United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as Sri Lanka's new President on Wednesday. He was sworn in as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister in May this year, days after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned in the face of protests over the political and economic crises in the island nation.

The 73-year-old leader is the scion of an elite family and has been the prime minister five times since 1993.

Several members of the Parliament asked Wickremesinghe to take over as the prime minister with the hope to end the political and economic crises in Sri Lanka, a media report quoted Vajira Abeywardena, a member of the United National Party, as saying.

Wickremesinghe is seen as a pro-West free-market reformist, who could potentially make bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

A family of leaders

Ranil Wickremesinghe hails from a family whose roots go back to pre-independence Sri Lanka. While Wickremesinghe’s maternal grandfather DR Wijewardena supported the independence movement of the country by publishing a series of newspapers, his paternal grandfather CG Wickremesinghe was a senior official in the Sri Lankan colonial government.

His father Esmond Wickremesinghe had been part of the post-colonial establishment. Esmond was the managing director of publishing house Lake House and later a close confidante of the United National Party (UNP) leadership.

Initiation to politics

A lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe became involved in the revival of the UNP after it was defeated in 1970. During the resurgence, Wickremesinghe's maternal cousin JR Jayawardene led the party, bringing it back to power in 1977. Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as the deputy foreign minister and later made the minister of youth affairs and employment.

He also held the post of minister of education and minister of industries under President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

During his stint as the industries minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe played a key role in driving major changes to the Sri Lankan stock market and attracting foreign investors to the country.

As the Prime Minister

In 1993, Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed the prime minister for the first time following the assassination of then-president Ranasinghe Premadasa. Premadasa was killed by the Tamil rebels Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a bomb attack during Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war. Wickremesinghe’s first term as the prime minister lasted little more than a year.

After his party was defeated by his childhood friend and bitter political enemy Chandrika Bandaranaike, he became the leader of the opposition. He returned to power in 2000 under the presidency of Bandaranaike, but his relationship with the president strained over time with the latter sacking him before his term was over.

In 2015, Wickremesinghe was sworn-in as the prime minister after then president Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in the elections.

During this tenure, Wickremesinghe was accused of protecting his schoolmate Arjuna Mahendran who was said to be involved in an insider trading scam involving central bank bonds. Arjuna Mahendran was the central bank chief at that time.

Wickremesinghe was removed from his post in 2018 and then Sri Lankan president Mathiripala Sirisena appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister. However, Rajapaksa’s term ended within 52 days, bringing Wickremesinghe back as the premier.

This time, the government took several steps in economic restructuring with the help of the IMF. During this period, Sri Lanka had a primary account surplus for the first time since 1954, earned mostly through the high taxation of corporations. The government also ensured that lower-income earners were protected.

Wickremesinghe’s reputation was damaged after a series of bombings targeting civilians rocked the country on Easter Sunday in 2019. More than 250 people were killed in the suicide bomb attacks. Later that year, Wickremesinghe was defeated in the election.

If not a politician…

The veteran leader had once said he would have been a journalist if the Sri Lankan government had not nationalised his family's newspaper business in 1973, AFP reported.

First Published:May 13, 2022 2:16 PM IST