Jayewardene, J R

▪ 1997

      Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (b. Sept. 17, 1906, Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]—d. Nov. 1, 1996, Colombo), served as prime minister (1977-78) and president (1978-89) of Sri Lanka. He was praised for modernizing the country's economic system, but his inability to ease ethnic tensions ultimately led to his resignation. Jayewardene, the son of a Supreme Court judge, graduated (1932) from Ceylon Law College in Colombo, but his interest soon turned to politics. In 1943 he was elected to the State Council, and four years later he entered Parliament. After Ceylon achieved independence from Great Britain in 1948, Jayewardene was named minister of finance. He joined the moderate United National Party (UNP) and in 1973 became its leader. In 1977 he led the UNP to a landslide victory and was named prime minister. Once in office he instituted a constitutional amendment that created an executive presidency; in 1978 he was sworn in as the country's first elected president. As president he dismantled Sri Lanka's socialist economic system, encouraging foreign investment and privatization. He also established a free-trade zone north of Colombo. In 1982 he was elected to a second six-year term. The following year the long-standing hostilities between the country's Sinhalese Buddhist majority and its Hindu Tamil minority erupted in violence. Tamil guerrillas began an insurgency in an attempt to create a separate Tamil state. Jayewardene's attempts to end the uprising were unsuccessful, and in 1987 he allowed Indian troops to enter the country to disarm the rebels. Faced with the unpopularity of that decision and the continued fighting, which had claimed thousands of lives, Jayewardene retired in 1989.

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