Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka's all-weather President

Often referred to as the “fox” for his wily ability to keep resurrecting his political career,  Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been Sri Lanka’s prime minister five times since his debut in politics in 1977. However, he also holds the dubious distinction of never having managed to complete a term.

The rapid turn of events in the island nation gripped by an economic crisis and people’s revolt has miraculously catapulted the 73-year-old veteran politician to the top most post in the country. A post that he coveted and tried for many times in the past and failed. Ironically, his party, the United National Party (UNP) had failed to win even one seat in the 2020 parliamentary elections, and Wikremesinghe had to enter parliament through a list system, the sole parliamentary representative for his once powerful UNP. This had fuelled his opponents’ claims that he lacked legitimacy for office.

Hails from an affluent family

A lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe hails from an affluent family of politicians and businessmen who were media barons. He had graduated from the University of Ceylon and qualified as an advocate from the Ceylon Law College in 1972.

Entering active politics in the mid-1970s with the UNP, he was first elected to parliament in 1977 and was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs by his late uncle and President J R Jayewardene. At 29 years, he was the country’s youngest cabinet minister.

Subsequently, he became a minister in several governments and first became PM in 1993 for a year, following the assassination of the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa. (Premadasa was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack during Sri Lanka’s three decades-long civil war fought against Tamil separatist militants). In his first term, he was credited for bringing out an “impressive political transformation” in his country and pulling the island nation out of a recession.

In 1994, he became leader of the UNP when Gamini Dissanayake was killed by suspected rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He himself narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off at a meeting he was addressing in the town of Eppawala.

Wickremesinghe is credited with trying to improve his party’s image by appointing a disciplinary commission to get rid of corrupt party members. And, he tried to broaden the UNP’s public support by touring villages.

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Five time Prime Minister

Wickremesinghe went on to become the leader of the Opposition until he made a comeback as prime minister once again under the presidency of Chandrika Bandaranaike in 2001. However, his ties with Bandaranaike remained fraught and he was told of his dismissal while he was in a meeting with United States president George W Bush at the White House in 2003.

During his tenure, he also began peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), even offering a power-sharing deal. Both Chandrika and Mahinda Rajapaksa had accused him of being too lenient with LTTE and of offering them too many concessions.

Wikremesinghe became PM again between 2015 to 2019 for the third, fourth and fifth time. Around the turn of the century, he was a genuine contender to be elected president, but his star slowly waned. However, during his various terms in office, both as prime minister and Opposition leader, Wickremesinghe became known for being economically capable and a pro-western reformer, and particularly for his role in steering the country out of a recession in 2001.

Wikremesinghe who is married to a Sri Lankan academic and professor of English largely strives to keep his private life out of politics.

Wickremesinghe’s foreign policy

His foreign policy in his third premiership was aimed at re-balancing relations with India and the West that were strained during the previous regime and keeping good relations with China as well. He also chose to restart discussions to solve the Indo-Sri Lanka fishing dispute but strongly defended the Sri Lankan navy’s right to shoot Indian fishermen that fish in Sri Lankan waters, stating: If someone tries to break into my House, I can shoot. If he gets killed…law allows me to do that.”

It was his government that allowed a 99-year lease of a port to a Chinese company which caused protests in 2017 and a lot of anxiety in the Indian government. He also worked to develop relations with Japan and Singapore, choosing them as his second and third foreign state visits after being elected as prime minister.

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Tainted by Scandals

Yet, though he insisted he was a “clean” politician, Wickremesinghe was not untouched by corruption allegations, and was accused of being involved in an insider trading scam at the central bank. He claimed he was innocent.

There was also a troubling allegation that Wickremesinghe, then a minister between 1988 and 1990, was the political authority behind an illegal Batalanda detention centre, part of the state’s operation to put down an armed insurgency by the Janatha Vimukthi Perumina. It was situated inside an industrial township outside Colombo and a number of people suspected of being JVP cadres were taken there and tortured and some even disappeared.

After he became prime minister in 2015, Wickremesinghe was also accused of protecting the Rajapaksa family – who were political opponents but with whom he had close personal ties – from facing prosecution over alleged corruption and human rights abuses. While investigations were initiated against the family, they ultimately came to nothing.

By the time Wickremesinghe had resigned as prime minister in 2019, people were disenchanted with him. He was heading the government when the deadly Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, which killed at least 250 people.

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Prime Minister for sixth time

In May this year,  Wickremesinghe was hauled back from political wilderness to be made prime minister by Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after the country plunged into chaos in the wake of its worst economic crisis the island witnessed since independence. It was believed that being pro-West, and a free-market reformist, he could smoothen bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors.

He was also made minister of finance, economic stability and national policies. However, the people of Sri Lanka, who see him as part as of the political elite and an ally of the Rajapaksa regime, have vehemently protested against him. On July 13, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to Maldives, Wickremesinghe became acting President.

His new role as acting president got off to an inauspicious start when he declared a nationwide state of emergency, only to have it defied by thousands of protesters who stormed his office in the capital, Colombo. On 20 July, he was elected as the 9th President of Sri Lanka by the parliament in a secret ballot to serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term which was supposed to end in November 2024.

Besides declaring emergency in Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe has instructed a new committee headed by the military and police chiefs to “do what is necessary” to restore order. But the turmoil is now so big that it is unclear what measures will solve the crisis and whether Wickremesinghe who once said, “Politics is more than chess. It’s teamwork like cricket, and you need the stamina of a marathon” is the man to do it.