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| Sunday, 12 June 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Tribute to C. V. Gooneratne on the occasion of his fifth death anniversary : The quintessential politician Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake
That was typical of a man who in spite of his jaunty flamboyance personified by the ubiquitous red handkerchief in his shirt pocket had an abundance of the common touch. This stemmed not merely from the fact that he was a politician who had to tend his vote bank. Perhaps it went back to ancestral roots and a patriarchal tradition. He had after all lived all his life in Dehiwela on Hill Street where as I wrote only last month in a tribute to Amitha Abeysekera three young men stomped the tarmac impatient for more glorious days, C. V. Gooneratne, Amitha Abeysekera and Gamini Fonseka. It also came from his closeness to his father, Major L. V. Gooneratne, legendary Royal College teacher and the first Mayor of the Dehiwela-Galkissa Municipal Council. To C.V. therefore the common touch was no cheap political badge. It was something which he believed in deeply. It was tragically appropriate therefore that Clement Victor Gooneratne should have died on the roads of his electorate in the heartland of Ratmalana of which he was the lodestar. Whatever reservations one might have (and these are valid reservations given the current conditions) of a high-profile Cabinet Minister leading a march through a populous district in which the victims of a potential attack could be numerous, C. V. Gooneratne's tragic end in an explosive ball of fire had fitting imagery in consonance with his own chequered and colourful life. Political career In retrospect C. V. Gooneratne's relatively brief political career can be seen as an exercise in trying to reconcile two contradictory personality strands. Here was a Royalist who had distinguished himself as a ruggerite in school, at the CR and FC and on the national team, a man who began life as an executive at Hayley's. Rugby football is not ;a game for the hoi polloi and neither is Sri Lanka's private sector the Sunday pola at Karagampitiya. Yet 'Puggy' Gooneratne as he was known in school chose to follow his father's trail into the dust and the grime of local and national politics and had the courage or the foolhardiness of trying to turn his back on the potty deities of his privileged past and seeking to identify himself with the people. That was also the index of the trek which took him from the hallowed portals of Royal College and the camaraderie of the CR club house to his ultimate fateful destiny on the roads of Ratmalana. By the time CV entered national politics by becoming a Member of Parliament in 1989 he had long left behind the elitism of Royal and the CR. He had cut his teeth as a member and later the Leader of the Opposition of the Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council. He had had a baptism of fire as the political mentor of the SLFP's harbour trade union. He had already unsuccessfully contested the 1977 General Election as the SLFP candidate. He was a central committee member of the SLFP. What gave its particular sharp and cutting edge to CV's politics was the almost epochal contest he waged with the late Lalith Athulathmudali for dominance in the Dehiwela, Mount Lavinia and Ratmalana areas. Both were Royalists but Lalith was a newcomer whereas CV was the native son. The contest between them which ranged from the Colombo Port after Lalith was made Minister of Trade and Shipping to the chamber of Parliament was conducted with all the fervour of a tournament between medieval knights in armour. Both were formidable antagonists and the give-and-take between them in Parliament was a delight to watch and hear. After the impeachment, however, CV much to his chagrin found Lalith on the same side of the barricades and after Lalith's death he and Lalith's widow, Srimani found themselves Cabinet colleagues. The original contest was not without tension at a time when violence and thuggery had increasingly invaded politics. However, CV as a Cabinet Minister and a mellower politician once the pressures had been eased did much to restore social peace and harmony in the Badowita and Gonakovila areas of Ratmalana, the social under-belly of the district, particularly through the Agency of Deputy Mayor Anura Silva who too was killed with him. Ideologically CV did not belong either to the right or the left of the SLFP and he was greatly helped by the fact that the time of his emergence was a time when ideological differences were on the wane. He was a liberal democrat of a centrist leaning and a moderating influence everywhere. What is more at a time when the open market economy was becoming the ruling credo he along with Minister Kingsley Wickremaratne were the only Ministers with a background of working experience in the private sector. All his contributed to forming his personality. Verbal thunderbolts He was also one of Sri Lanka's most formidable parliamentarians of his generation. Equally versed in both Sinhala and English he made use of his gravel voice and barrel chest to full effect to hurl his verbal thunderbolts. He was also one of the last parliamentary orators in the classical tradition at a time when parliamentary speaking has become more relaxed and took pride in the elegance and chasteness of his language. CV was also a very humane person. Married to his first cousin he was an intimate family man who extended the same approach which he adopted to his extended family to the community as well. As a relatively little known politician he and his wife Sheami used to contribute to the Funny Caption competition in the Sunday Island in the 1980s. He had a wide circle of friends in the press and sometimes provoked the amused annoyance of news editors with his pleas to publish a photograph or a report of speech almost near deadline. He was his own press officer. Only last month he walked behind the coffin of his longtime friend Amitha Abeysekera from Dehiwela junction to the Mount Lavinia crematorium. After the cremation spotting a knot of assorted press people which included Rohan Abeywardena, Rajpal Abeynayake, Karel Roberts Ratnaweera and this writer he spent about 20 minutes in banter with us. Like all human beings CV was not without his frailties. He was overtly possessive of his home turf and this was aggravated by the competition which is encourage even within the same camp by the scramble for the preferential vote. But these are failings inseparable from the political condition and C. V. Gooneratne in death will be generously remembered as a politician of the younger generation who successfully combined the classical and the popular in politics at a time of transition in Sri Lanka's political life when many of the cherished certainties of the past are under seige. He exchanged elitism for popular politics without ever vulgarising it and sought to improve the quality of political life at a critical time. Political style Finally a personal touch would not be out of place. Having lived in the Ratmalana, Mount Lavinia and Dehiwela areas for the last seven years I have followed C. V. Gooneratne's political style closely and at all times he has treated me with impeccable courtesy and good manners. Only on May 30 when he held the commemoration ceremonies for his father
at the Municipal Council seeing him with Minister Alavi Mowlana, who has a
rhyming couplet of the light kind for every occasion, I asked the Minister
whether he had a rhyme for minister Gooneratne's father. Pat came the reply,
'He had gone further than his father' and CV was the first to burst into
laughter. That was the last moment of joy we were permitted to spend in his
company. |
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On a Sunday morning C. V. Gooneratne would get up with the birds and
prepare himself for his Sabbath day ritual. This involved attendance at the
7.30 a.m. mass at his parish church, St. Mary's, Dehiwela. Next with equal
devotion he would visit the two Sunday polas in his electorate, the
Karagampitiya pola on the Zoo road and the pola at the Mount Lavinia
junction near the Super Market where he would mingle with the traders and
the shoppers. 
