{"id":114335,"date":"2021-05-17T16:26:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114335"},"modified":"2021-05-17T16:26:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:26:09","slug":"t-b-ilangaratne-a-sri-lankan-par-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/17\/t-b-ilangaratne-a-sri-lankan-par-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"T B Ilangaratne \u2013 A Sri Lankan Par Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Today, 21st<\/sup>\nMay 2021 is the 29th<\/sup> death anniversary of this unassuming colossus\nwho perhaps had done more for the people of Sri Lanka than many others before\nhim and after him<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good\nmen to do nothing \u2013 Edmund Burke<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edmund Burke was an influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator\nand political thinker, known for publicly expressing his opposition to the\nFrench Revolution. Born in Dublin in 1729, Burke went to London to study law,\nbut soon gave this up and pursued a literary and political career. He became a\nmember of the parliament in 1765 and had a 30-year career as a political\ntheorist and philosopher. Later praised by both conservatives and liberals,\nBurke believed that the government should be a cooperative relationship between\nrulers and subjects. He also said that most men in a nation are not qualified\nto govern it, stating that those who are elected to represent the people should\npossess a greater level of wisdom than the public. The past is important,\nbut change is inevitable so, in order to keep a balance between the new and the\ntraditional, society needs to learn how to adapt. Therefore, we should\nconstruct civilization by giving weight to our ancestors, but also consider\nourselves and the needs of future generations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is\nnot about Edmund Burke. It is about one of Sri Lanka\u2019s greatest sons, Tikiri\nBandara Ilangaratne or T B Ilangaratne, who in so many ways epitomised the\nvalues that Burke believed in during his time. His revolutionary policies and\nthe people owned public institutions he created or helped to create\ndemonstrated in no uncertain manner that he was never a man who stood in\nsilence when it came to public policy and governance for all and not a favoured\nfew. TB Ilangaratne, a family man, a novelist, poet, union leader and\npolitician, born on the 27th<\/sup> of February 1913, passed away peacefully\non the 21st<\/sup> of May 1992 having lived a life dedicated to a selfless service\nto the people of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One enduring characteristic of T B\nIlangaratne was his unassuming nature, his simplicity and his affinity to his\nfamily that never faded throughout his life. He and his wife, Tamara Kumari\nIlangaratne or TKI as she was fondly referred to, ran a home which had been more like a community hall\nand there had always been a pot of rice and a simple meal in the home as\neveryone who had visited, and there had been many from the two electorates\nrepresented by TBI and TKI, had never left their home hungry. They had never\nbeen any discrimination on status or any other discriminatory practice and\nwhoever having a meal had been served at the main dining table. Being a crowded\nhousehold, children of TBI and TKI, and their cousins and friends who had been\nregular visitors, sometimes had their meals either in the kitchen or in our\nrooms. The family home had been one of joy and had been full of very meaningful\nlife.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both TB Ilangaratne\nand his wife, as members of Parliament, along with other members of Parliament\nat the time, unlike those today who find it difficult to even walk, let alone\ntravel in public transport, had not been given fleets of vehicles. They were\nentitled only to public bus and train passes, and unless they had their own\ntransport, which the Ilangaratne\u2019 s did not have, their only mode of transport\nto and back from their respective electorates had been public transport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these\nchallenges, TB Ilangaratne had one motive throughout his life and that was to\nbe of service to others, in particular to those who were left behind by the\nlegacy of colonialism and supremacy of money for a few at the cost of\nexacerbating the plight of those who were left behind by that few. His\nachievements in introducing far reaching policy reforms in independent Sri\nLanka, which continued till the end of the seventies, have to be looked at\nthrough such a prism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His vision and\napproach to policy settings paved the way for others to emulate and set the\ndirection for a fairer Sri Lanka and opening opportunities for those had been\ndenied such opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nhis life and especially during his political career, he was a person who not\nonly thought or just empathised with people in society, who were poor,\nhomeless and the lower middle class who were left behind by the Colonial\nadministrations and then by those who took over from them, but actually\nintroduced ground breaking policies to raise the standards and hopes of such\npeople.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the\naccolades that he got, which were many and richly deserved, he was also at the\nbutt end of the nastiest characteristics of many fellow countrymen who assigned\nall manner of derogatory labels to him, which were totally unjust and untrue.