Kamala Akka - the unique woman activist in Parliament

by Lal HEWAPATHIRANA

President J. R. Jayewardene and his powerful government abolished the civic rights of the Opposition Leader Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) vehemently protested, with no result. Parades, rallies and protest marches were organised by the party almost every day. But the rock-like government was adamant.

The General Secretary of the SLFP Women’s Organisation led a massive ‘sit down’ protest campaign at the famous Bo-Tree junction in Pettah, Colombo. Stretch of the main road from Fort Station to the Technical College was a mass of heads of both women, men and blue flags.

The General Secretary and Mrs. B. who was also the President of the Women’s Organisation, were seated next to each other on the ground at the foot of the Bo-Tree surrounded by thousands of women members holding placards calling for restoration of civic rights of their leader.

Tear gas

Minutes passed by. Then a sudden explosion, Police had fired a volley of tear gas shells in the direction of the two leaders and the crowd of women. Most of the women ran for shelter. Many others fell to the ground. Mrs. B was missing in the thick cloud of smoke, while the Secretary lay flat on the ground.

It took some time before the Secretary could regain consciousness, and look around. No sooner she learned that her President had been whisked away by her personal bodyguards, she and three other women, who had been helping her, were bundled into a police van and taken to a police station. They were in the police cell till evening.

The next day evening was the protest rally in Nugegoda town, also organised by the SLFP Women’ Organisation. Both the President and the Secretary addressed a crowd of over twenty-thousand at the rally.

The Secretary with the previous day’s experiences, made a fiery speech which kept the audience spellbound, condemning the suppression and oppression of human rights by the so-called Dharmishta government. Police intervened to see that the meeting was over by six in the evening.

They went a step further, by following the movements of the Secretary and taking her to the fourth floor of the CID. This time she was remanded for three months, without bail or a charge sheet.

She questioned the police authorities whether it was a crime in a Dharmishta society for a woman to defend another woman who has lost her civic rights. She was in a way happy that police was very sympathetic towards her. She knew that they were simply carrying out ‘orders from the top’.

But the remand prison was not new to this woman secretary, Earlier she had been remanded in the company of Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, Mervyn Silva, Felix Perera, Vijaya Kumaratunga, Karunasena Jayalath and the Bandara brothers, Victor and Deva, on a bogus complaint that this group was attempting to murder the President of the country on the red carpet, when he was on the way to take oaths. She had been remanded at least five times for actively working for her party.

This energetic, fearless and dynamic woman in these episodes is none other than Kamala Ranatunga, who is currently UPFA National List member of Parliament.

Fondly called Kamala Akka by all SLFPers from the President of the SLFP Mahinda Rajapaksa down to the humblest SLFPer in the most rural village in the country, her political career spans nearly sixty years - from the time of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1952 to Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010.

Bandaranaike enrolled me and my elder sister in the SLFP when we were still students, and Mahinda Rajapaksa enrolled me in the Parliament’ she laughs, adding.

During this period dozens of persons who have done next to nothing for the SLFP and those who had previously slandered SLFP have now found places in Parliament through the SLFP National List. I was never depressed about it, for my ambition was to bring the party to power.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has served the SLFP through thick and thin, was imprisoned, moved with the grass-roots people, and sacrificed his life fully for the sake of the SLFP, and people he knows what I have been to the party, I am eternally grateful for the recognition he gave me.

Unique

Kamala Akka’s political record is absolutely unique. It is very doubtful whether one can trace a single other person in the country with such political background. She has spoken on political stages, canvassed support and worked tirelessly to help generation after generation of families that adorned the SLFP political scenario.

For instance, she worked hard and addressed meetings at the election campaigns of the D. A. Rajapaksa, the father of Rajapaksa brothers, and their uncles Lakshman and George, in 1952 and 1960.

Then she helped Mahinda in all his election campaigns, and later Chamal and Nirupama, and more recently Shashendra, Basil and Namal, in addition she dedicated her political life to help several pairs of father and son to enter Parliament.

Some of them are Mahindananda and his father Aluthgamage in Nawalapitiya, Prasanna, Arjuna and Ruwan and their father Reggie Ranatunga in Gampaha, Ramesh and his father Richard Pathirana in Galle.

When Mrs. B became the leader of the SLFP in 1959, she wished to start a SLFP women’s organisation. Kamala was one of the first 25 women members of this organisation, and was appointed a Joint Secretary straightaway with Mrs. B as the President. Later Kamala Akka became the General Secretary and presently she is a Senior Vice President.

“As the General Secretary in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. I was very keen to educate rural women on local political affairs.

So I travelled long distances - even in North and the East to reach very remote rural areas and establish branches of our party.

My mode of transport was the bus and the train. I remember when women in Uva Paranagama decided to set up a branch and when they asked me to come, I had to pawn the pair of gold bangles which my mother had bought for me, at the Suduwella Branch of the People’s Bank, and left with two other members of the party and established a branch there’, says Kamala Akka with a twinkle in her eye.

Kamala Akka contested the general elections a couple of times in 1990. There again she was politically victimised by her own party leadership as she was posted to Kesbewa and Avissawella electorates in the Colombo district, even though she is from Gampaha district, where she was well known to the voters. However she was elected to the Western Provincial Council once.

In her election campaigns she used an old jeep, the bonnet of which was also her stage to address people, both in verse and prose, at junctions, markets and public parks.

She says, “I come from a middle class family and I do not have the kind of funds one needs to contest election these days, I hate corruption, abuse and malpractices that take place during election times. So I decided not to seek nominations.

The irony is that on three previous occasions my name was included in three National Lists. But for the leaders then, I was not a priority despite all my sacrifices. President Rajapaksa is a different kind of leader being very pragmatic and a visionary with an excellent sense of decision making.

More than me, hundreds and thousands of senior SLFPers are pleased to seeing me appointed to the Parliament through the National List. I owe my gratitude to the President for recognising my services even at this late stage.

Humble

A true women’s activist Kamala Akka is, she is determined to encourage more women to enter both politics and Parliament, and contribute towards national development as well as to protect their own rights.

“Fifty-three percent of our population is women. Fifty-six percent of the country’s voting population is women. Yet we have less than a dozen women in Parliament. Our own Mrs. B showed the world that a woman can rule a country the world learnt it the little Sri Lanka.

I will use the advantage of being a parliamentarian to motivate our women to show their potential in politics. After all, it is we who said. The hand that rocks the cradle can rule the country. So why not?” is the challenge Kamala Akka throws out each and every single woman in this country.

In her simple way of life and humble attitude Kamala Akka was never frustrated or depressed over any of her political mishaps. She never harboured a grudge against anybody for denying her anything.

She never criticised the leadership or the principles of the party but instead she showed one hundred and one percent loyalty to whoever the leader was, and strictly adhered to the party principles.

She never plotted, noted or conspired to realise her personal agenda, for her sole ambition was to keep the party flag flying. When compared with petty political manoeuvring of many present day politicians, Kamala Akka is superior in every aspect of the game of politics, and there is a very valid reason for it.

She cut her political teeth by closely associating with, and studying with rhythm of the heartbeat, of every member of the SLFP starting with S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and ending up with President Rajapaksa in their hour of joy and sorrow, and the glory.