Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera clashed against veteran politicians
Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera, who earned the highest number of votes in the Colombo District in August 5 general elections, belongs to a new breed of politicians that the nation has been clamouring for a long time.
What is surprising is this navy veteran turned politician is a total outsider to Colombo. In a TV interview with Chamuditha Samarawickrema, Rear Admiral Weerasekera said that he initially doubted whether the Colombo populous would accept him.
“I was elected to parliament from the Digamadulla electorate in rural Ampara district in 2010 but failed to get elected in 2015 when I could not get 193 more votes needed to win a seat. In 2010 three MPs were elected from the district, but due to some electoral changes, the number was down to two in the last elections,” he said. “The break from politics gave me time to serve the people and the nation in many ways, and what I did from then and now has today helped to get me elected with the highest number of votes in the Colombo District.”
Rear Admiral Weerasekera had held some of the most demanding and key posts in the Sri Lankan Navy. He was the Commander of the Northern, Eastern and Southern Naval Areas, First Squadron Commander of Fast Attack Craft, Commanding Officer of Surveillance ship Edithara, Director General of Project and Plans, Director General Welfare, Director General Operations and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy.
After retiring from the Navy in 2006, he was appointed as the first Director-General of the Civil Security Force. He transformed the former Gramarakshaka (village security) Force into a professional Civil Defence Force and protected the border villages from the LTTE raids during the war.
“I never thought I would be able to win in Colombo as I was in the fray with some party heavyweights serving the district for 30 or 40 years. I was picked for the district by president Gothabhaya Rajapakse. It did not come as a request from him. It came as an order which I could not refuse,” the former deputy minister of labour and labour relations said.
Rear Admiral Weerasekera is a part of the Viyathmaga – a movement to elect well-educated people to the government – which is a new crusade to groom and seek help from the professionals. This time nine such technocrats have won the elections with some topping the lists in their respective districts.
A nationalist at heart, Rear Admiral Weerasekera was involved in controversial events that risked his job and life during the long-drawn 30-year civil war.
“A nationalist or a patriot is not essentially a racist. Those feelings are natural to a citizen of a nation coming from the deep love for one’s motherland,” the navy veteran clarified.
In 2003 when he was the Commander of Eastern Naval Area, during the ‘Peace Accord’, the LTTE protested to placing a Buddha statue in Trincomalee town on Vesak day. “The LTTE brought the entire town to a standstill by forcibly closing all shops, fuel stations, public transport and tried to destroy the statue by throwing grenades. I asked the police and the Army to settle the issue, but the response was they were powerless as such interference amounted to a violation of the truce conditions.”
On the third day, Rear Admiral Weerasekera , on his own initiative, proceeded to the town with naval troops, guarded the Buddha statue and brought the city back to normalcy. Within two days, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike removed him from the Eastern Naval Commander’s position, and brought him to Colombo.
“I thought I would be dismissed even without my pension, but she created a new post at the Navy Headquarters for me. Thus she pleased the LTTE by removing me from Trincomalee and pleased me by appointing me to a new post. However controversial the Trincomalee issue was, I did it in good faith. I heard from the Sinhalese in the area that they were preparing to launch revenge attacks on Tamils on the fourth day if they destroyed the statue. If that happened, there would have been dangerous repercussions.”
In 2002, while he was the Commander of the Northern Naval Area, the LTTE was given full freedom to enter any Army, Navy camp unarmed after a truce, but Rear Admiral Weerasekera never allowed the LTTE to enter Mandativu island which was a significant military strategic location. He never let the Tigers come in wearing the cyanide capsules as he said the poison-encased necklaces were considered a weapon.
From 2017 he consistently attended Geneva sessions voluntarily to challenge false allegations of war crime charges orchestrated by pro-LTTE NGOs.
“The decisions of UNHRC decisions are not binding but when former minister Mangala Samaraweera who represented Sri Lanka at the sessions accepted that the forces were guilty of war crimes which the armed forces never committed. Without any vote or debate, Mangala said we are guilty, going against six local and foreign experts in Paranagama Commission who unanimously agreed that the forces were not guilty of crimes that the NGO groups brought before the council. By profession, Mangala was just a fashion designer who had no experience in the art of diplomacy or politics,” he said.
Education alone is incapable of making a politician. Knowledge is useless if a person does not love the county. “If the UNHCR decisions are binding on a country, the UN can arrest our war heroes and haul them before the International Court of Justice. They can even be arrested if they are travelling abroad.”
Rear Admiral Weerasekera was the only man to oppose the 19th amendment of the constitution designed to clip the president’s power. Former president Marithripala Sirisena wanted his support, but he went against him because he thought the amendment was not good for the country. Even Jayampathi Wimalarathne, who drafted the amendment, later said that it was not an ideal move for the nation. He also opposed the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) accord.
Rear Admiral Weerasekera believes that the people ensured a resounding victory for him inColombo because of his role in the war and what he did during the break from politics after 2015, impressed them.
A government should not only have educated professionals. There should be others too, representing the cross-sections of the society. “If you are not patriotic, it is useless being educated. It was the so-called educated people who approved the 19th amendment. It was those educated people who wanted to offer Prabhakaran’s demands on a platter when he could not win them after fighting for 30 years. It was also the educated people who sold the Hambanthota harbour for a paltry sum, which is not enough even to cover the pensions of the government servants for a year.”
Asked what kind of portfolio he expects in the new cabinet, he said it all depends on President Gothabaya Rajapakse.
“I thought Colombo people had no problems, but I was horrified to find that life is tougher here than in Ampara. I saw two families sharing a 10 x 12 room and two rooms occupied by three families. They sleep in shifts as there is not enough space. Drains are blocked, and in one place, I saw blood coming from a butchery clogging a drain stinking to high heaven. We have the manpower and resources to develop the city, but what we lack is political leadership. When the president was in charge of urban development he turned Colombo into one of the most beautiful cities in Asia,” he said hinting that he would like a portfolio connected to urban development.
Talking about his family, Rear Admiral Weerasekera said he studied at the two leading Buddhist institutions, Nalanda and Ananda. He attended Nalanda from grade 1-5 and Ananda from grade 6-13. He is the fourth in a family of six. His elder brother, a Major General in the Army, is now a Buddhist priest living in Buddangala, Ampara.
He comes from an artistic family. His mother presented Kavi Maduwa, a poetry program on Radio Ceylon in the 1950s and acted as Kathirina in Gam Peraliya, an award-winning film directed by Dr. Lester James Peiris.
Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera is a filmmaker. He directed his first movie Gamani in 2011. It is based on the massacre of Sinhala villagers by the LTTE that took place in Gonagala in 1999. The film was critically acclaimed and won many awards. He wrote the script and lyrics for all the songs of the film, which won 17 Derana film awards and five OCIC prizes, including the honours for best director, best scriptwriter, best song and best film of the year.
Rear Admiral Weerasekera is married to Hemanthi and has two children, a son and a daughter. He says his wife has some health issues, and he regrets the fact that he was away from her for 35 years serving in the Navy and four years serving in the villages bordering the trouble areas.
“Recently I got a letter from my daughter who is married and living in England saying, ‘Father, we love you so much. But now we are only left with a patriotic father and sick mother'”.
“I am sorry, and I know what she is implying, but I guess it is the price I pay for serving the country. Sometimes it is hard to escape from national duties,” he said, adding that he has decided to spend more time with his wife when he comes to Colombo and try to involve her in his political work. – Somasiri Munasinghe (newstrails.com)