\nNot only was he subject to such vilification, even his family was not spared\nand they had to endure these on behalf of a husband and father who did and\nalways did, what was in the best interest of the mass of Sri Lankans who were\nleft out of the post-colonial Sri Lankan dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the days\nbefore the advent of social media, these vilifications were spearheaded by\ninterested parties including the monopoly media who were the servants of the\nmasters at that time, masters who had been affected by the far reaching public\npolicy changes introduced by T B Ilangaratne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His life\u2019s\nphilosophy and his political philosophy were no different to each other.\nSimplicity and equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of ethnicity,\nreligion, caste or any other discriminatory practices, guided his thinking. In\nthis respect, he saw common ground with the left movement in the country and\nthe leaders of the left movement. His socialist orientation and outlook brought\nhim very close to a scholarly Buddhist Monk, Venerable Walpola Rahula who had\nhis early education at the Vidyalankara Pirivena, and who maintained close\nlinks with the University. There is no doubt that Ven Rahula had a lasting\ninfluence on T B Ilangaratne and they remained lifelong friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These socialist\nleanings had irked Mr D S Senanayake and his fellow supporters in the\ngovernment of the day. Mr Senanayake was the first Prime Minister of the\ncountry then known as Ceylon, who was in the 1940s, the Leader of the House of\nRepresentatives. They were seeing the Buddhist clergy as being a threat to\ntheir power, and influence with the rich segment of the polity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vidyalankara Declaration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early\npart of the 1940s, the leading Buddhist Monks of the day had taken a stand to campaign\nfor broad basing the public policy settings of the country and to extend the\ncountry\u2019s social structure to the majority people in the country who had been\nleft behind by a few who controlled most aspects of the country\u2019s economy. This\nwas no ethnic or religion based campaign although the leading Buddhist Monks\nhad taken it on themselves to launch such a campaign on behalf of the wider\nmass of people of the country. In this regard, Monks led by Yakkaduwe Pangnarama,\nKiriwattuduwe Pannassara, Walpola Rahula and others and lay persons like young\nT B Ilangaratne had taken the lead to introduce what was referred to as the\nVidyalankara declaration which articulated a new vision for the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians,\nbusinessmen and women, and others belonging to the governing class led by Mr D\nS Senanayake who was then the Leader of the House of Representatives had been\nvehemently against this declaration and the call to action by the Buddhist\nMonks.  The animosity between Mr Senanayake and\nhis supporters and the Buddhist clergy had intensified to the extent that they\nhad prevented Monks like Venerable Rahula from receiving their daily mid-day\nmeal. It is at this point that the role played by TB Ilangaratne comes into\nfocus, as he, although a poor clerical hand at the time, had arranged with well-wishers\nto supply the mid-day meals to Ven Rahula and other Monks. Ven Rahula had\nmentioned special mention of this effort on the part of TB Ilangaratne and their\nfriendship flourished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven Walpola Rahula was a scholar and a\nwriter. He became the Professor\nof History and Literature of Religions in the North Western University in the\nUS, the first Bhikkhu to hold such a chair in the Western world. He later\nbecame a Professor Emeritus at the same university and in 1964, the Vice\nChancellor of the Vidyodaya University in Sri Lanka (now Sri Jayawardhanapura\nUniversity)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navaratne Rajakaruna Wasala Tikiri Mudiyanselage Tikiri Bandara\nIlangaratne<\/strong> was\nborn on 27 February 1913 in Tumpane, Hataraliyadda, Waligodapola, as the fourth\nchild in a family with seven siblings. His father was a well-known general\npractitioner of traditional ophthalmology. He began attending school in 1917 at\nGalagedera Vidyalaya and received his secondary education from St. Anthony’s College, Kandy<\/a>. Ilangaratne wrote three plays\nwhile in school (Akikaru Putha<\/em>, Himin<\/em> and Anda\nNanda<\/em>). On September 4, 1944, Ilangaratne married Tamara Kumari Aludeniya<\/a> in Gampola. Tamara Kumari\nIlangaratne (TKI) was elected as the member for Kandy<\/a> (1949-1952) and Galagedara<\/a> (1970-1977). They had four children\nUdaya, Sandhya, Rohana, and Upeksha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a Member of Parliament<\/a> for Kandy<\/a>, Galaha<\/a>, Hewaheta<\/a> and Kolonnawa<\/a> in Colombo district. He served as\nthe Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister of Labour, Housing, Social Services, Finance,\nCommerce, Food, Trade and Shipping, Public Administration & Home Affairs\nand he also functioned as the Acting Head of State during Mrs Sirima\nBandaranaike time as Prime Minister in a career spanning more than three\ndecades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As extensive as his political experience and achievements were, he was\nalso well known for his literary talent and authored several classic novels and\nis best known for writing Amba Yahaluwo<\/em> (1957), a popular\nchildren’s novel. His novels Tilaka Saha Tilaka, Lasanda<\/em>, Nedeyo<\/em>,\nSasara, Niwena Ginna, Nayana and Kale Mal have been adapted into movies. Amba\nYahaluwo<\/em> and Vilambheetha were made into a television\nserial<\/a>.