Born in a rural village into a poor family, Anura Dissanayake became involved in politics at the age of 18 and eventually was named the leader of the political alliance National People’s Power in 2019.Jennifer Gauthier /The Globe and Mail
Anura Dissanayake is touring the world to rally support among the Sri Lankan diaspora for his opposition party as it seeks to form the next government in the small South Asian country, which is scheduled in November to have its first election since declaring bankruptcy two years ago.
Mr. Dissanayake’s focus includes Canada’s approximately 200,000 people of Sri Lankan descent. He held rallies in Toronto and Vancouver this past weekend during a three-day trip aimed at convincing the diaspora to help elect a socialist leader intent on uniting the island’s different cultures after years of disquiet and distrust.
Born in a rural village into a poor family, the 56-year-old became involved in politics at the age of 18 and eventually was named the leader of the political alliance National People’s Power, or Jathika Jana Balawegaya, in 2019. That year, he ranked a distant third in the presidential election.
But his popularity is now rising and the career politician from the Sinhalese ethnic majority faces tough questions about how he might bring reconciliation to a country still grappling with the 2019 Easter Day bombings, a series of Islamic State-related attacks that killed more than 250 people. The country is also struggling with its bankrupt economy, which the International Monetary Fund is overseeing with a nearly US$3-billion bailout program.
Mr. Dissanayake is also visiting Sweden, South Korea, India, Japan, Australia and the United States on his tour. He sat down with The Globe and Mail in Vancouver on Monday for an interview.
What was your core message to the people you met with in Canada?
Even though Sri Lankans here are living a comfortable life, they’re attached to their home country. There’s an economic crisis in Sri Lanka and there’s a political crisis. The political system created the whole issue; to change the situation we need political change. People living in Canada expect that they can make a real involvement to change the situation.
You contend the current Sri Lankan government used the Easter attack to gain power?
Society believes this government used the attack to get to power. That’s what the majority believes. The society already blames the government and people are not trusting the government is going to do the right investigation into the Easter attacks.
Three separate investigations into the Easter Day bombings have been completed, but you say if you get elected you will refocus the quest for justice on why a 2018 probe into the terrorist group’s killing of two police officers appears to have been botched?
Yes, we first need to figure out who is behind that case.
Speaking of political violence, our Prime Minister has accused India of assassinating a dissident here on Canadian soil. How is Sri Lanka’s relationship with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and are you concerned about any such influence in your country?
Two months ago, the Indian government invited me to India. We’re not doing anything against India. … Modi can deal with the internal situation; India is not going to affect Sri Lanka. Three decades ago, India spread that type of propaganda [against] Sri Lanka, but they’ve changed now. They only care about the Indian security situation.
Given your strong support of socialism, are you concerned with the international agreement to rescue your economy? What do you propose Sri Lanka do?
We cannot come out from the IMF deal, but the IMF can only manage our crisis. The IMF proposal is not good enough to get away from this crisis, so we need to create our own solution. I want to negotiate with [creditor states] individually. India and Japan are inside the IMF proposal, but China is outside of the process and it’s the biggest creditor.
What lessons, if any, can Sri Lanka draw from Canada?
I like Canadian society for its diversity. We have a very small country and a small amount of the [world’s] population, but we still fail to build that celebration of diversity.
Far-right populism is rising in many democracies and stoking ethnic tensions. Is this a concern in your country?
In Sri Lanka, nationalism already failed – the politicians tried many times and they already failed. So now the only thing left is we need to get everyone together and build Sri Lanka.
This interview was conducted with the help of a Sinhala translator and has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Mike Hager