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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