Ranasinghe Premadasa | |
|---|---|
රණසිංහ ප්රේමදාස ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா | |
 Premadasa in 1991 | |
| 3rd President of Sri Lanka | |
| In office 2 January 1989 – 1 May 1993 | |
| Prime Minister | Dingiri Banda Wijetunga |
| Preceded by | Junius Richard Jayewardene |
| Succeeded by | Dingiri Banda Wijetunga |
| 8thPrime minister of Sri Lanka | |
| In office 6 February 1978 – 2 January 1989 | |
| President | Junius Richard Jayewardene |
| Preceded by | Junius Richard Jayewardene |
| Succeeded by | Dingiri Banda Wijetunga |
| Member of Parliament forColombo Central | |
| In office 22 March 1965 – 2 January 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Razik Fareed |
| Succeeded by | constituency abolished |
| In office 19 March 1960 – 20 July 1960 | |
| Preceded by | M. S. Themis |
| Succeeded by | Razik Fareed |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1924-06-23)23 June 1924 |
| Died | 1 May 1993(1993-05-01) (aged 68) Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Manner of death | Assassination |
| Political party | United National Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Sajith, Dulanjali |
| Residence | Sucharitha |
| Alma mater | St Joseph's College, Colombo |
| Signature |  |
Sri LankabhimanyaRanasinghe Premadasa (Sinhala:රණසිංහ ප්රේමදාසRaṇasiṃha Premadāsa;Tamil:ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசாRaṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993)[1] was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the thirdPresident of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 until hisassassination in 1993.[2] He previously served asPrime Minister of Sri Lanka from 6 February 1978 to 2 January 1989.[3] He was also Sri Lanka's second executive president under the 1978 constitution.[4]
Premadasa's tenure as prime minister made him the longest-serving uninterrupted Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, having served in the post for nearly 11 years. He was the first person to be conferred with Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, theSri Lankabhimanya in 1986 by PresidentJ. R. Jayewardene.[5]
Ranasinghe Premadasa was born on 23 June 1924 at Dias Place, Colombo 11, to the family of Richard Ranasinghe (Ranasinghe Mudalali) of Kosgoda and Battuwita Jayasinghe Arachchige Ensina Hamine of Batuwita,Horana. Premadasa was the oldest of five children, three sisters, and one brother. His father was engaged in the transport business in Colombo employingrickshaws.[6]
He received his early education at the Purwarama temple under Ven. Welitara Sri Pannananda and secondary education at Lorenz College, Skinner's Road, South Maradana and atSt. Joseph's College, Colombo under Rector Fr. Le Goc.[6]
At age fifteen, Premadasa started the Sucharita Children's Society, which later became theSucharitha Movement, a volunteers organisation with the objectives of uplifting the economic, social and spiritual development of the low-income people living in shanty areas of the capital. He was the full-time organizer of the community development project in the area in 1939. These youth who enrolled in his development movement refrained from taking liquor and avoided smoking and gambling. Premadasa too was a teetotaler.[6]
Allying withA. E. Goonesinghe, the founder leader of the Ceylon Labour movement, Premadasa started his political career in 1946 joining theCeylon Labour Party as a full-time member and campaigned for Goonesinghe in the1947 general election. In 1950, he was elected to theColombo Municipal Council as a member of San Sebastian's Ward.[6]
Having realized the limited future prospects in the Labour Party in the mid-1950s, Premadasa supported SirJohn Kotelawala's attempts to remove the then-incumbentMayor of Colombo, DrN. M. Perera of theLanka Sama Samaja Party. In 1955, Premadasa succeededT. Rudra as Deputy Mayor and joined theUnited National Party in 1956 following the successful removal of N. M. Perera as Mayor of Colombo in February 1956.[7]
From the UNP, Premadasa contested the1956 general election from theRuwanwella electorate but lost to N. M. Perera. Following his defeat, he joinedJ. R. Jayewardene working for the party reorganization underDudley Senanayake and served as the secretary of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Buddhist Council appointed by the government to organize the 2500th Buddha Jayanthi celebrations.[8][9] The following year he joined the protest march toKandy on 3 October, which had been organized by J. R. Jayewardene. The march was disrupted at Imbulgoda by thugs led byS. D. Bandaranayake.
Premadasa was elected as the third Member of Parliament fromColombo Central in theMarch 1960 general election. The short-lived Dudley Senanayake government was defeated in three months and in theJuly 1960 general election that followed he polled fourth in the three-member constituency of Colombo Central. In 1961, he re-entered the Colombo Municipal Council having been elected from the Cinnamon Gardens Ward and served till 1965. During this time, he worked to openpreschools for poor families and initiated vocational training centres insewing andtailoring for the youth.[8][6]
Premadasa successfully contested the Colombo Central electorate in the1965 general election and was elected to parliament and appointed asChief Government Whip andParliamentary Secretary to theMinister of Local Government,M. Tiruchelvam. When Tiruchelvam resigned in 1968 after theIlankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi left Dudley Senanayake's government, Premadasa was promoted as Minister of Local Government and became aminister in Senanayake's cabinet. During his tenure, he instituted a bridges programme using pre-stressed concrete components, created the Maligawatta Housing Scheme and became known in the local governments across the island.[7] Premadasa turnedRadio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia, into a public corporation – theCeylon Broadcasting Corporation on 5 January 1967.
