Ratnasiri Wickremanayake

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Ratnasiri Wickremanayake (born on May 5, 1933) is the 14th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and a veteran politician. He was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka by the President Mahinda Rajapakse on November 21, 2005. Speaking to journalists after being sworn in, Prime Minister Wickremanayake acknowledged the contribution made by the people to elect Rajapakse as the President. "But, they should not stop there. They should continue with their responsibility to push the Government and the President to do what country needs," he added. [1]

Unlike in India, the Sri Lankan cabinet is headed by the Executive President, who is both the Head of State and Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The role of the Prime Minister is largely nominal, as the President is the head of the executive and determines portfolio allocation and the size of the cabinet.

Wickremanayake is a former Prime Minister (August 2000-December 2001) who succeeded the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike after she resigned from the position at the age of 84. He is a senior vice-president of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Wickremanayake is known to toe a Sinhala-hardline position. The new Prime Minister is also one who is seen as holding hawkish views on the resolution of the decades-long separatist conflict and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

During Presidencies of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, he held the Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries portfolios. The decision to appoint Ratnasiri Wickremanayake as the Prime Minister appears to be taken at the last-minute, as his name did not figure in political circles until the night of November 21, 2005.

Wickremanayake was educated in Millewa Primary school, Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya,Hartley College, Point Pedro and Ananda College, Colombo, a prestigious Buddhist school in Colombo and later joined Lincoln's Inn for Barrister of Law Degree but ultimately chose to enter politics rather than appear for the exam. He was elected President of the Ceylon Student's Association in the United Kingdom in 1955. Wickremanayake returned to Sri Lanka following the demise of his elder brother Munidasa who was in active politics representing the western provincial Parliamentary seat of Horana before he could sit for final Barrister's exam. On his return to Sri Lanka, he was elected to the legislature in 1960, from Horana for the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (then a part of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna alliance). Wickremanayake joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in 1962. In 1965, he was re-elected to the legislature for Horana from the SLFP.

Wickremanayake received his first ministerial appointment in 1970, when he was appointed Deputy Minister for Justice in the United Front government under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In 1975, Wickremanayake was appointed Minister of Plantation Industries and the next year was also Minister of Justice. Like many other party stalwarts, Wickremanayake also lost his Parliamentary seat in the landslide defeat of the SLFP in 1977. He became General Secretary of the SLFP in 1978.

He rose to higher office in the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, becoming Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries in 1994, and also being named the leader of the SLFP parliamentary party. He became Prime Minister in 2000 after the resignation of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and briefly headed a minority SLFP government supported by the JVP for a year. His time as Prime Minister ended in October 2001 when the legislature after it became apparent that his government was about to lose a no-confidence motion.

After the SLFP won the 2004 Parliamentary Elections, Wickremanayake was appointed Minister of Buddhist Affairs, Public Security, and Law and Order, and Deputy Minister for Defence. He held both posts until being made Prime Minister in 2005.

Wickremanayake is seen by many as taking a harder stance on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. During his previous term as Prime Minister, he refused to consider talks with the main Tamil militant group, the LTTE, until they unambiguously renounced terrorism. He has called for Sri Lanka's family planning policies to be modified, to encourage people to have more children and thereby produce more recruits for the Sri Lankan Army[2]. As an opposition politician, he also spoke against the present ceasefire arrangements at the time they were put in place.