14 December 2021 02:27 am Views - 645
President Mathiripala Sirisena lays a wreath at the Memorial at Maha Maluwa before the signing of the deed which gave the freedom fighters ‘new recognition’. Pictured with Sirisena is the then Media Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke
As I sat with Media Officer Thanuja at the Keppetipola Commemoration until the end of the ceremony, at that
I do not hold a brief, but facts must be grasped even though they are sour.
No doubt we remember a valiant fighter like Keppetipola who had been branded as a ‘Traitor’ by the British and this stigma would have stuck on to him for eternity if not for the move made by former President Maithripala Sirisena.
Most people, in the higher echelons in this land, had come year after year and promised the Maha Sangha and the public that this stigma on the valiant fighters of 1818 would be erased, but none had the strength to do so. But, President Sirisena did so with a stroke of his pen with the assistance of the then Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to give a new phase to those fighters of 1818. He not only initiated the move, but appointed a committee to advise him on the issue and signed a deed for his action at the Historic Audience Hall in Kandy. This was done in the presence of the Mahnayakes, the Diyawadna Nilame and the Basnaykae Nilames.
"The stigma on Keppetipola, who had been branded as a ‘Traitor’ by the British, would have stuck on to him for eternity if not for the move made by former President Maithripala Sirisena"
No doubt that the real Chief, who commenced the freedom struggle against the British, was Madugalle Dissava as Galaboda Nilame in 1816. He was not in the payroll of the British, but suffered around two years in the worst prison in the country at Jaffnapatam only to be released by Sir Edward Barnes during the Birthday celebrations of King George IV.
Be as it may, but the name of the former President should go down in the country’s history and the people of the hill country an Uva should be ever grateful to his move.
Public servants were tinkering whether they had the power to rescind the Gazette notification of Sir Robert Brownrigg who was all out to execute Keppetipola. He must have feared that men like Keppetipola and Madugale were too dangerous to the country and perhaps was advised by that super spy Sir John D’Oly.
"Most people, in the higher echelons in this land, had come year after year and promised the Maha Sangha and the public that this stigma on the valiant fighters of 1818 would be erased, but none had the strength to do so. But, President Sirisena did so with a stroke of his pen with the assistance of the then Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe"
I thought for a while that some Speaker or the so-called relations or even the Maha Sangha (priests) would have a word for the former President as a man who bestowed Keppetipola and 49 others as freedom fighters and named them as ‘heroes’ in the struggle for freedom of the country. This was when Kandy Chiefs then were seeking favours from the Brtish and taking their Christian names and converting themselves to be Christ’s followers for monetary gain.
I thought to myself how ungrateful we are!
As people of a proud nation we seem to have forgotten our standards of decency and gratefulness and the deep sense of values and their disciplined nature, which had been imbibed in them for thousands of years
It is not only for former President Siriseana, but to all who had offered their strength to a nation that has a proud history of values. of upbringing. There may be lapses, but we also should realise that none is infallible. But this action of President Sirisena should go down in history’s record books.