Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe

Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, MP, PC (born 16 March 1959) is a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician. He is a Member of Parliament for the Colombo District and currently holding Minister of Higher Education and Cultural Affairs portfolio. He is a former Minister of Justice and Buddasasana from 2015 to 2017 and Minister of State Banking Development from 2005 to 2006. He was the Prime Minister's nominee for the Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka) [1] In the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis, He was the Minister of Education and Higher Education and his post was suspended by the court.

Hon.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakse

MP, PC
De facto Minister of Education and Higher Education
In office
29 October 2018 – 15 December 2018 (suspended by courts)
PresidentMaithripala Sirisena
Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapakse
Minister of Higher Education and Cultural Affairs
In office
1 May 2018 – 26 October 2018
PresidentMaithripala Sirisena
Prime MinisterRanil Wickramasinghe
Preceded byKabir Hashim
Minister of Buddha Sasana
In office
4 September 2015 – 23 August 2017
PresidentMaithripala Sirisena
Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe
Preceded byKaru Jayasuriya
Succeeded byGamini Jayawickrama Perera
Minister of Justice
In office
12 January 2015 – 23 August 2017
PresidentMaithripala Sirisena
Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe
Preceded byRauff Hakeem
Succeeded byThalatha Atukorale
Member of the Sri Lanka Parliament
for Colombo District
Assumed office
2015
Member of the Sri Lanka Parliament
for National List
In office
2004–2010
Personal details
Born (1959-03-16) 16 March 1959
NationalitySri Lankan
Political partySri Lanka Podujana Peramuna
Other political
affiliations		Sri Lanka Freedom Party, United National Party
ProfessionAttorney-at-Law
Websitewijeyadasarajapakshe.com

Early life and career

Rajapakshe hails from a family in Walasmulla, Hambantota District. He commenced his career as a Banker and resigned after a period of 5 years to enter the legal profession. He holds a degree in Law from the University of Colombo and has been practicing in the field of law since 1984. He won the award for the Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) in the field of legal affairs in 1998 and was appointed as a President's Counsel in 2001. He had been an examiner in the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.

While engaged in his legal practice, he held several public offices such as Chairman of the Rent Board of Review, Chairman of Sri Lanka Press Council, Vice President of the World Association of Press Council, Director National Film Corporation, Director Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Managing Director Associated Newspaper Ceylon (Lake House), Panel Chairman, to inquire into the allegations of misconduct against Attorneys-at-Law, Chairman of Disciplinary Committee, to inquire into the charges of doping, against Athletes.

Political career

In May 2004 he was appointed as a Member of Parliament to represent the ruling Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and was offered the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs which was refused by him. Later he continued as the only Member of Parliament on the government side, without holding any portfolio. Following the 2005 presidential elections, President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed him as the Minister of State Banking Development in November 2005, but he resigned in April 2006 on a matter of policy. He also resigned from the post of the SLFP Organizer of the Maharagama electorate. Thereafter he was elected the Chairman of the Committee On Public Enterprises in July 2006 and presented the first report in January 2007, which led to serious controversies both local and overseas. He gain publicity for high lighting corruption in the public sector. In 2007, LMD media services named him "Sri Lankan of the year 2007".[2]

In 2010, he was elected to Parliament from the Colombo District. In 2012, he was elected President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. During his tenure he led the Bar Association in support of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake during her impeachment. Following the 2015 presidential election he was appointed Minister of Justice. In 2017, he was sacked form his ministerial position by President Maithripala Sirisena at the request by the United National Party [3] due to his views against the Privatization and involvements on Judiciary of Present Government. However, he was appointed Minister of Ministry of Higher Education & Cultural Affairs in May 2018. In 2018, with the on set of the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis, he was appointed to the new cabinet of ministers headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Minister of Education and Higher Education in October 2018.[4]

gollark: I don't think that's actually true unless you can go to ridiculous lengths like "run entire universe simulation backwards", in any case.
gollark: I mean... maybe, but it's more about making it very difficult.
gollark: I mean, how do people manage to mess this stuff up? I hesitate to say that I could do better about presumably very complex things, but it seems like a lot of the time the phone network is terrible and even I could do better at designing it.
gollark: Apparently there's yet *another* issue with phone network stuff (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/eavesdropping-on-lte-calls-with-a-usrp-software-defined-radio/) because apparently the designers/implementors are... idiots, so far as I can tell?
gollark: It does exist, but if people keep going "well it's not real anyway" a lot as if it's already gone, that will not really help.

See also

References
  • "WIJEYADASA RAJAPAKSHE". Directory of Members. Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  • "Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe resigned from CoPE". Lanka E News. Article of Lanka E News.
  • "Rajapakshe new BASL Chief". Daily Mirror. Daily Mirror.
  • "Double Doctor, Doublethink and the Culture of opportunists". Sri Lanka Guardian. Sri Lanka Guardian.
  • "Moon report breached UN Charter - Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe MP". Sunday Observer. Sunday observer.
  1. http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=local/champika-wijeyadasa-vijitha-appointed-cc
  2. http://lmd.lk/about-us/
  3. http://www.adaderana.lk/news/42645/president-approves-removal-of-wijeyadasa-rajapakse
  4. Wijeyadasa Education and Higher Education Minister
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