Happy birthday, Mahinda!

I wish ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa a very happy birthday as he achieves another milestone.

- BY DR UPUL WIJAYAWARDHANA

As he is joining the ranks of octogenarians today, it probably is as good an occasion as any to look back at his achievements, which are many, as well as his failings, which are not insignificant. Although my association with him has not been as close as I would have wished for, it spans more than six decades. Our fathers were close associates of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike; his father left the UNP with SWRD to form the SLFP, but my father opted to stay with the UNP. It was at my late wife Primrose’s place, in Kirulapone, that I met Mahinda in the early 1960s, when I was a medical student. A student of Thurstan College, he was a classmate of Primrose’s younger brother, Panduka, and very friendly with the other brother, Nihal. I remember Mahinda coming to their place, quite frequently, on his bicycle.