this could be regarded
as an occasion for targeting individuals for victimization.
6. This attitude to me stands as evidence to a
pregnant moment in our country's history. Across
the country the pain from this attitude abounds.
We must be certain that it too leads to new birth
and not a tragic miscarriage of opportunity.
7. Upon my assumption of office as President in
1996, I decided that we must turn pain into power,
pain into peace and prosperity, pain into partnership
- not pain into polarization. Hence my policy
of National Cohesion. The great temptation of
tribal polarization and economic injustice to
make political arguments should be avoided. We
must not miss the moral imperative of wrong and
right. For vanity asks - Is it popular? Politics
asks - Will it win? Morality and conscience ask
- Is it right?
8. We are part of a continuing struggle for justice
and democracy; links in a chain that began long
before we were born and will extend long after
we are gone. History will remember us not for
our positions but for our principles. Not by our
move to the political centre, left or right, but
rather by our grasp of the moral and ethical centre
of wrong and right. My policies as President were
supported by votes at elections both in 1996 and
2002, but these policies also were supported by
those who had not voted for me and never would
do so. As a pragmatic and moderate politician
I understood very early in my presidency that
Sierra Leone needed one strategic variable to
change its destiny, and that variable was human
capital. That is why the cornerstone of my political
philosophy has been the empowerment of people
to be able to do things for themselves and to
create the capacity within state institutions.
I hold the view that in this way there can be
a developmental route taken by Sierra Leoneans
together in the search for a common ground so
that we can always build consensus and national
cohesion.
9. Like one distinguished world reknown politician,
I am basically a pragmatist, believing in turning
ideals into reality. Pragmatism has led me to
be a moderate for most of my life and I think
that it is useful because a good idea, a good
proposal, should be valued independently of its
origins. I have therefore tried to develop this
discipline of being without prejudice in my transactions
with others.
10. I am not and cannot be an ideologue because
the one big problem with ideology is that it confuses
the debate over action in public policy. It treats
as great moral issues specific problems that should
be confronted as problems of operational efficiency
in the public sector, since there are no important
disagreements over general goals, but only over
the best ways to achieve them. As one who has
worked in the public sector almost throughout
my working life, except when I practised law in
the United Kingdom sometime in the early seventies,
I have come to realise, over time that when one
is a progressive - and I want to be one, and to
continue as one for the rest of my life - one
cannot confuse instruments with objectives. For
instance, if I say the left is my tribe, this
becomes a criticism of my tribe. We cannot amuse
ourselves, as do some leaders on the left, by
inventing our future while the right continues
governing in the present. But one would always
see the other tribe, the conservative tribe as
being obsessed with economic growth as a technical
problem. When we advocate income distribution
through education and health care, others would
say these are problems of social equity. There
are those who are not very concerned with how
to create wealth. Some hold the belief that all
problems are solved through redistribution but
unless you can learn how to create wealth what
can you redistribute? But again those who learn
how to create wealth forget that wealth must be
redistributed in order to make wealth-creation
sustainable. People are often told to wait awhile
for enough wealth to accumulate in order to begin
redistribution. But before that time arrives,
there is a crisis. So how can redistribution take
place in time of crisis? Does one wait until the
crisis ends?
11. This kind of impasse can go on for decades.
The only way to break this impasse is through
broader comprehension and agreement on common
goals.
12. These common goals must deal with changing
conditions. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
signified a transformation, which, for instance,
changed the course of global political development.
We have since then, moved from a totalitarian
to a democratic political landscape where the
rule of law and freedom of expression are upheld.
13. It has been noted by other keen political
practitioners that social justice, a moral concept,
is also an economic concept that must be applied
to sustain economic growth. No developed society
has emerged from what is now called underdevelopment
without having solved basic problems such as growth
and income redistribution, especially indirect
income redistribution, as well as the development
of a research capability for the mastery and application
of science. A more fashionable methodology of
this approach, mostly prescribed by the World
Bank and the IMF is the PRGF or Poverty Reduction
and Growth Facility.
