{"id":113488,"date":"2021-04-13T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T23:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113488"},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:01:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T23:01:16","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/13\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-9d\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 9D"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was Prime Minister for a very short time, 1956- 1959. Throughout\nthis period, he was soundly ridiculed. Praise for Bandaranaike came\nseveral decades later when the MEP period came into historical review and it\nwas found that changes initiated had become entrenched, also that they were\ngood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they started to praise Bandaranaike as a person.\nGuruge (1999) said he admired SWRD\u2019s extraordinary intellectual and oratorical\nskills. Bradman Weerakoon (2004) said SWRD was \u2018uncommon man\nin the age of the common man\u2019 HSS Nissanka (1976) reported that KPS Menon said Bandaranaike was\none of the brightest among his contemporaries at Oxford.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vernon\nMendis   (1999)   spoke of SWRDs  intellectual upbringing, his natural passion\nfor history and world affairs, his lively and dashing personality, which\ncharmed his  peers, like Anthony Eden, also\nhis fiery eloquence and nimble wit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike had    academic and\nsocial standing and was able to challenge westerners. Bandaranaike\nhad told some British dignitary, in a \nreference I cannot recall and am unable to trace,  though it was readily available at one time,\nthat while his British ancestors were running about  in animal skins and living in caves, my\nancestors, in this country   had already\ndeveloped an advanced civilization which included a language and a literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike\u2019s contribution was also seen in a positive light. I think it\nwas Wiswa Warnapala who said, that SWRD greatly underestimated his role and\nincorrectly labeled his time as a ‘period of transition’. It was not. It was a\nperiod of high consolidation and movement towards a modern state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S.W.R.D Bandaranaike demonstrated statesmanship in two vital areas and\nhistory will commend him for this, said another analyst, whose name I have failed\nto record.   Firstly his enlightened foreign policy and\nsecondly the creation of a modern independent state through the stabilization\nof the majority community and the introduction of a single official language. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike   pioneered the formation of a viable religious\nand cultural policy for the nation, said Ananda Guruge. SWRD gave legitimacy to the aspirations of the Sinhala\nBuddhist public, said Sudath Gunesekera.  Buddhist\nand Sinhala values were emphasized, agreed Nayani Melegoda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheer volume of change brought in during the few\nyears of Bandaranaike rule was exclaimed upon. Dhanapala listed the work carried\nout under Bandaranaike and exclaimed all this in two and a half years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1956-59 period saw some of the most important events in the country\nsaid analysts.  The Trincomalee Port and\nKatunayake air base were taken back from the British. Colombo Port was nationalized;\nthe Paddy Lands Bill was passed followed by a guaranteed price for paddy. A\nuniversity Commission was set up, the Buddhist commission report appeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Kandyan Peasantry Commission\nreport was to be implemented. Sinhala was introduced as the medium of instruction\nfor Advanced level. A national Provident fund Bill was presented. Provision was made for\npublic servants to speak out in the national interest. Diplomatic relations\nwere established with socialist countries. There was a change of foreign policy\nfrom pro-western to non-alignment.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD was one\nof the shrewdest political analysts of our time, whatever his shortcoming as a\npractical politicians said Tarzie Vittachi. Bandaranaike had initiated a process of constitutional reform, however abortive, and this\nshould be recognized, said analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Tarzie Vittachi said that Bandaranaike wanted\nMPs to be elected on personal merit not party lines. In Parliament, there would\nbe no division into Government and Opposition. The Parliament would be divided\nup into committees. Work would be done by parliamentary committees like the\nearlier Executive Committees.  All MPs\nwould take an active executive role. Chairmen of the Committees will be Cabinet\nministers and would carry out government decisions. The Prime Minister will be\nthe chief executive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He was heavily criticized but the idea had its\nmerits. This seemed worth trying out in a small country like Sri Lanka,  said Tarzie\nVittachi.  