{"id":120071,"date":"2021-11-06T15:10:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T22:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120071"},"modified":"2021-11-06T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T22:10:28","slug":"politics-in-sri-lanka-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/06\/politics-in-sri-lanka-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS IN SRI LANKA Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 SIR JOHN KOTELAWALA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir John\nKotelawala was Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1953 to 1956. He was strongly\npro-USA.Nayani Melegoda records that the USA Secretary of State had visited\nCeylon when Sir John was Prime Minister, date not given.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir John was\nfirmly anti communist. He banned communist books and periodicals from arriving\ninto Ceylon   and refused to permit a China good will\nmission to come in 1953. He refused to allow soviet scientists to come to watch\nthe solar eclipse in 1954, but allowed those from USA, UK, Canada, Japan and\nIndia. He also refused to allow the Ceylon hockey, soccer and table tennis\nteams to take part in the World Youth Festival in Warsaw in 1955. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri John\nsquashed all objections to the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954. He\ncancelled all telegrams sent to London casting doubts on the matter.  The visit was a great success. The royal\ncouple got a rapturous welcome with pandals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUDLEY\nSENANAYAKE.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dudley\nSenanayake was Prime Minister three times. 1952-1953, 1960, 1965- 1970. Dudley\nSenanayake was a truly charismatic leader, said Edward Gunawardena. By his\nexemplary behavior he enjoyed the respect of both sides of the House. He was an\nexcellent debater. If he had to make a speech it was a studied contribution. If\nhe was not in the chamber he would be in discussion with his colleagues and\nmembers of the opposition as well; or he would be in the library or even\nlearning different aspects of Parliamentary procedure from the Clerk of the\nHouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A remarkable\ncharacteristic of Dudley was his ability to concentrate and focus his mind on\nwhat had to be done. If he had to attend a function where he had to make a\nspeech, he would prepare his speech in the car with his eyes closed, seemingly\nbut not asleep. When parliamentary sessions were due he would closet himself in\nhis room either at Woodlands or the annexe at Temple Trees for hours, sometimes\nsmoking the pipe as well as cigarettes, concentrating on the agenda for the morrow,\nconcluded Edward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others were\nnot so impressed. Dudley Senanayake embodies the ideal, a head of state who\ndoes not shake the boat, makes no changes, said one critic. Four times Prime\nMinister, what did he do, the public asked. He seems to have done nothing. In\nhis time a lot of jungle was cut down to no purpose, came the reply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades people had suspected that Dudley and JR\nhad known of the 1962 coup. Ms Bandaranaike, when she came to know about it\nalso decided to keep it a secret.  But\ntoday the secret participation of both Dudley and JR in the 1962 coup is no\nlonger secret. (C.\nWijeyawickrema. Island 4.3.09 p 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raja de\nSilva, former Commissioner of archaeology, had this to say. In 1968, there was\nprovision in the Estimates of the Archaeological Department for the appointment\nof an Assistant Commissioner (Excavations). The Public Service Commission\ngazetted the notice calling for applications, and one day five members of the\nboard of interview (myself included) sat in the board-room of the PSC waiting\nto interview each applicant. I noticed that the peon had whispered to each of\nthree interview board members that there was a telephone call at the office of\nSecretary\/PSC, next door. I was the next to be similarly telephoned, whereupon\nthe following conversation took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

de Silva (AC): Hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary to the Prime Minister (S\/PM): Hello,\nRaja, Brad here. I have a message for you from the PM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AC: Is it the same message that you gave the other interview board\nmembers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S\/PM: Yes, the PM is interested in one of the applicants you are\nabout to interview (and he named the applicant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AC: Brad, the post is for an officer of my Department, and I want\nthe best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S\/PM: Understood. Anyway, I was asked to convey the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AC: Message received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siran Deraniyagala was the best applicant, and he was appointed to\nthe new post in 1968 said Raja de Silva. (Island 17.10.21 p 9) (continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS  SIR JOHN KOTELAWALA Sir John Kotelawala was Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1953 to 1956. He was strongly pro-USA.Nayani Melegoda records that the USA Secretary of State had visited Ceylon when Sir John was Prime Minister, date not given.  Sir John was firmly anti communist. He banned communist books and periodicals from arriving […]<\/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-120071","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\/120071","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=120071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}