Dingiri Banda Wijetunga Net Worth

Background and career

Sri Lankabhimanya Dingiri Banda Wijetunga (Sinhala: ඩිංගිරි බණ්ඩා විජේතුංග; Tamil: டிங்கிரி பண்ட விஜேதுங்க; 15 February 1916 – 21 September 2008) was a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fourth president of Sri Lanka from 7 May 1993 to 12 November 1994, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 3 March 1989 to 7 May 1993, and Governor of North Western Province from 1988 to 1989. He was awarded Sri Lankabhimanya, Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, in 1993 by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Wijetunga's presidency was marked by Sinhala nationalist rhetoric, a hardline position on the ethnic conflict and a commitment to preserving Sri Lanka's territorial integrity through military action against the LTTE. He rejected the view that the conflict stemmed from ethnic grievances, maintaining that it was fundamentally a problem of terrorism, and opposed negotiations with the LTTE as a route to peace. His administration oversaw the military's recovery of much of the Eastern Province from LTTE control, although Thoppigala remained outside government control. Domestically, his tenure saw the erosion of the United National Party's electoral dominance that had lasted for 17 years and the emergence of the People's Alliance and Chandrika Kumaratunga as a major political challenger. Following the PA's victory in the 1994 general election, Wijetunga appointed Kumaratunga as Prime Minister and despite remaining President until the end of his term, largely refrained from exercising executive authority.