KAMALIKA PIERIS

The middle class, fed up of the shortages of the Sirimavo government, hailed the arrival of JR. They welcomed his appointment as head of state. They became disillusioned later, but his core group of admirers did not desert him.

JR handled the transition from a controlled economy to a more open one with great political skill said KM de Silva. JR was one of the few intelligent and educated politicians of Asia, said Daya de Silva. He was a visionary who transformed this country into a modern market economy. It was all good and smooth running since JR took over. JR was a benevolent dictator. He had a strong team and took firm decisions. The open economy was good. Tourists and foreign investors came in concluded Daya. 

One of the spectacular achievements of JR was the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Scheme said Sarath Amunugama.,  A project which was to have taken 30 years was successfully completed in 10 years. It was a gigantic engineering, financial, land settlement, agricultural and management undertaking which changed rural agriculture irrevocably.  

This was the largest river valley development which could be undertaken in the country. Many dams were needed.  Sarath noted that the early work of the damming of Mahaweli Ganga was done by CP de Silva during 1965-1970. When JR and Gamini Dissanayake got onto it, most of the preliminary planning work was already complete.

The Mahaweli project ignored the creation of a Trincomalee development corridor, it concentrated on dams, reservoirs and power stations. So human settlements and its spatial networks suffered, said Willie Mendis.  The Mahaweli programme carried out mostly through aid programmes did bring many benefits but the liberalization policy undermined local agricultural and industrial programmes, said IPC Mendis.

Sarath Amunugama noted that the Tourism sector was started by JR. He set up the Tourist Board. Hotels such as Lanka Oberoi, Intercontinental, Hilton, Taj and other International hotels built in Colombo as well as many resort hotels in scenic parts of the island were built in JR’s time. Trincomalee became an important tourist destination. A busy hotel industry was in operation in the area led by Nilaweli Beach hotel, Blue Lagoon and so on, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda.     

The first southern resort was at Bentota, at the Bentota Rest house. Sarath found much land fragmentation when he went to the south to see about the development of tourism there. In Balapitiya there were more than 200 pangu holders for each small block of land. Once the big hotels were built and tourists started coming, an amazing development took place said Sarath. Around our main destination a large number of middle and small level hotels restaurants, batik shops and grocery stores sprang up he noted.

Sarath Amunugama noted that the Cultural triangle” was another achievement of JR, though many tend to overlook this.

 I was told long ago, had Japan had offered to introduce television to Sri Lanka free, during the time of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her government had turned it down. In 1965 JR too had suggested the introduction of television, but the idea was shot down.

 In 1977 JR was in a position to introduce television to the island. He wanted it to be a state venture supervised by the media ministry. He turned to Japan. The enthusiastic Japanese ambassador got us the whole project free of charge as an outright grant said Sarath Amunugama who   was in charge of the project.

The Grant could be given according to Japanese law only for education, so we said this was for education and the original agreement carried this.  One of the studios in Rupavahini was specially designed to facilitate the making of education programmes and we did start broadcasting lessons in English and mathematics which won awards at international competitions, concluded Sarath.

JR started the National lottery to supplement the national budget.  Other ministers also saw the advantage of this, specially the printing contract it carried and started their own lotteries. Prime Minister Premadasa started Sevana fund, then came Mahapola. Eventually JR stopped any more lotteries.

President JR Jayewardene decided that a new parliament building was needed to accommodate the increased number of Parliamentarians. He requested the Embassies to help with the necessary expertise. The only Embassy that responded was the French and following consultation a team from Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient for new towns led by Dr. François Daniel and Architect Planner Deloche arrived in Sri Lanka.  Architect Ashley de Vos was asked to join the team. JR had read something that Ashley de Vos had written, visited him and requested him to join.

Ashley recalls that the team toured the country for about a week to understand the history of the island. The historical monuments and the use of water as a feature in the landscape was impressive and taken note of. The team looked to see whether it was possible to create a connection of the new with the past and a location in Anuradhapura for the new Parliament was suggested.

Meanwhile, AnandaTissa De Alwis the MP for Kotte had suggested Kotte where there was   marsh land with very little habitation. The island in the middle of the Diyawanna Oya was thought to be appropriate for the Parliament project, especially with the marsh and the potential for the use of water in the design.  This island belonged to the E.W.Perera’s.

The Dutch hydrology expert brought over by the French reported that the marshes had to be preserved inviolate with the rain water flowing over the maximum area and finding its natural outlet to sea. If the marsh was intruded into or filled, and the free flow of water obstructed, the site and anything on it will get flooded.

Accordingly, the cleaning up and freeing of the natural lakes of the accumulated reed beds and other accretion was  done The Diyawanna Oya now had a free flow into the lakes behind the old Christian College, Kotte and into the sea.

However, having got wind of the proposal, large areas of the marsh were hurriedly sold by the owners to private developers and many areas were subjected to arbitrary filling. Two large tracks of land was bought up and resold for development.  This affected the landscape and interfered with the proposed location of the Ministerial offices and the housing for the officers who were going to work there.

 This was totally against the views of the Dutch Hydrology expert. He wanted the marsh kept inviolate. He concluded that arbitrary filling and blocking of the free flow of excess water of the Diyawanna Oya into the natural lakes behind the old Christian College Kotte, and the canals leading to the Wellawatta canal and to the sea should not be restricted or closed off. If not flooding would occur.

If you interfere with the free flow of rain water in the marshes and along the Diyawanna Oya into the natural lakes, into the canals and into the sea, the heavy rain will inundate the little marsh that is left and the unfortunate outcome will be that the Parliament building will get flooded he said. The parliament went under water on two occasions, noted Ashley de Vos. (Continued)