Background and career
Junius Richard Jayewardene (Sinhala: ජුනියස් රිචඩ් ජයවර්ධන; Tamil: ஜூனியஸ் ரிச்சட் ஜயவர்தனா; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), also known by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, who served as prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as president of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon and served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led the party to a landslide victory in the 1977 parliamentary elections and served as prime minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution.
Jayawardene remains a divisive figure in Sri Lankan history. While the open economic system he introduced in 1978 brought the country out of the economic turmoil it was facing as the result of the preceding government's closed economic policies, Jayawardene's social policies, including his response to the Black July riots of 1983, have been accused of heightening ethnic tensions in the country and contributing to the beginnings of the Sri Lankan civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009.
