A Time Magazine survey has placed President Mahinda Rajapaksa sixth among top 7 world leaders, influential persons, celebrities, including Hollywood stars and sporting icons, leaving US President Barrak Obama trailing far behind at 47th position and other international leaders who failed to figure in the top 7 line up.
President Rajapaksa has been ranked sixth among the 100 most influential persons of 2011 leaving behind all top political heavyweights and Hollywood superstars.
Among those who were ranked below the President were such stalwarts as Hillary Clinton, US Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin and tennis ace Rafael Nadal. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi together with Hollywood starlets Sandra Bullock and Natalie Portman were all pushed way down the list.
Leading the list was Rain with 446,716 votes, while President Rajapaksa obtained 89,759 votes to be just below entertainer Beyonce in fifth position. Others ahead, included, Jay Choy (Susan Boyle (158,696) and Cheng Yen. Barrak Obama trailed behind to a distant 47th obtaining a mere 8,701 preferences outvoted by first lady Michelle Obama who received 16,483 votes. Sonia Gandhi at 97th position hugged the bottom of the list with Ricky Gervais, Christine Loh and Lovon Helm.
The Time Magazine asked its voters to “cast your votes for the leaders, artistes, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the most influential people in the world”. President Rajapaksa’s elevation among the elite list has been largely attributed to his success in eliminating terrorism, that plagued Sri Lanka for three decades, the only national leader in modern times to have rid his country of the scourge.
Meanwhile ‘Asian Tribune’ adds: 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 United 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 Defence Robert Gates and US potential presidential candidate Republican Party’s most dynamic star Sarah Palin.
With so little power Mahinda Rajapaksa achieved so much and pushed 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 the island nation, while the whole world was tumbling into the worst recession in recent history.
His 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 programmes 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 sanctions 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 being 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 12-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.
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.
The 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.
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