This interesting article was written by Ronald Perera who is the brother of my close friend Zita Subasinghe Perera.

“LITTLE KNOWN STORIES ABOUT WELL KNOWN POLITICOS”

By Ronald Perera

Politicos are always in the news, particularly in this part of the world.  I recall during 1960s when the Leader of Vietnam, … Nhu was deposed, the headline went ‘No Nhus is Good News’ and this was voted the best headline of the year.  Let me give you some little known stories about some well known politicos with particular reference to Ceylon / Sri Lanka.  I have gathered snippets from here and there and used to relate some of the anecdotes to my relatives and friends at parties in a banter over a drink.  I wish to emphasize that these are ‘stories’ relating to characters most of whom are no longer living and no offence is meant to anyone and offence should be taken.

The first politician that comes to my mind is undoubtedly, the illustrious Sir John Kothalawala, in my view the most colourful personality of the country during the 20^th century.  Some of his stories cannot be put into print and I will confine myself to less offensive ones.  Sir John, as you all know was a man of immense strength, wit and wealth.  His father, John Kothalawala (Senior) nick named ‘Kele John’ of ‘nainage suduwa fame’ was a Police Inspector in the Royal Ceylon Police (that is the highest a Sri Lankan could aspire to those days) and married to the wealthy Attygala family.  Sir John was well known for his fondness for women or rather women’s fondness for him!  He was a frequent visitor to France those days and when someone asked him “Sir John, you are so good in French, where did you learn your French?”, “Under the blankets of Paris” was his witty reply.  One day, I think it was in the 1930s, he was walking on a road in Paris with a beautiful European woman (and such couples was a rarity those days) and a well built American happened to pass by and cast a remark with racial undertones.  Sir John, who heard it, walked back and with one hammering sent the American reeling, while telling him simultaneously, “Take this from a black man”!

During his colourful career, Sir John had a spell in the Royal Ceylon Army Volunteer Force and rose up to be Lt. Colonel, again the highest a Sri Lankan could aim at, at that time. I also had the good fortune to serve a short spell in the Ceylon Army Volunteer Force and during banters in the Officers’ Mess, my Senior Officers used to keep the evenings going with vibrant stories about Sir John. I liked the one about the English Major. According to Army tradition (of course inherited from the British Royal Army), when an Army man meets with an Officer in the rank of Major and above, he has to salute him whenever he meets with him or passes him. Of course saluting can be done only if you are wearing the full uniform which includes the cap. If one does not wear the cap, he needs to only come into attention without saluting. At Diyathalawa Army Camp, Lt. Colonel Kothalawala was seated somewhere when an English Army Major happened to pass him by. As the white Officer did not like to salute his Superior Officer, he removed his cap and came into attention while passing Lt. Colonel Kothalawala.  Sir John took offence at the apparent insult and called the Army Major (by his choice language which can’t be printed) and ordered the Major to put on his cap and walk from point A to B, twenty five (25) times and while passing Sir John salute him saying, “Good Morning Sir”!

During D.S. Senanayake’s Government, soon after independence, Sir John was the Minister of Transport, when he had to attend the Annual Army Camp at Diyathalawa (he was the second in Command of his Unit at the time) he travelled by a special carriage in the train while his commanding Officer used the first class compartment that he was entitled to. On an occasion when the commanding Officer of my Unit, Lt. Colonel Dharmapala was in the Mess, (seated next to Sir John) and was struggling to light a cigarette (or cigar) with a borrowed lighter and Sir John who noticed it, grabbed the lighter from Dharmapala’s hand and in one swish of his arm lighted it and gave it back to Dharmapala saying, “Haven’t seen civilization”!

