Malinda Seneviratne
Malinda Seneviratne (born 1965) is a Sri Lankan nationalist activist, writer, poet and journalist. Malinda is known for his anti American political views and espouses the Jathika Chinthanaya school of thought pioneered by Professor Nalin de Silva and Gunadasa Amarasekara. His opinion pieces are among the widely read in Sri Lanka.[1]
Early life and Education
Malinda's father Gamini Seneviratne was a civil servant while his mother Lakshmi was a teacher in Royal College, Colombo. Malinda attended the same school and in 1983 selected for University of Peradeniya in Arts stream. While studying at the University, Malinda was offered a scholarship from Harvard University USA in sociology. He graduated in 1993 and enrolled in Cornell University to do the post graduate studies.
Political Activism
Like his father Malinda was initially a Marxist. But due influence of Jathika Chinthanaya stalwarts like Professor Nalin de Silva and Dr Gunadasa Amarasekara gravitated towards leftwing nationalism. He began by that time to question unfailability of Western science as well as the concepts of "moderneity" . In 1992 Malinda, along with former leader of JVP (a Marxist nationalist party that led the 1987-1989 insurrection against the Government) affiliated Inter University Student Federation Patali Champika Ranawaka and others participated in a discussion to form first ever left wing nationalist green political movement in Sri Lanka called "Janatha Mithuro" ( Friends of People) at a temple in Wadduwa,Sri Lanka. The meeting was broke up by Police, probably because of Champika's connection and Malinda along with others were put in to remand custody. Malinda was reportedly hit during the interrogation. After this incident Malinda returned to the USA. By mid nineties having returned to Sri Lanka he began working as a copy writer for a leading advertising firm as well as contributing articles to newspapers like "Divaina" and "The Island" in both Sinhalese and English, analyzing local and international events in a nationalist perspective. Malinda was an early advocate of military solution to the eradication of separatist insurrection in the North and East led by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). Malinda very much like rest of the Jathika Chinthanaya scholars viewed the insurrection in a global perspective,calling LTTE as pawns of a larger Western ( especially American) Christian neo colonial project bent on detroying Sinhalese Buddhist polity of Sri Lanka with a view to Christianization . Therefore, he was one of the most vociferous activists against LTTE . Malinda also was an active member of the National Movement Against Terrorrism (NMAT). Meanwhile, Malinda's ideological counterpart Patali Champika Ranawaka formed a political party called Sihala Urumaya ( Sinhalese Heritage ), and Malinda contested elections from the majority Tamil Jaffna electorate under this party. In the run up to 2005 Presidential Election Malinda Seneviratne supported the candidacy of then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse. Malinda Seneviratne played a significant role in the ideological battle against LTTE during Ealam War iv and also against Tamil Diaspora following the defeat of LTTE in May 2009.
Opposition to 13th Amendment
Malinda Seneviratne is one of the most trenchant critics of the ethnic based devolution and therefore is against the contreversial 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, which he believes was forced on Sri Lanka by India in 1987. This has been a bone of contention between himself and Dr Dayan Jayathilake, a left wing liberal scholar supportive of 13th Amendment. Malinda had a long running argument with Dayan on this matter in 2000 which appeared in "The Island" newspaper. Dayan and Malinda continue to debate this issue both in the print and web based media.
Personal life
Malinda is married and is father of two children.