Profile
About
Dilan Perera was born in the year of 1962 to Marshall Perera, a lawyer and Daya Perera, an English teacher who served in government schools. The politics of the father who was a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and a mother who was an energetic trade union activist and a social worker, shaped Dilan’s and his only sibling Kisholi’s minds at a very young age on social justice and equality.
As a result of displaying his intellectual capacit, he started school at a tender age of 4 at Uva College in Badulla and moved to Colombo in order to pursure his primary education at St. Benedicts College and for his secondary education at Royal College Colombo.
Dilan holds a degree in Bachalors of Commerce (Special) from the University of Kelaniya and joined the Sri Lanka law college in 1981 and became the youngest attorney –at – law in 1984.
The Journey in Politics
Dilan was exposed to politics from his father was having regular interactions with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) members, plantation workers and lawyers in the area. As a young child and at a later stage as a university student Dilan got interested in various groups that were involved in leftist politics in Sri Lanka. By the age of 26 years, this aspiring young man was invited to contest the Uva Provincial Council elections in 1988 and went on to win the post of the yougest elected. and got elected. He had held many posts within the Uva province including the post of the Leader of the Opposition of the Uva Provincial Council between 1993 and 1994 and since then addressed issues of inequality that was all around him in the Uva Province and his approach was beyond party political divisions. During the dark days of 1988/89 Dilan has attempted in assisting young members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to protect themselves and to find non-violent paths to achieve their objectives which resulted in him leaving the country in 1989 to protect his life.
Dilan Perera rejoined national politics in 1994 as an elected member from the Badulla District in Uva Province and served as the Deputy Minister of Justice, Constitutional Affairs, Ethnic Affairs and National Integration between 1999 and 2000. With his dedication to promote a society that is above ethnic, religious, caste, class and gender divisions he eargly engaged with enthusiasm in his Ministry. Dilan is a notabe pioneering leader of many programmes aimed at bringing ethnic harmony and national integration in Sri Lanka, the White Lotus Movement, Brick and Book Project were some of the social initiatives that spoke his mindset on mobilized masses to help build the Jaffna library.
Roles in Politics
Dilan Perera has further served in many parliamentary committees as an MP on noteworthy commitees such as Public Enterprise and Human Rights Committee of the Parliament. He is also a member of the Public Petitions Committee and the Privileges Committee of the Parliament. He then went on to become the Deputy Minister of Ports and Aviation, Deputy Minister of Media and Communication, Cabinet Minister of Estate Infrastructure, Minister of Justice, Minister of Ports and Ports Development, Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare in the current government of Sri Lanka.
A strong public speaker and facilitator with the ability to handle both Sinhala and English fluently he holds a keen eye and interest in International politics and he reads on wider range of international issues. He has actively taken part in several international study programmes on Power Sharing, Federalism, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights as an elected member of parliament and led several study visits including election monitoring missions aboard.
Since 1995, on the invitation of the members of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation and forr his passion and interest in developing the sports industry, he was elected as the President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Association in 2005. After assuming duties as the Minister of Ports and Ports Development, Dilan combined his love for sports with this new responsibility and introduced South Asian Ports’ Games. The first South Asian Port Games Competition was held in Colombo in September 2008 with the participation of regional counterparts under theme “Sports Unite Ports”.
Dilan is also the President of the Badulla District Cricket Association and vice President of the National Olympic Committee, which is the highest post held by a person from Uva in any sports body.