Early Life and Education

Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC, known as Lalith Athulathmudali was born in 26 November 1936 to a family of lawyers hailing from Kaluthara, his father D. D. Athulathmudali was a Member of the State Council of Sri Lanka and his mother was Dona Elisiyana Perera Weerasinha. He had two siblings, a brother Dayantha who became an Engineer and a sister Sujee who became a Doctor.

Lalith Athulathmudali was an unparalleled politician and an erudite scholar. He had his early education at Ladies’ College, Colombo and then at St. John’s College, Panadura, before commencing an illustrious career at Royal College in 1942.During his brilliant academic career Athulathmudali won over 20 school prizes including the Shakespeare Prize and Stuart Prize. This is an unparalleled achievement up to date. He was also selected as the All Ceylon Public School Athletics Champion in 1952 and held the All Ceylon Public School record for hurdles for well over three and a half decades.

Academic & Legal Career

In 1955 he commenced his law studies at Jesus College Oxford and graduated in 1958 with a BA Honours, School of Jurisprudence and continued his post-graduate studies at Oxford. In 1959, his father died and he had to return due to a lack of funds. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike on hearing his case, provided him with a Sri Lanka Government Scholarship. In 1959 he won the Lord Sankey Prize for Jurisprudence at Oxford and 1960 he obtained the degree of Member of Arts (MA) and Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from the Prestigious Oxford University. During his student days at Oxford he was selected as Librarian, Secretary (1956), Treasurer (1957) and then President of Oxford Union in 1958 and become the first Ceylonese to be elected to such prestigious posts. In 1962 he entered Harvard Law School on scholarship and in 1963 he was awarded the Master of Law Degree (LLM) at Harvard University where his Thesis was accepted for the permanent collection at Harvard.

Then, he returning to Sri Lanka in 1964, he took oaths as an Advocate and started his legal practice. From 1967 to 1974, he was the lecture in jurisprudence at the Sri Lanka Law College. In 1985 he was appointed a President's Counsel.

Lalith had a way with words in any language which enabled him to get his message across to the messages with consummate ease. His command of Sinhala and English was impeccable, but only a few know that he spoke a number of other languages. Once, at an event in Germany, Laith switched to fluent Germany during his keynote address, surprising the audience and the interpreters who scrambled to switch again from German to English. Whatever the language, he spoke lucidly and appealed to everyone.

Political Career

Lalith Athulathmudali entered politics in the early 1970s. He joined the policy planning committee of the United National Party in 1973. He contested the 1977 general election from the Ratmalana electorate and was elected to Parliament. J.R. Jayewardene appointed him to cabinet as Minister of Trade. In 1978. He held several portfolios, including, the Minister of Trade and Shipping, National Security, Food and Cooperative and Live Stock Development, Agriculture and Minister of Education and Higher Education From 1977 to 1991.

Lalith was a legal luminary of his era but was vested with an unfamiliar task which wasto take over the Ministry of Trade and later shipping added on to the portfolio. LalithAthulathmudali is considered the architect of the Sri Lanka ports authority and theColombo port expansion project. He had a vision for the ports in the country realizing theimmense potential of this sector to be a vital cog in the economy. It was no mean task totransform the Port of Colombo to an economically viable port in the South Asian region.His visionary and astute leadership helped improve the ranking of the Colombo Port from136 th to 24 th by the end of his term as Minister, in the mid-1980s. With the aim of makingthe Colombo port the leading Port in the region he commenced its restructuring, with theamalgamation of the Port Cargo Corporation, the Colombo Port Commission and the portTally and Protective Services Corporation into one entity, as the Sri Lanka PortsAuthority (SLPA) to do away with duplication and overlapping of functions and bringabout a unified and autonomous body for port activities in the country. Thus, a newchapter was turned in the history of the Port of Colombo with the formation of the SLPA,the brainchild of Lalith Athulathmudali in August, 1979. He did not stop there but wenton to introduce transshipment and containerization business to the Port of Colombo andundertake the task of modernizing the two quays, namely the Queen Elizabeth andWijeya Quays. Containers made appearance in Colombo first in 1973. The Jaya ContainerTerminal (JCT) owned and operated by SLPA was built with assistance from Japanduring the tenure of Lalith.

