Anura Kumara Dissanayake

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His Excellency
Anura Kumara Dissanayake
අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක
அநுர குமார திசாநாயக்க
Anura Disanayake press (cropped).png
10th President of Sri Lanka
Incumbent
Assumed office
23 September 2024

Anura Kumara Dissanayake [b] (born 24 November 1968), commonly referred to by his initials AKD, is a Sri Lankan Marxist politician [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] and the 10th and current president of Sri Lanka. Dissanayake was the first Sri Lankan president to be elected in a second round of vote counting, [8] [9] and the first elected president not from Sri Lanka's traditional political parties. [10]

Contents

Born on 24 November 1968 in the village of Galewela in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, Dissanayake moved with his family to the village of Thambuththegama in the North Central Province in 1972. [11] He joined the Socialist Students Union which is the student wing of JVP as a student when the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed in 1987 [12] and engaged in clandestine revolutionary activity while he was a student at the University of Peradeniya, until he was forced to go underground due to threats posed by the counterinsurgency operations undertaken by the government. After resurfacing and year later he transferred to the University of Kelaniya. After he was awarded his bachelor's degree in science at the University of Kelaniya in 1995, he was elected the national organiser of the Socialist Students Union in 1997. [13]

Dissanayake was selected to the Central Committee of the JVP in 1997. [14] He was then appointed to the JVP Political Bureau in 1998 [15] and entered parliament from the national list in 2000. He was elected to parliament in 2004 from Kurunegala District with the highest number of preferential votes and served as minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation from 2004 to 2005. In 2008, he was appointed the leader of the JVP in parliament. He entered again Parliament through the national list in 2010. In 2014, he became the leader of the JVP [16] and was elected to Parliament from the Colombo District in 2015. He served as Chief Opposition Whip from 2015 to 2018 and was selected as the most active Member of Parliament continuously for five years in a row. In 2019, he became the founding leader of the National People's Power (NPP). [17]

Dissanayake ran for president in the 2019 presidential election and came in third place with 3% of the vote. He ran again in 2024 and was elected as President of Sri Lanka on 22 September 2024, becoming the first president to be elected from a third party. [18]

Early life, education and student politics

Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anura Kumara Dissanayake was born on 24 November 1968 in the village of Galewela, Matale District, Central Province, Sri Lanka. [14] His father who was an agricultural worker who later joined the surveyor's department as an office aide [19] [20] and his mother was a housewife. He has one sister. [21] An avid reader, his favorites include works by Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky. He has claimed to be inspired by personalities such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gandhi, Tito and Castro. [19]

His family moved to the Anuradhapura District in the North Central Province and settled in Thambuththegama. [19] Dissanayake received his education at Thambuththegama Gamini Maha Vidyalaya and then Thambuththegama Central College, and became the first student from the college to gain university entrance to the University of Peradeniya. [21]

Marxist revolutionary

From his school days, Dissanayake had been involved with the JVP, which had been banned since 1983. Following the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, the JVP launched its second insurrection against the Sri Lankan Government, and in 1987 a 19-year-old Dissanayake formally joined the JVP with his first cousin Sunil Dissanayake (Sunil Aiya) who convinced him to join while waiting for his GCE (AL) examination results. After gaining admission to the University of Peradeniya, Dissanayake moved to Kandy and spent most of his time engaged in the clandestine political activity of the JVP. Adopting the nom de guerre Aravinda, he undertook revolutionary work for the JVP and its military wing Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV). Aravinda served as a courier between the various JVP cells. As the Government stepped up counter-insurgency activity to suppress the JVP and the DJV, Dissanayake's cousin Sunil Dissanayake was arrested, tortured, and killed. Aravinda fled from Peradeniya and went into hiding, as he soon became a wanted man. The newly built modest brick house of his relatively apolitical family was burnt down as a warning to Dissanayake. He dropped out of university and managed to survive by going underground. Much of the JVP leadership was hunted down and killed, except for Somawansa Amarasinghe who fled into exile in Europe with Indian assistance. [19] [21]

University of Kelaniya

After the counterinsurgency against the JVP subsided and the situation became safe, Dissanayake came out of hiding and transferred to the University of Kelaniya in 1992, where he completed his studies and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree. [22] [19]

Political career

Socialist Students Union

Following the JVP's support for Chandrika Kumaratunga via its proxy the Sri Lanka Progressive Front in the 1994 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, Kumaratunga's government lifted the ban on the JVP and the party re-entered mainstream politics under Somawansa Amarasinghe. Many members of the party soon became vocal critics of the Kumaratunga government. Dissanayake, who has served as a secure courier for Amarasinghe, [23] soon came under his wing. After graduating from university in 1995, Dissanayake was appointed the National Organiser of the JVP-backed Socialist Students Union, and soon took control of the Inter University Students' Federation.

