Ranil Wickremesinghe

srilanka1998

Member
Registriert
26. Juli 2005
Beiträge
511
Hallo zusammen,

hier möchte ich euch gern die beiden Präsidentschafts-Kanditaten vorstellen. Leider sind die Beiträge in englisch, da sie von deren Homepage stammen. Sollte ich noch die Zeit finden, diese zu übersetzen, werd ich das machen. Wenn ich keine Zeit mehr habe - an die die nicht so gut Englisch können - bitte nicht böse sein!

Ranil Wickremesinghe

(born March 24, 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician. He was Prime Minister twice 'from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004. He is the leader of the United National Party since November, 1994 and is a member of Sri Lanka's largest political party since the early 1970s.

Coming from an upper class Colombo family with a long line of newspaper tycoons and entrepreneurs, Wickremasinghe, a Sinhala Buddhist of Dutch Christian ancestry, was educated at the prestigious Royal College, Colombo where he was a classmate and a good friend of Anura Bandaranaike son of then Prime Minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike and Dinesh Gunawardena son of socialist leader Philip Gunawardena. Wickremasinghe decided to finish his education in Sri Lanka and entered the Colombo Law College where he graduated as an Attorney at Law.

A successful lawyer, Wickremasinghe joined the United National Party part to the invitation of his uncle Junius Richard Jayewardene and progressed through its youth and bar ranks. Wickremasinghe was appointed as the Chief Organizer of the Kelaniya electorate in the mid 1970s but was later installed as the Chief Organizer of the Biyagama electorate which he won in the 1977 general eletion. He was installed as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government and was soon promoted to the post of Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment which made him the youngest cabinet minister of Sri Lankan history to date. He introduced the National Youth Council which provides vocational and career training to thousands of school leavers. Wickremesinghe was later made the Minister of Education.

Under the Presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa, Wickremesinghe was appointed as the Industrial Minister and Leader of the House under which he initiated the Industrial reforms and established the Biyagama Special Economic Zone. Wickremasinghe did his utmost to prevent his colleagues Lalith Athulathmudali & Gamini Dissanayake from parting with the United National Party due to differences with the President, in order to form their own party which quickly became the third force of Sri Lankan politics. On May 1, 1993 Wickremasinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister after the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

In the 1994 general election, the United National Party lost to Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance which ousted Wickremasinghe off the Premiership. He also lost the race to be the Opposition Leader by 2 votes to fellow United National Party member Gamini Dissanayake who just re-joined the party. This gave Gamini Dissanayake the default leadership of the party and made him the Presidential nominee of the United National Party. The United National Party was showing great spirit and strength under Gamini Dissanayake and seemed to be on path to victory, when he too was assassinated by the LTTE seperatists. Gamini Dissanayake's widowed wife Srima became the replacement candidate of the United National Party and secured 35% of the vote despite losing to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Thus Wickremasinghe was by default appointed as the Opposition Leader as well as the United National Party leader.

As Opposition Leader Wickremasinghe undertook his party through time period where the UNP supported many of the good deeds of the government despite some members of his party asking him to be more aggressive. In 1999 President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga called the Presidential election a year prior to its expiration in the hope of regaining and fortifying power in order to amend the constitution. Wickremesinghe was nominated as the United National Party candidate. After a tense election campaign on the wake of the corrupt and violent Wayamba Provincial Council election President Chandrika Kumaratunga was attacked by the LTTE in an attempt for her life which took an eye of the incumbent President. In the election held 2 days later (December 21) Chandrika Kumaratunga managed to get 51% of the total votes to be re-elected for her second and final term. The gap between Wickremasinghe & Kumaratunga was approximately 700,000 votes (6% of the valid votes). Kumaratunga was sworn in for her second term on December 22, 1999.

After the loss of the 1999 Presidential Race, Wickremesinghe unsuccessfully led his United National Party through the 2000 General election again losing out to the People's Alliance. During this time period, both the PA & the UNP agreed upon a new constitutional draft but the United National Party later withdrew protesting against President Chandrika Kumaratunga's attempts to extend her Presidential time period.

That year, Sri Lanka underwent severe losses in the warfront and only managed a highly unsatisfactory -1% economic growth rate, the first ever negative growth in the country's history. By the end of the year a some members of the People's Alliance government led by S B Dissanayake a senior minister of the PA government & Deputy Finance MinisterProf. G L Peiris left the PA to join the United National Party thus destabllizing the Parliamentary composition which led President Chandrika Kumaratunga to call for fresh elections. The United National Party assumed power in the general election held on December 10, 2001. Wickremasinghe's UNP won all but 6 of the 22 Electoral Districts in Sri Lanka. Thus Ranil Wickremasinghe took oaths as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the second time. One of his first acts was to sign a controversial ceasefire agreement with the LTTE rebels and start peace talks. During Wickremasinghe's second term he re-energized the economy to reach an economic growth rate of 6% and managed to keep the inflation down, at 2% - the country's lowest. His liberal economic policies stablized the national economy despite failing to address the country's high unemployment. He also developed many international ties setup by him during his time in the Oppostion. Sri Lanka underwent huge social changes during this period due to the ceasefire which made the country much accessible and open. His term was however marred by allegations of widescale corruption and cronyism, especially conducted by the members who crossed over from the PA. However, Wickrememsinghe has never been personally accused of corruption. And is accused of turning a blind eye on the activities of some of his party members - perhaps due to his slender grasp on power in Parliament under the critical eye of President Kumaratunga. As the economy flourished so did the peace talks until it went into a dead end in early 2003.

