Anura Kumara Dissanayake; “Leftist” Star Rises Over Sri Lanka

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake

The heading of this article is inspired by the title of Edgar Snow’s book, “Red Star Over China”. Snow’s 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 unknown to the Western world at that time. Years later when the communists under Mao captured power in China, “Red Star Over China” became a best seller. The book was avidly read to gain an insight into the new Communist rulers of China.
Sri Lanka’s 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. 
 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 People’s Power).The JVP is a militant movement turned political party with a history spanning six decades. 
 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. 
 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 “anti-Indian” and “anti-Tamil”. 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. 
In the good old days before a man called Donald Trump (dis)graced the “White House”, US presidents were much respected and admired widely. The life stories of many US presidents were read and relished. 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. 
 Lincoln was a man of humble origins. His rise to the top is called a “From log cabin to White House” story. 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 “ From  wattle and daub cottage to President’s House” saga. It is in this context that this column  focuses on Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake  in a two part article this week. 

Life in Thambuthegama

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 parents were of Kandyan Govi Buddhist stock. The family relocated to the Anuradhapura district in the North Central Province when Anura and his elder sister were children. After living in Kekirawa for a few years, the family moved to Thambuthegama in the same province. 
Thambuthegama situated in an agrarian region 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. 
Anura’s 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’s mother was a housewife who obtained periodic employment during paddy planting and harvesting seasons. 
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’s 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 “Yarl Devi”, “Uttara Devi” and “Rajarata Rajani”. During school holidays, Anura would be employed part -time as a ditch digger. 
Despite the economic 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. 

Avid Reader

 The president in the making was  an avid reader during his student and undergraduate days. (he still is). In a media interview given some years ago, AKD was asked about the books he liked.  Some of the books mentioned by Anura were “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy, “The Mother” by Maxim Gorky, “Senkottan” by Mahinda Prasad Masimbula and “Adaraneeya Victoria” by Mohan Raj Madawala. He further said that there were a number of short stories he liked. 
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’ 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. 
AKD  enjoys reading biographies and auto-biographies of great thinkers and political leaders. Among those renowned persons whose life stories have enriched Anura’s life are  Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gandhi, Tito, Castro and Clinto. 
Speaking further in the interview AKD said “There 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.” 
Anura’s love of reading and acknowledgement 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 “athlete” in him. His brisk walk and the ease with which he mounts stages are strikingly noteworthy. The genesis of this physical fitness lies in the waters of Anuradhapura.  

Good Swimmer

Anura Kumara Dissanayake 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) of  Nuwara Wewa tank  constructed  by King Valagamba in the first century. 
Later on as a political activist, Anura travelled throughout Sri Lanka. He would swim in tanks, lakes and rivers wherever and whenever possible. “I love to swim. On average, I swim about two kilometers. So a swimming pool isn’t enough for me. To be honest, I don’t like swimming pools.” he  told an interviewer once. 
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 changed Anura’s life utterly. A brief re-run of history is required to understand what had happened then. 

Indo-Lanka Accord

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. 
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.   

Rohana Wijeweera

 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. 
In 1977, the new UNP Government 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 “new Left” JVP was emerging as the third force in Sri Lankan  politics.   
 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.

Second JVP Insurgency

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. 
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.
 The JVP’s anti-Indian military wing was named “Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya” (DJV) or “Patriotic People’s Movement”. The emphasis on patriotism or love of the country was to mobilise people’s support on those lines. A sense of history was invoked by the nom de guerre adopted by the DJV commander-  Keerthi Wijebahu.
 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. 

Joined JVP in 1987

 It was under these circumstances that 19-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayake joined the JVP in 1987 along with his first cousin Sunil Dissanayake. “Sunil Aiya” as Anura called him ,had a great influence on Anura’s life. It was Sunil who was instrumental in convincing Anura that they should join the JVP for the motherland’s sake. 

Anura Alias Aravinda

When Anura joined the JVP, he was awaiting the results of his GCE (AL) examination. A few 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. Anura adopted the nom de guerre “Aravinda” and engaged in pro-JVP/DJV activities. Anura alias Aravinda was a  courier among various JVP cells. 
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.
 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. 

State Counter Terror

The terror unleashed by the JVP was matched by the counter terror of the state. Anura’s cousin Sunil was among the thousands of youths killed through state terror. Sunil Aiya was arrested, tortured and killed. Anura known as Aravinda  fled from Peradeniya and went into hiding. He became a wanted man. Anura’s 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 “Aravinda”. 
Anura dropped out of Peradeniya and went underground. According to JVP circles Anura adopted a low profile and moved from place to place. This period was arguably the most dangerous phase in his life. Most senior leaders of the JVP including Rohana Wijeweera and Upatissa Gamanayake were captured and executed. Only Somawansa Amerasinghe of the senior leaders survived and  escaped to Europe with Indian assistance. The second JVP insurgency was totally crushed .

University of Kelaniya

The situation began easing. After  more than  a year of living incognito, Anura  surfaced and re-entered the mainstream of society. The “Aravinda” chapter  was over. Anura Kumara Dissanayake resumed his studies again. This time, he obtained a transfer to the University of Kelaniya and became an undergrad there. 

 AKD’s Destiny

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 rose 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.
D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at [email protected]