The Lankan who does politics the Australian way
Gowing up in Arukgoda, Panadura with his parents being ardent supporters of two mainstream political parties, young Chandra Daya Bamunusinghe was exposed to a daily dose of opposing political views.
The Sri Lankan-born engineer is currently the Deputy Mayor of the Hume City Council in Victoria. Hume is one of the largest and fastest growing city council areas in Victoria with a population of about 190,000 of which the Sri Lankan population amounts to about 2%, according to Chandra.
“People from 140 different countries, belonging to every faith, speaking different languages live here but people live in harmony. There is no discrimination on the basis of race, colour, or disability,” says Chandra who has been living in the Hume Council area for 25 years.
Back on his annual holiday in Sri Lanka recently he spoke of his childhood influences and the politically attuned nine-year-old who gave a speech to his village friends with a half blue and half red flag he had made to represent the Samagi Peramuna led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
After his secondary education at Alubomulla Maha Vidyalaya, he entered the German Technical Training Institute to follow a four year course in Engineering. Migrating to Australia, Chandra joined the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to follow a diploma in mechanical engineering and later found employment at Qantas as an Aircraft Engineer.
It was during the 1988 General Elections in Australia, that Chandra felt the need to support the Australian Labor Party (ALP). “The late Gough Whitlam of ALP became the Prime Minister in 1972. He declared multiculturalism, gave women’s rights, implemented a universal medicare system,” he says explaining his reasons for supporting the ALP.
Having supported the former Senior Minister and one- time Opposition Leader, Simon Crean during the 1988 General Election, from 2006 onwards Chandra supported former Victorian State MP Liz Beattie who was one of his political mentors.
Meanwhile he was actively involved in community work and in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the community, the Victorian Government bestowed on him the Meritorious Services to the Community Award in 2007.
When the Hume City Council election came up in 2012, Chandra was requested by the Sri Lankan community to contest the Council elections. Chandra was the only Sri Lankan in the fray among the 22 who were contesting. It was a three month-long tough election campaign – distributing leaflets, doing radio interviews and door to door campaigning etc. Accepting donations is allowed but any donation over Australian $500 has to be declared. Candidates have to declare if they have a criminal record too, he adds.
“In the end, Councillors who are not corrupt and who have a proven record of serving the community become the people’s choice,” says a proud Chandra. In his time as Councillor, Chandra was able to do a lot of community service, including for the Sri Lankan community, he says.
In October last year he contested the Mayoral Elections through the Councillors’ vote and was appointed Deputy Mayor of the Hume City Council. Elaborating further on the Australian model of governance, Chandra, who had been one time Advisor to the former Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, says there is a lot of transparency. The public is allowed to attend the Council meetings to listen to the proceedings while the Council Budget is made public four weeks prior to the vote so as to allow public submissions. Expenses of each Councillor, are published in the newspaper which is distributed to all household in the council area, free of charge.
“The law is not tough, but the Rule of Law is implemented,” he stressed adding that the system has no place for corrupt people to come into politics.