Former Lanka PM dies at 83

Former Sri Lankan prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake passed away yesterday. He was 83.Wickremanayake served twice as the island nation’s premier first from 2000 to 2001 and then from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed prime minister by former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse on November 21, 2005. It was Wickremanayake who paved the way for Rajapakse to emerge as the next leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). He resigned from his position as the leader of the main opposition in 2002 to make way for Rajapakse to become the leader of the opposition. That move cleared the way for Rajapakse who went on to become the president. In his previous stint as prime minister, Wickremanayake succeeded prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike who had resigned at the age of 84. A host of political leaders cutting across party lines condoled the death of Wickremanayake. “Veteran politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was loved by his people for many decades. My condolences are with his loved ones and followers,” President Maithripala Sirisena tweeted. Rajapakse also tweeted his condolences. “Deeply saddened by the death of former Sri Lankan PM & veteran politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. My condolences to his family,” Rajapakse said in a tweet. He entered politics in 1960 winning the Horana seat in the general election as a member of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna. In 1970, he was appointed deputy minister, justice and went on to be the general secretary of SLFP in 1977. In the 1994 general election, he won the Kalutara district seat and was appointed as the minister of public administration, home affairs and plantation industries and the leader of the house in president Chandrika Kumaratunga’s cabinet.