COLOMBO: Former journalist and rights activist Dullas Alahapperuma is an not likely contender to be Sri Lanka’s chief, however is the principle challenger to the present appearing president in a parliamentary vote Wednesday. The 63-year-old former media minister secured the give a boost to of the principle political opposition on Tuesday, after promising to unite a fractured, crisis-hit country following Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation remaining week.
“This can be a crime to not do the rest whilst the rustic is swiftly happening,” Alahapperuma informed AFP whilst Rajapaksa was once nonetheless in administrative center. “We should get the rustic out of this mess. In a different way we gained’t have a rustic very quickly.” Sri Lankan politics has been ruled for many years by means of a sequence of circle of relatives dynasties, however Alahapperuma’s circle of relatives by no means had the ones connections. Each his oldsters have been schoolteachers, and he started his occupation as a reporter for Lakmina, an area newspaper in Colombo. Shifting into leftist activism, he printed his personal political tabloid, the “Dullas Information”.
That propelled him to a provincial council seat in 1993, and a 12 months later he turned into a member of parliament. He labored intently on the time with Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was once campaigning towards rights abuses by means of the federal government of then-president Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Rajapaksa and his circle of relatives went directly to dominate Sri Lankan politics for years-the lately ousted president is his more youthful brother-and a number of participants of the extended family have been themselves accused of rights abuses within the nation’s struggle towards a Tamil rise up. In an indication of the dynastic nature of Sri Lankan politics, it was once Premadasa’s son Sajith, now the chief of the opposition in parliament, who nominated Alahapperuma for the presidency on Tuesday.
‘Deceitful political tradition’
Alahapperuma left politics in 2001 to pursue upper training on the College of Iowa, however re-entered parliament in 2005 when his best friend Mahinda turned into president. Maximum lately, he held 3 other positions in Gotabaya’s cupboard. On his first day as power minister, there was once a national blackout. As media minister, he maintained shut ties with reporters and was once noticed as an unabrasive spokesman for the cabinet-unlike a number of of his predecessors.
As public anger grew towards the Rajapaksa extended family over the rustic’s worsening financial disaster, Alahapperuma publicly prompt the president to shape a cohesion govt previous this 12 months. He accused the Rajapaksa management of unleashing assaults towards dissident reporters and activists, and admitted that he was once powerless to comprise the oppression. He was once noticed as an outspoken critic throughout the cupboard, a file that can have helped him protected the opposition’s give a boost to for his candidacy for president.
A father of 2 sons elderly 27 and 26, Alahapperuma is married to a well-liked movie actress, Pradeepa Dharmadasa. If he wins on Wednesday he has promised to make opposition chief Premadasa his top minister in what he calls the rustic’s first “consensual govt”. The previous cupboard minister desires to “put an finish to the deceitful political tradition, that clouded our country for ages”, he tweeted on Saturday. – AFP