SRILANKA ELECTION: A President and a General: Their beginnings....!!!

A President and a General: Their beginnings
President Mahinda Rajapaksa

Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa was born on November 18, 1945 in Weeraketiya in the Hambantota district. He is the second son of D.A.Rajapaksa and Nanditha Dissanayake in a family of six brothers and three sisters.


President Mahinda Rajapaksa launching his campaign in Anuradhpura
The Rajapaksa children were brought up in a traditional Sinhala-Buddhist background. Politics was part and parcel of their early life with his father being among those elected to the country’s first Parliament in 1947 from the Beliatta electorate. Mahinda Rajapaksa first entered Parliament in 1970 at the age of 24 representing the same seat as his father and becoming the youngest MP at the time.

The earthy brown (kurakkan) shawl, the hallmark of the members of the Rajapaksa clan who have entered politics was a tradition pioneered by the President’s paternal uncle, D.M. Rajapaksa, who was elected to the State Council from Hambantota in the 1930s. He wore the shawl to represent the rural masses of the south who made a livelihood by cultivating maize.

Mahinda Rajapaksa had his early education at Richmond College Galle, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle and later went onto to Nalanda College and Thurstan College in Colombo. He later studied law at the Colombo Law College, and took his oaths as an Attorney-at-Law in 1977.

He lost his parliament seat in 1977, but regained his seat in 1989. While in the Opposition, Rajapaksa earned a reputation as a keen defender of human rights and was actively involved in defending the rights of those caught up in the JVP uprising and the subsequent government crackdown on them in the 1988-1990 period. Rajapaksa also came to be known for his novel methods of staging anti government protests while in the Opposition and is best remembered for being in the forefront of the foot march (padha yatra) from Colombo to Kataragama, undertaken to highlight various hardships faced by the public.

He became a Cabinet Minister for the first time in 1994 in the Government of President Chandrika Kumaratunaga and served as the Minister of Labour, Vocational Training and of Fisheries. In 2004, he was appended Prime Minister when the United People's Freedom Alliance came into power.

Rajapaksa also dabbled in acting and played the role of a military officer in the movie “Nomiyena Minisun” directed by veteran actor and movie maker Gamini Fonseka.He was elected executive President in November, 2005 beating the odds to win the highest position in the land.

Now facing another election in January, President Rajapaksa told thousands of his supporters who gathered to listen to him in Anuradhapura on Friday, that he was confident of victory. “I had pledged to eradicate terrorism in my first term and I have done this. In my second term I will develop the country,” he said.

Gen. (retd.) Sarath Fonseka

By Jeevananda S. Kaviratne

General (retired) Sarath Fonseka was born on December 18, 1950, in Maha Ambalangoda to G. H. P Fonseka and Egodage Piyawathie. He was the fourth of five children.


Gen. Fonseka at a temple in his hometown
While still a toddler, his parents were transferred to Madawalalanda, a remote village in the Ampara district and they both taught in a school there.

Gen. Fonseka’s elder sister Malathie, recalling their childhood days in Madawalalanda said, they were staying in the teachers’ quarters then and her little brother was the pet of students and village folk who thought him a cute kid.

Young Fonseka’s parents were transferred to yet another school in Hiniduma village, 45 kilometres from Galle town. He studied in this school briefly but returned to Ambalangoda to study in one of the country’s oldest schools - Dharmasoka College – from grade 3 to 8. “At school, he excelled both in sports and studies,” Malathie said. In school he got involved in organising cultural and social events while badminton and cricket were his favourite sports.

Since their ancestral home was located on the banks of Madampa River, Fonseka was able to practise swimming. The family moved to Moratuwa in the late 1960s and Fonseka joined Ananda College in Colombo to further his studies.

Fonseka’s neighbour from Ambalangoda K.M.Chandrasiri was born on the same day as he was. They both loved to swim in the river. Fonseka along with older brother Sisira, a consultant to the United Nations had joined the Dolphin Aquatic Sports Club which was formed in 1967.

“Sarath and I were in the habit of swimming towards Gendawana which is a rocky outcrop far into the sea,” Chandrasiri told the Sunday Times. “That was an adventurous feat at that age,” he said adding that although Fonseka had a busy schedule in the past few years, he found the time to visit his school and village whenever invited.


Gen. Fonseka cutting a cake in Ambalangoda on Wednesday, 2 days before his b’day
The Sunday Times also spoke to Santha Warusawithana another long-time friend of the retired general. “We studied in parallel classes and became active members of the Junior Cadet Platoon of Dharmasoka College.

Sarath later became the sergeant of the platoon,” Warusawithana who is a businessman from Ambalangoda is now ready to take part in his friend’s election campaign, said. K. P. A. Sankadeva was Fonseka’s swimming partner in Hirewatta where they both learnt to ride the rough waves by using bamboo sticks.

“We wind-surfed over strong waves without surfboards,” ankadeva said. Today, Sankadeva teaches swimming in an international school in Colombo. “It was very difficult to defeat Sarath in arguments because he always proved his point right by backing it with ample evidence,” he said bringing out another side of the general.

“Even though his life was in danger he never spoke with hatred or anger towards any community after he recovered,” Malathie said, referring to the LTTE suicide attack on Gen. Fonseka inside the Army Headquarters in Colombo on April 25, 2006.


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