Ranil Wickremasinghe

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The Honourable
 Ranil Wickremesinghe MP

Ranil Wickramesinghe
In office
May 7, 1993 – August 19, 1994
Preceded by D.B. Wijetunga
Succeeded by Chandrika Kumaratunga
In office
December 9, 2001 – April 6, 2004
Preceded by Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
Succeeded by Dr Mahinda Rajapaksa
Member of Parliament
for Colombo District
Incumbent
Assumed office 
1977
Born March 24, 1949 (1949-03-24) (age 60)
Sri Lanka
Nationality Sri Lankan
Political party United National Party
Spouse(s) Dr Maitree Wickramasinghe
Alma mater University of Ceylon,
Royal College, Colombo
Occupation Politician
Profession Lawyer
Religion Buddhist

Ranil Wickremesinghe, MP (born March 24, 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician and current Leader of the Opposition. He was Prime Minister of Sri Lanka twice, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004. A member of the United National Party he was appointed as party leader in November 1994. He is also the leader of the United National Front, been appointed as the head of the alliance in October 2009.

Contents

[edit] Antecedents

Ranil Shriyan Wickremasinghe is the second son of Esmond and Nalini Wickremasinghe. Esmond Wickremasinghe was a press baron, an ex-Samasamajist[1] and supremo of the Lake House group of newspapers[2]. His paternal uncle Lakshman Wickremasinghe was a Bishop of the Church of Sri Lanka[3]. His maternal line consisted of newspaper barons and landowners, the Wijewardenas, who were Sinhala Buddhists. His maternal grandfather was D. R. Wijewardena, the founder of the Lake House publishing empire a pro-independence activist and a financier of the independence movement. He was a nephew of J.R. Jayewardene, later President of Sri Lanka.

[edit] Education

Wickremesinghe was educated at Royal College, Colombo where he was a classmate and a good friend of Anura Bandaranaike, son of then Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike and Dinesh Gunawardena, son of socialist leader Philip Gunawardena. Wickremasinghe entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Ceylon, Colombo campus (now University of Colombo). After graduation he completed the law exams at the Sri Lanka Law College and took oaths as an advocate in 1972.[4] Of all the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe is the only person to graduate from a local university, the remainder either not attending university or having degrees from foreign universities.[3]

[edit] Political career

Wickremasinghe joined the United National Party (UNP) and progressed through its ranks. He was appointed as the chief organizer of the Kelaniya Parliamentary seat in the mid 1970s but was later appointed as the chief organizer of the Biyagama seat, which he won in the 1977 parliamentary elections.

[edit] Youngest cabinet minister

He was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government of J. R. Jayawardene, and was soon promoted to the post of Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment, which made him the youngest cabinet minister of Sri Lanka[3]. During his term as deputy minister, he initiated the Sri Lanka National Guard and the National Youth Services Council (NYSCO), which provides vocational and career training to school leavers. Wickramasinghe was later made the Minister of Education.

[edit] Prime minister (1993–1994)

Under the Presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa, Wickremasinghe was appointed as the Minister of Industry, under which he initiated industrial reforms and established the Biyagama Special Economic Zone. Wickramasinghe had competition from his intellectual colleagues in the UNP, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake, who had been rivals of President Premadasa. He was appointed the Leader of the House in 1989. On May 7, 1993 Wickramasinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister after President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers, and Prime Minister D. B. Wijethunge was appointed acting president.

During his term he was credited for pushing the country through an impressive economic transformation and was generally backed by the business community. [5]

[edit] Opposition (1994–2001)

In the 1994 parliamentary elections, the UNP lost to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA), and Kumaratunga was appointed Prime Minister of the country. Wickremasinghe was defeated in the race for Opposition Leader by two votes by fellow UNP member Gamini Dissanayake, who re-joined the party. This gave Gamini Dissanayake the default leadership of the party and made him the presidential nominee of the UNP. The UNP was progressing well under Gamini Dissanayake's leadership, when he too was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers. Gamini Dissanayake's widow, Srima replaced him as the candidate of the UNP in the 1994 election. Securing just 35% of the vote, she lost to Chandrika Kumaratunga in all electorates exceptMahiyangana. Afterwards, Wickramasinghe was appointed as the opposition leader as well as the UNP leader.

Wickremasinghe was seen as a co-operative opposition leader who gave the government a chance to carry out its agenda in its early days[5].