14. This indirect redistribution is embedded in
the development of human capital, through education
and health care and by the building of modern
physical infrastructure. This redistribution demands
a long-term strategic consensus among political
and economic interests.
15. One is always tempted to ask: What do we lack
in dealing with some of the new complexities in
our global village, of which Sierra Leone is a
member? Often we lack consensus, a strategic consensus,
to define a sustainable strategy that lasts beyond
changes of governments, beyond the constitutional
terms of a legislature or a President. There cannot
be a consensus on too many issues, for that would
be too complicated. But a consensus on three or
four major issues could mobilise everyone's efforts.
All developed countries have this kind of consensus
on issues that unite people and remain outside
the arena of debate. These elements of consensus
enjoy a kind of permanence that strengthens countries.
This kind of consensus is especially important
for the development of human capital. The failure
to develop human capital is a source of great
anguish. Even in countries with abundant natural
resources like ours, there will be no possibility
of development; there will be no future, if the
nurturing of human capital is neglected.
16. The second major goal of consensus is in the
infrastructure. Any modern country needs ports,
airports, highways, railroads, electricity, and
water supplies. When the public sector lacks capacity
to build and maintain physical infrastructure,
it must persist in finding resources elsewhere,
wherever it can. Government should be able to
have the wherewithal to develop more flexible
instruments, develop new sources of savings and
mobilize other elements of society to assume responsibility.
The term "social responsibility" has
become fashionable, a catch phrase. In the generation
of wealth, businesses must understand that they
not only have responsibility to be efficient in
meeting the needs of their customers. Businesses
must also assume a more central role in balancing
growth with income redistribution through the
contribution towards the development of education
and infrastructure.
17. In this new era States worldwide are withdrawing
gradually and permanently from direct generation
of wealth in national output. Instead they are
now concentrating their efforts on providing the
services needed for governing the public space
that we all share. We should be aspiring to do
the same.
18. To be able to manage a country effectively
one has to assess the problems and where necessary
apply solutions that have worked in other countries
after taken full account of national peculiarities.
Critically thinking, let us examine public services
which used to be characterized as monopolies.
In many countries, for instance, electricity monopolies
are called natural monopolies. But they are only
historical monopolies, not natural monopolies.
Civilized use of electricity did not exist 150
years ago. How can this be called a natural monopoly?
Electric power industries used to be vertically
integrated, conducive to monopoly structures,
especially in the public sector. But new political
changes, technological developments and the lack
of government funds for major infrastructure investments
are leading to a break-up of electricity monopolies
worldwide, with generation, transmission and distribution
becoming separate businesses. We shall see a lot
of this when Bumbuna is complete and starts to
generate electricity and when government's master
plan for the supply of electricity takes its root
in this country.
19. Never have political constitutions designated
access to electricity and telephone as universal
human rights, such as access to education and
health care have often been described. If a right
is universal, it becomes an instrument and purpose
of public authority. If a universal right becomes
law, government must fulfil its obligations. These
universal rights may be implemented by the State
fulfilling its own responsibility, or indirectly
by private agents. So why cannot public services
outside the scope of universal rights be provided
by the private sector? The National Commission
for Privatisation has been established by my government
to address these issues and we have been preoccupied
with institutional development as a means of not
only expanding the institutional space, but of
modernising our institutions so that they can
provide efficient services.
20. We who stand with working people and the poor
have a special responsibility. We must stand for
what is right; stand up to those who have the
might. We do so grounded in the faith that what
is morally wrong will never be politically right.
But that if it is morally sound, it will eventually
be politically right.
