Becoming the very first Sri Lankan leader to be featured in TIME magazine’s TIME 100 Top Ten, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reached much popularity leaving behind all other top political icons and celebrity stars in the world and some Hollywood superstars in 2011.
Rajapaksa is on top of ‘Robin Hood of the information age’, Julian Assange who acquires secret and often controversial documents from government and corporate sources and then releases them to the public via whistle blowing site WikiLeaks.
President Rajapaksa who pioneered Sri Lankan island nation’s crush on terrorism had reached top among the Unite States rulers including president Barack Obama, who received Nobel peace prize for none other than talking in 2009, American first lady Michelle Obama, US Vice President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, , US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and US Potential presidential candidate Republican Party's most dynamic star Sarah Palin.
With so little power Mahinda Rajapaksha achieved so much and pushed the Sri Lanka to greatness during last six years. When he got elected; with a narrow margin over his challenger, his party couldn't even elect the speaker of the parliament; and the ruthless terrorist group LTTE was running wild in the country, bombing buses and public places filled with civilians. Within several years, Rajapaksa managed to win the excess majority of the parliament to his side, defeated the world’s most ruthless terrorist group (according to FBI), and generated an economic boom in island nation, while the whole world was tumbling into the worst recession in recent history.
Read moreHis visionary leadership in Sri Lanka had doubled the per capita income lead the country to middle income status; made the Colombo Stock Exchange the best in the world and had initiated massive development programs including ports, highways and large scale leisure projects convincing the peace and harmony to the country.
Rajapaksa’s influence rippled globally, he held his ground against western superpowers who tried to rescue the ruthless megalomaniac Prabakaran, didn’t yield to economic sanction threats like cutting GSP+ tax incentives by European Union for alleged Human Rights violations in warfare by Western nations, Rajapaksa defeated western powers at the UN , by forming a novel coalition against western imperial powers. President Rajapaksa’s influence has already altered the course of Sri Lanka and perhaps the whole world as per many Sri Lankans.
In TIME 100 poll, Rajapaksa is also ranked above the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who is been alleged liaisons with younger women in luxurious, so-called "bunga bunga" parties, Burma’s icon of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Director-General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Ahmad Shuja Pasha, an anti-war gadfly Twelve-term Republican Congressman Ron Paul who is a master of the online money bomb and to be married Royal couple Prince William and Kate Middleton.
From 163 position in TIME 100 poll to reaching 28 position on April 13, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had surpassed Hollywood and Western Musical Celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Jay-Z,Bruno Mars, twice acclaimed world’s sexiest woman Jennifer Lopez, Mr & Mrs. Smith stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Sandara Bullock and The Barbados-born recording artist who lead the male-dominated rap world, Rihanna.
Rajapaksa is also above the Egyptian democracy advocate and possible presidential candidate, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei who helped fuel the Twitter and Facebook rebellion that younger Egyptians eventually seized to bring an end to Hosni Mubarak's oppressive regime.
Rajapaksa has also reached top above Wall Street Billionaire Warren Buffet and Indian Billionnaire Mukesh Ambani among TIME 100 votes whilst leading the former Boeing executive Alan Mulally who restructured Ford to a US $ 6.6 billion company in last financial year.
Sri Lankan President has received votes from TIME 100 people polls more than the Brain behind the social-media giant, Facebook's 26-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Physicist Stephen Hawking, Qatar based television Al-Jazeera and Bollywood actor and producer, Aamir Khan who made a profit without superstars from satire on farmer suicides titled Peepli Live.
To check the final voting position:http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2058044_20610...
- Asian Tribune - By J.A. Fernando in Colombo
