Harini Nireka Amarasuriya[j] (born 6 March 1970) is a Sri Lankan sociologist, academic, activist, and politician serving as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka since 2024.
Having spent a decade as an academic at the Open University of Sri Lanka, where she was engaged with the Federation of University Teachers' Association in trade union action; Amarasuriya was nominated by the National People's Power (NPP) party as its National List Member of Parliament in 2020.
She was appointed as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in September 2024, concurrently appointed as the interim minister of justice, health, women, education, trade, and industries in the first Dissanayake cabinet. She is the third woman to hold the office of prime minister of Sri Lanka, after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga. Amarasuriya was reappointed as Prime Minister following the NPP's landslide victory in the 2024 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, in which she received 655,289 votes—the second-highest ever obtained by a candidate in Sri Lanka's parliamentary electoral history.
Early life and education
editBorn in Galle on 6 March 1970, her father was a planter and her mother a housewife, Amarasuriya was the youngest of three. She is a relative of H. W. Amarasuriya, Cabinet Minister for Trade and Commerce from 1948 to 1952. The family moved to Colombo after her father's estate was taken over by the government under the Land Reform Act of 1972, where she attended Bishop's College, with a year in the United States as an exchange student.[1]
Amarasuriya gained an Indian government scholarship to read Sociology at the Hindu College, from 1991 to 1994, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in sociology from the University of Delhi. Her contemporaries at Hindu College included Imtiaz Ali and Arnab Goswami.[2] Following her return from India, she worked as a community health worker with Nest Sri Lanka, working with tsunami-affected children. Five years later she gained a Master of Arts in Applied and Development Anthropology from Macquarie University, followed by a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh.[1]
Academic and activist
editShe joined the Open University of Sri Lanka as a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences in 2011 after completing her PhD, where she later became the head of the department. Amarasuriya has undertaken research into Human Rights and Ethics in Sri Lanka funded by the European Research Council and the influence of radical Christians on dissent in Sri Lanka funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The University of Edinburgh.[3]
Trade union action
editBecoming a member of the Federation of University Teachers' Association (FUTA), she took part in trade union action demanding better working conditions and fair treatment for university staff.[4][5]
6% of GDP for education
editAmarasuriya has been an advocate for educational reforms to truly enable free education as envisioned by C. W. W. Kannangara when free education was introduced in Sri Lanka in 1938. She has called for the equal access to quality education independent of the economic power of the people thus ensuring equal education opportunities for everyone, by which to stop the concept of popular schools in Sri Lanka. On this note, Amarasuriya campaigned with the FUTA in 2011 and 2012 for government allocation of 6% of the GDP for education.[6][7] In 2023, Sri Lanka had only allocated 2% of its GDP for education.[8]
Political career
editMember of Parliament
editAmarasuriya joined the National Intellectuals Organization in 2019 and campaigned for the NPP Candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election. On 12 August 2020, she was nominated and appointed by the NPP as the national list candidate to enter the 16th Parliament of Sri Lanka following the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election.[9][10][11]
Confusion and concerns were raised about whether she could continue her service as an academic senior lecturer at the Open University after being nominated as a national list candidate.[12] However, in an interview with EconomyNext, she officially revealed that she had resigned from the position of senior lecturer of the Open University in order to pursue her political career and parliamentary politics as an MP.[citation needed]
She focused on reconciliation and social inclusion to help bridge ethnic, religious and political divides in Sri Lanka, as well as promoting national unity and stability. Additionally, she advocated for gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights, was involved in the Parliamentary Caucus for Animal Welfare, and served on the Board of Directors for the non-governmental organization Nest.[13][14][15][16][excessive citations]
First premiership (2024 September–2024 November)
edit“Well, we don’t have experience in making the country bankrupt for sure, but we will get experience in building the country,”
Harini Amarasuriya, [17]
On 24 September 2024, Amarasuriya was sworn in as the sixteenth Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.[18] She is the first prime minister of her party, and the third woman to hold the role after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga.[19]
Since the NPP had only two members left in parliament following Dissanayake's accent to the Presidency, his first cabinet consisted of only three members, including himself and Amarasuriya. Amarasuriya was given the portfolios of Justice, Public Administration, Provincial Councils, Local Government and Labour, Education, Science and Technology, Trade, Commercial, Food Security, Co-operative Development, Industries and Entrepreneur Development, Women, Child and Youth Affairs and Sports and Health in the caretaker government till a new parliament is elected in the parliamentary election on 14 November 2024.[20][21]
Educational reforms
editFollowing her appointment as Minister of Education, Amarasuriya initiated educational reforms with the halting of the longstanding practice of inviting politicians to school functions by school administrators, with the aim of removing the political influence from schools.[22]
2024 parliamentary election
editAmarasuriya who is the Deputy Secretary of the NPP[23] lead the NPP nominations from Colombo for the 2024 Sri Lankan parliamentary election.[24]
Amarasuriya set a new record by securing the highest preferential votes in Colombo with 655,289 votes. She surpassed the preferential vote count of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who contested from Kurunegala in 2020 and gained 527,364 votes, but in the same election Vijitha Herath sets a new record with 716,715 votes in Gampaha.