Around 1953/54, Sir John became the Prime Minister of Ceylon. Elizabeth Regina, the Queen of Britain a couple of years after her coronation favoured Ceylon with a visit in 1954. The Prime Minister was also the ‘Minister in attendance’ and was always around the Queen. The Queen happened to visit Sigiriya. It was a windy day and a gust of wind sent up the Royal Frock. Sir John snapped at the photographers, “Gunnin bang photo ekkak, mevage chance ekkak ombalata aapahu lebenne nehe” (take a photo man, you will never get another chance like this). He was a character indeed. In 1954, Sir John attended the Bandung Conference and was acclaimed as ‘Bandung Weeraya’ (Hero of Bandung). Sir John delivered a pro-western speech which pleased the western powers and astonished Asian leaders. At the evening cocktail, Jawaharlal Nehru (later knighted), Prime Minister of India, who had built up an image as one of Asia’s top leaders, walked up to Sir John and questioned, “Sir John, why didn’t you show me your speech before you delivered it?” “Why should I?” rapped Sir John, “Did you show me yours?” Nehru went back a fallen Hero. Chou En Lai, the powerful Prime Minister of China reprimanded Sir John by saying, “Are you trying to divide Asia?” “What nonsense?” quipped backed Sir John, “You are the man trying to divide Asia!”  On another occasion he called out to Nehru (in typical Ceylonese style), “I say Nehru, what’s this I hear that the Indians are trying to come over to Ceylon in big numbers?” Nehru tried to down play it. Sir John remarked, “As long as you and I are there, we can control this, but it can lead to a big issue later on.” In fact, it didn’t take long for the issue to be blown up. Sir John may not have been diplomatic in the normal sense of the word but arguably he was a ‘Statesman’ of high calibre rarely seen nowadays in the country.

The story of Themis and Sir John is common knowledge. In 1956 M.S. Themis, an Ex-Postal Peon became the third MP for Colombo Central along with Bandaranaike’s Landslide, rather Tsunami.  On his first visit to the Parliament, he saw Sir John and hailed him, ‘Hallo John!’. Sir John gave him a kick which sent him reeling down the steps of the old Parliament Building. Themis complained to S.W.R.D., the PM, who reprimanded him for addressing Sir John, as John and said, “How dare you call him John, even I have to call him Sir John”. When S.W.R.D. was shot, Sir John was one of the first to visit him in hospital before he passed away within hours. In 1961,  when Chandrika who was in my same London A/Level class at Aquinas (she used to come 10 to 15 minutes late for one hour lecture), went (on a sojourn) to Sorbonne University in France, I hear that Sir John funded her expenses.

When Sir John left active politics and went over to UK, S.W.R.D. had allowed the Central Bank to relax the Exchange Control Regulations to permit Sir John to transfer money. He is said to have owned a farm in Kent and was a much loved and admired figure at exclusive Pubs patronized by the English Elite.  I’m told that, he really kept the Englishman going!

Sir Francis Molamure was a dashing personality who became the first Speaker of Parliament in independent Ceylon (before that he was the Speaker of the State Council).  It is said that he captivated many a damsel’s and dame’s heart through his delightfully witty conversation.  Sir Francis was reported to have inquired from the British Governor’s wife, thus “May I light my cigarette with the light in the eye of my Lady?”  The Governor, His Excellency, Sir Reginald Stubbs was not amused and banned Molamure from all Governors’ functions thereafter.

This story I heard from N.U. Jayawardena himself, with whom I worked closely for four (04) years.  N.U. is considered one of the best brains that Ceylon/Sri Lanka produced in the 20^th century, if not the best. When N.U. was Governor of the Central Bank (the first Sri Lankan Governor) he had a encounter with Sir John, who was the Prime Minister at the time. Sir John used some un-parliamentary language (to put it politely) on N.U. and the latter not be outdone responded by saying, “Sir, you should use such language only on the son of a murderer”.  Of course, he was referring to the fact that, John Kothalawala (Senior) was convicted of committing the murder of his brother-in-law (this murder story is so interesting that it deserves a separate article).  According to N.U., Sir John had his revenge by getting N.U. to resign from the post of Governor, Central Bank, on a charge of a ‘conflict of interest’ on a Bank loan that he raised personally from a Bank.

