KAMALIKA PIERIS

This essay looks at two important ‘results’ or ‘consequences’ or whatever, of the 1956 General election. They are firstly, the emergence of the SLFP. Secondly, the rise of Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the world’s first woman Prime Minister.

SRI LANKA FREEDOM PARTY

SWRD Bandaranaike formed the SLFP for two reasons, said Wiswa Warnapala. Firstly, as a democratic alternative to UNP and Marxist parties.  Secondly, to provide a means of political expression for Sinhalese and Buddhist vested interests. SLFP   stood for Sinhala culture and Buddhism at the time when no other political party was prepared to articulate these issues.

SLFP had its base in the rural areas. It catered   to the   full spectrum of voters there,   from the ordinary villager to the rural elite.  Unlike the other parties, SLFP knew how to make use of interest groups, observed Wiswa. This gave the SLFP a formidable base.

The SLFP from the beginning was a political party founded on the aspirations of the villager. The impoverishment of the village and its alienation from western culture isolated the villager from the political and economic life of the country. This group, who were marginalized during colonial period, needed its own political party. SLFP filled this need.

SLFP still remains loyal to its traditional support base, said Wiswa.  The rural forces never allowed the party to move in any other direction. It never functioned as an instrument of the people in the urban areas. Even after half a century SLFP remains the main vehicle   for the aspirations of the ‘common man’, said Wiswa.

The urban sector had a complementary view. The urban middle class wished to escape its village roots. That was why they left the village in the first place.   They wanted a western model of governance, not a village one. They did not wish to support the SLFP. That reluctance continues to this day.

SLFP was never considered a party that could run the country. UNP was considered a better bet, due to its so-called sound economic policies.  But Sri Lanka’s foreign policy under SLFP rule has been far superior to UNP foreign policy. SLFP knew to frame the right foreign policy, said analysts. Bandaranaike set the direction, Sirimavo and Mahinda Rajapaksa continued it.

SLFP became utterly unpopular in the 1970s due to its absurd economic policy. SLFP lost the 1977 general election and the 1982 Presidential election, but the party did not fall.  Instead its voter base rose from 1,855,331 in 1977 to 2,548,438 in 1982. This was a jump of 37%. The SLFP got nearly 700,000 new votes that they had never got before. Nobody has yet broken this record, said Chandraprema in 2015.

SLFP was not in power from 1978- 1994. The period under SLFP’s Chandrika Kumaratunga 1994-2005 did not please anyone. But when Mahinda Rajapaksa took over the leadership of the SLFP in 2005, as President, the     rural base got energized, said Wiswa.

They had voted Mahinda in to create yet another 1956, with a different emphasis, he said.  The rural voter now wants a leader who could take them beyond the achievements of 1956. Therefore SLFP now needs to meet the challenges of the 21st century, a very advanced and developed century, concluded Wiswa, writing in 2006.

SIRIMAVO  BANDARANAIKE

The assassination of SWRD led to the unexpected rise of his widow, Sirimavo, to the position of Prime Minister .Sirimavo held the post of Prime Minister from 1960- 1965 and 1970-1977. The 1960-65 period is definitely a continuation of the 1956 run.

Sirimavo was not the backward rural product she was made out to be. She came from a top family,  the Mahawalatenne family, and she had studied at a leading Christian school in Colombo, St Bridgets.

As first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo made global headlines and brought fame to Sri Lanka. Fame which lasted for decades said analysts. But Sirimavo was not a mere figurehead. She actually led the country and was most effective. Sirimavo from the beginning showed strength of will, shrewd judgment, and political skill of a high order, said KM de Silva.

Sirimavo took to politics like a duck to water. She was well prepared .Sirimavo had supervised the breakfast press briefings   given by Bandaranaike when he was Prime Minister. So she knew what was happening.  She had offered her opinion to Bandaranaike on the Paddy Lands Bill, and asked whether the Bill need be so extreme. Politics was not entirely unknown to her, said DB Dhanapala.  