In the following1970 general election, Premadasa was elected as the first Member of Parliament for Colombo Central and sat in the opposition with J. R. Jayewardene, theLeader of the Opposition. Premadasa was appointedChief Opposition Whip. Furthermore, he was elected chairman of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Inter-Parliamentary Association held inAustralia.
Premadasa was a member of the Constituent Assembly which drafted theconstitution of 1972. Premadasa called for reforms of the party which Dudley Senanayake refused, resulting in Premadasa resigning from the party working committee. He went on to form theSamastha Lanka Puravesi Peramuna, known generally as thePuravesi Peramuna orCitizens Front. Building up the Citizens Front, he was in open conflict with Senanayake who had recently healed a rift with Jayawardane. Amidst this conflict, Senanayake died on 13 April 1973 following a heart attack and Senanayake loyalists found fault with Premadasa. Jayawardane, who became UNP leader came to terms with Premadasa, who stopped the Citizens Front and returned to fully support the UNP, driving up its membership at grassroot levels and becoming the Deputy Leader of the party.[10]
Premadasa was re-elected as the first member of parliament for Colombo Central in thegeneral election in 1977 and was appointed theLeader of the House and the Minister of Local Government, Housing and Construction.[6]
In the following year, when J. R. Jayewardene became the first executivepresident of Sri Lanka, he appointed Premadasa asprime minister on 6 February 1978. Premadasa began to define the new role of the prime minister under an executive president. He took residence atTemple Trees, retained the use of thePrime Minister's Lodge and established anew prime minister's office atSirimathipaya. He began representing Sri Lanka internationally, having led the Sri Lankan delegation to theCommonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979, where he secured British funding for the construction of theVictoria Dam. He headed the Sri Lankan delegation to theUnited Nations General Assembly in 1980 where he addressed the general assembly.[11][6]
Continuing to hold the portfolios of Local Government, Housing and Construction, he initiated his political program, shelter for the poor, after theUnited Nations declared a Year of Shelter. His proposal to declare 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless was unanimously accepted at the 37th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Other policies includedJana Saviya, the instrument he used to help the poor, a foster parents scheme, theGam Udawa project with which he tried to stir up the stupor in the villages, the mobile secretariat whereby he took the central government bureaucracy to the peasants, the Tower Hall Foundation for drama and music, and the pension schemes he initiated for the elder artistes. On the economic front, the garment industry project that he initiated became a forerunner in earning foreign exchange and provision of employment in the villages. Premadasa served as prime minister from 1978 to 1988, with little rifts with President Jayewardene with the exception of the latter's signed theIndo-Sri Lanka Accord. Jayewardene decided to step down after his second term and Premadasa was nominated as the party candidate for the presidential election set for December 1988.[10]
Premadasa was elected as the 2nd executive president of the country at the1988 presidential election, gaining 2,569,199 (50.43%) votes and defeating former prime ministerSirimavo Bandaranaike, who came in second with 2,289,860 (44.95%) votes. Premadasa became the first non-Govigama politician to be appointed prime minister and elected president of Sri Lanka.[10]
_with_Hon.Ranasinghe_Premadasa_%2526_Mr.Neranjan_Wijeyeratne.jpg)
Premadasa was inaugurated as the 3rd President of Sri Lanka at the Octagonal Pavilion of theSacred Temple of the Tooth on 2 January 1989. His oath was administered by Chief JusticeParinda Ranasinghe.
Since the Outgoing PresidentJ. R. Jayawardene had dissolved the 11 year old Parliament and called for fresh General elections on the date of the results ofPresidential election was declared on 20 December 1988, Premadasa oversaw the duties of the Prime Minister until 6 March 1989.
In the1989 General election held on 15 February 1989, the UNP gained 125 seats in parliament, forming a government with a majority in parliament. He appointedD. B. Wijetunga as the new Prime Minister on 6 March 1989. At the time he became president, the country faced both acivil war in the north and acommunist insurgency in the south, both key issues Premadasa concentrated on, with particularly ruthless actions against the insurgents.[12] The security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders.
Premadasa also concentrated on a grassroots-level economic development drive, focusing on the provision of housing, poverty alleviation and the upliftment of the poor. He encouraged the building of model villages with clean water, transport infrastructure, schools and health centres. He encouraged the establishment of small-scale industries (mostly garment-related) in poor areas by giving factory owners low-interest loans and a share in textile quotas for the United States and Europe.[8] TheGam Udāwa programme is one of his best-known achievements in this area, along with theJanasaviya programme that is today part of theSamurdhi scheme.
