Chandrika Kumaratunga

Chandrika Bandaranaike (born June 29, 1945) was the 5th President of Sri Lanka and 4th Executive President of Sri Lanka (November 12, 1994 - November 19, 2005). She is the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Her father, Solomon Bandaranaike, was a government Minister at the time of her birth and later became Prime Minister - he was assassinated in 1959 when Chandrika was fourteen. After his death, his wife (Chandrika's mother) Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became the world's first female Prime Minister in 1960.

She spent five years at the University of Paris from where she graduated from Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) (in political science). While there, she was active in the Student Revolution of 1968. She is said to be fluent in Sinhala, English and French.

After returning to Sri Lanka, she took up politics in the SLFP and in 1974 became an Executive Committee Member of its Women's League. Following the Land Reform in Sri Lanka in 1972- 1976, she was Additional Principal Director of the Land Reform Commission (LRC). In 1976 - 1977 she was Chairman of the Janawasa Commission, which established collective farms. In 1976- 1979 she acted as an Expert Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO).

Chandrika married movie star and politician Vijaya Kumaranatunga in 1978. He was assassinated in 1988. After his death, she preferred to use the name Kumaratunge instead, dropping a middle syllable to distance herself from Vijaya's proletarian roots.

Chandrika herself was elected Prime Minister of a People's Alliance government on August 19, 1994 and President in the Presidential Elections held shortly thereafter in November, an election which ended 17 years of UNP rule. She appointed her mother to succeed her as Prime Minister. Early in her term she made conciliatory moves towards the separatist Tamil Tigers to attempt to end the on-going civil war. These overtures failed, and she later pursued a more military-based strategy against them.

In October 1999, Kumaratunga called an early Presidential Election, ^* and she survived an assassination attempt (lost her right eye) by the separatist Tamil Tigers at her final election rally at Colombo Town Hall premises on December 18, 1999.

President Kumaratunga defeated Ranil Wickremasinghe in the election held on December 21 and was sworn in for another term next day. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/574780.stm In December 2001, she suffered a setback when her political opponent Ranil Wickremasinghe took office as Sri Lanka's new Prime Minister. The People's Alliance lost to the UNP. However, she continued as President of Sri Lanka although her relationship with the Wickremasinghe government was a strained one.

In February 2002, Wickremasinghe's government and the LTTE signed a permanent ceasefire agreement, paving the way for talks to end the long-running conflict. In December, the government and the rebels agreed to share power during peace talks in Norway. President Kumaratunga opposed the leniency shown by the Wickremasinghe government and in May 2003, she indicated her willingness to sack Prime Minister Wickremasinghe's government if she felt it was making too many concessions to the rebels because in her eyes, power is always better than peace and opression for a minority.

On November 04, 2003, whilst the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was visiting the United States, she suspended Parliament and deployed troops to take control of the country, effectively putting the country into a State of Emergency. According to news reports, this was motivated by a difference in policy between her and the Prime Minister regarding a negotiated peace settlement with the LTTE.

However, President Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP (People's Liberation Front) formed the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in January 2004. Having won the election held on April 02, 2004 the UPFA formed the government. The leftist JVP for the first time in its history became a partner in a Sri Lankan government.

However, in June 2005, the JVP left her government over a disagreement regarding a joint mechanism with LTTE rebels to share foreign aid to rebuild the tsunami-devastated Northern and Eastern areas of Sri Lanka.

President Kumaratunga unsuccessfully attempted to stay in office until late 2006, according to the argument that, since the 1999 Presidential Election was held a year early, she should be allowed to serve that left-over year (Presidential terms are for six years), but this was rejected by the Supreme Court and Kumaratunga's term was ended in November 2005. The 13th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected to succeed her as President of Sri Lanka on November 18, 2005 not only as her SLFP's candidate but also the popular candidate supported by the UPFA, as well as more than 25 other political parties of the country.

External links

Profile by BBC
Search BBC for news about Chandrika Kumaratunga
Ministry of Defence : Sri Lanka
Profile of Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga on Sri Lankan government website
Personal reminiscence of meeting with the Sri Lankan President by S. Abbas Raza of 3 Quarks Daily.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Chandrika Kumaratunga

See also

External links