{"id":113667,"date":"2021-04-19T15:46:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T22:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113667"},"modified":"2021-04-19T15:46:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T22:46:06","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-10f-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/19\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-10f-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 10F"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The most\nsneering, contemptuous opposition to SWRD came from the English speaking elite\ndrawn from all communities. SWRD was\nscorned for changing his religion to Buddhism, getting into national dress,\nhobnobbing with his social inferiors and supporting a low level, backward,\nindigenous language, Sinhala which should be trampled into oblivion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD Bandaranaike faced much ridicule during his short\nperiod as Prime Minister.  No politician has ever had so bad a press in any part of the world\nas Bandaranaike said DB Dhanapala  No\nother leader had such a hostile press like Bandaranaike, agreed analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD was lampooned and criticised. He was pictured as a weak-kneed political opportunist,  which he was not. He\nwas consistently maligned and libeled this side of the law, Dhanapala said.\nThe English press was the most vitriolic. The Lake\nHouse and Times groups targeted SWRD relentlessly. The only\nexception was Lankadipa, also owned by Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEnglish press also ridiculed the 1956 government. Lake House led the campaign.\nLake House had clout. Lake\nHouse sneered at any state venture and wanted to sow discord in the MEP, said\nMeegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas not difficult to mock the 1956 Government. Bandaranaike was pushed to and fro by the various forces he had courted at\none time or other. This provided fine copy for the journalists. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His erratic and zigzagging rule was reviewed weekly in the popular column\n“Island in the sun’ in the Sunday\nObserver<\/em>.  It was written by the editor,\nTarzie Vittachi under the pseudonym, Flybynight,  with cartoons by Collette. People used\nto eagerly await the delivery of the Sunday Observer to read the Flybynight\ncolumns and view the cartoons by Collette. Collette drew cartoons that ridiculed\nBandaranaike. <\/em> Sales of Sunday Observer<\/em> rocketed. These pieces\nwere later published as ‘Trials of transition in the Island in the Sun\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SWRD was\ncalled Electric Eel in this series. His efforts to improve the country were\nsneered at. The Electric Eel has not ever taken a decision from strength, only\nfrom weakness, said Flybynight. The Electric Eel\nused to say that island was going through a period of transition. This was his\nalibi for everything, his government corruption, incompetence, and cowardliness,\ncontinued Flybynight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake\nHouse was also against Philip. From\nthe start Lake House was against Philip. \nThey set up him as a sinister figure, said Meegama. The Lake House group was clever at\nmanipulating persons, but they found Philip difficult to manipulate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flybynight\ncalled Philip the Black Panther. He was the fiercest of the pack in the island in\nthe sun, said Flybynight. The Black\nPanther is the most formidable obstacle we have to our achieving mastery of\nthis island, he said.  Philip\u2019s\nwife, Kusuma Gunawardene was described as a sort of Gas House Gertie, \u2018a rough\nand roistering termagant.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Panther\nsaid he  would have several pits dug all\nover the country and he would put into them the bones of all the animals he or\nhis tribe has killed anyone could take the bones gnaw them and return them to\nthe pits, went on Flybynight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The animals\nin the island in the sun are fed up with the Black Panther\u2019s policy of\nviolence, hatred against the weaker group of animals. They were now yearning\nfor a breathing space in which peace and sanity can return once more to their\naccustomed haunts, concluded Flybynight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair\nresponsible for the Island in the Sun series in the Observer did not benefit\nfrom their work. Tarzie left Sri Lanka suddenly in 1960. He said Sydney de\nZoysa had it in for him and his children had been threatened. Collette drew the newly\nwidowed Sirimavo pregnant and in bed with NM Perera. Collette left the country\nwhen Sirimavo was elected Prime Minister in 1960. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This\ncriticism of the MEP group, starting with SWRD and Philip, was not a\nspontaneous activity. This was a part of a carefully developed modus operandi\nto bring disrepute on the MEP government, to help bring the MEP government down\nand return the country to its pro-US stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was\nalso another strategy, which commenced in 1956 and continued to this day, the\ntactic of character assassination though slander. Bandaranaike\u2019s sexual orientation\nwas commented on. I recall hearing this quietly said in the 1950s. There was no\nevidence to support it, and the motive was clearly malicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other politician singled out for attack, was T.B.Ilangaratne\n(1913- 1992) who was Minister for Labour, Housing and Social services in the\nMEP government .He brought in several progressive items of legislation. He introduced\nthe Labor Tribunal act no 62 of 1957. He\nhad been a clerk in the Kandy Kachcheri before starting his political career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ilangaratne\nwas accused of owning hotels in Switzerland. This was carefully planted\npropaganda by UNP. A UNP stalwart told me later that this was carefully\nplanted propaganda,\u201d said a contributor \nwriting to Sunday Times.( Sunday Times 9.11.14 p\n12). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\ndeveloped a story.  A Sri Lankan who had\ngone to Zurich had seen in the lobby of the hotel where he had stayed a big\nportrait of Ilangaratne on the wall. And was told that was the portrait of the\nowner of the hotel. Ilangaratne had no account in the\nSwiss bank, no hotels in Sweden with or without his photograph as claimed\nmaliciously by the then opposition and interested media, said Daily News in\n2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also\nsaid that he had built a palatial house in Gampola. A commission of inquiry\nwent to see the house and found half built house belonging to another. Ilangaratne\nwas exonerated of all charges. I found that he had lived in a modest house in\nthe interior of High Level road close to Nugegoda.  He was reported to have lived mainly on the\nroyalties of his books, said GaminiGunawardena.\n(Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The most sneering, contemptuous opposition to SWRD came from the English speaking elite drawn from all communities. SWRD was scorned for changing his religion to Buddhism, getting into national dress, hobnobbing with his social inferiors and supporting a low level, backward, indigenous language, Sinhala which should be trampled into oblivion.   SWRD Bandaranaike […]<\/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-113667","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\/113667","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=113667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}