Who is Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the new Sri Lankan President?

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)’s broader coalition National People’s Power (NPP) has been elected as Sri Lanka’s next President after the first elections since the country’s economic crisis.
Dissanayake secured almost 42% of the popular vote against his nearest rival Sajith Premadasa, who secured only 23% of the votes polled. The incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe trailed behind at third position with only 16% of the votes.
Read on to learn more about the island nation’s new President.
1. Dissanayake was born into a lower-middle-class family in Thambuttegama village in Anuradhapura district, around 170 km away from the country’s capital Colombo. Despite his father being a daily wager and his mother a homemaker, they managed to educate their son, who graduated with a science degree from the University of Kelaniya.
2. Dissanayake’s active participation in student politics on the campus led him to join the JVP’s anti-government armed uprising between 1987 and 89 against the “imperialist and capitalist” regime of then Presidents Jayawardene and R Premadasa.
3. The Marxist leader rose to the position of national organiser of the Socialist Students Association in 1995 and was later appointed to the JVP’s central working committee. In 1998, he became a member of JVP’s political bureau.
4. In 2000, Dissanayake became a member of Parliament by contesting the Presidential elections through the nationalist list. While JVP supported President Kumaratunga’s administration, his party later aligned with Sinhala nationalists in 2002 to oppose peace negotiations with the Tamil rebel group LTTE, fighting an armed uprising against the Sinhala-dominated government in Colombo.
5. The JVP rose to prominence in the 2004 presidential elections after forming an alliance with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The front campaigned explicitly on an anti-ceasefire stance with the LTTE.
6. Addressing an election campaign among Buddhist monks, Dissanayake assured them that Article 9 of the Constitution, which guarantees a foremost place to Buddhism, has ‘divine protection’ and guarantees them against any amendments to it. JVP-headed coalition NPP has also committed to protect Article 9.
7. Dissanayake reportedly also warned a Tamil audience of being labelled as those who oppose the decision. “Be a stakeholder in this change… When the South is gearing up for change. If you are seen to oppose that change, what do you think the mindset of the South be? Would you like it if Jaffna was identified as those who went against this change? Those who opposed this change? Would you like it if the North was identified this way?” he asked.
8. Dissanayake’s JVP had denounced the Tamil-origin estate workers from India as an “instrument of Indian expansionism”. The party has also opposed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on trade that would promote greater trade and investment between both countries.
9. The new President-elect has also opposed any attempts to give back the Katchatheevu island to India and said “it cannot be allowed to succeed at any cost”. Notably, New Delhi has also reached out to the JVP by inviting Dissanayake and a JVP delegation for an ‘official tour’ earlier this year.
10. Dissanayake’s JVP has opposed any devolution of power to the Tamils. His party has opposed the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 signed by then India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The party has also opposed the 13th amendment to SL Constitution that created Provincial Councils to grant greater control over land revenue and police in the country’s Tamil-dominated North-East.
Dissanayake’s anti-federalist party manifesto states that it will ensure “territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country without compromise”. The party had approached the Supreme Court against the merger of Northern and Eastern provinces, as promised by the 1987 accord, which led to formal de-merger of those provinces in 2007.
As the minister of agriculture, lands and irrigation, Dissanayake rejected the possibility of post-tsunami aid distribution with the LTTE, and the government withheld large amounts of aid for the North-East.
JVP has backed the SL Armed forces during their brutal military campaign against LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran. Dissanayake has consistently opposed any attempt at an international investigation into the SL Army’s war crimes.
According to Tamil Guardian, Dissanayake dubbed the 2002 ceasefire agreement between LTTE and the Sri Lankan government as “a foundation to establish a separate state in the island”. As part of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition, JVP continued to oppose peace negotiations, which culminated in a brutal campaign in 2007.
The JVP staged agitations in front of the United Nations office and other Western Embassies in Colombo against their demands for an international investigation into the alleged war crimes. According to Tamil Guardian, Dissanayake claimed last month that “even the victims do not expect anyone to be punished”.
JVP has also embraced military officers accused of war crimes. General Aruna Jayasekara was put in charge of drafting their defence policy. The officer was accused of running a child sex trafficking racket while heading a UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti between 2004 to 2007.
Sri Lanka is awaiting the release of next trance worth $350 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) out of its bailout package worth $3 billion. Dissanayake has repeatedly said that his party would seek to “re-negotiate” the terms of the agreement, something that the current government has warned against.