From Weeraketiya to President's House...
Born in Weeraketiya, on
November 18, 1945, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had his early
education at Richmond College, Galle, before moving on to
Nalanda Vidyalaya and Thurstan College, Colombo.
 In 1974 he passed out as an Attorney-at-Law from the
Colombo Law College and started his career as a lawyer with
a special interest in human rights. Throughout his career as
a Parliamentarian, except for the period from 1994-2001 when
he was a minister, he continued his law practice in Tangalle.
Loyalty to principle and the party has been the hallmark
of President Rajapaksa's political philosophy. Loyalty was,
what his father, especially remembered for.
When the SLFP's founder and the late Prime Minister
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, left the UNP to form the SLFP in
1951, all his promised allies had abandoned him, but for
D.A. Rajapaksa, who crossed over with him.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was first elected to Parliament as an
SLFP member, from the Beliatta electorate in 1970. At just
24 years of age at the time, he was the youngest member of
the House. His father, D.A.Rajapaksa represented the same
electorate from 1947 to 1965.
He lost his parliamentary seat in the landslide victory
of the UNP in 1977. In 1989 he was re-elected to Parliament
to represent Hambantota District.
From the start 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 leading member of the Parliamentarians for Human
Rights.
He came into prominence as a leader, together with Dr.
Manorani Saravanamuttu, of the Mothers' Front, which
organised the mothers of the "disappeared" in 1988-90.
The Visva Bharati University of Calcutta in India
conferred on him the title Professor Emeritus for his record
on human rights. He has also been the President of the Sri
Lankan Committee for Solidarity with Palestine for the past
25 years.
President Rajapaksa was Minister for Labour and for
Fisheries in President Kumaratunga's Cabinet from 1994 to
2001. As the Minister of Fisheries he started a University
for Oceanography and established a Coast Guard Unit.
As Minister of Labour he drafted and presented the
Worker's Charter, the first in Sri Lanka.
He also held the Portfolio of the Ports and Shipping in
addition to Fisheries, for three months. During this period
he initiated work for the construction of a new harbour at
Hambantota. In March 2002 Rajapaksa was elected Leader of
the Opposition.
After the elections of April 2004 in which the United
People's Freedom Alliance was victorious, the then President
Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed him as Sri Lanka's 13th
Prime Minister on April 6, 2004.
For the November 2005 Presidential election Mahinda
Rajapaksa was chosen as the Presidential candidate of the
Sri Lanka Freedom Party held on 17 November 2005, when his
candidature was approved by 25 political parties and the
people's movements. Having beaten the UNF candidate Ranil
Wickremesinghe, he was sworn in as Sri Lanka's fifth
Executive President on November 19, 2005.
He has been a versatile sportsman during his school days,
a public schools' athlete. He was elected President of the
Athletic Association of Sri Lanka in 1997, the year in which
Susanthika Jayasinghe won Sri Lanka's first ever World
Championship medal.
His three sons - Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha, have been
outstanding rugby players.
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