71st and 51st Death Anniversaries of Two Greats: Ranil-Rajapaksa or Ranil-Gunawardena?

The Live telecast of adjournment debate on the President’s statement on IMF, was different. It signified a paradigm shift in the stance taken by a few in the opposition. The approach by some SJB juniors, especially, the usual critical comments on Ranil’s acquisition of presidency was either absent or left to the leaders to make; through somewhat confessionary or praiseworthy speeches on President’s achievements they implied their willingness to corporate with the former leader. Two senior Pohottu dissidents too made clear expressions on their supportive stand.
 All these happened while a grateful nation commemorated the two political colossuses, Don Stephen Senanayake and Don Phillip Rupasinghe Gunawardena on their seventy-first and fifty-first death anniversaries that fell on March 22 and 26.  

‘DS’ as he was affectionately known, was the son of Don Spater Senanayake.  His family roots date back to the Anuradhapura period in AD 253-266. As per folklore, the King sent a delegation from Mahiyangana with a Bo sapling to be planted at Attanagalle. On their way the delegation placed the sapling at a particular spot and retired for the night, to find that the sapling had taken root, hence the name “Bodhi-tale”, a place where the Bo sapling took root, which evolved to “Bothale.” Finally, Senanayakes made Bothale, Ihalagama, a village nearby Mirigama, Hapitigame Korale of the Gampaha District, their home.

Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena, a wealthy landowner, served the British government in the late 18th century as the vidane arachchi [local police officer and headman]. The local folk admiringly called him “Boralugoda Ralahamy. His son, Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena, was an illustrious politician who towered the political passage in our country like a colossus for over four decades. A great statesman, a colourful personality and a man of destiny who influenced the progression of history in our country. Philip Gunawardena, the Father of socialism in Sri Lanka, was called the Lion of Boralugoda.

DS was involved in political and organizational matters from colonial days that included the initial stages of The Legislative Council of Ceylon and the first form of representative administration on the island established in 1833, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. Sir Ivor Jennings wrote, “A colony can obtain Independence by force or persuasion. But effective non-cooperation leads necessarily to force, as Mahatma Gandhi discovered” We gained Independence without shedding a drop of blood. He continued, “…there was the possibility that we might be deprived of the opportunity to carry out our terms of reference. That such a step was not taken was largely due to the strength and wisdom of DS, and ... if he had not lived, the history of Ceylon would have been very different.”

DS was a practical man with a vision of high calibre— he was willing to share his thoughts and views with anyone who had something valuable to offer— his priorities are effective even today as they were in the 1930s and 1940s. He recognized the importance of nutrition in a food production policy

In the early 1930s, the young staunch Marxist/Trotskyte activist and revolutionary, Phillip, a product of Wisconsin University in USA, who was fluent in Spanish and French and possessed Boralugoda ancestry’s Panthera leo genes was courageous enough to cross the risky Pyrenees range of mountains the natural border between France and Spain that reached a height of 3,360 metres at peak, by foot when he volunteered to carry a bundle of secret documents to a revolutionary movement in France, risking his life and  security checks. 

DS was a practical man with a vision of high calibre— he was willing to share his thoughts and views with anyone who had something valuable to offer— his priorities are effective even today as they were in the 1930s and 1940s. He recognized the importance of nutrition in a food production policy. His book contains chapters on, land policy colonization, irrigation, rural indebtedness and agricultural labour.

In early 1949 Commonwealth’s economy was facing difficulties, and they tried to enforce authority over us by making a deliberate effort to abuse our Dollar Reserves by making us a party to the ‘Sterling Assets Agreement’. DS Senanayake, in this situation, abundantly proved his patriotism. The conflict required a delegation to visit the UK.  DS chose JR with his American adviser John Exter, [it was his wisdom that got Exter, an American because he never trusted the British], to attend the Finance Minister’s Conference summoned by Briton.  DS advised the delegation,

 “We are a sovereign nation. Our dollar reserves are our own...., if we are not allowed to act autonomously then obviously we must quit the ‘Sterling Area..., the UK cannot oppose this. Tell them you will leave unless you are allowed to keep your country’s earnings” - JRJ speeches- Pres. Arch. File 195-a.

  Phillip was elected to the legislature in 1936. He used pressure on the ruling class to obtain recognition and concessions for certain social and economic restructuring. Philip led the opposition benches of The State Council of Ceylon in the late 1930s and through the 1940s. The fire-brand revolutionist, Philip’s inborn sympathy with the oppressed village peasantry remained impervious even during his terms as Cabinet minister in SWRD’s and Dudley Senanayake’s governments. 

One of the main victories of Philip, Minister of Food Agriculture and Cooperatives was the Paddy Lands Act, [kumburu panatha] in 1958 that gave security of ownership to the tenant cultivator who toiled on the fields and was required to part with half the crop to the landowner. Philip, in the midst of powerful sections within the government opposing the bill, created a huge social change by implementing it. 

The economic crises had affected the globe; the Bank of England elevated interest rates by a further quarter of a percentage point on Thursday and said it expects the flow in British inflation to cool faster than before. 

Clashes are erupting across France creating infernos in many cities including Paris. King Charles III and Queen’s state visit to France has been postponed as the country wakes up daily from nights of chaos. Rioting and arson are reported across France as police brutally assaulted protesters who opposed pension cuts.  Over 3.5 million unruly people are on the streets. Riot police in Paris deployed attack dogs against protesters. The journalists covering the protests have been subjected to assaults, arbitrary arrests, and intimidation by the Forces. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had to remind the security forces of their responsibility to protect journalists.

The three-day strike, which ended Thursday, involved 65,000 education workers in Los Angeles as they staged a three-day strike, the biggest in the US since 2019. The world is in turmoil. The Netherlands has been traumatized by a wave of strikes in both the public and private sectors. 

Philip sacrificed his ideological and Socialists policies for the sake of the country and joined hands with Dudley Senanayake in forming a national government in 1965. His son Dinesh, who made his late father very proud by carrying forward his legacy as Prime Minister is in partnership with Ranil, a relative of Dudley in sharing a portion of the burden, though it is hard to get over every difficult situation. However, they must not emulate JR-Premadasa or the Rajapaksas in undermining the independence of the judiciary by interfering with Courts verdicts.
Will generational wisdom come to the fore?  Is there a, “light at the end of the tunnel” or is it just the “light of an oncoming train”?

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