Premadasa, Ranasinghe

▪ 1994

      Sri Lankan politician (b. June 23, 1924, Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]—d. May 1, 1993, Colombo), was at the centre of the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years as leader of the national state assembly (1977-88), prime minister (1978-88), and president (1989-93). Premadasa, a Sinhalese born into the dhobi (washerman's) caste, was the first member of a low caste to lead the country, and he faced considerable resentment from high-caste political opponents. As a youth he was involved in a social movement that promoted Buddhist moral values. He joined the Ceylon Labour Party in 1949 and entered local government in Colombo the next year. In 1956 he ran unsuccessfully for the assembly as a member of the United National Party (UNP). He won a seat in 1960 but lost it when a snap election was called only four months later. When the UNP gained a majority in 1965, he was reelected and named chief government whip. As minister of local government (1968-70; local government, housing, and construction, 1977-88), he oversaw the construction of a million low-cost homes, thereby increasing his support among working-class Sinhalese. In 1987 he opposed the use of Indian troops to fight Tamil separatists in northern Sri Lanka, and there were charges that he supplied arms to the Tamils. Premadasa was often called autocratic and ruthless, but under his tight rule as president there were some signs of progress in the Tamil civil war. He was killed in a suicide bombing only eight days after Lalith Athulathmudali, a former minister of security and the founder of the opposition Democratic United National Front, was shot dead while addressing a provincial election rally.

* * *