Dayan Jayatilleka

Dayan Jayatilleka (; born 1956) is a leftist Sri Lankan academic, diplomat, writer and politician.

Early life and family Jayatilleka was born in 1956. He is the son of Mervyn de Silva and Lakshmi Sylvia Fernando. Jayatilleka was educated at St. Joseph's College, Colombo. At Peradeniya he was a member of two radical groups - the Lanka Samaja Adhyayana Kavaya (Lanka Social Studies Circle) and Samaja Adhyayana Kavaya. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1982 to observe the presidential election but, having gotten involved in militant Sri Lankan politics, never returned to Binghamton and dropped out.

Jayatilleka has been married three times. Vikalpa Kandayama formed a relationship with the Tamil militant Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). In the meantime, Jayatilleka had gone into hiding, spending two years underground in Sri Lanka and one year in India. He was then pardoned by President J. R. Jayewardene. Jayatilleka then abandoned his radical beliefs and became a prominent supporter of President Ranasinghe Premadasa, serving as his advisor from 1989 to 1993. He was a member of the Council of Management of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS).

Jayatilleka was Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva between June 2007 and October 2009. During his tenure he was chairman of the International Labour Organization's governing body (2007–08); vice president of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) (2007–08); and co-ordinator of the Asian group on United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2009). Jayatilleka is credited with shielding Sri Lanka from censure by the UNHRC for alleged human rights violations during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Jayatilleka had been appointed for a two-year term but when his contract expired in June 2009 President Mahinda Rajapaksa extended his contract until June 2010.

Jayatilleka has written articles and columns for several publications including the Daily Mirror, Daily News, The Island, Lakbima, Sunday Island, Sunday Observer and Weekend Express.

Views

Alleged racism and fear mongering Despite his past support of the LTTE after Dayan began to support Mahinda Rajapaksa he is accused of becoming racist against Tamils and having double standards when Tamils are concerned as well not differentiating the LTTE from the Tamil people and democratically elected Tamil politicians. In his articles Dayan attacked the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena government for "serving the minorities" and claimed that the planned new constitution will federalize and divide Sri Lanka which will cause the "Sinhala national consciousness" to be atomized and disintegrate and empower the "Tamil consciousness". Further he claimed that the agenda of the "Tamil bourgeoisie" and "Diaspora capitalists" is to use the constitution is to "rewire and reprogram" the Sinhala consciousness so they can never win another war, divide and rule the "majority" and weaken the national state. His statements have been harshly criticized by critics as fear mongering to the benefit of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his camp.

Views on Gotabaya Rajapaksa Dayan was known for his opposition to Gotabaya Rajapaksa and has implied of him being the creator of Bodu Bala Sena with the help of Israel but Dayan denies that he was talking about Gotabaya but as the creator of the BBS but was involved in Zionist influence in Sri Lanka. Dayan believes that Gotabaya is following a form of Sinhala-Buddhist ultra-nationalism which he has named ‘Gotabayanism’ which according to him is "part uber-Trumpian, part ‘Eastworld’, all uber-hawk".

Works Sri Lanka: The Travails of a Democracy: Unfinished War, Protracted Crisis (Vikas Publications, 1995) Fidel’s Ethics of Violence: The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro (Pluto Press and University of Michigan Press, 2007) Long War, Cold Peace: Conflict and Crisis in Sri Lanka (Vijitha Yapa, 2013)