By Lionel Bopage –

Dr. Lionel Bopage

Mahinda Wijesekera has passed. The sad news arrived quietly, as such news does. Yet it carried weight — the weight of a long, complicated life, lived at the centre of Sri Lanka’s turbulent politics. I first Mahinda in 1969. It was at his parental home in Devinuwara, Matara — the home he shared with his brother, Comrade Ranjith Wijesekera. Ranjith sacrificed his life during the attacks of April 5th. Those were dangerous times.

Mahinda was a commanding presence. Tall. Sturdy. A prominent figure in a crowd. He led the Student’s Union at Vidyodaya University — now the University of Sri Jayewardenepura — with energy and conviction. He was previously affiliated with the Communist Party of Ceylon (Moscow wing) and a prominent leader of the Ceylon National Students’ Union. The students followed him willingly. His voice carried authority. He had a well-known reputation.

He presided over comrade Rohana Wijeweera’s first public oration ‘CIA Agents’, held on the 14th of July 1970 at the Vidyodaya campus. Then he was the leader of the Deshapremi Shishya Vyaparaya, the student wing of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). He spoke at the JVP’s last rally at Hyde Park, Colombo, on the 27th of February 1971. Weeks later, history swallowed us all.

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In March 1971, Mahinda was arrested in Ratnapura. He was held when the April attacks unfolded. He could not fire a shot. He was the 25th suspect at the Main Trial before the Criminal Justice Commission. Inside Welikada Prison, we passed the hours playing volleyball. Mahinda led one team.

Then came the day everything changed. I came upon him — by accident — seated with Messrs Ranil Wickremasinghe and Gamini Dissanayake, both Attorneys at Law. Nothing had been said to the rest of us. Nothing was explained. Comrade Rohana inquired about this matter. The silence that followed said everything.

From that day, Mahinda walked his own path. He declared he knew nothing of the arming, nothing of the attacks. He was released after four years. He entered the Law College in 1976. He contested the Devinuwara seat in 1977, under the Left United Front, and lost. He joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1981, contested Matara District in 1989, and won. He continued to win — every election from 1989 to 2004.

He served as Deputy Minister under President Chandrika Kumaratunga — in Southern Region Development, in Ports and Shipping, in Housing and Urban Development. In July 1999, he was appointed Minister of Forestry and Environment.

Yet politics is restless. He resigned. He crossed the aisle and joined the United National Party, became its organiser for Weligama — the very town where I spent my younger years. He won again in December 2001. He was appointed Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources.

Our paths crossed once more in those years. I put a proposal to him — a fish canning factory at Kalpitiya. It was met with silence.

In 2006, Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe removed him from all party positions. In 2007, he returned to the SLFP. Later, he served as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. In 2009, he was seriously injured in a suicide bombing but survived. He bore that wound for the rest of his life and lived until this 2nd of April.

Once we were comrades, and then we became political opposites. He underwent changes in his life that I never followed. There were decisions I questioned, and there were silences I never forgot.

And yet — he rebuilt himself, more than once, in more than one party, in more than one life. That is not emptiness. That is, in its own way, something to acknowledge.

May he rest in peace, which he could not achieve during his lifetime!

To his son, Mr Kanchana Wijesekera, and to all his family: I extend my sincere condolences.