Ranil Shriyan Wickramasinghe, MP (born March 24, 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician and current Leader of the Opposition. He was Prime Minister twice, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004. He has also been the leader of the United National Party since November, 1994 and a member of the party since the early 1970s.Antecedents
Wickramasinghe's father was Esmond Wickramasinghe, an ex-Samasamajist and supremo of the Lake House group of newspapers. The Wickramasinghe's were an established part of the upper class Colombo Anglican elite. His paternal uncle Lakshman Wickramasinghe was later to be a much respected Bishop of the Church of Sri Lanka. 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. He was a nephew of J.R. Jayewardene, later President of Sri Lanka.
Education
Wickramasinghe 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. In spite of his inheritance, Wickramasinghe chose to pursue his higher education in his own country, entering 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 attorney-at-law. Of all the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, Wickramasinghe is the only person to graduate from a local university, the remainder either having degrees from foreign universities or no university education at all.
Political career
A successful lawyer, Wickramasinghe joined the United National Party (UNP) and progressed through its youth and bar ranks. Wickramasinghe was appointed as the chief organizer of the Kelaniya Parliamentary seat in the mid 1970s but was later installed as the chief organizer of the Biyagama seat which he won in the 1977 Parliamentary Elections.
Youngest cabinet minister
He was installed as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government and was soon promoted to the post of Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment which made him the youngest cabinet minister of Sri Lankan history to date, during is term he created the Sri Lanka National Guard. He introduced the National Youth Services Council (NYSCO) which provides vocational and career training to thousands of school leavers. Wickramasinghe was later made the Minister of Education. As the education minister, he could made a visible positive difference in the standards of education and could build an image as an achiever. Wickramasinghe was also behind distributing television sets to thousands of remote schools in Sri Lanka.
Prime minister (1993-1994)
Under the Presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa, Wickramasinghe was appointed as the Minister of Industry and Leader of the House under which he initiated the Industrial reforms and established the Biyagama Special Economic Zone. Wickramasinghe had competition from his intellectual colleagues Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake, who had been rivals of President Premadasa. However, he outmaneuvered both of them and many others and accordingly he was appointed the leader of house in 1989. On May 7, 1993 Wickramasinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister after President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated, by the Tamil Tigers.
Opposition (1994-2001)
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Ranil Wickramasingheby ranilwickramasinghe2,803 views
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