PM’s biography to be launched tomorrow

Dinesh Weerakkody, a well-known business personality, will release his sixth book titled ‘Ranil Wickremesinghe - a political biography’ on 4 April at the BMICH at 5.30 p.m. in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Speaker of the House Karu Jayasuriya. 

Compelling and eloquent speaker and award-winning author Dr. Shashi Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary-General, India’s nominee for the UN’s top job and a former Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development and the Minister of State for External Affairs, currently the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, will deliver the keynote address on Sri Lanka’s balancing act between India and China.

PM’s...

Born on 24 March 1949, Wickremesinghe has been the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka four times, equalling Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake’s record.  He is the longest serving Leader of the United National Party, having assumed the post in 1994, and has been an elected Member of Parliament for the Colombo District since 1977. 

“Wickremesinghe, unlike many of his contemporaries and those who have followed, has believed strongly enough in the strength of the local education system to go to the University of Colombo for his degree rather than to a foreign university,” the author said.

The book talks of Ranil’s ancestry and his rise, his vision for a new Sri Lanka, the policy options available and that there is a big difference between connecting with voters and delivery. The author further stated that the world was like a chessboard and Sri Lanka needed to manage networks strategically for its own economic benefit.

The book is dedicated to the late Ven. Sobitha Thera and his generation of locally rooted social and intellectual leaders who have shared a common set of universal values. The profits from the sale of the book will be donated to the National Kidney Foundation.