21. Politics in my view is not about lies. It
is about being truthful, faithful and loyal to
the people we seek to serve. For members of our
Party, we should be able to understand that there
should be space for others belonging to different
political parties so that we can achieve national
cohesion and stability. Trying to think only about
ourselves can lead to bad governance and favouritism
and that could also lead to corruption and an
unstable political and security environment. The
leadership of any party and leaders generally
should ensure that everybody has a stake in the
country and guaranteed a bright future. This is
the basis of my overall principle of accommodation
as manifested in my approach to political adversaries
as well as supporters. That is why I have decided
to build a social safety net into National Social
Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) so that
there could be a future for every Sierra Leonean
especially during their old age.
22. In particular, I have been and I am still
extremely concerned and committed to increasing
the supply of food all year round and to provide
assistance to those in our society who do not
have the capacity to meet their consumption needs
on a regular basis. Our recent surveys show that
we are making gains in the food security programme,
especially in the production of rice, the staple
food crop. Additionally, we have also increased
production of other food crops as well as livestock.
23. Recently, I had occasion to visit a farm of
about 400 acres, which is typical of farms around
the country. This farm is very close to Freetown,
in the Koya Chiefdom. I came to the conclusion
that, even in the Western Area and Port Loko alone,
leaving out the other major rice producing districts,
we can grow enough rice to feed our nation, and
to export the surplus. In fact at the ceremony
in Koya, the UNDP Good Governance adviser reported
that she had visited almost 200 such farms in
the country, in all the districts, under the Agricultural
Business Unit scheme being implemented by the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security,
Local Government and Community Development and
the UNDP.
24. With this possibility, I am convinced that
our food security objective is achievable. However,
there are still pockets of low production and
lethargy on our part, which create the traditional
persistent hungry season between July and October.
25. My countrymen, food security is a firm basis
for national security and economic development.
Therefore, I am calling on all Sierra Leoneans
to engage or invest in food production and supply
as a way to insulate our hard-earned peace so
that we can feed ourselves and export rice to
neighbouring countries and generate more income
to drive poverty from our nation.
26. Incidentally, a local farmer in Koya, in fact
a women's co-operative leader, reported during
our visit that when we first announced our food
security objective, they were confused. Like so
many people, they were made to understand by certain
people that the government will supply free food
to all. She said now that, on the contrary, she
and her group understand that food security involves
people working very hard whether in agriculture
or otherwise to ensure year round supply of food
in their households and contribute to national
food security, they are now fully committed. I
am gratified that our message is getting through.
27. As your Head of State I urge all of you to
embrace this goal more vigorously to ensure that
we achieve total success.
28. The first waves of decreeing human rights
in liberal societies, by the French Revolution
and the United States Constitution, focused exclusively
on individuals, guaranteeing equality under the
law. For individual liberties, the basis of democratic
coexistence, to be effective and real, they must
be reinforced by positive public action in education
and health care. These are two sectors in which
my government has placed a very high priority.
29. As a national leader and as a pragmatic politician,
what interests me is achieving goals. This was
something I tried to inculcate during the years
I served as a United Nations official and I have
always found its application very rewarding not
only to society but also to myself. Indeed, I
have always realised that building infrastructure
requires savings and that if the public sector
lacks money to create infrastructure, it should
seek savings or capital elsewhere. Without infrastructure
there would be no development, and here I mean
visible development.
30. This was a paradox I was faced with when I
became President in 1996. I was confronted with
a situation where I wanted to create infrastructure
everywhere but the reality was that we had a very
brutal war to prosecute and the situation did
not make it possible to create our wealth or obtain
capital elsewhere. So I concentrated on the only
strategic variable relevant for us at the time,
which was to end the war. But this also required
that we must have a nation that was together and
its human capacity able to identify itself with
the vision of the leadership. During those difficult
war years, not only did we have to believe in
ourselves to be capable, we had to make ourselves
capable. Today, we can all breathe a sigh of relief,
knowing that we were able to quell a war that
had the capacity not only to decimate many more
of our citizens, brothers and sisters, but a war
that could have left Sierra Leone very badly disintegrated,
such as is witnessed in other parts of the world.
