{"id":84814,"date":"2024-10-05T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84814"},"modified":"2024-11-18T19:55:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T23:55:10","slug":"84814","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84814","title":{"rendered":"Anura Kumara Dissanayake ; \u201cLeftist\u201d Star Rises Over Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

D.B.S.Jeyaraj.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The heading of this article is inspired by the title of Edgar Snow\u2019s , \u201cRed Star Over China\u201d. Snow\u2019s book first published in 1937 was a vivid account of his interaction with the Chinese communist leader Mao Ze Dong and the Red Army. Mao known then as Mao Tse Tung was relatively called to the Western world at that time. Years later when the communists under Mao captured power in China, \u201cRed Star Over China\u201d became a best seller. The book was widely read by people who wanted to gain an insight into the new \u201cunknown\u201d Communist rulers of China.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s newly elected executive president Anura Kumara Dissanayake is in a sense the red or leftist star that has risen over Sri Lanka now. Dissanayake known popularly as Anura and AKD contested and won the presidential elections held on 21 September 2024. He was sworn in as the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka on Sep 23rd. His rise has aroused a lot of interest locally and globlly.People are eger to know more about the new leftist staar shining brightly in the Sri Lankan poliicl skies.t.<\/p>\n

55 year old Anura Kumara Dissanayake is the leader of both the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (Peoples Liberation Front) as well as the Jathika Jana Balavegaya (National Peoples Power). TheJVP is a militant movement turned political party with a history spanning six decades.<\/p>\n

The JVP led JJB\/NPP is a left-leaning broad front or alliance consisting of the JVP and 21 other organisations. These entities comprise small parties, trade unions, rights groups, women, student and youth organisations. The JVP is the pivotal, pre- eminent force in the NPP.AKD contested the presidential poll on the NPP ticket under the compass symbol.<\/p>\n

Ever since his electoral victory, the international media both Western and Indian have been describing Anura as a marxist, marxist-leninist, socialist, red, neo-marxist,leftist and a left of centre politician. Some Indian commentators label him unfairly as \u201canti-Indian\u201d and \u201canti-Tamil\u201d. .In my view AKD is certainly a leftist subscribing to a left-oriented ideology but I am doubtful as to whether he could be termed a classical Marxist.<\/p>\n

In the good old days before a man called Donald Trump (dis)graced the \u201cWhite House\u201d, US presidents were much respected and admired widely. The life stories of many US presidents were read and relished in Sri Lanka. To many, the greatest US president was Abraham Lincoln who went to the extent of fighting a civil war to abolish slavery and emancipate slaves.<\/p>\n

Lincoln was a man of humble origins. His rise to the top is called a \u201cFrom log cabin to White House\u201dstory. Likewise Anura Kumara Dissanayake too is a common man who has become the first citizen of Sri Lanka. His remarkable rise too could be termed as a \u201c From wattle and daub cottage to President\u2019s House\u201dsaga. It is in this context that this column focuses on Sri Lanka\u2019s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake in a two part article this week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nLife in Thambuthegama<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anura Kumara Dissanayake was born on 24 November 1968. His birthplace was Galewala in the Matale district of the Central Province. Both his father Ran Banda Dissanayake and mother Seelwathi were of Kandyan Govigama Buddhist stock. The family relocated to the Anuradhapura district in the North Central Province when Anura and his elder sister Sriyalatha were children. After living in Kekirawa for a while , the family moved to Thambuthegama in the same province.<\/p>\n

Thambuthegama situated in an agrarian region in the Kalwewa electoral division, is about 25 km away from Anuradhapura town and 190 km from Colombo city. Anura completed his primary education at Gamini Maha Vidyalaya and secondary education at Thambuthegama Central College. He was the first student to enter University from the Thambuthegama Central college..<\/p>\n

Anura\u2019s father was essentially an agricultural worker. After several years,he obtained permanent employment in the Surveyors department as an office aide. At times, Dissanayake snr would accompany surveyors on field assignments carrying equipment. Anura\u2019s mother was a housewife who obtained periodic employment during paddy planting and harvesting seasons. <\/p>\n

