Lalith Athulathmudali
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The Honourable Lalith Athulathmudali PC, MP |
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| Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament for Colombo District |
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In office 15 February 1989 – 23 April 1993 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 November 1936 Colombo, Ceylon |
| Died | 23 April 1993 (aged 56) Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
| Political party | United National Party |
| Other political affiliations |
Democratic United National Front |
| Spouse(s) | Srimani Anoma |
| Children | Serela |
| Residence | Inner Flower Road, Colombo 7 |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University Jesus College, Oxford Royal College, Colombo St. John's College Panadura |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Barrister, University lecturer |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali (Sinhala:ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was a prominent Sri Lankan politician of the United National Party and former Cabinet Minister of Trade, National Security, Agriculture, Education and deputy minister of defence.
Born to a family of Lawyers, his father was a Member of the State Council of Ceylon. Athulathmudali was educated at St. John's College Panadura before moving to Royal College Colombo where he won the Steward Prize. He then went on to read Jurisprudence at Jesus College, University of Oxford from 1955, President of the Oxford Union in 1958 and won the Lord Sanky Prize. He was the first Sri Lankan to be elected as the President of the Oxford Union. After that he went to teach law as a lecturer at the University of Singapore, the Hebrew University in Israel, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Allahabad, and finally became a lecturer in Jurisprudence in the Ceylon Law College. In 1985 he was appointed a President's Counsel.
Lalith Athulathmudali was elected to Parliament in 1977 and went on to become the Deputy Minister of Defence, Minister of National Security and Minister of Trade and Shipping under President J.R. Jayewardene during the 1980s. During this time, as Minister of Trade, he introduced Intellectual Property Law. He started reforms in both the police and army. The most controversial of his measures was to call for Israeli assistance. He organised several offensives against territories held by the LTTE including Vadamarachchi Operation. He was seriously injured 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 with the rebellion JVP.The main brokers of the socalled truce were a lawyer called Kelly Senanayake and Fr Thissa Balasooriya who later found had no mandate to represent JVP.He was embarresed and humiliated a lot however upon Jayewardene's retirement in 1988, tried to obtain the UNP's nomination for the presidential election, but was defeated by Ranasinghe Premadasa who went on to win the presidency.
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