KAMALIKA PIERIS

JR’s role in creating an all powerful President,  bringing in a highly defective Constitution in 1978, his introduction of Proportional Representation, the Manape,   the National list and Bonus seats, which  allowed defeated candidate to sit in Parliament ,  the Open Economy, the Indo Lanka accord which gave the Trincomalee tank farm to India,  made Tamil a national language and created the hated Provincial Councils,  have all  been  discussed heavily  in newspapers, in the social media and elsewhere. They are still under angry discussion, but the country has not succeeded in eliminating any of them. They are still in existence.

A post of Ombudsman was created in 1978. Vittachi pounced on this. The Ombudsman   could not entertain complaints from the public on his own, observed Vittachi. He could only look at cases referred to him by a parliamentary committee and these could be approached by a member of the public only through an MP. Further the Ombudsman could not inquire into anything done by the President, Minister, deputy ministers, MPs, members of the Public Service Commission or Judicial Services Commission. Also exempt were members of the President’s staff.

MPs received many benefits during JR’s time. MPs received a lifelong pension after   five years in Parliament. Public servants have to work for ten years to get a pension, critics observed.  

 In 1986 media noted that brand new fleets of luxury Mercedes Benz limousines were acquired by government for use of MP and visiting VIPs. This is in Vittachi’s book.  The   year before, government had ordered 16 Mercedes Benz cars, one was a fully bullet proof one which has been sent to UK for special modifications. One politician, who had got a luxury Benz complained that the cassette player did not work and a new one was sent via DHL within three days as replacement at the cost of Rs. 40,000, recorded Vittachi.

 In March 1986 there was a Special Presidential commission to probe complaints of bribery and corruption against MPs. Once the commission had disposed of allegations against two or three minor officials, JR wound it up. It had received 1973 complaints, of which 634 were under investigation at the time. His ministers were safe. No one had seriously expected JR to permit his Mps activities to be probed by the Commission, said Vittachi.

JR wanted to give punitive powers to Parliament.  In 1987 Parliament powers and privileges Amendment bill was passed. Parliament was both complainant and judge, observed Vittachi.

JR’s administration had many unsavory aspects and these are remembered even today, specially the way he crushed the 1980 trade union strike. The July 1980 strike was on cost of living and reinstatement of some interdicted workers and a wage increase of Rs 300 per month. Government used emergency regulations and declared all service as essential services and that all strikers be considered to have vacated post. Strike was crushed. 40,000 workers had lost their jobs. Thousand remained sacked. Many committed suicide.

 A simple demand of a wage increase to meet the hardships of cost of living was allowed to escalate, without government trying to talk to them at all. Was it a showdown deliberately engineered by government to crush the Trade union movement, asked Vittachi. Many unionists lost their jobs   in the 1980 strike. Many committed suicide, others lived for the rest of their lives in utter poverty, said Sarath Amunugama. When he became Minster of Finance, Sarath   gave them compensation  but many of them were dead by then.

In 1981, JR’s government introduced a  highly controversial white paper on education. After introducing pro-market policies in the late 1970s, the UNP sought to liquidate free education, said angry  critics. In 1981, it published a White Paper on Education” that proposed school management committees, with parents responsible for seeking funds to run schools. Mass opposition forced the withdrawal of the plan.

The United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike put Rohana  Wijeweera in prison. But Wijeweera  did not stay there for long. When  JR came to power in 1977, he ordered Wijeweera’s release.   JR negotiated with JVP and offered them three portfolios. They asked for defense. Then the UNP chairman and Secretary were assassinated by JVP within few weeks of each other, observed Sarath Amunugama.

During JR’s time there were two foreign ministries, said Sarath.  One was the formal Ministry. The other was  an informal one created around Minster  ACS Hameed.  This second ‘Ministry’ was staffed by his favorites and relatives. It  ran a parallel service making appointment, soliciting funds and scholarships, privately contacting NCOs and entering into all sorts of negotiations  where the donors were held to believe that they were negotiating with the formal Foreign Service and not the Minister’s private bureau. 10 Cuban medical scholarship holders were  handpicked by Hameed.  Ambassadors fell over each other to carry the minister’s suitcase. ( Amunugama p  179)

Lionel Fernando as GA Jaffna was very popular. At the time, the best of Sinhala teachers were attached to Oriental faculty of university of Jaffna, Sucharitha Gamlath, Dharmasena Pathiraja, Sunil Ariyaratne,  observed Sarath. JR suddenly transferred Lionel  to accommodate Doraiswamy, who angered Jaffna by his haughty ways.  ( Continued)