COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, named college professor and first-time lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya as the new prime minister of the Indian Ocean island nation on Tuesday, making her the third woman to be appointed to the post.

An academic with a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, Amarasuriya, will also hold the portfolios of education, media and women and children affairs. She is the third woman prime minister of Sri Lanka, following the world’s first woman prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960, and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 1994.

The sociology lecturer, who was first elected to parliament four years ago, is known for her activism on gender equality and minority rights issues. She and the remaining two JVP-aligned lawmakers will share all ministerial responsibilities between them, and also act as caretaker ministers after parliament is dissolved.

President’s push for economic change leaves IMF deal, debt rework in limbo

New cabinet expected

Dissanayake, 55, has taken the key finance portfolio himself as Sri Lanka looks to emerge from its most punishing economic crisis in 70 years and its first debt default, while keeping promises to aid the nation’s poor.

His comments during Monday’s inauguration offered few clues as to how hardline his economic approach will be. “Our politics needs to be cleaner, and the people have called for a different political culture,” the 55-year-old said. “I am ready to commit to that change.”

He picked veteran legislator Vijitha Herath to helm foreign affairs and public security, among other portfolios, according to the president’s office.

His once-marginal party currently has just three lawmakers in Sri Lanka’s 225-member parliament. But support for the 55-year-old surged after a 2022 economic meltdown that immiserated millions of ordinary Sri Lankans and the painful implementation of the IMF rescue plan.

“We will have the smallest cabinet in the history of Sri Lanka,” party member Namal Karunaratne told reporters on Tuesday. “Parliament dissolution will happen thereafter. It could be within the next 24 hours.”

Asked by reporters in the central city of Kandy if he would keep a campaign pledge to dissolve parliament as soon as he took charge, Dissanayake replied: “Wait for two days.” Lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya, an ally of Dissanayake’s in parliament, told reporters in Colombo the same night that parliament would be dissolved “within a day.

He beat 38 other candidates to win Saturday’s presidential vote, taking more than 1.2 million more votes than his nearest rival. His predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had imposed steep tax hikes and other unpopular austerity measures under the terms of the $2.9 billion IMF bailout, came a distant third.

Sri Lanka’s new president toughest task still lies ahead as he seeks to balance promises to aid the nation’s poor against the need to keep crucial supplies of cash flowing from the International Monetary Fund.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2024