File photograph of Tissa Vitarana, chief of Sri Lanka’s leftist Lanka Sama Samaja Celebration
Tissa Vitarana, chief of Sri Lanka’s leftist Lanka Sama Samaja Celebration (LSSP) and a key determine within the All Celebration Consultant Committee (APRC) shaped in 2006 to develop a political answer to the island’s civil struggle, died in Colombo early Friday. He was 91.
Drawn to politics in his pupil days, Prof. Vitarana studied medication in Sri Lanka earlier than transferring into analysis — he obtained a PhD in virology from the College of London — whereas persevering with his celebration actions covertly.
After retiring from authorities service and assuming celebration management, he turned a steadfast supporter of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, helming the science and expertise portfolios in his Cupboard from 2004. Within the following years, the civil struggle entered its ultimate, bloody part, with the Rajapaksa administration going through severe allegations of human rights violations towards Tamil civilians, even because the army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Like a lot of Sri Lanka’s outdated left, Prof. Vitarana believed that asserting nationwide sovereignty and resisting imperialism known as for unconditional assist to Mr. Mahinda, who was seen to be against neoliberalism and Western hegemony.
All the identical, many — together with within the Tamil polity — noticed the APRC initiative led by him as a invaluable start line on energy devolution to the Tamils. The Committee included 15 political events and a panel of consultants, reflecting various political engagement and deliberation on the Sri Lanka’s burning nationwide query. “Prof. Vitarana was quite disillusioned that Mahinda Rajapaksa didn’t make the Committee’s full report public,” mentioned Jayampathy Wickramaratne, former LSSP member and senior lawyer. “That was his best contribution, the APRC course of.”
M.A. Sumanthiran, Basic Secretary of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a outstanding celebration representing Tamils of the island’s north and east, concurred, pointing to Prof. Vitarana’s “valiant efforts” to reach at political answer that also eludes Tamils. The APRC report had some “glorious options” on energy sharing, together with casting off the concurrent checklist, the previous Jaffna MP famous. “When our celebration was engaged within the means of drafting a brand new Structure later (2015-19), we in contrast it with the proposals that got here out in 2000 beneath President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, and located that the APRC devolved extra energy to the provinces,” Mr. Sumanthiran mentioned.
Prof. Vitharana was “born into the LSSP”, Mr. Wickramaratne mentioned, referring to the island’s oldest political celebration and the area’s greatest identified Trotskyist formation. Prof. Vitharana’s maternal uncle N.M. Perera, an iconic left political determine, was amongst its founders. The celebration was as soon as a formidable left voice representing working class pursuits, unafraid to tackle the United Nationwide Celebration in energy then, because it did whereas spearheading the Hartal of 1953 towards value hikes and welfare cuts.
Even whereas in public service, together with because the Director of the Medical Analysis Institute, Prof. Vitarana was a dedicated celebration employee, adopting the quilt title “Tissa Peiris”. As long-time Basic Secretary of the LSSP he confronted criticism each inside and out of doors the celebration, for his obvious incapability to forestall splits, owing to his political selections and management type. “He was firmly with the rightwing of the celebration and was unwilling to see the necessity to unite the celebration on leftist rules,” recalled Lal Wijenayake, lawyer and a former LSSP member, who’s at present with the ruling Nationwide Individuals’s Energy [NPP] alliance. “There have been many contradictions in his positions, however at some stage, he caught to rules like opposing the Worldwide Financial Fund [IMF],” he mentioned.
Prof. Vitarana is credited with launching the ‘Vidatha Motion’, an island-wide initiative supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with expertise and finance. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the famend virologist rebuked the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration’s coverage of necessary cremation of victims, refuting its declare that burials would contaminate the water desk — a coverage that brought about deep misery inside Sri Lanka’s Muslim group.
Revealed – February 13, 2026 04:08 pm IST