 Sunetra Bandaranaike confirmed this when interviewed about her mother. Asked whether her mother was interested in matters of state during Bandaranaike‘s tenure of office Sunetra said ‘oh yes. She used to always be deeply involved in his political life from the outside, finding out what was happening.  When Cabinet ministers came home, she would sit and listen a little, or bring in tea and hear conversations. She was fully aware of what was happening and gave her views very strongly.’ said Sunetra.

She argued ‘all the time’ with SWRD on political matters, continued Sunetra. They would discuss politics over morning tea.  Sirimavo who had her own ideas on the political problems of the moment would say’ now Solomon, if I were you,   this is how I would do it.’ Sunetra had heard this many times. She had taken a far more strict position than SWRD. SWRD would agree and then do what he wanted, said Sunetra. (Interview with Sunetra Bandaranaike. Daily News 4.1.16 p 11)

Sirimavo was very   active in domestic politics. She took over Lake House.  Peoples Bank was set up, providing bank services to places which did not have banks. State Insurance Corporation was set up.  Assisted schools were nationalized.  Ceylon Petroleum Corporation took away the oil distribution from Caltex and Shell. Ceylon Civil Service was abolished and Ceylon Administrative Service which included the  DROs was set up. The position of Village headman was abolished and the grama sevaka created.

Sirimavo showed bias in her domestic administration. I think that she would have had a very parochial attitude.  Victor C de Silva, a relative of mine, rose to the position of Director, Public works Department on his own merit and seniority after decades of dedicated, unblemished service. The family was proud and happy. Then they got a shock. Prime Minister Sirimavo had summarily removed Victor and appointed someone else, whom no one had heard of, to the post. I forget his name. The matter was corrected later, but it caused much temporary unhappiness and left a bad taste in the mouth. I am sure that there would have many other instances of this sort.

While the faults of Sirima” are widely accepted, her foreign policy and internationalism, deserves  attention,  said Leelananda de Silva.    She had great achievements during  her first term, as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister between 1960 and 1965.

The period that she was foreign minister (and Prime Minister) saw Sri Lanka punching above her weight in foreign affairs. The Cold War  was on, and  international diplomacy required careful navigation, especially for a country like Ceylon that had recently  achieved independence.

Diplomacy was not new to Sirimavo. She had entertained the several heads of state who visited Sri Lanka when her husband was Prime Minister.  Sirima entertained and came into close contact with some of the world’s topmost leaders said DB Dhanapala.  He named Nehru, Chou, Tito, Rajendra Prasad and Harold Macmillan.  She   had visited US, Britain, France, India and Burma with her husband when he was Prime Minister said  Dhanapala. Sirimavo was therefore familiar with  diplomacy and diplomatic  protocol,. Bradman  Weerakoon said Sirima was always impeccably dressed for any function, neither over nor under dressed.

Sirimavo strengthened the two valuable diplomatic links established by her husband,   China and Russia. In the summer of 1962, she became the first Sri Lankan Prime Minister to visit the Soviet Union. Sirimavo was treated as a special guest of Khrushchev. She was given red carpet treatment. Most state visitors were put up in hotels or the state guest house but Sirima and her group were put up in luxurious suites in the Kremlin Palace.

As soon as they arrived, Khrushchev had ordered that the group be given warm clothes. He did not want them to die of the cold on this official visit. The Sri Lanka delegation was taken to the Bolshoi Ballet and in return, Sri Lanka presented  the Chitrasena ballet, Kara Diya. It had been well received.

In December 1962 Sirimavo visited China.  This was the first time that a Sri Lanka Prime Minister had visited China.  China treated it as a state visit and Sirimavo was received with much pomp and ceremonial. At Canton she was greeted with an army guard of honor, march past, dancers in traditional lion costume and bands playing Chinese music. They were given heavy fur overcoats and head gear to face the cold.  She met several times with Chinese Premier Chou en Lai at Peking.

In February 1964,  Chou visited Bandaranaike in Ceylon with offers of aid, gifts of rice and textiles, and discussions to extend trade. The two also discussed the Sino-Indian border dispute and nuclear disarmament.  There was a second state visit to China in 1972. This was the most successful visit of a Sri Lankan leader to a foreign country that I have witnessed  said Jayantha Dhanapala.

