KAMALIKA PIERIS
S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was Prime Minister for a very short time, 1956- 1959. Throughout
this period, he was soundly ridiculed. Praise for Bandaranaike came
several decades later when the MEP period came into historical review and it
was found that changes initiated had become entrenched, also that they were
good.
Then they started to praise Bandaranaike as a person.
Guruge (1999) said he admired SWRD’s extraordinary intellectual and oratorical
skills. Bradman Weerakoon (2004) said SWRD was ‘uncommon man
in the age of the common man’ HSS Nissanka (1976) reported that KPS Menon said Bandaranaike was
one of the brightest among his contemporaries at Oxford.
Vernon
Mendis (1999) spoke of SWRDs intellectual upbringing, his natural passion
for history and world affairs, his lively and dashing personality, which
charmed his peers, like Anthony Eden, also
his fiery eloquence and nimble wit.
Bandaranaike had academic and
social standing and was able to challenge westerners. Bandaranaike
had told some British dignitary, in a
reference I cannot recall and am unable to trace, though it was readily available at one time,
that while his British ancestors were running about in animal skins and living in caves, my
ancestors, in this country had already
developed an advanced civilization which included a language and a literature.
Bandaranaike’s contribution was also seen in a positive light. I think it
was Wiswa Warnapala who said, that SWRD greatly underestimated his role and
incorrectly labeled his time as a ‘period of transition’. It was not. It was a
period of high consolidation and movement towards a modern state.
S.W.R.D Bandaranaike demonstrated statesmanship in two vital areas and
history will commend him for this, said another analyst, whose name I have failed
to record. Firstly his enlightened foreign policy and
secondly the creation of a modern independent state through the stabilization
of the majority community and the introduction of a single official language.
Bandaranaike pioneered the formation of a viable religious
and cultural policy for the nation, said Ananda Guruge. SWRD gave legitimacy to the aspirations of the Sinhala
Buddhist public, said Sudath Gunesekera. Buddhist
and Sinhala values were emphasized, agreed Nayani Melegoda.
The sheer volume of change brought in during the few
years of Bandaranaike rule was exclaimed upon. Dhanapala listed the work carried
out under Bandaranaike and exclaimed all this in two and a half years.
The 1956-59 period saw some of the most important events in the country
said analysts. The Trincomalee Port and
Katunayake air base were taken back from the British. Colombo Port was nationalized;
the Paddy Lands Bill was passed followed by a guaranteed price for paddy. A
university Commission was set up, the Buddhist commission report appeared.
The Kandyan Peasantry Commission
report was to be implemented. Sinhala was introduced as the medium of instruction
for Advanced level. A national Provident fund Bill was presented. Provision was made for
public servants to speak out in the national interest. Diplomatic relations
were established with socialist countries. There was a change of foreign policy
from pro-western to non-alignment.
SWRD was one
of the shrewdest political analysts of our time, whatever his shortcoming as a
practical politicians said Tarzie Vittachi. Bandaranaike had initiated a process of constitutional reform, however abortive, and this
should be recognized, said analysts.
Tarzie Vittachi said that Bandaranaike wanted
MPs to be elected on personal merit not party lines. In Parliament, there would
be no division into Government and Opposition. The Parliament would be divided
up into committees. Work would be done by parliamentary committees like the
earlier Executive Committees. All MPs
would take an active executive role. Chairmen of the Committees will be Cabinet
ministers and would carry out government decisions. The Prime Minister will be
the chief executive.
He was heavily criticized but the idea had its
merits. This seemed worth trying out in a small country like Sri Lanka, said Tarzie
Vittachi. SWRD’S scheme is interesting
as one of the first attempts in Asia to redesign Parliamentary government. SWRD
was also working towards introducing a Bill of Rights said Mahindapala.
Bandaranaike was not the feeble, bungling, incompetent
he was made out to be. He was an experienced politician. He had
created a new political party and led it to victory. He was an experienced statesman as well. He had been on State Council for some years and was its Minister for Local Government .
Bradman found Bandaranaike‘s first chairing of the pre-budget estimates
to be informal but direct, with some humour thrown in. He had a sharp eye for
cracks and fault lines in government business, said Bradman.
Bandaranaike was alert and decisive when necessary. Sir Oliver may have been in charge
during the Emergency in 1958, after the riots, but Bradman says SWRD was very
much in the picture.
Guruge says an elephant
stampeded at Buddha Jayanti celebration at Attanagalla Raja Maha Viharaya, SWRD
took charge and had the people taken to safety. He had dragged Guruge, by his
collar to a side. Bandaranaike knew the importance of public
relations. He held press briefings over kiribath breakfasts in his home.
Bandaranaike knew Buddhism, said Ananda Guruge. He had
a deep grasp and interest in Buddhism. Unlike
his predecessors in office, he needed no script to elaborate on any aspect of
Buddhism concluded Guruge. The Buddhist public came in to listen to
SWRD with interest and later with passionate enthusiasm, said Meegama.
Guruge says foreign dignitaries were impressed by his
eloquence and grasp of Buddhism. He lashed out at Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan at a
Town Hall lecture, where Sarvapalli had commented unfavourably on the
originality of Buddhism. SWRD had demolished all his arguments.
It is not
well known that SWRD Bandaranaike, when he became Prime Minister, took steps to
unite the Amarapura nikaya. He called a meeting at Vajirarama in 1957 and fifteen sub groups amalgamated to form Samasta
Lanka Amarapura Sangha sabha, said T.G.Kulatunge.
Bandaranaike supervised the Buddha Jayanti celebration very
thoroughly. He even remembered that an invitation from Burma for a delegation
to the 6th Buddhist synod, which was ending in 1956, had to be accepted.
SWRD
had declared Anuradhapura a sacred city when he was Minister for Local
Government in State Council. Construction
of New town Anuradhapura started in 1953. As
Prime Minister SWRD continued his
interest in the project.
Establishing the Anuradhapura new town
included moving homes, administration, business district, mosque, churches,
slaughter house and its non Sinhalese majority. Part of the problem was that
Anuradhapura was a regional railway headquarters and the railway administration kept growing and
encroaching on the archaeological sites. Also Buddhists objected to the
churches and mosques built in Anuradhapura.
Bandaranaike was one of the three best speakers we had
in Ceylon. Never at a loss for words, with fluency and diction, he
could reel off one perfect sentence
after another with astounding ease, said DB Dhanapala.
I remember
him as a brilliant orator in Sinhala and English said Meegama. He was one of the finest debaters of the day, with a gift for
repartee. His speeches and
repartee in Parliament were much
enjoyed by the chamber, concluded Meegama.
SWRD was a
superb orator in both English and Sinhala and could literally mesmerize an
audience said Bradman. Bradman recalled that he had
been mesmerized by Bandaranaike’s eloquence on Independence Day, Feb 4 1948. The
speech he delivered at Peradeniya University in 1957 also had a special appeal
and profundity. SWRD
speeches were pure gems with sonorous cadences studded with classical allusions,
said Bradman. SWRD was a master of English and was very particular in the style
and wording.
Bandaranaike
had learnt Sinhala on his return from London, continued Bradman. He used Sinhala for his political speeches. Bandaranaike has excelled in spoken Sinhala, said
Bradman. He could translate word for
word a complicated cluster of sentences he had a moment earlier mouthed in
English. I found his bilingual
competence in public speaking staggering especially since he did not use
Sinhala in normal daily speech. The language at home and with officials was in
English, concluded Bradman. (Continued)
