Outside her heavily fortified palace, like this one to the ancient town of Polarua, a very rare. Hanging over the celebrations at this prize giving at a local school is a pull of tension and fear. There's a sense that anything could happen at any time, that one lone gunman could once again alter the course of Sri Lankan history. It was at an event like this one that Kumara Tonga had her own rush with death. In 1999, the Tamil Tigers sent a suicide bomber to kill her. The bomber, a young woman and 26 other people perished, but miraculously Kumara Tonga survived for the explosion cost to an eye. Shortly after this attempt on her life, she appeared on national television and vowed to carry on with the peace process. There is not one doubt in my mind that this victory with which the gods have seen fit to one another. It is a victory not only for myself, not only for my two children whose mother has been spared, but a resounding victory for our entire nation. At that point, did you seriously consider getting out of politics? Yes. But I wanted to finish the one unfinished thing I came to do, the other things I thought I had finished. How did you shut out the trauma though? I mean, you came within an instant. I was just a little bit more serious. I was just a little bit more serious. How did you shut out the trauma though? I mean, you came within an inch of losing your life. How did you go on? Something in me that made me do it. I went on because this was one thing that fired me. I had to do it. You're a pretty tough person, aren't you? I must be. She was very stubborn.