Premadasa, Ranasinghe (1924-1993), served 10 years as prime minister of Sri Lanka and 5 years as its president. He helped raise living standards but struggled to find a solution to the country’s civil war.
Premadasa was born on June 23, 1924, to a family in the dhobi caste—the laundry workers’ social class. He was brought up in a poor district in northern Colombo, the largest city of Sri Lanka (called Ceylon until 1972). In the 1940’s, he became a member of the Ceylon Labour Party and also formed a temperance group devoted to the raising of moral standards. In 1950, Premadasa joined the United National Party (UNP). In 1955, he became deputy mayor of Colombo’s municipal council, and in 1960, he won election to the national parliament of Ceylon. As a member of parliament, Premadasa held the post of UNP chief whip (assistant party leader) from 1965 to 1968 and again from 1970 to 1977. In the UNP administration of 1968-1970, he was the minister for local government.
Following the return of the UNP to power in 1977, Premadasa again became minister for local government. The leader of the UNP, Junius Jayewardene, succeeded in amending Sri Lanka’s 1972 Constitution to provide for an executive president. Jayewardene assumed the office of president in 1978, and Premadasa became prime minister. Over the next 10 years, Premadasa worked to implement a program to provide more houses and raise living standards. These popular moves helped him win election as president following Jayewardene’s retirement in 1988.
A civil war raged in the north of the country between the government and a Tamil separatist group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the Tamil Tigers. The presence of Indian troops in northern Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1989 helped to bring about an uneasy peace. But after the departure of the Indian forces, violence resumed. Premadasa was assassinated on May 1, 1993, by a suicide bomber believed to have been a member of the Tamil Tigers.
See also Sri Lanka.