We are grateful to the British Government for
their timely intervention particularly in the
areas of logistical support and training as well
as their outstanding performance in restructuring
the military, prisons and the entire Security
Sector. The role of the United Nations in the
Security Sector as well as in kick-starting our
development efforts is also appreciated. West
African leaders especially of Nigeria, Guinea
and Ghana, took the initial step of committing
ECOMOG troops in order to ward off invading rebel
forces. Those countries and their leaders deserve
our gratitude.
31. As I indicated earlier on when I attested
to my efforts in building consensus, one of my
government's most critical areas of concern is
education. A lot of our attention is directed
towards that sector because it is one of the keys
to our future success as a nation. Any change
in basic attitudes in our society can only be
achieved through education and by training. We
have been able to achieve much with great popular
support, especially in education and health care,
not only with votes we won in elections, but also
with the support of those who have agreed that
we have to break the barriers of our underdevelopment
with the design and implementation of sound policies
that will change the physical reality of our country.
Here I will be remiss if I fail to mention the
European Union, the World Bank, the IMF, the ADB,
BADEA (the Arab Bank for Economic Development
in Africa), the Kuwaiti Fund, OPEC Fund as well
as bilateral partners (including the UK, China,
the USA and Germany), and other multilateral agencies
that have collaborated with my government.
32. Observing the performance that this government
has achieved since 1996, we see the efforts of
our whole society, not only of my government,
but all of Sierra Leone. I have had the great
fortune of being your leader and President in
the process. But now we are facing new challenges,
different from the ones that we have already overcome.
We may be missing the train of progress of an
economy that must continually add value. We need
a system of education that trains people to offer
new things to our economy and society instead
of becoming claimants who make permanent demands
on our economy and society, which is one of the
failures of passivity in our educational system.
33. Our education system should be changing much
faster than it has adapted to globalization, technological
revolution, the Internet and increasing interdependence
of nations. Instead, we manufacture degrees. We
even can manufacture illustrious degrees, but
many of the holders of these degrees emerge from
their studies to continue as claimants on the
State to provide them with a job. The degree they
receive makes them more demanding claimants, because
they are certified. With all their studies, they
are not prepared to add value. They fail to learn
how to transform knowledge into action. Some may
be brilliant innovators, but many of them lack
the initiative to become entrepreneurs of their
own lives and, in consequence, to create opportunities
for other people.
34. There is a famous story of a foreign delegation
visiting a certain country. This country obviously
was trying to get citizens of the foreign delegation
to invest there. The delegation noted that there
were lots of savings of that country's citizens
outside the country and said: "If you don't
believe in investing in your own country, do you
believe that you can persuade us to invest here?
This seems to us an interesting country. We could
invest here, but you first must invest in your
own country yourselves." This is a reminder
to Sierra Leoneans in and out of the country to
contribute in the development of their country
by investing here and in the process attract more
foreign investment. We are determined to facilitate
this process by, for example, legitimising dual
citizenship in our country. We also urge Sierra
Leoneans to always crosscheck their facts carefully
before they spread negative news about their country
internationally in order not to undermine government's
policy to attract foreign investment.
35. Better education is needed to increase the
capacity for savings and investment. The centres
of education must assume the responsibility of
teaching young people history, science, evolution
and the acquired practices of tradition. This
is necessary but not sufficient. They must also
learn from practice. There are new challenges.
Jobs are not everything. When I listen to the
desperate scepticism of others in the ideological
tribe, I ask: "why do you suffer if all we
need is jobs and more jobs to satisfy human needs?
If all that remains for us to do is to open new
spaces of opportunity, then we have not done much."
36. The challenge is inexhaustible. What seems
to be exhausted is our mental capacity to open
new spaces and horizons for reflection. We must
educate young people in the knowledge we have
acquired, and revive the mission of teachers.