The family was financially challenged in the early years after moving to Thambuthegama. Their wattle and daub cottage had no electricity. Young Anura would study at nights with the aid of a kerosene lamp. In order to augment the family income, Anura\u2019s mother would make sweetmeats. The son would take them to the nearby Thambuthegama railway station and sell them to passengers on long distance trains such as the \u201cYarl Devi\u201d,\u201dUttara Devi\u201d and \u201cRajarata Rajani\u201d.During school holidays, Anura would be employed part -time as a ditch digger.<\/p>\n

Despite the conomic hardship, Anura shone brightly as a student. He had great powers of comprehension and would grasp the finer points in the texts easily. He also had a good memory. Anura brought great credit to his Alma Mater when he made history as the first student of Thambuthegama Central College to gain admission to the Peradeniya university science faculty. Some weeks before the presidential election, Anura was felicitated by staff and students at his old school. It was perhaps a harbinger of his impending victory.<\/p>\n

Avid Reader<\/strong><\/p>\n

The president in the making was an avid reader during his student and undergraduate days. (he still is). In his boyhood Anura would perch himself on a branch of an\u201cAraliya\u201d tree (Temple Tree)I and read. According to his mother, Anura would be reading a book or a newspaper even while eating. As a kid Anura liked to fly kites.<\/p>\n

In a media interview given some years ago., AKD was asked about the books he liked. Some of the books mentioned by Anura were \u201cWar and Peace\u201d by Leo Tolstoy, \u201cThe Mother\u201d by Maxim Gorky, \u201cSenkottan\u201d by Mahinda Prasad Masimbula and \u201cAdaraneeya Victoria\u201d by Mohan Raj Madawala. He further said that there were a number of short stories he liked. <\/p>\n

Anura also said that during schooldays he used to read about the work done by Dr. Abraham Kovoor. Dr. Kovoor a native of Thiruvalla in Kerala,India moved to Sri Lanka and taught for many years at St.Thomas\u2019 College Mt.Lavinia. He was the president of the Rationalist Association and did much work in combatting superstition, pseudo Godmen and falsehoods in the name of religion.<\/p>\n

AKD enjoys reading biographies and auto-biographies of great thinkers and political leaders. Among those renowned persons whose life stories have enriched Anura\u2019s life are Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gandhi,Tito,Castro and Clinton. <\/p>\n

Speaking further in the interview AKD said \u201cThere are many books that changed my life. I was deeply inspired by the literature of Soviet Russia. Novels and short stories. The literature of that period had a great impact on our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anura\u2019s love of reading and acknowldgement of the impact of books on his life does not mean that he is a nerdy bookworm alone. People seeing him in person and on electronic screens would have noted the \u201cathelete\u201d in him.. His brisk walk and the ease with which he mounts stages and pltforms are strikingly noteworthy. The genesis of this physical fitness lies in the waters of Anuradhapura.<\/p>\n

Good Swimmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anura Kumara Dissanayake learnt to swim in a lake ner his home. He is a very good swimmer combining speed and stamina. In his student days, Anura would swim in the three historic tanks of Anuradhaura -Tissa Wewa,Abaya Wewa and Nuwara Wewa. He would often swim the entire length (3 km) and back of Nuwara Wewa tank constructed by King Valagamba in the first century.<\/p>\n

Later on as a political activist, Anura travelled throughout Sri Lanka. He would swim in tanks,lakes and rivers wherever and whenever possible. \u201cI love to swim. On average, I swim about two kilometers. So a swimming pool isn\u2019t enough for me. To be honest, I don\u2019t like swimming pools.\u201d he told an interviewer once.<\/p>\n

From the idyllic existence of swimming,reading and studying Anura Kumara came of age politically in the last year of his teens. 1987 was the year of war,peace and war. It was also the year that changd Anura\u2019s life utterly. A brief re-run of history is required to understand what had happened then. <\/p>\n


