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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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D.R. Wijewardene - The martinet by Lalith Edrisinha It is with a certain amount of trepidation that one approaches this
subject for skimming through what has been written about Don What is somewhat more chilling is that all those who dared to violate his wishes after his departure and paraded those achievements of the man, his ruthlessness, his slave driving on the one hand and his vision, his refusal to accept any imperial honours etc. on the other rarely survived long. They have been struck down one by one in the way DRW would have done them in, in real life, for lapses committed then. Yet, in this business of journalism, one has to take one's turn and here I am mounting this picture of the man who gave to his countrymen - a free and independent press in Ceylon - that was sorely needed to achieve the broader objective of self governance for Sri Lanka. By some quirk of fate, DRW was too ill to attend the ceremonies and festivities connected with the granting of independence in 1948. If that could be listed as unfortunate, his early departure just two years after independence could be considered a blessing for DRW was spared the traumas that this other Eden began to encounter when high living on low income, further reduced by the drop in rubber prices as peace returned to Korea, set in motion a downward slide that has plagued us ever since. Although the ownership of Lake House as the newspaper organisation DRW established came to be known - has changed hands, this is the season when he is remembered by a grateful workforce. Belatedly though, the library of the institution has been named after him. The D.R. Wijewardene Library with its stock of the earliest publications to the latest issues of newspapers and supplements of all three media will be further nurtured to perpetuate his memory. The press that DRW set up was also known as the gutter press by those who felt that he was partisan towards certain individuals whom he wished to see enthroned in the seats of power when the foreigner left, leaving behind the neckties, top hats and tails to dominate the show, but he could be pardoned for letting his kith and kin inherit positions for which he had not only laboured but had staked a great deal. It has been related how, when the newspapers had moved from the congested quarters in Baillie Street to the palace by the Beira in October 1929, the cash balances of the proprietor were low with the building and equipment having cost a tidy sum. But an invitation for the Imperial Press Conference had been accepted and money had to be found. His bank refused to lend. It was money from a Nattukottai money lender at 12 per cent that enabled Mr. and Mrs. DRW make the trip to London. If he was hard up then and had to eat humble pie at the hands of a Chettiar, it also made him resolve to build up reserves that would never reduce him to borrow from usurious money lenders. In 1950 he died a millionaire, but was perhaps hard up for friends. This has been attributed to the fact that DRW had no vices and his virtue of plain living did not appeal to others to befriend him. If DRW was considered a martinet and was dreaded by those who worked for him, it has been said that his personal peon Martin had had the horrifying habit of transferring the wrath of his master to his own physiognomy. Let E.C.B. Wijesinghe describe him. 'Martin was always clad in white and a tortoise shell comb rested on his head giving him the appearance of having horns usually associated with Lucifer... When Martin came upstairs and told the editor, sub editor or reporter concerned that he was wanted downstairs by the Boss, his eyes bulged, his nostrils quivered and took a shine they did not possess earlier, and in a voice that spelt doom he merely said: 'Kathakaranawa'. The sentence was short but fateful and had all the elements of a Greek tragedy." For a press magnate whose photographs did not appear in his own newspapers or in other journals in his lifetime, it must be torture to witness this annual ritual from wherever he is of being framed on walls and garlanded, lamps lit in honour as for a deity and... I must buzz for I can hear heavy and measured steps up the stairs. That could very well be Martin coming up to deliver that single word sentence. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Richard
Wijewardene (DRW) over the years since his demise on June 13, 1950, the
trait of his personality that has been recurringly dealt with - shunning
the limelight and remaining a private person is uppermost - although
behind the scenes is a cold calculating person setting out to achieve what
he had envisioned for his country; then a part of the British Empire that
was expected to bask in a never setting Sun.