SWRD\u2019S scheme is interesting\nas one of the first attempts in Asia to redesign Parliamentary government. SWRD\nwas also working towards introducing a Bill of Rights said Mahindapala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike was not the feeble, bungling, incompetent\nhe was made out to be. He was an experienced politician. He had\ncreated 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 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradman found Bandaranaike\u2018s first chairing of the pre-budget estimates\nto be informal but direct, with some humour thrown in. He had a sharp eye for\ncracks and fault lines in government business, said Bradman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike was alert and decisive when necessary.  Sir Oliver may have been in charge\nduring the Emergency in 1958, after the riots, but Bradman says SWRD was very\nmuch in the picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guruge says an elephant\nstampeded at Buddha Jayanti celebration at Attanagalla Raja Maha Viharaya, SWRD\ntook charge and had the people taken to safety. He had dragged Guruge, by his\ncollar to a side. Bandaranaike knew the importance of public\nrelations. He held press briefings over kiribath breakfasts in his home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike knew Buddhism, said Ananda Guruge. He had\na deep grasp and interest in Buddhism.  Unlike\nhis predecessors in office, he needed no script to elaborate on any aspect of\nBuddhism concluded Guruge. The Buddhist public came in to listen to\nSWRD with interest and later with passionate enthusiasm, said Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guruge says foreign dignitaries were impressed by his\neloquence and grasp of Buddhism. He lashed out at Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan at a\nTown Hall lecture, where Sarvapalli had commented unfavourably on the\noriginality of Buddhism. SWRD had demolished all his arguments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not\nwell known that SWRD Bandaranaike, when he became Prime Minister, took steps to\nunite the Amarapura nikaya. He called a meeting at Vajirarama  in 1957  and  fifteen sub groups amalgamated to form Samasta\nLanka Amarapura Sangha sabha, said T.G.Kulatunge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike   supervised the Buddha Jayanti celebration very\nthoroughly. He even remembered that an invitation from Burma for a delegation\nto the 6th<\/sup> Buddhist synod, which was ending in 1956,  had to be accepted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD\nhad declared Anuradhapura a sacred city when he was Minister for Local\nGovernment in State Council. Construction\nof New town Anuradhapura started in 1953.   As\nPrime Minister SWRD  continued his\ninterest in the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Establishing the Anuradhapura new town\nincluded moving homes, administration, business district, mosque, churches,\nslaughter house and its non Sinhalese majority. Part of the problem was that\nAnuradhapura was a regional railway headquarters and the   railway administration kept growing and\nencroaching on the archaeological sites. Also Buddhists objected to the\nchurches and mosques built in Anuradhapura. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike was one of the three best speakers we had\nin Ceylon.    Never at a loss for words, with fluency and diction, he\ncould  reel off one perfect sentence\nafter another with astounding ease, said DB Dhanapala.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember\nhim as a brilliant orator in Sinhala and English said Meegama. He was one of the finest debaters of the day, with a gift for\nrepartee.  His speeches and\nrepartee   in Parliament were much\nenjoyed by the chamber, concluded Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD was a\nsuperb orator in both English and Sinhala and could literally mesmerize an\naudience said Bradman.  Bradman recalled that he had\nbeen mesmerized by Bandaranaike\u2019s eloquence on Independence Day, Feb 4 1948. The\nspeech he delivered at Peradeniya University in 1957 also had a special appeal\nand profundity. SWRD\nspeeches were pure gems with sonorous cadences studded with classical allusions,\nsaid Bradman. SWRD was a master of English and was very particular in the style\nand wording. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike\nhad learnt Sinhala on his return from London, continued Bradman. He used Sinhala for his political speeches. Bandaranaike   has excelled in spoken Sinhala, said\nBradman.  He could translate word for\nword a complicated cluster of sentences he had a moment earlier mouthed in\nEnglish.  I found his bilingual\ncompetence in public speaking staggering especially since he did not use\nSinhala in normal daily speech. The language at home and with officials was in\nEnglish, concluded Bradman. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}