AppointingRanjan Wijeratne as Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Minister for Defence, Premadasa had Wijeratne clamp down on theJVP insurgent activity in the south which had been paralyzing the state machinery and economic activity of the island since 1987 with its target killings, its unofficial curfews and work stoppages.Operation Combine launched by Wijeratne successfully challenged the insurgency by brutally suppressing and killing its leaders, including JVP leaderRohana Wijeweera by late 1989 and effectively ending the insurrection by early 1990.
His handling of the country's civil war was less successful. In the north, theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam faced off against theIndian Peace Keeping Force. The Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested India to pull out its troops. In order to force the IPKF to leave the island, he authorized a clandestine operation to supply arms to LTTE to fight the IPKF-backedEelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, a collusion that came to light in the report published by the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to inquire into the 1992 assassination of Lieutenant GeneralDenzil Kobbekaduwa.[13] While the IPKF was recalled by New Delhi in 1990, the government's war with the LTTE resumed, beginningEelam War II, which ended in a stalemate five years later. The1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers, which occurred after the policemen were asked to surrender to the LTTE in Batticaloa at Premadasa's request, was later established to have been performed with the same weapons he had supplied them.[14][15]
In September 1991, Premadasa faced animpeachment attempt in parliament led by his two formidable rivals in the UNP,Lalith Athulathmudali andGamini Dissanayake. He defeated the attempt by adjourning Parliament andSpeakerM. H. Mohamed dismissed the impeachment stating a lack of signatures after several parliamentarians who supported the impeachment later withdrew their support after facing threats.[16] Premadasa expelled Athulathmudali and Dissanayake from the party, who then went on to form their own political party, theDemocratic United National Front (DUNF).[17][18]
In 1992, Premadasa changed the country's English name fromSri Lanka toShri Lanka on the advice ofsoothsayers, who predicted it would improve the country's fortunes. The change was reverted after his assassination in 1993.[19]
Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed along with 23 others on 1 May, Saturday, 1993, around 12.45 p.m. duringUNP'sMay Day rally in Colombo, by anLTTE suicide bomber.[20] The explosion took place at Armour Street-Grandpass Junction inHulftsdorp, Colombo while President Premadasa was unofficially supervising the procession as it was heading towards theGalle Face Green fromSugathadasa Stadium. The suicide bomber was later identified as Kulaveerasingam Veerakumar alias 'Babu', a close friend of the President's valet E. M. P. Mohideen. He rode a bicycle towards the President, left it near the President's Range Rover and walked towards the President when security personnel attempted to stop him. Despite this, Mohideen allowed him to get close to the President, when Veerakumar detonated the explosive device. Killed in the explosion were Mohideen,SSP Ronnie Gunasinghe and most of Premadasa's personal staff. Another 38 people were injured in the bombing including seven who were seriously wounded. Confusion prevailed as it was unclear what had happened, with Premadasa and his security detail missing. His death was only confirmed two hours later by his personal physician when the remains of the president were identified by his ring and watch.[21]
The site of the explosion was cleaned within hours before a proper investigation was conducted. The May Day parade continued even after the explosion for some time.[22] An island-wide curfew was imposed hours after the assassination. Prime ministerDingiri Banda Wijetunga was sworn in as the acting president in the afternoon. The government did not announce the death of President Premadasa until 6 p.m. local time when state televisionRupavahini broadcast a tape ofBBC's report of the incident. A period of national mourning was announced until the funeral. Police claimed that they recovered the severed head of a young man suspected to be the bomber, which was found to have a cyanide suicide capsule, bearing LTTE tradecraft in his mouth.[23] Premadasa's state funeral took place atIndependence Square, Colombo on 9 May 1993.[citation needed]
Amongst Sri Lankans, Premadasa has left behind a mixed legacy. While he was seen as a spokesperson of the poor, common man, his handling of the country's two civil conflicts, theJVP insurrection and theSri Lankan Civil War, have been heavily criticised.
The R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, which was built under Premadasa's supervision in 1986, still remains named after him.
TheSri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa Memorial is a statue depicting Premadasa, which stands inHulftsdorp, Colombo.
The Former president Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa Memorial Monument stands at the location of thebomb blast, at the junction of Armour Street and Grandpass Road in Hulftsdorp.
Ranasinghe Premadasa's son,Sajith Premadasa, went on to become a politician in his own right. Sajith ran for presidency twice unsuccessfully in2019 and2024 winning 41.99% and 32.76% of the vote respectively. He is the currentLeader of the Opposition representing theSamagi Jana Balawegaya political party, a breakaway party of theUnited National Party his father once led.
Premadasa marriedHema Wickramatunge, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Wickramatunge Arachchige Charles Appuhamy of Bandarawela on 23 June 1964. They had a son,Sajith, and a daughter, Dulanjali.[11] A hard worker, Premadasa was known for rising early and following a strict routine. He lived and worked from his private residence and office,Sucharitha even during his tenure as prime minister and president.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of Sri Lanka 1989–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Sri Lanka 1978–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | Chairperson ofSAARC 1991 | Succeeded by |
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