Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, swore in Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. She is the country’s 16th. An academic and rights activist, she sits in parliament for his National People’s Power party, the NPP.
The appointment came days after Dissanayake won the presidential election with more than 5.74 million votes. The Marxist-leaning politician beat outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, in the first election since the country went bankrupt in April 2022. Anadolu Agency noted the new government takes over amid a debilitating state of the economy.
Amarasuriya is the third woman to hold the post, after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga. She is also the first prime minister from her party. She was named interim minister for justice, health, women, education, trade and industries in the first Dissanayake cabinet.
From the lecture hall to parliament
Amarasuriya was born in Galle on March 6, 1970, the youngest of three children. Her father was a planter, and the family moved to Colombo after the government took over his estate under the Land Reform Act of 1972. She studied sociology at Hindu College, University of Delhi, on an Indian government scholarship, finishing in 1994. A master’s at Macquarie University and a PhD in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh followed.
She joined the Open University of Sri Lanka as a senior lecturer in 2011 and went on to head the social sciences department. She joined the Federation of University Teachers’ Association and took part in union action over staff conditions. In 2011 and 2012 she campaigned with the federation for the government to put 6% of GDP into education. In 2023 Sri Lanka allotted only 2%.
She backed Dissanayake in the 2019 presidential race. In August 2020 the NPP named her as its national list member of parliament. She says she resigned her university post to pursue politics.
A cabinet of a few
Bimal Rathnayake, a senior aide to the president, told Anadolu on Monday that a new cabinet would take the oath on Tuesday. He said it would have around 15 ministers until a new parliament is elected.
After his own swearing-in on Monday, Dissanayake visited Buddhist, Muslim and Christian places of worship. Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said afterward that the president had promised to investigate the Easter attacks thoroughly and to take steps toward “uncovering the truth.” The attacks killed more than 300 people.
