Colombo: The newly elected President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena is being hailed as a giant slayer. He has achieved something impossible. He ended the rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa in a hotly contested, never seen before Presidential election in the history of island nation.
Sirisena, a staunch Buddhist hails from a farming background. He is from Polonnaruwa, an ancient town in North Central Sri Lanka. He was earlier twice ignored by the then President Chandraka Kumaratunga Bandaranaike for the post of the SLFP general secretary and the Prime Minister.
It is an irony that the same Chandrika threw her weight behind Sirisena against her one time favourite Rajapaksa. Sirisena who has delivered a shocking defeat to Rajapaksa is a soft spoken, humble person.
He is known for impeccable personal integrity and accessibility. As a senior Cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa government, Sirisena always stayed away from controversies. He has a tough job on the hand as the expectations of the people are very high.
He has promised to end the executive presidency, which has unlimited powers. He wants to restore the Parliamentary form of government where the Prime Minister is the head of government and the President is head of state. Sirisena has already declared that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe will be the next Prime Minister.
Soon after the news of his victory, Sirisena posted on his official website "I wish to respectfully thank the thousands of Sri Lankans who kept their unstinted faith in me. Let's move towards a compassionate Maithree-era:
The 63 years old Pallewatte Gamaralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena had been a very low-profile minister. The rudderless and faction ridden opposition chose him to take on the President Rajapksa, after he declared snap polls in last November. Sirisena quit the government a day after he shared a meal with the President. Overnight he became a symbol of Sri Lanka's fight against corruption.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was looking invincible till Sirisena hit the campaign trail in early December. The farmer-turned-politician became a rallying point for the angry Sri Lankans. Rajapaksa had removed the two-term limit on the presidency and given himself more powers soon after winning a second term in 2010, in what critics say were signs of growing authoritarianism. A staunch believer in astrology, Rajapaksa listened to his astrologer from Galle and advanced the election by two years hoping for a walkover.
The son of a World War II veteran, Sirisena entered the Sri Lankan Parliament in 1989 from his native place Polonnaruwa, where he had worked as a local government official earlier. He has studied in the erstwhile Soviet Union and was once a strong believer in the Marxism.
At that time his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was struggling to find even candidates willing to risk attacks by the Marxist-Sinhalese militants of the JVP, which wanted to enforce an election boycott.
Sirisena was also a soft target for the Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE) during the height of the war and the Tamil tigers tried to assassinate him on at least five occasions including the one in 2008. He was jailed for nearly two years after being arrested on suspicion of leading a revolt against the government in 1971 when he was just 20 years old.
After he declared his candidature against Rajapaksa, Sirisena was sacked from the SLFP and the Cabinet. He claims that he is still a member of the SLFP.
But his vision for the country ties in closely with the free-market, investor-friendly policies of the opposition the UNP which provided him with the political base to challenge Rajapaka's iron rule.
Many Buddhist monks and political factions representing the Tamils and Muslims backed Sirisena in the election. Even some allies of Rajapaksa also extended support to the man who ended the authoritarian rule of Rajapaksa and his large family.
Even though, Tamils have backed in a large scale, Sirisena maintains that he will not remove the army from the Tamil dominated north as national security is most important for him.
Sirisena is expected to have a pro-India policy and discourage the Chinese.
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