In the 1999 election, Wickramasinghe was nominated as UNP's Presidential candidate. After a tense election campaign in the wake of the violent North Western Provincial Council election, the Tamil Tigers blasted a suicide bomb in an election campaign rally, in which President Kumaratunga lost her right eye. In the election held two days later December 21, 1999, amidst a wave of sympathy, Kumaratunga received 51% of the popular vote to be re-elected for another term as Executive President.[5]. The gap between Wickramasinghe and Kumaratunga was approximately 700,000 votes (6% of the valid votes). Kumaratunga was sworn in for her second term as President on December 22, 1999.

After the loss of the 1999 presidential elections, Wickremasinghe unsuccessfully led his party in the 2000 parliamentary elections, again losing out to the PA.

[edit] Prime minister (2001–2004)

In 2001, Sri Lanka underwent severe losses in the warfront and the economy registered a -1% growth rate, the first ever negative growth in the country's history. By the end of the year, some members of the PA government led by S. B. Dissanayake, a senior Minister of the PA government, and Deputy Finance Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris left the PA to join the UNP thus destabilizing the Parliamentary composition which forced Kumaratunga to call for fresh elections. The United National Front (UNF), formed with PA dissidents, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Ceylon Workers' Congress assumed power in the 2001 Parliamentary Elections held on December 10. Wickramasinghe's UNP won all but 6 of the 22 Electoral Districts in Sri Lanka. Thus, Ranil Wickramasinghe took oaths as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the second time.

Three months after the election, in an act that would define his premiership, Wickramasinghe signed a ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the LTTE and initiated a process of peace negotiations, with the hope of arriving at a political consensus on a final solution to the ethnic conflict. This resulted in a significant development of the country in a number of ways. The civil war came to a halt; the North and South of the island was linked after decades and efforts were made to restore normalcy to the war torn North and East. During Wickramasinghe's term as Prime Minister, he also re-energized the economy to reach an economic growth rate of 6% and managed to keep the inflation down, at 2% - the country's lowest. His liberal economic policies stabilized the national economy. He also utilized many of his international connections, established during his time in the Opposition for the betterment of the country. Sri Lanka underwent huge social changes during this period due to the ceasefire which made the country much accessible and open.

In December 2002, the peace process reached a high point when the two "parties agreed to explore a solution founded on the principle of internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil-speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka, a solution that has to be acceptable to all communities."[6] However, the tigers abruptly withdrew from the peace process in April 2003, [7] leading to a collapse of the peace process and hence the search for a political solution.

The Tokyo Donor Conference was held in Tokyo in June 2003, with the participation of representatives from Sri Lanka, Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union. The conference pledged US $ 4.5 billion for the reconstruction and development of a post-war Sri Lanka.[8]

In October 2003, the LTTE showed some willingness to return to the negotiating table, by putting forward a set of Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals. President Kumaratunga quickly shook off these proposals and used it as an excuse to exercise her executive powers. She immediately transfered to herself the cabinet portofolios of Defense, Interior, and Media - which substantially reduced the effectiveness of the the UNP regime[9]. Soon after, President Kumaratunga's PA allied with the radical socialist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to form the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament to call for new elections, through technically, general elections were not due for another three years. President Kumaratunga would later concede that this was the greatest mistake in her life .[10]

[edit] Opposition (2004-present)

In the 2004 Parliamentary Elections held on April 02 Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNF lost governmental office. Despite the expectation of a full six year term, and planned projects cut short by the defeat, the UNP was optimistic that it could regain power in a future election. Within 14 months of UPFA"s victory, the radical JVP wing's (composed of over 30 members)parting of ways with the government, left the UPFA's parliamentary composition well short of the required majority.

[edit] Presidential Election 2005

In December 2004, Wickremesinghe was chosen by the United National Party as its Presidential candidate for Presidential Elections due in late 2005. The Supreme Court decided in August 2005 that the elections should be held that year despite the President's argument that her term would end in 2006. Mahinda Rajapaksa, then Prime Minister, was nominated as the Presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

In the Presidential Election held on November 17, 2005, Wickremesinghe was defeated narrowly by Mahinda Rajapaksa, who gained 50.29% of the vote to Wickramasinghe's 48.43%. A large number of the minority Tamil population in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, who were largely expected to back Wickramasinghe, were prevented from voting by the LTTE, which had enforced a boycott of the polls. There were also allegations by his party that people in the suburbs of major cities such as Colombo and Kandy, who were more educated and liberal and likely to vote for the UNP, were deliberately disenfranchised by pro-Rajapakse government officials by striking their names off the electoral register. It has been claimed that the number was close to 100,000[11].