He also set up the Mahapola Technical Training Centre for the Port employees. The Port Chaithya which was half built for over two decades was completed by Lalith during his stewardship.

The berth for bulk handling which was planned in the 1960s by the Colombo Port Commission by way of extending the Queen Elizabeth Quay was taken up by the SLPA as the project failed to see the light of day due to financial constraints. The berth built at a cost of Rs.100 million was inaugurated by president J. R. Jayawardhane on the invitation of Lalith Athulathmudali as Minister of Trade and Shipping to mark the first anniversary of the SLPA in 1980.

The Port of Colombo which handled around 41,622 twenty equal units (TEU) in 1980 being ranked 139th among global container ports towards the end of the decade handled around 628,485 TEUs and ranked 26th. As a young and dynamic Minister Lalith played a pivotal role under the J. R. Jayawardena administration, called upon to formulate laws, create jobs and infuse new thinking to the new economic system that opened the doors for trade with the rest of the world. Until then it was a closed economy that existed in the country.

With the focus on creating an export economy, export production villages which providea market for the producer in the village through the exporter to boost the rural economywas introduced by Lalith Athulathmudali. The Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance schemewas a brainchild of Lalith. He also expanded the Co-operative wholesale Establishment(CWE) to provide goods at a reasonable price to people. The bonded warehouse conceptwas introduced by Lalith to maintain adequate stocks of food during the time of conflictin the country.

In 1984, he was appointed Minister of National Security and Deputy Minister of Defense. He started reforms in both the police and army. During his tenure the armed forces wereexptaned and reequipped, with the army increasing from 6,000 to 24,000. The mostcontroversial of his measures was to call for Israeli assistance. He organised severaloffensives against territories held by the LTTE including the VadamarachchiOperation and was opposed to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

He was severely wounded in an attack inside the Parliament complex in 1987. The biggest debacle of his political career came in May 1988 when he declared a truce withthe rebellion JVP. The main brokers of the so-called truce were a lawyer called KellySenanayake and Fr Thissa Balasooriya who later found had no mandate to represent JVP.He received the portfolio of Trade and Shipping again in 1988. His status in governmentchanged upon Jayewardene's retirement in 1988, he tried to obtain the UNP's nominationfor the presidential election, but was defeated by Ranasinghe Premadasa who went on towin the presidency.

Family

Lalith Athulathmudali met his wife Srimani De Seram in March 1978 when she was attached to UNCTAD in Switzerland. She was a friend of his brother Dayantha Athulathmudali. After a romance that lasted several years, they got married in December1981 in Geneva. They had one daughter, Serela Athulathmudali.

After the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali, Srimani Athulathmudali who later led the DUNF founded by her husband was elected to Parliament in 1994.However Serelanever encouraged her mother’s decision of taking up politics. She was a Sri Lankanwomen politician and a former government Minister of Environment, Transport and Women’s Affairs under the Wijetunga cabinet. She died on 1 December, 2004 due to aterminal illness.

Mahapola Scholarship Program

What set Lalith apart from most other politicians was his vision for the future. The Concept of Mahapola Scholarship Program, a brainchild of this foresighted politician was the most prolific contribution made with avenues of opportunity opened to impoverished students of Sri Lanka.

Lalith Athulathmudali knew the country would suffer if the state neglected the education of its children. He also knew that abject poverty was an obstacle to higher education-although education itself was free all the way to university level that is only half thestory. There are many other expenses from food to travel that every under graduate has toincur. This was the premise behind the Mahapola scholarship program. Further, Athulathmudali never forgot the assistance he received from the Government when hewas studying at Oxford. He was given a full scholarship during S. W. R. D. Bandaranayake’s reign. He proposed to the Cabinet and set up a fund to providescholarship to needy undergraduates and fund it through a lottery.