I regret that, I did not hear many stories about D.S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of Ceylon and the father of the Nation, although my father worked as his Secretary around 1940. The following anecdotes I gathered from outsiders. One day D.S. was seated in ‘Botale Wallauwa’ when the watcher of the Botale Estate brought a young boy and complained to D.S. “Hamu, I caught this fellow stealing coconuts and when I reprimanded him, he had the audacity to say, ‘we also have a right to this’”. D.S. very casually told the watcher, “Okawa athaarapang bang, u ape ekkek wenna athi!” (Let him go man, he must be one of our fellows). The other one relates to how D.S. worked his way to obtain independence from the British to Ceylon. When other British Colonies in Asia were fighting for independence in a hostile way even with violence, D.S. used his ‘mind’ to steer the campaign for independence in a bloodless manner more like what one may call nowadays, ‘a Blue Ocean strategy’. Commissioner, Lord Soulsbury was assigned the task of reporting back to Britain on Sri Lanka’s credentials for independence. D.S. personally handled this visit. He took Lord Soulsbury towards Kandy and around Kegalle, he stopped the car near a paddy field and called up a farmer who was wearing an amude (span cloth) and using a mammaty.  When the farmer came up to the car, D.S. asked some questions in English, to which the farmer replied in impeccable English.  D.S. told Lord Soulsbury, “see, even our farmers are well educated”! (The thrust of his campaign was that Ceylonese are educated enough to be independent.) Lord Soulsbury did not know that the encounter with the farmer was pre-arranged by D.S. The farmer’s name was Edwin who was Oxford educated and later became Sir Edwin Thillekeratna.  Of course, on receiving independence, Lord Soulsbury became the first Governor General of Ceylon.

An eminent Sri Lankan Lawyer / Politician who had a good wit and an excellent command of the English language, was Dr. Colvin R. De Silva. In fact, when I read his book ‘Ceylon under British Rule’ (which was his theses for his Doctorate) as an youngster, I was proud to be a Ceylonese when I saw his brilliant writing and great command of the English language. Soon after independence, there was an MP called Singleton Salmon, who was nominated to Parliament to represent British Interests.  Referring to him, in one of his speeches Colvin remarked “I have heard about shoals of salmon, but I have never heard of a Singleton – Salmon” much to the amusement of Mr. Salmon. On another occasion, Colvin was on his feet debating about some taxes (may be textiles) when another MP heckled him “Do you know how to dress a woman in saree?” Pat came his reply, “I must admit that, I may not know how to dress a woman in saree, but I certainly know how to undress a woman in saree”.

This one is about J.R. Jeyawardena and his wife, elegant Elena who was considered to be the most unassuming, lady-like, non-interfering First Lady. Wijeya Kumaranatunge, the son-in-law of the former Prime Minister, Sirimavo was put in jail by J.R. on the charge of leading a so called ‘Naxalite Movement’. One day Chandrika and Sunethra went to their mother and inquired from her, as how best to get Wijeya released. Sirimavo told them the best person who could do this was Ananda Tissa De Alwis, the right hand man of J.R. Chandrika and Sunethra met Ananda and pleaded with him to get Wijeya released purely on humanitarian grounds because of Chandrika’s two kids. Ananda agreed and met J.R. over a dinner and gently put in the appeal. J.R. had asked him, “Do you know why Wijeya is in jail?” and added “Elena wanted it, as Sirimavo (or rather during her time) had put our son Ravi in jail on the pretext of involvement in the JVP insurrection in 1971”. J.R. heeded Ananda’s appeal and released Wijeya on the next day (Presidential pardon). This story was told to me by a person, a very close relative of Dr. Ananda Tissa.  Talking of Ananda Tissa, if J.R. was the father of the modern Tourism Industry in Ceylon, Ananda could be considered the mother, the first Minister of Tourism.  Ananda Tissa participated in an International Tourism Conference Overseas.  The day before Ananda was scheduled to speak, Journalists approached his team members (he did not have many) and requested for an advance copy of his speech, as is the usual practice.  When they asked the Minister, he told them to inform the Journalists that he would make the speech but has not prepared one.  When they were informed accordingly, the Journalists asked in astonishment “Your Minister doesn’t have a prepared speech, how is he going to deliver it tomorrow?”  The speech was delivered the next day, the Audience was mesmerized and the media was agog, hailing the speech as the best one at the Conference.

To be continued.

(The Writer is a Retired Professional in Banking & Finance. He may be contacted via Email: ron.perera43@gmail.com)