Sirimavo had a close   friendship with Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister  of India. Sirimavo had first met Indira when Nehru had invited SWRD and family to India for a private visit, recalled Sunetra.  We stayed at his residence. That is how they met.  We had had a lovely visit,   seeing all the sites.

Indo-Sri Lanka relations were excellent said Leelananda. Sirimavo settled the issues relating to Indian citizens in Ceylon (the Sirima-Shasthri pact) and maritime border issues with India.

 In September 1964, Bandaranaike led a delegation to India to discuss the repatriation of the 975,000 stateless Tamils residing in Ceylon. Along with Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, she ironed out the terms of the Srimavo-Shastri Pact, a landmark agreement for the foreign policy of both nations. Sirimavo also got India to withdraw its claim to Kachchativu.

Sirimavo intervened in the Sino-Indian dispute, travelling to both countries as an intermediary. She was a key player in reducing tensions between India and China after their 1962 border dispute. In November and December of that year, Bandaranaike called conferences in Colombo with delegates from Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Ghana and the United Arab Republic to discuss the dispute. She then travelled with Ghanaian Justice Minister Kofi Ofori-Atta to India and China in an attempt to broker peace . In January 1963,  Nehru agreed to present to the Indian Parliament the settlement Sirimavo had advocated. 

Professor J.K. Galbraith, who was the US Ambassador in India at the time, records in his Ambassador’s Journal, the anticipation with which interested parties looked forward to Mrs. Bandaranaike’s mediation efforts. Mrs. Bandaranaike attached the highest importance to the maintenance of friendly relations with India, and she did that as an equal and not as a subordinate party, observed Leelananda.

 However, Sirimavo took an independent stand when it came to India’s two neighbors, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sirimavo gave Pakistan refueling facilities for its aircraft and permission to use Sri Lanka air space, during Bangladesh war of independence 1971,  irritating Mrs. Gandhi no end, observed Leelananda.  Pakistan and Bangladesh  have never forgotten this, though Sri Lanka has.

Sirimavo was  careful. When the tea estates belong to Sterling companies were taken over, she was anxious to ensure that fair compensation was paid to British  owners and she discussed this issue with Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister. She did not want to jeopardize the relationship with Britain.

Sirimavo benefited from SWRD’s  diplomatic activities. When Sirimavo took over oil distribution from Shell and Caltex, America was angry. Egyptian President Abdel Nasser sent oil tankers to Sri Lanka.  Egypt had not forgotten that Bandaranaike had strongly supported Egypt during the Suez crisis.

Sirimavo paid state visits to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany,. She recognized East Germany though it angered West Germany. Yugoslavia was a favorite country of hers. She went there often for treatment for her  arthritis. Her relations with Josip Broz Tito were excellent, said Bradman.

Sirimavo continued her husband’s policy of linking diplomacy with trade. She wanted foreign policy to be of relevance to her domestic economic policies, said Leelananda. When she visited countries in the South East Asian region including Japan her concerns were equally economic and political.

There are many  instances I can quote, from my own experience of Mrs. Bandaranaike’s concern to link up domestic and foreign policy, said Leelananda. She  returned from the Russian visit with an agreement for large quantities of discounted petroleum from USSR. With only two weeks’ worth of rice in stock, she negotiated an emergency shipment of 40,000 tons from China. In 1975 Ms. Bandaranaike  negotiated with Saddam Hussein, then Vice President of Iraq, for 250,000 tons of oil on a deferred payment scheme.  

Sirimavo followed SWRD’s policies   in international affairs. She attended the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London March 1961.  Sirimavo was ever anxious to push the image of newly independent Sri Lanka on such occasions.

 When she was in London for this conference, she found that Ceylon’s High Commissioner was giving a dinner in her honor. Sirimavo wrote to Bradman Weerakoon that she would like some Ceylon fruits used at this dinner. She wanted mangosteens, rambuttan and mangos. She said that the mangosteens could be plucked fresh form Horagolla. The rambuttans must be sweet not sour. She specified the amount, 100 mangosteens,    50 rambuttans and 3 dozen mangos.They must not be too ripe when they leave Ceylon. They could come on the Air Ceylon flight just in time for the dinner.  This letter in Sirimavo’s handwriting can be seen in Bradman Weerakoon’s Rendering unto Caesar p 91.

