Today President Mahinda Rajapaksa completes three years in office

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the second son in a family of six brothers and three sisters, was born at Weeraketiya in Sri Lanka’s deep south, on November 18, 1945.

The fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister, Member of Parliament, lawyer, human rights activist and trade unionist, comes from a family with a long tradition in people-oriented politics.

He was elected Executive President in the nationwide election held in November 2005.He succeeded his father D.A. Rajapaksa to Sri Lanka’s Parliament in 1970, showing the strong influence his family has on the politics of the Hambantota District.From the beginning of his career, President Rajapaksa adopted a centre-left political stance, identifying himself with labour rights and becoming a champion of human rights. He was a key spokesman of Parliamentarians for Human Rights.Mahinda Rajapaksa won the Presidency of Sri Lanka on a largely people-oriented platform laid out in the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ – his election manifesto aimed at building a ‘New Sri Lanka’ – which promised the advance of democracy and a commitment to securing resolution in the long standing ethnic conflict, exacerbated by separatist terrorism.

President Rajapaksa remains committed to a negotiated political solution to the crisis of power sharing in the country and, in a major policy initiative, has appointed an All Party Representative Committee to work out a consensus solution on methods of power sharing and necessary constitutional reform in the country.  He has, at the same time, reiterated that terrorism has to be firmly dealt with while keeping the door to negotiations open, stressing however that such an eventuality is predicated on the LTTE agreeing to decommissioning weapons. In a world that has on paper vowed to show zero-tolerance of terrorism, President Rajapaksa has demonstrated in real, on-the-ground terms that this theory not only needs to be put into practice but can indeed be implemented.During the first three years of his tenure and under his leadership and direction the security forces have cleared the entire Eastern Province and driven the LTTE to small pockets in the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. He has, moreover, taken concrete steps to restore normalcy in the East, holding elections and launching a massive and unprecedented development drive.

Several religious and social activities have been organised around the country to coincide with President Rajapaksa’s birthday and the third anniversary of his Presidency.

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