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| Sunday, 7 April 2002 |
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Features |  |
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Sir John - the politician, the gentleman, the soldier by Lorna Wright Sir John, a statesman politician of his day and age, who practised the profession of politics with the zeal of a successful evangelist. A gentleman. A proud and confessed nationalist he loved his country and its people.
He had a deep love and respect for his mother Alice Kotelawala but never had the intimate family life that his brother Justin and sister Freda had. However his life was a triumph of discipline over bitterness dictated by wisdom drawn from experience. Anchored in human reality he would often say 'one needed to go hungry to appreciate a good meal, know loneliness to yearn for a mother's love - only then will one break free from shadows and get permanently reverted to substance. He had a sneaking appreciation of practical down-to-earth men such as A.E. Goonesinhe's golaya - Premadasa. Promoting him to contest N.M. Perera, remarking, 'that man knows how to handle time.' Sir John exemplified time which was an obsession with him. Observing that everyman had a credit of 86,400 seconds every morning and if he failed to use that days deposit, there was no going back - time waits for no one. Sir John would insist that in Sir Lanka we lived in a society that based her moral claims on the worth, dignity, and talents of the individual. Sri Lankans were a very talented people. To each his own. Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher yet all a lovable lot, who over the years in a give and take lived amicably together. Friends and politicians of every shade of opinion sat at his famous breakfast table. There never was indiscriminate indictment of one race, or of any one family or another. Never. Kandawala, a simple but well maintained residence had feudal overtones. Families, husband, wife and children in their own houses lived on the estate. His beautiful gardens, and he had not separated himself from the earth. Chattering and laughing children - gossiping adults were everywhere on Sunday morning, after guests had left the breakfast table. Two hours of cleaning up - breaking cobwebs, polishing brass, dusting, sweeping the residence. He looked after them down to the children's uniform and school books, they had to reciprocate. There was no exploitation or violation of human rights. He had not-distanced himself from everyday people. The green, green lawns, green trees were the green nutrients of his life. It was not his money, the background of the large feudal estate that led and dominated his way of life. The dictatorial power was there by force of personality, very deep knowledge of his subject, his acceptance to listen to another's point of view. He had a very humane approach to anything he said or did. He understood his supporters as well as his opponents. Sir John left no one great deed done. A soldier to the marrow of his bone he left his properties to the Kotelawala Defence Academy training men in the Army. The importance of accomplishment and he always had an honest impulse to open up new realms of experience. This needed a great leap of faith in himself and that he had in good measure. Yesteryear and prisoners were taken out in gangs for maintenance work on public and state owned buildings. Voted budget monies were spent on materials while the labour was free. The supervision was good and pilferage minimal. Post Independence and cultural integrity and social issue surfaced and became complex. Radical labour militants and their class - conscious rhetoric changed procedures. Not being a homogeneous nation, it was not easy to unite and create a good, strong, culture of work for economic progress. This gave Sir John a new sense of purpose and thought. He set up the ESLC - Essential Services Labour Co. insisting that while the collective intelligence of a large group was average, the collective action was quite high and could benefit the country. This organised, semi-skilled disciplined labour force, proud of themselves in uniform would do the maintenance jobs. Budgetary monies already voted. The country would be absorbing drop-outs, someday conscription wise and turning them into useful citizens and a much needed semi-skilled workforce - Learn to work was also learn to earn. The cheer squad were mothers proud of their sons, in uniform grateful for some financial assistance, and the discipline and skills training given them. Sir John believed in discipline of a military nature. Enforcement by law and order. As Minister of Transport, Communication and Works - the PWD (Public Works Department) he was fully ware of pilferage and corruption - chiselling he always said was part of the Asian ambience. Blasting a PWD overseer whom he valued for his efficient work, but suspected of corruption, he was startled at the man's reply. "Sir if we Overseers take or don't take, they say we take - so we might as well take". Many of his personal friends, he moaned, were committed to unattainable dreams they'd walk through this fire and book and return trip as well, little realising they'd be straining the fragile cords of unity of a multi-racial, mutli-religious country. Soldiering was his love. Travelling down in jeeps, once a year, foreign and local friends and relations were his guests at Yala game sanctuary for a week. A fiend for daily exercise he'd march them late evening on the drive-way swinging his arms. "We're the boys of the Army, the mighty CLI, all we have to do - is fight and fight and die". After this walk one day, Upali his cousin, noticing a wild buffalo standing in his path shouted. "Lionel Aiya get back, get back, wild buffalo". Sir John bolted leaving his companions to fend for themselves - much laughter. On another occasion the jeeps were confronted by wild elephants leisurely feeding - cameras started clicking. Some stupid students in a van from the opposite side rushed past banging their vehicle and shouting. The elephants disturbed, stampeded. The jeep drivers tried desperately to reverse. Rukman in the first jeep leapt out and faced the elephants - we learnt later with mantrams the mahouts use. The elephants turned and slowly wandered away. Sir John greatly relieved quipped, "thank God, we have one Senanayake left who can handle elephants from going berserk". He had a taste for what was good and strong a sharpness of vision to distinguish the true from the false. He died a veteran soldier, General the Rt. Hon. Sir John Kotelawala CH, KBE, LLD. |
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