Sirimavo  developed SWRD’s line on Non-alignment and did it  better than  SWRD, who was not given a change to develop it himself. Sri Lanka grew in stature internationally as a founder nation of the Non-Aligned Movement under the guidance of Ms. Bandaranaike,  said Leelananda. 

Sirimavo attended the Conference on Non-Aligned Nations in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961 . She co-sponsored the Non-Aligned Conference held in Cairo In October, 1961  at Cairo, . She  got much publicity for her speech   which started As a woman and a mother.”  Felix Dias Bandaranaike and others in her team had initially toyed with the idea of saying ‘Mummy’ instead of Mother, since they were in  Egypt, the land of mummies.

She also addressed the UN General Assembly in 1976 as Head of Non-aligned movement .  The climax of her work in Non-alignment was the highly successful  Non Aligned conference held in Colombo in 1976. This was Sri Lanka ‘s first international conference and  Colombo did an excellent job.

Mrs. Bandaranaike also proposed that the  Indian Ocean to be a Zone of Peace. She first mentioned the idea briefly in her speech at the NAM Summit in Lusaka in September 1970, and it was reflected in the final declaration of the Lusaka summit. On her return from Lusaka she directed the Foreign Ministry to flesh out the concept. The concept had been influenced by  Diego Garcia becoming  a U.S. base.

A resolution was proposed by Sri Lanka at the UN General Assembly’s First Committee dealing with Disarmament and International Security Issues. The resolution was introduced hastily at the behest of Mrs. Bandaranaike without full consultations among the littoral states and the major powers, observed Jayantha Dhanapala. Out of respect for Mrs. Bandaranaike the NAM countries supported the resolution, but most of the West abstained with the U.S., U.K. and France strongly opposed. However, an ad hoc committee was created with the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka appointed chairman.

The Prime Minster did not have the time or the inclination to intervene with details of foreign policy management and administration. Those tasks Mrs. Bandaranaike left to her permanent secretary, said Leelananda.

 The management of the Foreign Service was highly professional at that time, said Leelananda. SWRD was responsible for initiating  this.  Sirimavo  appointed career diplomats as heads of missions: Arthur Basnayake to Japan, Ben Fonseka to Kenya and  H. O. Wijegoonewardena to Iraq. Vernon Mendis remained as Director-general in the foreign ministry. Mrs. Bandaranaike relied on his advice and expertise, said Jayantha Dhanapala.

The best fortnightly reports sent in by the  diplomats were sent to Mrs. Bandaranaike. She also received special dispatches from the Sri Lanka diplomatic missions, as well as policy papers generated by the Foreign Ministry. She  studied them  and they were all returned with neatly penned marginal comments, recalled Jayantha Dhanapala.

This essay concludes with two   reminiscences by Jayantha Dhanapala.  A group of Chinese doctors came on a private visit to Colombo in the 1970s to attend on Mrs. Ezlynn Deraniyagala, a kinswoman of  Sirimavo and on Sirimavo herself. They were accommodated in the Prime Minister’s official residence, but official transport was not  used for their private excursions.  The delegation was given lunch at the Hikkaduwa Rest House.  Sirimavo had  later  asked for the bill  and paid the expenses from her personal funds. I continue to marvel at this exemplary conduct, unique in the behavior of our politicians,” said Jayantha Dhanapala.

At the end of the 1972 state    visit to China ,  the officials  in Beijing began preparing the customary gifts for those in the Chinese government associated with the visit. It was late at night in the Sri Lanka delegation’s office room as we gift-wrapped the parcels and pasted the appropriate labels on them. A figure in a dressing gown with her hair let down in a plait slipped in to join in our collective work. It was Mrs. Bandaranaike, quietly working with her staff. Her personal touch in supervising the tying of the bows and the neatness of packaging of us clumsy-fingered men was invaluable, concluded Jayantha Dhanapala. ( Continued)