People of the country would decide whether he would contest the next presidential election, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said, on Saturday, addressing a Gama Samaga Pilisandara programme at Walapone, Nuwara-Eliya.

“Before thinking of the next term, I must think about what I have to do now. There is still a long way to go.”

The people had appointed him for 60 months and only 14 months had elapsed, the President said. He was planning to develop rural areas during the rest of his tenure, he added. “We can’t only think about developing the urban centres. I have never destroyed the environment. When I was the Defence Secretary I established parks, built tanks, protected the wetlands; this is how I protected the environment.”

President Rajapaksa said that under him Vihara Maha Devi Park had been given a facelift and recently, a group of youth had tried to place a large billboard there and damage the environment.

“I stopped posters and billboards being put up in Colombo, he said.

The President added that a number of media institutions had been attacking the government unfairly. While he had not taken any action against such institutions, he had the capacity and laws to do so, he said.

“Media freedom is not what media owners want to do.  We can’t let media owners rule the country. I haven’t done anything so far but if push comes to shove, I know what to do. Between 2015 and 2019 also around 1,000 acres of forests were destroyed but no one said anything abouy the forest destruction.”