JVP politburo

He was then appointed to the Central Working Committee of the JVP in 1996 and politburo of the JVP in 1998. Dissanayake worked as a student union organiser, expanding pro-JVP students' unions and establishing itself in most Sri Lankan universities and institutions of higher studies. [23] [22]

Legislative career (2000–2024)

Dissanayake entered parliament following the 2000 Sri Lankan parliamentary election from the national list of the JVP and was reappointed following the 2001 Sri Lankan parliamentary election.

Cabinet minister

In 2004, the JVP allied with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), contesting as a part of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the 2004 parliamentary elections and won 39 seats in parliament. Dissanayake was elected to parliament from the Kurunegala District from the UPFA and was appointed by President Kumaratunga as Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation in the joint SLFP–JVP cabinet in February 2004. [24] During his tenure, he took over the maintenance of the Kandy Lake to the Irrigation Department and restored it. [25]

He resigned from his ministerial portfolio on 16 June 2005, along with the other JVP ministers, following JVP leader Amerasinghe's decision to withdraw from the UPFA due to their opposition to President Kumaranatunga's controversial joint tsunami relief co-ordination with the LTTE in the North and Eastern provinces, also known as the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS). [26] [27]

JVP party leader

On 2 February 2014, during the 17th National Convention of the JVP, Dissanayake was named as the new leader of the JVP, succeeding Somawansa Amarasinghe. [28] Following his election as the leader, he apologised for the killings by the JVP during the second insurrection. [29]

Following the 2015 parliamentary election, he served as Chief Opposition Whip from September 2015 to December 2018. [30]

2019 presidential election

Dissanayake in 2019. Anura Kumara Disanayaka (2019) - img 04.jpg
Dissanayake in 2019.

On 18 August 2019, the National People's Power, a political alliance led by the JVP, announced that Dissanayake would be its presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential elections. Dissanayake came in third place with 3% of the vote, receiving 418,553 votes. [31]

2024 presidential election

On 29 August 2023, the NPP announced that Dissanayake would run for president again in 2024. [32] The first vote count concluded with Dissanayake winning a plurality of the vote with 42.31%, followed by SJB candidate Sajith Premadasa with 32.76%. Since no candidate won a majority, a second round of vote counting was held. [33] Dissanayake was declared the winner after the second count, securing 55.89% of the vote. [34] [35]

Dissanayake's victory was largely attributed to the dissatisfaction of the previous governments amidst the nation's ongoing economic crisis. [36] As Dissanayake was the first president to be elected without winning a majority of the vote in the first count, he has been described as a "minority president" by some political commentators. [37] Tamil National Alliance MP M. A. Sumanthiran congratulated Dissanayake on what he claimed as "a victory without relying on racial or religious chauvinism, a key factor that set his campaign apart." [38]

Presidency (2024–present)

Inauguration and cabinet

“I am not a magician, I am a common citizen,”

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, [39]

Dissanayake was inaugurated as president at the presidential secretariat on 23 September 2024. In his inaugural speech as president, he promised to fulfill the commitments listed in the mandate, reiterating that it would take time for the country to change. He also alluded to the proposal of parliamentary elections, so that a new government can be formed. [40]

Dissanayake appointed members to his interim cabinet, which included Ananda Wijepala as the private secretary to his president, Nandika Sanath Kumanayaka as secretary to the president, Ravi Seneviratne as secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, and Sampath Thuyacontha as the secretary to the Ministry of Defence. [41]

Due to the seat of Dissanayake being vacant in parliament, Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi was appointed as the former's replacement as MP for the Colombo district. [42]

Parliamentary elections

On 24 September, Dissanayake appointed MP Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister, the third woman to hold the position. [43] He also appointed her as concurrent minister for justice, education and labour. [44] Aside from Amarasuriya, Dissanayake also appointed Vijitha Herath, another NPP MP in Parliament to his cabinet. [45] Later that day, he dissolved the 16th Parliament of Sri Lanka and called for early legislative elections scheduled on 14 November. [46]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has stated in late October 2024, that the TNA is willing to work with a Dissanayake government and accept ministerial portfolios. [47]

Dissanayake led his party for a landslide victory in the elections by claiming 159 seats out of 225 that gave him over the 2/3 majority in parliament.

