Udaya Gammanpila

Udaya Gammanpila was born at Nawalapitiya on 6 February 1970. He was a keen student and an outstanding personality in academic performance since his school days. He selected DS Senanayake College, Colombo for his secondary education after passing grade 5 scholarship exam with flying colors. He passed the GCE A/L examination in 1988 as the island 1st and won a scholarship from the Australian government to study for a degree in computer science at Monash University. In 1993, while in his fourth year, he was appointed as an assistant lecturer at the university and it was a very rare occurrence in a student's life. Upon his return to Sri Lanka in 1994, he joined the Australia-Lanka Group as an Apprentice Manager and two years later became the Director and CEO of the group as one of the youngest CEO's that Sri Lanka has ever produced. Meanwhile, Gammanpila, who studied law at the Law College, passed the law examination in 2003 and was sworn in as a lawyer.

Gammanpila entered politics in 2000 as a founding member of Sinhala nationalist political party “Sihala Urumaya” which was driven by the school of thought that “LTTE must be defeated & can be defeated”. Gammanpila was appointed as the party's propaganda secretary in 2001 and later became its deputy general secretary. In 2007, he was appointed as the chairman of the Central Environmental Authority by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Gammanpila also served as a member of the All-Party Representatives Committee appointed by the President to resolve the North-East crisis in August that year. In 2009, he resigned as chairman of the Central Environmental Authority to contest for the Western Provincial Council. Gammanpila voluntarily resigned from his post as an example to all politicians, while other candidates contested the election using the resources of the government for the most part. His campaign was a truly eco-friendly election free of posters, polythene and crackers. After the victory Gammanpila was sworn in as the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, Industries and Environment of the Western Province.

His 2014 campaign attracted special attention from the public. He called on the public to contribute Rs. 100 to his campaign, revolutionising the contemporary perceptions of famous political propagandas that are based on the investments of businessman. He said that politicians would become puppets of businessmen and instead he is contended in maintaining his image and belief of being a public servant “by the people and for the people”. Uma Gammanpila published his income and expenditure accounts in the media following the election and published all relevant evidence such as bank statements, receipts and self-audits to maintain the transparency of his election campaign with the general public.

As a strong believer of justice and humanity Gammanpila has said that after Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in the 2015 presidential election, he should be made the prime ministerial candidate at the next parliamentary election. This was a time when majority of people were emotionally devastated since they were insecure about the future of the country and others were gradually losing their faith on the existing government and their anti-nationalist policies. Along with Dinesh Gunawardena, Wimal Weerawansa and Vasudeva Nanayakkara, he also organized a series of meetings all over the country to build the Mahinda Rajapaksa political campaign. Gammanpila, who made his contribution from the beginning of the 2019 presidential campaign as a frontrunner for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's victory, is also credited with bringing the President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa into active politics.

Since 2002 Gammanpila has been a frequent contributor to newspapers and has published weekly columns for Lankadeepa in Sinhala under the name “Pradeepa” in Sinhala and from 2012, Ceylon Today in English as Guard Post. His latest book is Mahinda Sulagin Gotabhishekayata, which features the behind-the-scenes story of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa entry into politics and power after changing the government that was appointed on 8 January 2015.

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