| Junius Richard Jayewardene |
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| presidents of sri lanka | |
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| 1906 births | |
| 1996 deaths | |
| government ministers of sri lanka | |
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J.R. Jayewardene, who was the eldest in a family of 11 children, was the son of a judge of the Ceylon Supreme Court. He was schooled at Royal College, Colombo where he played for the Cricket team, debuting in the Royal-Thomian series in 1925 . Although he was born into an elite family, the family traced its roots to an South Indian named Thambi(??) who ingratiated himself with the British colonials. Jayewardene was converted from Christianity to Buddhism in his youth. He became a lawyer after attaining a distinguished academic record in the Colombo Law College . Jayewardene did not practice law for long, however. In 1938 he became an activist in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), which provided the organizational platform for Ceylon's nationalist movement (the island was officially renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). He became its Joint Secretary in 1940 . At the outbreak of war, he and Dudley Senanayake had secret discussions with the Japan ese aimed at ousting the British imperialists from the island. He was elected to the colonial legislature, the State Council in 1943 . After entering the United National Party on its formation in 1946 , he became Finance Minister in the island’s first Cabinet in 1947 . He played a major role in re-admitting Japan to the world community at the San Francisco Conference . His acute intelligence and subtle, often aggressive political skills earned him leading roles in government ( 1947 - 1956 and 1965 - 1970 ) and in opposition ( 1956 - 1965 and 1970 - 1977 ). He won a sweeping election victory in 1977 to become Prime Minister and, then, in 1978 , when Sri Lanka adopted a presidential constitution — Executive President. He moved the legislative capital from Colombo to Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte . He opened the heavily state-controlled economy to market forces, which many credit with subsequent economic growth but also with the greater divisions in society. He was re-elected President in 1982 after denying his main rival Sirimavo Bandaranaike the chance to stand against him, and had parliament’s life prolonged by six years in a questionable referendum that marked a further departure from the island’s democratic traditions. In 1983 , he played a role fomenting a Pogrom by members of the Sinhalese majority against the Tamil minority. This was one of the factors that triggered a civil war that still rages between Tamil Tiger insurgents and the government. His government also faced an insurgency by young, deprived Sinhalese in the form of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna group. In order to suppress the JVP, Jayewardene's government formed secret paramilitary units and unleashed a wave of killings against supposed JVP supporters. Thousands of youth were killed, the great majority of them probably innocent civilians. Jayewardene retired from politics in 1988 ; his successor Ranasinghe Premadasa was formally inaugurated in January 1989 . |
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