\nIndo-Lanka Accord<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan ethnic crisis had escalated over the years into a brutal armed conflict. The India-Sri Lanka Accord was signed by former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and ex-Sri Lanka president Junius Richard (JR) Jayewardene on 29 July 1987 in Colombo. The pact is known generally as the Indo-Lanka Accord. A ceasefire was declared and Indian army personnel with the nomenclature of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) were stationed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the island to maintain peace. <\/p>\n

The Rajiv-JR accord was signed with the laudable objective of bringing peace to Sri Lanka by ending the war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and armed Tamil militant groups. Instead of ushering in a durable peace as expected, the Indo-Lanka Accord paved the way for more violence and bloodshed. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by its supremo Veluppillai Prabhakaran refused to accept the accord and went back to war. Soon a full-fledged guerrilla war was waged by the LTTE against the IPKF in the North and East. <\/p>\n

Rohana Wijeweera<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led by Rohana Wijeweera also opposed the Indo-Lanka Accord and engaged in armed resistance in the predominantly Sinhala areas. The JVP had in 1971 launched an armed insurrection when the United Front Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was in power. It was cruelly and brutally crushed with the aid of several countries. Thousands of youths were killed or incarcerated. This is commonly referred to as the first JVP insurgency.<\/p>\n

In 1977, The new UNP Govt of JR Jayewardene lifted the ban on the JVP and released the imprisoned JVP cadres including Wijeweera. The JVP re-entered the political mainstream. Wijeweera even contested the 1982 presidential elections and came third.(The UNP came first and SLFP second.) It appeared that the \u201cnew Left\u201dJVP was emerging as the third force in Sri Lankan politics. <\/p>\n

An anti-Tamil pogrom was launched in July 1983 with the covert backing of several UNP Government ministers. President Jayewardene falsely blamed the JVP and proscribed the party. The JVP became an underground movement. The leaders including Rohana Wijeweera went into hiding.<\/p>\n

Second JVP Insurgency<\/strong><\/p>\n

However when the Indo -Lanka accord was signed and the IPKF was stationed in the North and East, the JVP seized the opportunity. It revived atavistic fears of the various invasions by Indian kings in the past and commenced an anti – Indian struggle in the Sinhala majority provinces. This was termed as the second JVP insurgency.<\/p>\n

When the JVP launched its second insurgency in 1987, it had very little membership in the pre-dominantly Tamil and Muslim regions of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. As such most of its armed activity was in the Sinhala majority seven provinces.<\/p>\n

The JVP\u2019s anti-Indian military wing was named \u201cDeshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya\u201d (DJV) or \u201cPatriotic People\u2019s Movement\u201d. The emphasis on patriotism or love of the country was to mobilise people\u2019s support on those lines. A sense of history was invoked by the nom de guerre adopted by the DJV commander- Keerthi Wijebahu.<\/p>\n

It was Prince Keerthi who fought against the Chozha Monarchs, Raja Rajan and Rajendran in the 10th Century. The Ruhuna Prince eventually succeeded in evicting the Chola conquerors from Polonnaruwa and crowned himself as Wijebahu. The DJV Commander Keerthi Wijebahu was Saman Piyasiri Fernando. This native of Lunawa in Moratuwa was a Kelaniya University graduate. Adopting the name Keerthi Wijebahu was a masterstroke from the JVP perspective.<\/p>\n

Joined JVP in 1987<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was under these circumstances that 19 year old Anura Kumara Disanayake joined the JVP in 1987 along with his first cousin Sunil Dissanayake. \u201cSunil Aiya\u201d as Anura called him ,had a great influence on Anura\u2019s life.It was Sunil who was instrumental in convincing Anura that they should join the JVP for the motherland\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

Anura Alias Aravinda<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Anura joined the JVP, he was a GCE(AL) .student . He along with a few other students, organized protest demonstrations and public meetings against the Indo – Lanka accord. Anura was also involved withthers in pasting posters and distributing leaflets against the cccord. Some months later , Anura gained admission to the University of Peradeniya. Anura moved to Kandy and commenced his tertiary education. But he devoted most of his time to clandestine political activity. <\/p>\n