\nAltogether he has written 50 Sinhalese novels, and 2 English novels \u2013\nMatchmaker and Amba Yahaluwo which were also translated to French. He also\ntranslated Tale of Two cities written by Charles Dickens to Sinhala as\nDenuwara Kathawa\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Days<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T B Ilangaratne left school after passing the London matriculation exam\nupon which he joined the government service as a clerk<\/a> in the General Clerical Service. In 1941, he tried his hands at\nacting playing King Dhatusena in the play of the same name by Gunasila\nWitanansa and in the movies Radala Piliruwa\u201d and Warada Kageda\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in 1947, T B Ilangaratne\u2019 s leadership qualities were recognised by\nthe membership of the Clerical Service and he became the President of the\nGovernment Clerical Services Union (GCSU). There were many trade unions\nrepresenting the working class under Dr NM \nPerera, Dr S A Wickramasinghe, Peter Keuneman but his vison was to involve the\nclerical staff to fight for their civil rights and also towards gaining\nindependence from the British Empire. He organised a massive rally at the Galle\nFace Green against the colonial rule and this led to his dismissal from the\nGovernment Clerical Service.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then contested and won the Kandy\nelectorate<\/a> in the 1947 general election<\/a> as a Socialist candidate, but was\nunseated as a result of an election petition. At the request from the people of\nKandy, his lifelong friend, companion and wife, Tamara Kumari Ilangaratne affectionately\nreferred to as TKI contested at the by-election and became the MP for Kandy. An\nelection petition may have got rid of T B Ilangaratne, but the people of Kandy\ndid not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB Ilangaratne joined the editorial board of Lankadeepa newspaper\nwriting the political column under the pen name Andare\u201d while his wife TKI continued\nas a member of Parliamentary opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year he contested a by-election<\/a> in the Kandy electorate as an\nindependent socialist<\/a> candidate defeating Fredrick\nde Silva<\/a>, and\nentered the House of Representatives of Ceylon<\/a> and was sworn in on May 18, 1948<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was around this time that S W R D Bandaranaike, who would become\nPrime Minister in 1956, left the government of D S Senanayake and joined the\nopposition. T B Ilangaratne recognised and wrote of this move of Mr\nBandaranaike as the greatest political sacrifice he had made. He invited S W R\nD Bandaranaike to address a socialist group of Kandy headed by Queens Counsel\nMr Sri Nissanka and himself. At the meeting S W R D Bandaranaike announced his\nvision to follow a middle path and expressed his desire to join hands with T B\nIlangaratne to form a new political party. \nThe seeds for the birth of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party were sown and Mr\nBandaranaike\u2019s vision became a reality when both T B Ilangaratne and his wife,\nas convenors and founder members together with 42 others formed the Sri Lanka\nFreedom Party. This included D A Rajapaksa, the father of Mahinda and Gotabaya\nwho were to become Presidents and Heads of State of the country, and another\nsibling, Chamal, a Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, and Basil, a cabinet\nminister himself. The key role played by T B Ilangaratne and TKI in the\nformation of the SLFP and leading it to one of the most stunning political\nvictories is perhaps not known to many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He contested the 1956 general election<\/a> from Galaha<\/a> as the candidate of the newly\nformed party SLFP, defeating Theodore Braybrook Panabokke<\/a> and re-entered the House of\nRepresentatives in the landslide victory. Prime Minister Bandaranaike appointed\nhim to his\ncabinet<\/a> as\nthe Minister of Labour, Housing and\nSocial Services<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1959 S W R D Bandaranaike, a visionary who gave a life and\npurpose to the very ordinary common man\u201d fell to an assassin\u2019s bullet,\nalthough the conspirators to the assassination were people engaged in\ncommercial activity who had lost out on some deals, which were unprincipled,\nunethical and not in the national interest, and rightly turned down by Mr\nBandaranaike. The chief conspirator, former chief priest of the Kelaniya Raja\nMaha Viharaya, Mapitigama Buddharakkitha, was tried and convicted and sentenced\nto life imprisonment, and he died in prison while serving his sentence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the immediate post S W R D Bandaranaike cabinet, T B Ilangaratne\nassumed duties as the Minister of Home Affairs, which included the department\nof police that investigated the assassination and which eventually led to the\nconviction of the assassin and the conspirators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He contested and was elected in the general elections of March 1960<\/a> and July 1960<\/a> from Hewaheta<\/a>. He was appointed Minister of Commerce,\nTrade, Food and Shipping by Sirima Bandaranaike<\/a> who became Prime Minister having\nled the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the July election. In 1963, he was\nappointed Minister of Finance<\/a> and then Minister of Internal and\nExternal Trade in 1964. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