Tax reform

Dissanayake was highly critical of the Wickremesinghe government and the International Monetary Fund, claiming that the IMF only wished to bail out corrupt regimes. [48] He stated that some of the IMF conditions need to be renegotiated, such as the reduction of certain taxes such as the pay-as-you-earn tax, as this has outperformed, while reducing expenditure to meet the primary surplus target. He has indicated that his government would increase social welfare grants while eliminating value-added taxes on essential items such as food, health services, medical equipment, and educational services. His government would reduce the cost of living and increase taxes on the wealthy while supporting their businesses. [49] Since assuming the presidency, Dissanayake has committed to continuing the country's deal with the IMF. [50]

Land reforms

President Dissanayake instructed 11,000 acres of land belonging to the Kantale Sugar Company to be distributed to farmers for the cultivation of short-term crops. [51]

Anti-corruption and crime

Dissanayake has promised to reopen over 400 cases of corruption and fraud, including restarting investigation into the 2015 Central Bank of Sri Lanka bond scandal and the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. [52] Former senior police officer Shani Abeysekara was appointed to head the newly created Police Assets Recovery Unit. [53]

The Presidential Secretariat instructed all former ministers and state officials to hand in any official vehicles [54] and firearms [55] issued to them and requested former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe to return vehicles in excess of their entitlements. During his election campaign, Dissanayake pledged to revoke entitlements enjoyed by former presidents and has appointed a committee to look into it. [56]

To fight organised crime, Dissanayake ordered the Attorney General to remove fundamental rights petitions submitted to the Supreme Court against police officers, including officers of the elite Special Task Force. [57]

Foreign policy

Dissanayake has indicated that Sri Lanka intends to gain BRICS membership, initiated by the previous government. Although invited to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024, Dissanayake indicated that he would be unable to attend due to the elections in the country and will instead send a delegation to the summit. [58]

Sri Lanka rejected the resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2024 for an external evidence gathering mechanism, stating that Dissanayake aimed to "make domestic mechanisms credible and sound". [59]

On 22 October 2024, cabinet spokesman Vijitha Herath announced that neither the president nor any other ministers would attend the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), scheduled to be held in Apia, Samoa, from 25 to 26 October 2024. Instead, a delegation of officials from the Sri Lanka High Commission in the UK and the Foreign Ministry will represent Sri Lanka at the meeting. [60]

Also on 22 October 2024, Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane led the Sri Lanka delegation to the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. [61] The country had initiated its formal application process to join BRICS. [62] [63]

Truth and reconciliation

Dissanayake visited the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, where he received blessings and later vowed to uncover the truth surrounding the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. [64]

Responding to calls by Northern Province residents, Dissanayake ordered the reopening of the Palali-Achchuveli main road in October 2024, which was carried out by the Defence Secretary. The road which ran across the high-security zone of the Palaly Cantonment in Jaffna had been closed for over 30 years since the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War. [65] Former Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran urged President Dissanayake to release all remaining military-occupied land, both residential and agrarian. [66]

National security

Dissanayake has responded to the threat of Terrorism that appeared in October 2024 with travel advisories raised by the United States and several other countries, by deploying the police, intelligence officers and the armed forces in Colombo, Arugam Bay, Weligama and Ella; and meeting foreign envoys. [67] [68]

In November, the government claimed that the planned attack was what it claimed to be an "Organized Crime" contracted by an Iranian national to several persons in Sri Lanka that included Maldivian and an Ex-LTTE members linked to the assassination of Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and that the government was alerted about potential threats by the United States. [69]

Political positions

Dissanayake has been characterised in media as a Marxist [70] and a neo-Marxist. [71] During his 2024 presidential campaign, Dissanayake pledged to dissolve the then-incumbent parliament within 45 days of coming to power and seek a general mandate for his policies. He ran on a platform of anti-corruption and anti-poverty in 2024. [72] Dhananath Fernando, CEO of the Colombo-based pro-market think tank Advocata Institute, said that Dissanayake "now advocates for a pro-trade approach, emphasising the simplification of the tariff structure, improving the business environment, reforming tax administration, ending corruption and positioning the private sector as the engine of growth. However, his stance on debt negotiations remains unclear." [73]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Anura Kumara Dissanayaka
ElectionConstituencyPartyAllianceVotesResult
2004 parliamentary Kurunegala District Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna United People's Freedom Alliance 153,868Elected
2015 parliamentary Colombo District 65,966Elected
2019 presidential Sri Lanka National People's Power 418,553Lost
2020 parliamentary Colombo District 49,814Elected
2022 presidential Sri Lanka 3 (E.V)Lost
2024 presidential 5,740,179Elected

Notes

  1. ↑ as Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation
  2. ↑ Sinhala: අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක, romanized: Anura Kumāra Disānāyaka, pronounced [anurəkuma:rədisa:na:jəkə] ; Tamil: அநுர குமார திசாநாயக்க, romanized: Anura Kumāra Ticānāyakka, Tamil pronunciation: [ɐnʊɾɐkʊmaːɾɐtɪtɕaːnaːjɐkːɐ] .

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References

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Political offices
Preceded by President of Sri Lanka
2024–present		Incumbent
Preceded by Minister of Agriculture, Land and Livestock
2004–2005		Succeeded by
Parliament of Sri Lanka
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New office Leader of National People's Power
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