- Assessing the causes of a strange Sri Lankan malady
After suffering the ignominy and pain of having been colonised by three imperialist powers for 450 years – the last as a part of the British empire for nearly 150 years – Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became a completely independent and sovereign republic only on 22 May 1972. This was the day when the Parliament passed the republican Constitution prepared by Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, at a special constitutional assembly.
But for some strange reason, when Sri Lanka should be proud of this fact and, like other such republics, celebrate that day every year, it does not do so. This is in complete contrast, for example, with our vast neighbour India, which celebrates its Republic Day on 26 February each year with even greater pomp and pageantry than it does on the Independence Day, which falls on 15 August. In Sri Lanka, we only celebrate Independence Day, which is a formal mockery of independence, which falls on 4 February, but not Republic Day, which should fall on 22 May. In fact, Sri Lanka became a republic only in 1972, after 24 long years of continuing shame, after we achieved Independence in 1948. In contrast, India became a republic in 1950, just three years after it achieved Independence in 1947. It was quick to cut the umbilical cord and become completely free, unlike in the case of Sri Lanka, which persisted in grovelling at the feet of Britain, paying homage to its “royal family”.
As we all know, formal Independence from Britain was only partial, a mere mockery, but it appears to have satisfied the United National Party (UNP) rulers of that time. The British Queen remained the Head of State, the British Army retained its military bases in Sri Lanka and power remained in their hands, and in the system of legal justice established in Sri Lanka, the final Court of Appeal was the British Privy Council, in London, England. The UNP and other capitalist leaders of Sri Lanka were content to retain this colonial subservience for 24 years, while India rushed to sever it. The architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr. B. Ambedkar, a leader of the small Buddhist minority in India, was given full support by the Congress Party of India, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, being true patriots, and he completed the task by 1950, in just three years.
The fact is that the UNP and other rulers of Sri Lanka were in no hurry to achieve true and full Independence, and it was left to one of the leaders of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, to accomplish this task in two years by drafting the republican Constitution in 1972. In Sri Lanka, it was the socialist LSSP that made the achievement of complete Independence its principal objective and continuously fought for its implementation.
In fact, it was the LSSP, formed in 1935, that had as its main task, the achievement of complete Independence from rule by British imperialism. It continued the fight even through the period of the Second World War from 1939 to 1945, especially as the country was not directly involved in the war. The British rulers proscribed the LSSP and imprisoned its leaders, Dr. Colvin R de Silva, Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Goonewardene, and Edmund Samarakkody. They escaped from jail in Kandy and continued the fight against British imperialism as part of the Congress Socialist Party of India, and were jailed there as well.
On their return, the LSSP Leaders were treated as heroes by the people. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, all along a leader of the UNP, in its Sinhala Maha Sabha wing, finally left the UNP and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in 1951, with Sinhala Buddhist revivalism as his main political plank. The LSSP that was the main Opposition to the UNP came under racialist attack for its stand to make both Sinhala and Tamil official languages in place of English, spoken mainly by the ruling elite. A majority of the Sinhala supporters of the LSSP left to join the SLFP, and many of its Tamil leaders and supporters, such as MP V. Anandasangaree, left to join the Federal Party and the Tamil United Liberation Front.
The LSSP was decimated further, when Philip Gunawardena, together with the bulk of the Sinhala Buddhist supporters, joined Bandaranaike to form the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna.
In the 1970 General Election, a SLFP, LSSP, and Communist Party (CP) coalition Government came to power, with the LSSP getting 19 MPs and the CP six MPs. Dr. Colvin R. de Silva was made the Minister of Plantation and Constitutional Affairs, and this gave him the opportunity to formulate the republican Constitution. It was a difficult job well done, but unfortunately the large SLFP majority overcame Dr. Colvin R. de Silva’s plea for Tamil to be made an official language, along with Sinhala.
Had that been done, the nearly-30 years of disastrous internal war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could have been averted, and the tragic deaths of our people and the damage prevented.
Our economy would not be in such a bad state. Another shortcoming, in retrospect, is the electoral system and big swings for the winning party. The Electoral Reform Committee set up in Parliament, headed by incumbent Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena, of which I was a member, has offered a solution – the mixed system that has been a success in Germany and other countries. This along with further devolution to the village level would rectify the shortcomings in Dr. Colvin R. de Silva’s Constitution.
But instead of being grateful to Dr. Colvin R. de Silva for his work, and to Dr. N.M. Perera for his overcoming a more severe economic crisis than what we face today, former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike fell for the promise of the US-led investment, now that economic stability had been restored, and implemented their condition and got rid of the LSSP from the coalition Government. The CP too was forced to leave the next year. I suspect that the desire not to celebrate the Republic Day in Sri Lanka is due to the fear that the SLFP has that the credit of becoming a Republic would flow to the LSSP.
As the present General Secretary of the LSSP, I too have been subject to this type of behaviour from the SLFP. I give two instances to support my claim.
One is the fact that though I possess a doctorate from the London University in the field of virology, I have not been made a member of any committee set up to control the Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. The Health Consultative Committee met in the Parliament only on one occasion since the outbreak of Covid-19 and as a member, I suggested that the control strategy based on the cluster system be strengthened in order to defeat the community spread of the infection which had just begun. If quick action was taken by the Health Ministry, the further spread of the pandemic could have been prevented and or even eliminated. Then-Minister of Health Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi, who was presiding, refused to accept my proposal which, if implemented, may have prevented the spread of the epidemic and more deaths that occurred in the country.
The other example is that while I was the Governor in the North Central Province, I was asked to resign immediately and come to the office of Basil Rajapaksa in Colombo to sign the National List, as they had decided to make me a Cabinet minister. But when the new Government was formed, I was not even a minister, but only an ordinary Member of Parliament. Considering my record as the Minister of Science and Technology, I set up 163 Vidatha Centres, one in each administrative division, and provided the technology for 12,637 small- and medium-scale enterprises and entrepreneurs to arise. I also initiated action to set up high tech centres to promote Sri Lanka’s export industry. I set up the world’s 18th nanotechnology centre, the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) in Homagama and prepared plans for a biotechnology centre, the Sri Lanka Institute of Biotechnology which is now ongoing. It would appear that the good work done for the country and for the people by the LSSP is not appreciated, but even sabotaged.
(The writer is a virologist, Government ‘independent’ Parliamentarian, and the LSSP’s General Secretary)
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.