Wickremasinghe came under fiery criticism and was called a traitor by many, after a police officer, commonly percieved as a Wickramasinghe ally, exposed an elite Sri Lankan army LRRP unit who were engaged in operations against the Tamil Tiger Terrorists, on the accusastion that the unit was deployed to assasinate Wickramasinghe. Several ministers in his government strongly backed the exposure and the act against LRRP. His opponents claimed that this laid bare classified information of the intelligence services of Sri Lanka to the LTTE and was used to the hilt by the LTTE to eliminate hundreds of intelligence personnel over a number of years. Opposition also claimed that the Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamil Tiger terrorist group was poorly drafted, thus unduly strengthening the terrorists and paving the way to a unilateral war by the LTTE and resulted in the killing of service personnel and Sri Lankan citizens at the rate of a few a day for more than two years. His subsequent defeat in 2003 General election might show that the common perception on the style he handled the issue was generally negative.

By November of 2003 the LTTE showed willingness to reenter the peace talks by proposing an Interim Self Governing Authority, which was seen by some as a blueprint for a seperate state. President Kumaratunga quickly shook off these proposals and assumed the Defense, Interior & Media Ministries - which cut short the powers of the United National Party regime. Soon the President Kumaratunga's People's Alliance allied with radical socialists Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to form the United People's Freedom Alliance and dissolved parliament to call for new elections.

In the April 02, 2004 elections Ranil Wickremasinghe's United National Party lost the government but remained to be the largest single party in the parliament. The long term development plans and the successful election tactics of the United People's Freedom Alliance like promising a 70% wage raise, tearing apart of the ceasefire agreement, lowering of the cost of living, employing the unemployed and reinstating the fertilizer subsidy. This left Wickremasinghe and his party a lot to think about and within such a small time they rebuilt the grassroots of the party and strengthened its position as the largest political party of Sri Lanka.Within 14 months of the assumption to power of the United People's Freedom Alliance the radical JVP wing has left the government destablizing the government which has over 30 parlimentarians short of the required majority. UPFA failed to realize most of their election promises further complexing the situation of Sri Lanka both economically and socially which is visible with the massive inflation as well as the terror acts within the ceasefire agreement such as the assassination of Minister of Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadirgamar on August 12, 2005.

In December 2004 Ranil Wickremasinghe was chosen by the United National Party's Presidential candidate for Presidential election due in late 2005. The Supreme Court decided in August 2005 that the elections should be held this year despite the President's argument that her term ends in 2006. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the current Prime Minister has been appointed as the Presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Wickremesinghe's popularity among the minorities, the industrialists, entrepreneurs and the NGO activists may give him an edge over Rajapaksa who has a nationalist Buddhist image.

On the other hand, the more fundamentalist Buddhists distrust Wickremesinghe because of his Christian background, social policies and alleged involvement with the LTTE. Since 1994 Wickremasinghe has been representing the Colombo District whereas he represented the Gampaha District from 1989 until then. Wickremasinghe has clinched the highest number of preferential votes for an individual candidate in the 3 subsquent elections held in 2000, 2001 & 2004.

Ranil Wickremasinghe is contesting Presidential Election in 2005. His opponent is Mahinda Rajapaksa, The current Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Political Analysts say Mr. Wikremasinghe's chances are very much less with Mahinda Rajapaksa who emerged as a national condidate recieving support from 27 parties. Ranil Wickremasinghe's failure is said to be his west bound principles.[/FONT]
 
Mahinda Rajapaksa

Mahinda Rajapaksa

(born November 18, 1945), Sri Lankan politician, became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on April 6, 2004, following the victory of the United People's Freedom Alliance in the April 2, 2004 Sri Lankan legislative elections.

Rajapakse, a Sinhalese Buddhist from the southern district of Hambantota, is a lawyer who has represented the area in the Sri Lanka Parliament since 1970. His father represented the same area between 1947 and 1960. He is a long-time ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose Sri Lanka Freedom Party is the largest party in the Alliance. The Alliance won the largest number of seats at the elections but does not have an overall majority.

Kumaratunga was widely expected to appoint her close advisor and former Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, as Prime Minister. But Kadirgamar lacked popular credentials. The fact that he was a Tamil and a Christian may also have counted against him.

Rajapakse was Minister for Labour and for Fisheries in Kumaratunga's cabinet from 1994 to 2001. He created controversy when he moved to introduce a labour charter and set up villages for fishermen. His labour reforms were resisted by employers who asked Kumaratunga to remove him from the labour ministry. His labour charter was never implemented.

Unlike some members of the new government coalition, Rajapakse is believed to support peace talks with the Tamil Tigers as a means of ending the civil war with the Tamil secessionist movement. But his recent allignment with political parties such as JVP and JHU raised large concerns within his own party. SLFP leader President Chandrika Kumaratunga openly accused Rajapakse of pushing the country towards war because of his pact with nationalist forces.

Rajapaksa was chosen in front of Anura Bandaranaike, brother of Chandrika Kumaratunga, as the Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party for the Presidential election due on November 17, 2005. Rajapaksa is up against Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of the United National Party (Sri Lanka's largest political party) in this election.
 
Oben