AAccording to his dormitory inmates, Anura would be \u201cmissing\u201d for many hours in the night. Anura adopted the nom de guerre \u201cAravinda\u201d and engaged in pro-JVP\/DJV activities. Anura alias Aravinda functioned as a courier among various JVP cells and cadres.<\/p>\n

The second JVP insurgency lasting for more than three years resulted in thousands of people being brutally killed by both the JVP as well as the counter insurgency forces comprising Police, paramilitary and security personnel. Tens of thousands of Sinhala youth were massacred by agents of the State. While no reliable estimates are available of the number of killings done by security personnel and other agents of the State, there are official figures of the killings done by the JVP.<\/p>\n

During this three-year period, 487 public servants, 342 policemen, 209 security personnel, 16 political leaders, and 4,945 civilians of other descriptions were said to have been killed by the JVP. This tally included 30 Buddhist monks, two Catholic priests, 52 school principals, four medical doctors, 18 estate superintendents and 27 trade unionists. It also includes family members of 93 policemen and 69 servicemen.<\/p>\n

State Counter Terror<\/strong><\/p>\n

The terror unleashed by the JVP was matched by the counter terror of the state. Anura\u2019s cousin Sunil was among the thousands of youths killed through state terror. Sunil Aiya was arrested,tortured, killed and dumped in phophte mine. <\/p>\n

Anura known as Aravinda fled from Peradeniya and went into hiding. He became a wanted man. Anura\u2019s non-political family had moved from their wattle and daub cottage to a modest brick house. Agents of the state reportedly burnt the house down as a warning to \u201cAravinda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anura dropped out of Peradeniya and went underground. According to JVP circles Anura maintained a low profile and moved from place to place. This period was arguably the most dangerous phase in his life. . According to an unconfirmed report, Anura\u2019s father had died during this time. But the son ws unable to attend the funeral.<\/p>\n

State authorities cracked down on the JVP\/DJV. Ranaasinghe Premadsa was then the President nd Defence minister.Ranjan Wijertne was the deputy defence minister. Most senior leaders of the JVP including Rohana Wijeweera and Upatissa Gamanayake were captured and executed. Kerthi Wijebahu too was killed. Only Somawansa Amerasinghe of the senior leaders survived and escaped to Europe with Indian assistance. The second JVP insurgency was totally crushed .<\/p>\n


\nUniversity of Kelaniya<\/strong><\/p>\n

The situation began easing. After more than a year of living incognito, Anura surfaced and re-entered the mainstream of society. The \u201cAravinda\u201d chapter was over. Anura Kumara Dissanayake resumd his studies again. This time, he obtained a transfer to the University of Kelaniya and became an undergrad there. <\/p>\n

AKD\u2019s Destiny<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anura had survived the brutal crack-down on the JVP. It appeared that destiny had decreed a greater role for AKD in the future. The JVP emerged from the ashes like the mythical phoenix bird. Anura himself rose up from the ranks to become the leader of both the JVP and the JVP-led NPP. Currently he is the President of Sri Lanka.The leftist star has risen over Sri Lanka. How this remarkable state of affairs came about would be related in the second part of this article.<\/p>\n

D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This rticle appeared in the \u201cDBS Jeyraj Column\u201dof the \u201cDaily Mirror\u201ddated 28 September 2024.It can be accessed here –<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/opinion\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-Leftist-Star-Rises-Over-Sri-Lanka\/172-292657<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

*****************************************************************<\/strong><\/p>\n

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By D.B.S.Jeyaraj. The heading of this article is inspired by the title of Edgar Snow\u2019s , \u201cRed Star Over China\u201d. Snow\u2019s book first published in 1937 was a vivid account of his interaction with the Chinese communist leader Mao Ze Dong and the Red Army. Mao known then as Mao Tse Tung was relatively called …<\/p>\n

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