Philip Gunawardena - the immaculate politician

by Jayatilleke de Silva

Thirty five years have elapsed since the death of Philip Gunawardena, politician, statesman, patriot and great humanist. His memory still lives on. His path in politics has been so varied and illustrious that one would find it difficult to characterise it in a few words.

Philip came into contact with leaders of the patriotic freedom movement in his early teens when he was a student at Ananda College, Colombo. During his University days he attended meetings of the National Congress and subsequently joined the Young Lanka League, a radical youth organisation led by Victor Corea, A.E. Gunasinha and C.H.Z. Fernando.

Having obtained the doctorate Philip went to the United Kingdom and joined the British Communist Party. Just as in the United States he was active in trade union work, especially with the harbour workers.

He was also co-opted to the Editorial Board of the Daily Worker With the help of the Communist Party he joined the Indian League and was an active member of it. There he met other Sri Lankan socialist N.M.Perera, Leslie Gunawardena, Colvin R. de Silva, and S.A. Wickremasinghe. Stalin was at the Head of the Comintern. Irked with the policies of the Comintern and the Stalinist purges in the USSR Philip became a convert to Trotskysim.

Back in Sri Lanka took an active part in the Suriya Mal movement that was formed to assist the poor during the Malaria epidemic in the early 1930s. Later he was a founder member and a principal leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), Sri Lanka's oldest political party.

The LSSP split following the entry of the USSR into the war against Hitler's Germany and the Communists supporting the war. The Communists were expelled and the LSSP became a Trotskyite movement.

The colonial government proscribed the LSSP and Philip was incarcerated together with other LSSP leaders in 1940. They broke jail on April 5, 1942 and fled to India. In India Philip took the name Guruswamy and was active in the freedom movement.

Arrested in India in 1943 Philip and other LSSP leaders were brought back to Sri Lanka and jailed for six months. Following their release from jail the LSSP split again with a section led by Colvin R de Silva leaving the LSSP on ideological grounds and joining the Bolshevik Leninist Party (BLP) of India.

That was not the end of splits. When the BLP group rejoined the LSSP in 1950 Philip left it and formed the VLSSP. In 1956 the VLSSP joined with the SLFP and formed the MEP, which won the historic 1956 General Election defeating the UNP.

As Minister of Agriculture in the short-lived MEP Government of 1956 he introduced the Paddy Lands Act, which radically changed the owner-tenant relations and secured for the tenants a secure livelihood.

So far it remains as the only meaningful reform in the traditional agricultural sector. This earned him the wrath of the conservative and reactionary forces but he met the challenge head on without surrendering his position. Also credited to him is the revival of the co-operative movement by the establishment of Multi-Purpose Co-operative Stores. However, reaction hit back with a vengeance. The VLSSP was expelled from the Government.

Undaunted Philip continued his Left politics taking great efforts to unite the Left. He played a key role in the formation of the United Left Front (ULF) in 1963.

Unfortunately the ULF, which received mass support, fell apart when one of its constituents - the LSSP joined the SLFP government. This caused a disillusioned Philip to seek company elsewhere, among his erstwhile opponents. He joined the UNP Government of 1965 and became a Minister once more.

Though he held strong Trotskyite positions he was not a doctrinaire socialist. He was flexible enough to seek innovative solutions to the problems of the masses. Unlike some leaders of the old Left he managed to maintain links with native cultural roots without being absorbed by an alien cosmopolitanism.

Like many of his comrades in the old Left he did not seek fortunes by entering politics. His integrity was always beyond question. In contrast to the majority of present day politicians, Philip remained immaculate, untainted by vice.