Hirunika Premachandra is a young Sri Lankan politician who first came to notice after her father’s death. Her father former MP, Bharatha Premachandra was assassinated by a group of other political supporters a few years back. Since then, Hirunika has fought to bring justice to her father. Her struggle was not limited to after she entered active politics. Hirunika was the first woman to take to the streets against Gotabaya Rajapaksha presidency. Hirunika has started her own Youtube channel – Hirunika’s Diary, and as far as I know, it is the first of this kind from an active politician.
We congratulate Hirunika and thank her for starting a new chapter in Sri Lanka’s public social network. We hope other young politicians will follow her path to reach out to the public. Hirunika’s Diary is a Vodcast, and so far, she has added three videos to her channel (as of October 23, 2022). In her second video, she interviews the popular Youtuber “Aththanayaka” of the Hello Hello Channel.
Her third vodcast features famous entrepreneur and social activist Mr. Manju Nishshanka. The friendly discussion delivers some good hopes about future leaders who can take up the challenge of pulling Sri Lanka’s economy forward.
We recognized Hirunika Premachandra as one of the first politicians to use social media like Youtube to reach out to the public. However, upcoming politicians like Dr. Pathum Kerner have been very active on social media like Facebook sharing their views with the public. Further, the presidential candidate Rohan Pallewatte of the National Development Front used social media to reach out to the public.
Most of the time, political parties have used Youtube channels in disguise. These channels post videos with content supporting their political view and promoting their politicians.
Hirunika’s Diary, however, has not yet featured any direct promotion of a political party or a political leader. We hope she will also bring young leaders and social activists for her vodcast in the future. Many active young politicians like Buddika Pathirana, Manusha Nanayakkara, Sanjeewa Edirimanna, S.M. Marikkar, etc., have been media figures before entering politics. We would not be surprised to see these politicians follow the path shown by Hirunika Premachandra soon.
Following is one video from her channel where Hirunika interviews Aththanayaka of the Hello Hello channel.
