KAMALIKA PIERIS

JR shot to fame when he spoke at San Francisco Peace Conference in September 1951, where he asked that Japan be forgiven after World War II and reparations forgotten

Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake had been invited to participate at the San Francisco Peace Treaty Conference in September 1951, held to propose punitive provisions and the enforcement of arbitrary restrictions and embargoes for Japan. D.S. was unable to attend and sent Finance Minister JR instead. Prior to his departure, Jayewardene had a discussion with the Prime Minister who strongly advocated the idea of supporting Japan.

JR’s speech is still remembered by Japan. JR’s speech was composed after much consultations and meetings with Asian countries, said Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Japan, Sanjiv Gunawardene speaking in Tokyo at the 70^th anniversary of the speech. The case for Japan was first considered at the Colombo Plan Conference”.

This San Francisco speech was JR’s sole positive achievement in foreign relations. Later on, when JR became Head of state, the story changed. JR openly leaned towards USA, angered India and made a spectacle of Sri Lanka in the UN.

JR discarded Sri Lanka‘s policy of neutrality and Non-alignment and tilted towards the west. .Our Non alignment policy, followed from 1956, was dropped by JR in favor of the west observed K.  Godage. JR had the naïve colonial mindset that led people of his era to believe that an exploitative colonizer or ex-colonizer was a benefactor. JR was anti-communist as well as pro-west.

 JR had told Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that the 1947 agreement regarding the military bases was still there, it had not been formally abrogated. There was an agreement with Radio Deutschewelle in JR’s time. My recall is that JR wanted Sri Lanka to join ASEAN. He said that Sri Lanka was a part of South East Asia. ASEAN was an anti-Russia combine of South East Asian states.

JR was always a staunch supporter of USA and was known as ‘Yankee Dickie’.  In 1953, he

 opposed the    Rubber Rice Pact with China, which USA did not like.  As President of Sri Lanka, JR had agreed to US strengthening its VOA station in Chilaw, offered the Trincomalee Oil tank farm to the Coastal Corporation of Texas, USA and permitted the entry of US naval ships to Trincomalee.

Wijesoma   drew a cartoon for Island, which portrayed JR Jayewardene with a dollar sign in his pocket. His intention was to show that JR was pro-American. But it was interpreted as a bribe and a Letter of Demand was sent to him.

With JR in power, the USA for the first time had a powerful supporter in Sri Lanka .USA welcomed this and invited JR to USA. JR was invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.  In his White House speech Reagan said that the J.R. government’s decision to follow a neo-liberal program was a blessing.  JR replied that in USA, he feels that he is among friends. The speeches, of President Reagan and President J.R. Jayewardene on June 18, 1984 could be found on YouTube https://youtu.be/5OHGpO_1j8o

In 1986, USA wanted to install new transmitters at its Voice of America base In Chilaw, to beam shortwave radio programs to India, USSR, East Africa and China. The plan was to add six transmitters with a total output of 2,500 kilowatts. This was necessary to improve the quality of the broadcast, so that US could compete with powerful broadcasts from Tashkent in the USSR.

The Soviets’ broadcast capability is far stronger than ours,” said USA. Radio Moscow utilizes 37 powerful, state-of-the-art 500-kilowatt transmitters. We have paired six aging 250-kilowatt transmitters together to try to match that broadcasting strength.” If the planned transmitter is completed,-construction is expected to take four years, it will make the Voice of America signal in this region 25 times stronger than it is now.

Ground preparation and design work was   already under way at the Chilaw site. Charles  Wick, Director of the U.S. Information Agency, had come  in and participated in the official ground-breaking ceremony. Then Sri Lanka wanted to change the site from Chilaw to Puttalam,  because about 200 squatters living on the Chilaw land would have to be relocated.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike  had created a fine image for Sri Lanka ,internationally. .Sri Lanka was the head of the Non-aligned movement in her time. Sirimavo had hosted a  very successful Non –Aligned summit meeting in Colombo and  Sri Lanka  was well respected in the UN. Sri Lanka’s opinion  was sought   when anything relevant  came up in the UN.  

‘They would ask us for our opinion  but  after JR came , that vanished. After JR we  had started voting in all directions at the UN,  such as supporting UK in the Falklands war,’  said  diplomats who had worked in the  UN.

JR  it appears took no notice of the UN.  JR  never  addressed the UN assembly. He did not even call on the Secretary General  though  he visited New York on his 1984 visit to USA.

Thalif Deen recalled  that,  President Jayewardene’s brother, HW had phoned JR from Geneva, where HW was attending the United Nations Commission on Human Rights session and was trying to oppose a resolution against Sri Lanka. The telephone rang at Braemar’, the Ward Place residence of the President seeking instructions. Towards the tail-end of the conversation those in the hotel room in Geneva heard  HW saying Yes, Dicky, Yes, Dicky, No, Dicky, we can’t do that, Dicky”. Asked what President Jayewardene’s instructions were, they were told the President wants us to leave the UN”.( date not provided).

JR must be remembered as the first, and so  far only, Sri Lanka Head of state  to   thoroughly bungle relations with India.  Sirimavo had  built on the good relations SWRD had with Nehru. Sirimavo , in her turn, had   very good relations with Indira Gandhi . JR messed this up. He angered Indira Gandhi by comparing Indira  and her son Sanjeev to  a cow and calf. India  also strongly objected to the expansion of the  VOA station, saying that it might be used as a covert listening post.

India promptly retaliated. India took the side of the  Tamil Separatist Movement .They got the Tamil militants down and trained them in India. Then in 1987, there was the parippu drop in Jaffna. Demonstrations were held opposite the Indian High Commission and the High Commissioner’s official residence to protest against India’s violation of Sri Lankan airspace India did not care.

Sri Lanka  government was scared that India would invade Sri Lanka . JR found that he  had no soft contact to Rajiv Gandhi or his new officials.. Arun Singh was Rajiv’s principal advisor. Lalith de Mel,  who was at one time, head of Reckitt and Colman in Sri Lanka , knew Arun Singh as both had worked in Reckitt and Colman.

 Lalith Athulathmudali asked Lalith de Mel to go to India and speak to Arun Singh. Lalith de Mel was briefed by Athulathmudali and  JR.  Lalith de Mel went to India and met Arun privately. Arun had probed the Sri Lanka government’s attitude and said he would settle the matter.   The threat of invasion  ended. ( Lalith, the first Sri Lankan…”  by Lalith de Mel p 57-60.)  (continued)