Ranasinghe Wijeyabahu, a poor farmer, and his wife Takshila Madhuwatie, both Buddhists, are in no doubt that their two-year-old son, Sampath, is the reincarnation of Premadasa, who was killed in 1993 by an LTTE suicide bomber. For many other Sri Lankan Buddhists -- staunch believers in rebirth -- the possibility cannot be ruled out.

The evidence? Wijeyabahu claims that on several occasions, his son pointed to coins with Premadasa's head and said that it was his face. Sampath is also said to wake up in the pre-dawn hours and sit cross-legged in the typical prayer posture. Premadasa was known to rise at 3 a.m. and recite the Pansila, Buddha's five precepts.

Thin, but for the moment at least,Sri Lanka seems more fascinated by little Sampath than with Sirisena Cooray -- Premadasa's right-hand man, but sidelined by the United National Party (UNP)s present leadership -- who last week announced he would soon launch a political initiative inspired by his leader's populist policies.

A month after the news of the reported reincarnation spread, visitors are still coming to Wijeyabahu's humble home here to check out for themselves. Buddhist Sri Lankans believe everyone is reborn, but rarely do they come across a person who remembers details from a previous birth, and what's more, claims to be a world-famous, if controversial, leader in that birth.

Victor Ivan, the editor of the Sinhalese weekly Ravaya, dismissed the claims as ``rubbish'', but said that people's willingness to believe it could be an indication of their frustration with present-day political leaders.

``Our politicians today are so bad, they make Premadasa seem better and people yearn even for someone like him. All said anddone, he has been the only leader who implemented any pro-poor programmes,'' said Ivan.

Cooray, who has announced plans to launch a initiative to bring these pro-poor ideas back to the centrestage of politics on Premadasa's 75th birthday in June, has not visited Sampath. His supporters in the Premadasa Centre, an organisation dedicated to the late presidents memory, stressed Cooray had ``no interest'' in the boy and would ``certainly not'' use him for the political campaign.

But some of Premadasa's other associates, like a former Colombo mayor, a senior government official and a member of parliament, and many people from Premadasa's hometown of Kehelwatte, have come to see the boy.

``He seemed to recognise many of them and behaved like he knew them all very well,'' said Wijeyabahu. Incidentally, both parents have never voted for Premadasa and have always supported the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which is in power now.

Already, one excited Sri Lankan has in a letter to newspapers demanded that the childbe made to reveal the numerous secrets of the Premadasa regime now known as the ``period of terror''. Monks at the local temple have advised Sampath's parents to look after his safety.

The case has sparked off some scientific interest too, with a Sri Lankan nuclear physicist, Granville Dharmawardene, dramatically taking Sampath first to the spot in Colombo where Premadasa was assassinated and later to his office to see if these places triggered off any more memories in the boy.

According to him, memories of a past birth are strongest between two and five years of age after which they taper off and disappear completely. After his experiment on Sampath, Dharmawardena, who claimed to have found ``scientifically presentable'' evidence in support of reincarnation in his investigation of other similar cases, decided that the child was too young and his vocabulary yet undeveloped for any conclusive link to be established.

The boy burst into tears at Armour Street where Premadasa was killed but according toDharmawardene, that may have been because he had to leave his mother's lap for a brief while just then.

The scientist said he also heard the child ``spontaneously'' muttering the name Hema, which is the name of Premadasa's wife, and the names of his children Sajith and Dulanjali, but said he was moving with abundant caution before jumping to conclusions. ``Definitely this is a case worth studying, but we have to be careful,'' he said.

Oblivious of all the excitement around him, Sampath seems like any ordinary child as he fights over a cup of milk powder with his sister setting off a loud wail from her. Reincarnation or not, his quarrelsomeness makes for at least one quality in common with Premadasa.