The teacher must learn from young people. Learning
then becomes interactive. Beyond teaching what
he knows, the teacher must help young people confront
the world, knowing that when they finish their
professional training they must be endowed with
something more than a degree that enables them
not to become only a claimant demanding a job.
Young people must learn some accumulated knowledge
as well as some practical sense that enables them
to begin the adventure of their own lives, working
for others or working on their own.
37. Not all of them will be creators. Not all
will be entrepreneurs. To ask this of them would
be foolish. But they must be aware of what they
can offer to add value to others. And I speak
of value in the language of a great poet, who
said: "All fools confuse value with price."
I am not talking about price. I speak of awareness
of value that adds to what we offer our families,
our companies, our communities, our cities. This
offer, adding value, can be created by a musician,
an athlete, a merchant of waste materials, a teacher,
almost anyone.
38. What is the role of the State in a modern
democratic society in dealing with all these claimants?
We need the State to guarantee our rights and
guide the operation of complex societies. The
State cannot satisfy all claims. When we speak
of the size of the State in relation to its efficiency
and institutional power, I cannot advocate a heavily-laden
state, a state mainly devoted to satisfying claimants
and clients. We cannot sustain a state serving
as a refuge for the failures that appear when
we politicians promise to create jobs when it
is beyond our capacity to fulfil those promises.
39. The alternatives are to expand the public
sector and employ more people in the bureaucracy.
Thus we would create a state serving political
clients that would swell its spending to such
high volumes that would exclude constructive policies.
Some advisers would say that this is a social
state, but the social function soon is overburdened
and exhausted.
40. I therefore advocate neither a weak state,
incapable of fulfilling its responsibilities,
nor a fat state that succumbs under its own weight.
So I advocate what I would call a lean State.
Certain problems reside in our institutions, not
in the quality of people or their intellectual
capacity. Here we must deal with issues involving
stability of purpose and consensus. For an education
programme to be consolidated and show results,
at least 20 years are needed. Otherwise institutions
fail. The short-term horizons of some of us politicians
form an obstruction. We only make gains for our
countries when our perspectives are sufficiently
long-term to provide institutional stability.
We commit many short-term errors. We can only
be saved from the consequences of these mistakes
if our institutions are capable of sustaining
a long-term path and orientation. This is hard
for us to do because of our cultural problems.
Such barriers, I believe, could be overcome through
long-term, scenario-based planning methodologies
such as the VISION 2025 process which I initiated
upon becoming President.
41. There is no guarantee that high intelligence
will produce good results in politics or economic
development unless institutions channel human
capital toward lasting outcomes. There may be
occasional failures and reverses, but development
will proceed from broad agreement of purpose over
the long term.
42. Our greatest wealth as human beings lies in
our capacity to create projects that add value
to the lives of others. But we have neglected
this wealth. People have done redistribution through
education and health care, but they have never
redistributed their greatest personal wealth:
their capacity to make offers that add value to
others. The most important redistribution of wealth
that we can carry out lies in the system of education,
political leadership and social leadership by
transmitting and training so that more people
will be capable of making offers that add value
to others.
43. Politics should be transparent and Opposition
Parties are not to be seen as enemies. They are
also stakeholders in national development. My
advice to candidates who are competing for positions
within the Party is that they should not antagonize
each other, for after all we are working towards
the same goals. They should be able to develop
a team spirit whereby both winners and losers
can see themselves as necessary elements and ingredients
of our Party so that in the face of any outside
competition the Party will be able to act like
one, move together in one direction and we shall
always conquer, no matter who our opponents are.
44. This is the last Convention of our great Party
that I shall attend in my capacity as leader.
Sierra Leone has a statute of limitation and my
second and last term as President will come to
an end in 2007.
45. I therefore stand before you conscious of
the great honour and privilege I have had to serve
my country at a very critical time in its history.
Much that is very positive and propitious for
our country has happened during my first and second
terms. There have been many gains over the years,
of which all of us must be proud. But there were
also sad moments. In liberating our country from
the forces of evil we had to make great sacrifices.
