Ranasinghe Premadasa
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Ranasinghe Premadasa (June 23, 1924 - May 1, 1993) was the President of Sri Lanka from January 2, 1989 to May 1, 1993. Before that, he served as the Prime Minister in government headed by J. R. Jayewardene from February 6, 1978 to March 3, 1989. He was brutally assassinated in Colombo in a suicide bombing that blew him into several pieces, widely considered to be by the Tamil Tigers.
Image:Premadasa1.JPG Ranasinghe Premadasa came from a family of modest means. He attended St Joseph's College, Colombo which at that time had started an oriental languages course. Richard Ranasingha wished his son to follow this course. He originally planned to be a journalist, and translated an autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru to Sinhala.
He was a long time member of the conservative United National Party, and the first "commoner" (the first modern ruler to come from the so called Sinhalese lower caste of Hina) to reach to the highest levels in Sri Lanka.
During his tenure as Minister of Broadcasting in Dudley Senanayake's cabinet, Premadasa turned Radio Ceylon - the oldest radio station in South Asia into a public corporation - the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation on 5th January 1967.
Part of his political program was shelter for the poor, after the United Nations declared a Year of Shelter. Other policies included Jana Saviya, the instrument he used to help the poor, a foster parents scheme, the Gam Udawa project with which he tried to stir up the stupor in the villages, the mobile secretariat whereby he took the central government bureaucracy to the peasants, the Tower Hall Foundation for drama and music, and the pension schemes he initiated for the elder artistes. On the economic front, the garment industry project that he initiated became a forerunner in earning foreign exchange and provision of employment in the villages. This was just one step in the direction of taking the economy to the outstations.
Premadasa met with less success in dealing with Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict. When he assumed office, he faced a rebellion in the south from the hardline Sinhala-nationalist, Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. The security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders. In the north, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were facing off against the Indian Peace-Keeping Force. The Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested India to leave. After they did in 1990, the government's war with the LTTE resumed, and resulted in stalemate.
Premadasa's supporters often point to the unostentatious life led by him in his simple residence away from his luxurious official residence, a man who perhaps travelled the least of any politicians at the helm.
He was married to Hema Premadasa and had two children. Sajith Premadasa, his son, is the MP for Hambantota. Ranasinghe Premadasa was brutally killed on May 1st, 1993 by a LTTE suicide bomber who had infiltrated into his inner circle by befriending his private valet Mohideen.