Rajapaksa made the comments Monday while addressing a group of Sri Lankan expatriates working in Europe who are in Colombo.

The group, representing the organization ‘Sri Lankans in Europe’ told the President that its large membership spread across Europe have unanimously decided to back the President at the upcoming Presidential polls, according to the government website.

According to Rajapaksa, four years after vanquishing terrorism certain external forces are now attempting to create a situation similar to the uprisings in the Middle East to change the Government.

The President said that while the uprisings in Libya, Egypt and Iraq resulted in the overthrowing of governments, those countries are now in chaos and are plagued with problems.

“Anti-national groups, at the behest of foreign forces are making a similar attempt in Sri Lanka,” Rajapaksa claimed.

While noting that the mantra of such elements was ushering in ‘change’, the President said that the so-called change the opposition was preaching was only an attempt to reverse the country’s recent gains and take it back to the dark era of the past.

Rajapaksa told the participants to be cautious and not to be misled by the propaganda against the country, and act intelligently to safeguard the freedom the country earned after defeating terrorism.

“Our responsibility is to build a country for the child to be born tomorrow and not just for the present,” Rajapaksa said.

(eurasiareview.com)