In the process not only did we lose many innocent
lives, we also lost many others who volunteered
to make the ultimate sacrifice so that Sierra
Leone could be liberated. I therefore ask that
we pay a minute silence in honour of the memory
of those who lost their lives during our bitter
struggle. I would be remiss, fellow members of
our great Party, if I fail to mention the role
played by the late Patricia Lucy Kabbah, my dear
late wife, in my ascendancy to the leadership
of our Party, and eventually to becoming President
of our beloved country. She was everything to
me. She stood by me, fought alongside with me
and gave me every necessary support when it was
needed. When she yielded to God's call and left
this world barely after we had returned from Conakry,
I felt a void in me. But through your unflinching
support and through the grace of God we were able
to achieve victory after all. May her soul rest
in peace.
46. I refer the sceptics to our Party Manifesto
for 1996 and 2002 which shows that we have delivered
on 90% or more of what we had promised and we
still have two more years to achieve the rest.
Added to that we are consolidating our successes
and achievements! This is a period that Sierra
Leone has increasingly assumed responsibility
for its destiny and asserted its rightful ownership
of its political, social and economic development
as well as its peace and security.
47. This has also been a period characterised
by increasing commitment to good governance, both
political and economic. This government is proud
of its record in defending human rights, in upholding
the rule of law, in combating corruption, in ensuring
fair political competition and creating opportunities
for all. Despite high world oil prices, average
annual economic growth has been in the region
of 8% over the years during my tenure. This is
an extraordinary achievement by any standard,
considering the fact we were fighting the most
gruesome war the country has ever experienced.
This notwithstanding we are still regarded internationally
as a post-conflict country preparing to move into
the next stage of being a full-blown developing
country which includes thirty-six Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) worldwide.
48. My government has shown political commitment
to fighting poverty by increasing budgetary allocations
to education, health, water, infrastructure and
in preparing a PRSP based on World Bank guidelines.
These are the rewards of sound economic management
on our part which have seen the average rate of
inflation declining from over 45% in 1996 when
I first assumed office to the present rate of
11%. While this is commendable, we still face
the challenge of reducing the rate of inflation
to a single digit preferably, 5%, as postulated
by the convergence criteria of the West African
Monetary Zone (WAMZ).
49. Ladies and gentlemen, I think you will agree
with me that this has been a profound expose of
our social, political and economic development
since I assumed office. I would therefore like
to end by outlining other achievements of our
party since 1996 including:
* restoration of peace and security, especially
where others had failed;
* undertaking far-reaching infrastructural developments;
* promotion and maintenance of a stable economic
environment;
* promotion of good governance including the restoration
of democracy, human rights and transparency and
probity in Government, and the establishment of
an independent institution to combat corruption,
among others. In the case of this institution,
we are grateful to the British Government particularly
DFID, for responding positively to our request
for support of my government's initiative for
its establishment soon after I became President.
At that time no one dared mention corruption in
Sierra Leone since the subject was taboo.
50. I would like to appeal to our party leaders
that they must constantly remind our membership
that the SLPP, in line with its motto ONE COUNTRY,
ONE PEOPLE, stands for all Sierra Leoneans, irrespective
of their political inclinations. The SLPP, undoubtedly,
is the mother of all political parties in Sierra
Leone. As such all our policies and programmes
should benefit Sierra Leoneans from all walks
of life and from every corner of the country.
This will help greatly in consolidating NATIONAL
COHESION and PEACE, which are necessary conditions
for national development and individual fulfilment.
51. Finally, it is my fervent hope that the new
leadership of the Party will not only build on
the solid foundation we have laid since 1996,
but would break new grounds. If they do, and I
have every reason to believe that they will, the
SLPP will be both a party of the present and the
future in this country. It will also be the most
fitting tribute to me for my years as leader of
both the Party and the country.
52. I thank you.
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