Thursday's budget overshadowed other events to become the focal point of attention for Sri Lankans in all lifestyles. This is notwithstanding the remarkable victory of Barack Hussein Obama at US presidential elections on Tuesday. The Democratic Party president-elect has won the hearts of millions in not only the US but also the world over.
The opportunity of announcing to the nation the accomplishment of main objectives of ongoing military offensives in the Wanni eluded President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, for a second year in succession. This was when he, as Minister of Finance, presented the government's fourth budget in Parliament on Thursday - an event seen on television and heard on the radio by millions of Sri Lankans.
By the time this column appears President-elect Barack Obama would have held his first press conference and possibly provided some indications on where he is headed particularly in foreign policy.
Not much was expected from the budget presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday. The Deputy Minister of Finance said when presenting the estimates in October that this budget was being presented at a time of enormous difficulties challenging the Sri Lankan economy.
When President Mahinda Rajapaksa walked into Parliament on Thursday afternoon to present his fourth Budget, he would undoubtedly have been a happy man. Between November last year and this November, the political landscape has altered a lot to his government's advantage, with the President managing to neutralise many of his political opponents in Parliament on one hand and his push for “an honourable peace” with the military efforts against the LTTE too making steady progress, on the other.
So, this is the America that we grew to love 'in our living years' and which we had almost lost sight of during recent times. Not the America of arrogance nor the America of power but rather the America of ideals, hope and a heady rejection of bigotry and racism.
NEW YORK - The United States, which has been vilified globally because of the disastrous policies of the Bush administration over the last eight years, has suddenly been redeemed in the eyes of the outside world with the election last week of Barack Obama as the country's 44th president.
Thursday's budget overshadowed other events to become the focal point of attention for Sri Lankans in all lifestyles. This is notwithstanding the remarkable victory of Barack Hussein Obama at US presidential elections on Tuesday. The Democratic Party president-elect has won the hearts of millions in not only the US but also the world over. 
The opportunity of announcing to the nation the accomplishment of main objectives of ongoing military offensives in the Wanni eluded President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, for a second year in succession. This was when he, as Minister of Finance, presented the government's fourth budget in Parliament on Thursday - an event seen on television and heard on the radio by millions of Sri Lankans.
By the time this column appears President-elect Barack Obama would have held his first press conference and possibly provided some indications on where he is headed particularly in foreign policy.
Not much was expected from the budget presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday. The Deputy Minister of Finance said when presenting the estimates in October that this budget was being presented at a time of enormous difficulties challenging the Sri Lankan economy. 
NEW YORK - The United States, which has been vilified globally because of the disastrous policies of the Bush administration over the last eight years, has suddenly been redeemed in the eyes of the outside world with the election last week of Barack Obama as the country's 44th president.