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| Sunday, 25 April 2004 |
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APPRECIATION: Ariya Bulegoda The death of Ariya Bulegoda on the morrow of the United People's Freedom Alliance Government assuming office comes as a sad epiphany for having had roots in both the SLFP and the JVP, the two main constituent elements of that Government, Bulegoda devoted his efforts to bring about an alliance between these two forces. Perhaps he died a happy man at the fruition of his attempt on April 2 but yet his untimely passing marks the end of a life entirely devoted to politics of a kind familiar on the Left wing of the political spectrum. Ariya Bulegoda cut his teeth in the Youth League of the SLFP of which he was General Secretary with Anura Bandaranaike as President. He belonged to that generation of Sinhala-educated youth who were fired by a sense of idealism in the aftermath of the SLFP victory in 1956 and who sought an indigenous brand of socialism. Influenced both by the SLFP victory of 1956 as well as the abortive first Insurrection of the JVP in 1971 Bulegoda sought to bring about a confluence between these two tendencies. The result was the Sri Lanka Progressive Front which he formed in the late 1980s during the time when the JVP had been driven underground. It was as a member of this party that Nihal Galappaththi the present JVP MP for the Hambantota district first entered Parliament. Bulegoda's life could well have been different if he had won the Hakmana by-election. One of a series of by-elections which followed the Referendum of 1982 this by-election was marked by a high degree of violence and Bulegoda was unlucky to lose narrowly. It is popularity believed however that he was the true victor just as Vijaya Kumaratunga is considered to have won the Mahara by-election of the same year. For Bulegoda politics was a passion and he was unfortunate to be deprived of representing his people in Parliament. However, in other senses his life was well spent but it was too early for him to be irrevocably cut down more so since his dream had come within reach of fulfilment. - Ajith Samaranayake |
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