New PM for crisis-hit Sri Lanka
UNITY ADMINISTRATION: WICKREMESINGHE RETURNS TO THE TOP OFFICE FOR SIXTH TIME
Former lawyer to help steer South Asian island nation.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s prime minister for the sixth time yesterday, though the veteran politician has never completed a full term in office.
The 73-year-old’s political career appeared to be drawing to a close before this week, when he agreed to helm a unity administration and help steer the South Asian island nation through a crippling economic crisis.
“This is a historic event,” said Tamil legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan in reference to Wickremesinghe’s latest return to the top office.
“This shows the desperate situation in our country.”
Wickremesinghe is the sole parliamentary representative of the United National Party, a once-powerful political force that was nearly wiped out in Sri Lanka’s last elections.
The former lawyer hails from a political family and his uncle, Junius Jayewardene, served as president for more than a decade.
But Wickremesinghe once said he would have likely pursued a career as a journalist, had the government of the day not nationalised his family’s newspaper business in 1973.
He was first appointed premier in 1993 after the assassination of then-president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was killed in a bomb attack by Tamil Tiger guerrillas during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war.
Underscoring the dynastic nature of Sri Lanka’s politics, Premadasa’s son Sajith is the current opposition leader and had also been touted as a possible prime ministerial candidate this week.
Wickremesinghe’s first term in office lasted little more than a year. He returned to power in 2001, earning a reputation for sound economic management after steering the country out of recession.
Conflict with the president saw him sacked before his term was over, and he spent the next decade in the political wilderness.
Wickremesinghe lost two presidential contests and led his party to a string of election defeats, prompting even his own supporters to dub him a “record loser”.
He was nonetheless sworn in as prime minister again in 2015 after the election defeat of president Mahinda Rajapaksa after the opposition rallied behind him as a unity candidate against the authoritarian leader.
His “Mr Clean” image was muddied later that year when his administration was rocked by an insider trading scam involving central bank bonds.