[edit] Dissent within the party and provincial elections (2008 - 2009)

Following the controversy that resulted in the rejection of the UNP list of candidates for the Colombo Municipal Council election in 2006, that lead to the UNP losing control over the Council after 50 years, prompted several senior members in the party to challenge Wickremesinghe's leadership and demanded his resignation as party leader. This group lead was by MPs such as G. L. Peiris, who had crossed over to the UNP in 2001 from the then PA, and was sported by several other senior UNP members Milinda Moragoda, Gamini Lokuge. This group pushed to have Wickremesinghe replaced by the deputy party leader Karu Jayasuriya[12]. However this bid fell thought due to the lack of support from the majority of the party seniors.[13]

In 2007, Wickremesinghe established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Mahinda Rajapaksa government agreeing to UNP's collaboration with the government on issues of national interest [14]. However, shortly afterwards, 17 of the UNP's 60 members in parliament, including the group who had challenged Wickremesinghe's leadership, lead by deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya crossed over to the governing UPFA ranks in parliament and were given ministerial appointments. Callin themselves the UNP Democratic Faction, they described their crossover as a result of Ranil Wickremesinghe's unwillingess to step down as leader of the UNP.[15] Karu Jayasuriya himself becoming the Minister of Public Administration, losing the deputy leadership of the UNP in the process. However in late 2008, Jayasuriya crossed over once again to the opposition and was given back the deputy leader post.

With the progress of full scale war in the North and East, provincial council elections were held in the Eastern, North Central, Sabaragamuwa, North Western and Central province of which the UNP lost to UPFA and its coalition partners that included the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal and the Jathika Hela Urumaya in all occassions.

In February 2008, Wickremasinghe was once again under pressure to step down from the party leadership to accept an advisory position, from a majority of the UNP's parliamentary group.[16]. In March, the UNP working committee decided to create a new post called Senior Leader of the party and appointed Wickremasinghe to the post. However, it is yet to be incorporated into the party constitution at a general convention of the party. This was amid discussion with the UNP's parliamentary group about the need for the Wickremasinghe to relinquish his post (of party leader) so that a new leader could be appointed[17][18]. However, late March the party working committee decided that he should remain as the party leader[19].

[edit] Presidential Election 2010

Mr. Wickramasinghe, signed an Alliance Agreement with twelve other opposition parties in November 2009 and he announced that, a Common Candidate would be fielded for the Presidential Election widely expected to be held in 2010, two years earlier than its scheduled date. There is also speculation in Sri Lankan political circles that this common presidential candidate could be former Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka.[20]

[edit] Family

In 1994, he married Dr Maitree Wickramasinghe,[21]m a Senior Lecturer of the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya.[22] She is the only daughter of the late Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe (née Bandaratilaka) of Nawala, Koswatte.

[edit] International Affiliations

He is a member of Mont Pelerin Society. The society held a special meeting in Sri Lanka in year 2004 under his influence, when he was Prime Minister.[23]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Regi Siriwardena dies at 82
  2. ^ Prime Minister Ranil Wickrmesinghe: A social democrat with a vision and a mission, by N. Manoharan
  3. ^ a b c Former prime ministers
  4. ^ http://www.lankalovers.com/whattheysay/p_prime.shtml
  5. ^ a b c Profile: Ranil Wickramasinghe, BBC
  6. ^ December 2002 Oslo Agreement
  7. ^ Sri Lanka: A Fractured Mandate
  8. ^ Tokyo Declaration on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka June 10, 2003
  9. ^ A crisis in Sri Lanka, V.S. SAMBANDAN, The Hindu
  10. ^ committed 'three' mistakes as Lanka prez: Kumaratunga
  11. ^ Was it free and fair?, By Chrishanthi Christopher
  12. ^ Govt. UNP in political pickle
  13. ^ UNP crisis deepens
  14. ^ MoU in danger of collapse
  15. ^ [1]
  16. ^ [2]
  17. ^ UNP to create post of Senior Leader
  18. ^ Wickremesinghe refuses to budge
  19. ^ Ranil retained as Leader
  20. ^ The Sunday Times, 08 November 2009
  21. ^ Maithree Wickramasinghe, Faculty of Humanities/Department of English, University Of Kelaniya
  22. ^ Academic Staff of the Department of English, University Of Kelaniya
  23. ^ Mont Pelerin Society-Past meetings

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Ranil Wickramasinghe (2005), Desapalanaya saha dharmaya, Publisher: Nugeegoda Sarasavi Prakasanayo, ISBN 955-57337-8-3
  • Jayaratna, A. E. (2005), Ranil Wickramasinghe: Darshanaya Saha Saame Mawatha, ISBN 955-96841-2-4
Government offices
Preceded by
Ratnasiri Wickremanayake		 Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
2001–2004		 Succeeded by
Dr Mahinda Rajapaksa
Preceded by
Dingiri Banda Wijetunge		 Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
1993–1994		 Succeeded by
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
v • d • e
Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka
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