T B Ilangaratne lost his seat in the 1965 general election<\/a>. He however returned to Parliament from\na by-election in 1967 from the Kolonnawa electorate<\/a> and sat in the opposition. He was\nre-elected in the 1970 general election<\/a> from Kolonnawa and was appointed to\nthe cabinet with the portfolios of Foreign and Internal Trade, thereafter,\nTrade and Public Administration and Home Affairs. In 1974 he served briefly as\nthe acting Prime Minister. Ilangaratne retired from politics on April 12, 1986. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a\nstrong possibility that TB Ilangaratne\u2019 s very significant and unparalleled\nachievements are not known to many as such interested parties have for years,\ncarried out a successful campaign to hide them from the public and vilify him\nfor activities he was never part of or had any association with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\nachievements are overwhelming, and amongst the major achievements not mentioned\nso far in this article are the following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declaring a holiday on account of the May Day and recognising this\nas a special day for workers, establishment of the Employees Provident Fund. The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) was established\nunder the Act No. 15 of 1958 and is currently the largest Social Security\nScheme in Sri Lanka. With an asset base of Rs. 2,540 billion as at end 2019,\nthe EPF today has become a huge “Peace of Mind” for the employees of\ninstitutions and establishments of the Private Sector, State Sponsored\nCorporations, Statutory Boards and Private Business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adoption of the Labour Disputes Act, Creation of Shops and Office\nEmployees Act, Passing of Maternity Leave Act, providing light work to pregnant\nmothers, Implementation of the Workers’ Compensation Act, Establishment of the\nNational Wages Commission, Establishment of Vocational Training Centres, Abolition\nof the right of employers to dismiss employees abruptly, facilitate trade union\nrepresentatives to attend foreign conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the institutional work he was responsible for\nwere, nationalisation of private petroleum companies such as Royal Dutch Shell<\/a>, Mobil gas, Caltex and Esso\ntransferring its assets to the newly formed Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, and\nits refinery to refine crude oil, nationalization of insurance and the establishment\nof the Insurance Corporation, establishment of the People’s Bank, establishment\nof the National Lotteries Board, adoption of the Shipping Corporation Act, establishment\nof Sathosa, launching the Oberoi Hotel created under the Sathosa establishment,\nestablishment of State Trading General Corporation (now known as Rajawasa),\nestablishment of the State Tractor Corporation, establishment of the State\nTextile Corporation (Salu Sala), \nestablishment of the  <\/s> Consolidated Export Corporation (Consolexpo), establishment\nof Co-operative Services Commission, establishment of the National Fruit Board,\nestablishment of the National Pricing Commission, creating a price control\ndepartment to protect consumers, transfer of dried fish importation business to\nthe State (CWE) on account  a gold\nsmuggling racket amongst some private importers, to the CWE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also credited as the first Finance Minister to present\nthe national budget in Sinhala, the reason for this being the budget in Sinhala\nwere to open the doors for entrepreneurs from the cities as well as villages to\nSri Lanka\u2019s economic opportunities, and to broad base the naturally agro based\ncountry and to create opportunities for students to study economics in the\nSinhala language as such opportunities were restricted to those who studied in\nthe English medium up until then. He was also responsible for widening Tea\nexports, hitherto restricted to Britain, directly to the rest of the world,\nbreaking the monopoly of Oil imports restricted to England, and opening importations\nto the Middle East and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would not be\nmisplaced to assign any other label than what Mahatma Gandhi said of great men\n– You must be the change you\nwish to see in the world\u201d, to T B Ilangaratne.\nHe epitomised that and he was always the change he wished to see in Sri Lanka. His singular achievements, his dedicated service to the country\nhe loved, demonstrates this beyond any doubt. He is assured of an honoured\nplace in Sri Lanka as a man for all seasons and a visionary leader for\ngenerations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale Today, 21st May 2021 is the 29th death anniversary of this unassuming colossus who perhaps had done more for the people of Sri Lanka than many others before him and after him The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing \u2013 Edmund Burke Edmund […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114335","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=114335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}