Second premiership (2024 November–present)
editFollowing the parliamentary election, Amarasuriya was re-appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. She was also appointed as the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education.[25][26]
Electoral history
edit| Election | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 parliamentary | Colombo District | National People's Power | 655,289 | Elected | [27] | |
Personal life
editAmarasuriya is unmarried, and has no children.[28]
Honours
editIn October 2024, the Postal Department issued a personalized stamp of Prime Minister Amarasuriya. The incident caused some controversy.[29]
Notes
edit- ^ Minister of Education, Science and Technology
- ^ as Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education
- ^ as Minister of Science and Technology
- ^ as Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development
- ^ as Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development
- ^ as Minister of Women and Child Affairs
- ^ as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs
- ^ as Minister of Justice and National Integration
- ^ as Minister of Minister of State Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government
- ^ Sinhala: හරිනි අමරසූරිය, romanized: Harini Amarasūriya
Tamil: ஹரிணி அமரசூரிய, romanized: Hariṇi Amaracūriya.
References
edit- ^ a b Wickramasinghe (February 2022). "Harini Amarasuriya". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ (24 September 2024). "Delhi roots, Colomobo heights: New Sri Lankan PM Harini Amarasuriya's fascinating link to India" Archived 2024-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. The Times of India. Retrieved on 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Dr Harini Amarasuriya | IASH". www.iash.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Basuriya, Kasun (24 September 2024). "Former academic named Sri Lanka's third female Prime Minister". LMD. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
- ^ "Cyber bullying prevents women from public positions - Harini Amarasuriya". Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka). Archived from the original on 28 September 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Siriwardana, Ajith (4 November 2023). "Free education only nominal today: Dr. Harini". DailyMirror. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ Amarasuriya, Harini (4 December 2015). "Education: The Elusive & Much Maligned 6%". Colombo Telegraph. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ "SL among the lowest in South Asia for spending on education: UNICEF". www.dailymirror.lk. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
- ^ "Rights activist and academic Dr Harini Amarasuriya is the NPP National List nominee". EconomyNext. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Dr. Harini Amarasuriya named as JJB National List MP". Sri Lanka News - Newsfirst. 12 August 2020. Archived from the original on 28 September 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ tharindu. "හරිනි අමරසූරිය මාලිමාවේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තු මන්ත්රී ධුරයට". sinhala.srilankamirror.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ "NPP National List slot: Dr. Harini Amarasuriya's name proposed". www.themorning.lk. 12 August 2020. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ "Positive effects of Harini Amarasuriya's appointment as Prime Minister". Daily News (Sri Lanka). 25 September 2024. Archived from the original on 28 September 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
- ^ "NPP will back bill to decriminalize same-sex relationships - Harini Amarasuriya". Ada Derana. 25 June 2024. Archived from the original on 24 September 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Parliamentary Caucus for Animal Welfare". Parliament of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 5 March 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Interview – Harini Amarasuriya". E-International Relations. 25 June 2020. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ "Sri Lanka's new PM Harini Amarasuriya's thorny path from social health worker". 25 September 2024.
- ^ Jayasinghe, Uditha (24 September 2024). "Sri Lanka President Dissanayake picks Amarasuriya as PM, takes finance job". Reuters. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Former academic named Sri Lanka's third female prime minister". BBC. Archived from the original on 25 September 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "Sri Lanka's new president calls parliamentary election to consolidate his mandate". Associated Press. 24 September 2024. Archived from the original on 25 September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "The New Cabinet of Sri Lanka". manthri.lk. Archived from the original on 28 September 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
- ^ De Alwis, Dinesh. "istoric government shift holds promise of education reform". Universityworldnews.com. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ "Information of Recognized Political Parties - NPP" (PDF). Election Commission of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ "Prime Minister Harini to contest from Colombo". NewsWire. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Dr. Harini Amarasuriya re-appointed Prime Minister". Ada Derana. 18 November 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ "Sri Lanka leader reappoints Amarasuriya as PM, retains finance and defence". Al Jazeera. 18 November 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ "List of candidates and preferential votes in Sri Lanka 2024 election". EconomyNext. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Aneez, Shirar (25 September 2024). "Factbox – Sri Lanka's new PM Harini Amarasuriya's thorny path from social health worker". EconomyNext. Archived from the original on 27 September 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
- ^ Balasuriya. "Only personalised stamps issued featuring Harini, Vijitha: Postal Department clarifies". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
External links
edit- Harini Amarasuriya, Parliament directory of members
- Harini Amarasuriya publications indexed by Google Scholar
