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Ranasinghe Premadasa

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President of Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1993

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Key facts

Prime minister
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga
Preceded by
J. R. Jayewardene
Succeeded by
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga
President
J. R. Jayewardene
Governor general
William Gopallawa
Born
( 1924-06-23 ) 23 June 1924, Colombo , British Ceylon , (now in Sri Lanka )
Died
1 May 1993 (1993-05-01) (aged 68), Colombo , Sri Lanka
Cause of death
Assassination
Party
United National Party
Spouse
Hema Wickrematunge ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1964 ) ​
Children
Sajith , Dulanjali
Alma mater
St Joseph's College, Colombo

via Wikipedia infobox

~18 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa (Sinhala: රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාස Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa; Tamil: ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the third president of Sri Lanka from 1989 until his assassination in 1993. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989, with his tenure making him the longest-serving uninterrupted Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

Amongst Sri Lankans, Premadasa has left behind a mixed legacy. While he was seen as a spokesperson of the poor, common man, his handling of the country's two civil conflicts, the JVP insurrection and the Sri Lankan civil war, have been heavily criticised. He was the first person to be conferred with the Sri Lankabhimanya, Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, in 1986 by president J. R. Jayewardene.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ranasinghe Premadasa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.