Late Hon. Lalith Athulathmudali established the Mahapola Trust Fund through his personal contribution in February1981 with the vision of improving the technical skills ofdeserving youth who needs the financial support to continue their secondary and highereducation. Fund was incorporated under the Parliamentary Act No.66 of 1981, in terms ofthe section 3 of the Act, its administration, Management and control have been vested inthe Board of Trustees.

The aims and objectives the fund are,

• To provide higher educational facilities to youth,
• To provide assistance to deserving youth who have completed their secondary education satisfactory, So as to enable them to complete their academic, industrial or technical education at a University or technical or higher education institute, as the case may be,
• To set up and assist in the setting up and management of vocational training institutes for enabling youth to develop their vocational skills and competence,
• To set up and assist in the management and conduct of schools, institutes, foundation and similar institutions engaged in the furtherance of education and
• To provide assistance for the development and improvement of the skills and competence of lecturers, teachers and person engaged in the furtherance of education.

Today 90% of University students reap the fruits of Mahapola award started with 400 students at the first Anniversary inaugurated in 1981 at Galenbindunuwewa, Bandarawela. The staff attached to all departments and corporations under Ministry ofTrade & Shipping dedicated their optimum to make the late Minister’s vision a reality. It is also believed that today Mahapola Fund is being utilized for certain other schemesbenefitted by the people. The grateful Sri Lankans have not forgotten this remarkable giftintroduced by the late Minister Athulathmudali as the qualified students were compelledto be indebted to banks by bank loans obtained prior to the introduction of this scheme.

Mahapola Higher Education Trust Fund has awarded total no of 288,893 scholarships worth of Rs.13.3bn during the last 35 years for the students of all 15 universities, otherhigher education institutions and technical colleges since1981 to 2016.

Currently, more than 15,000 scholarships are awarded annually for the university students and 1,500 for the students in technical colleges by the Mahapola Trust Fund.

Legend

Politicians like Lalith Authulathmudali are a rare breed. It is to find a politician with corruption, communialism, bias and hypocrisy. Lalith eschewed all these. Today’s youngpoliticians must study the life and times of Lalith and emulate his ideas and deeds if theyhope to shine in the political firmament in the future. Like all politicians, Lalith workedhard to please his constituents in Ratmalana, but he had the ability to focus beyond thoseconfines and reach out to the entire country. He was truly a national-level politician.

Further, Athulathmudali is considered as one of the most distinguished Sri Lankan statesmen in recent history. He is still remembered by many in Sri Lanka as a gentlemenand as one of the few well educated politicians of that era. In his honour a statue andmemorial has been erected in Colombo. His contribution to the education of the countryis eminence, the Mahapola Fund he established has greatly contributed to thedevelopment of higher education and provides scholarships for needy students annually. The Lalith Athulathmudali Auditorium at the Sri Lanka Institute of InformationTechnology and the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize which is one of theprestigious prizes awarded annually at Royal College, Colombo (his alma mater)(awarded for the Most Outstanding Royalist Student of Royal College of the Year) arenamed in his honour.

This was one reason why every house, every shop and every place of worship had a white flag when the news of his assassination spread. His funeral saw an unprecedented crowdconverge on the General Cemetery in Borella. Lalith’s legacy will live on in the hearts ofmillions who adored him and shed tears when he bade goodbye. His far-sighted visionlives on through the thousands of university students who completed their degree thanksto the Mahapola. If at least some of them aspire to follow in his footsteps to serve the Sri Lankan society with selfless dedication and relentless dynamism, Lalith’s untimelydemise would not have been in vain.

The Life of Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali should be an example to the politicians of today who have no vision, who lack ideas and act without any national interest solely for thepurpose of survival and cheap popularity. Unfortunately, his life ended when he was shot by a gunman on 23 April 1993 after an election rally at Kirulapana.