JRJ, the astute politician

By Jaliya WIJEYEKOON

Sri Lanka has produced 10 national leaders since independence and J.R. Jayewardene occupied a foremost place among them as the most astute and veteran politician in the annals of the political history in Sri Lanka.

His 103rd birth anniversary coincides with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution which he introduced in 1978 amidst various objections from all political circles. Born to a family with a legal background on September 17 1907 and educated at Royal College Colombo Jayewardene, a lawyer turned politician first entered the State Council during the colonial period.

Thereafter he held several positions in the Lankan political arena such as the Minister of Finance in the first Cabinet formed by Right Honourable D. S. Senanayake, the Opposition leader and the Prime Minister. He finally rose to the most prestigious position of the Executive President in the country with the introduction of his brainchild, the 1978 Republican Constitution.

Unanimously elected

With the untimely demise of Dudley Senanayake in 1973, Jayewardene was unanimously elected by the UNP membership as the Leader of the party who had already been an experienced and with a far-sighted vision of the political affairs of the country.

After becoming the leader of the party he completely restructured the party mechanism and launched an aggressive campaign against the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike on all vital issues adopting different methods such as Sathyagrahas, protest marches and token strikes.

At the 1977 general election the UNP headed by J.R. Jayewardene secured a historic victory of over a five-sixth majority in Parliament reducing the SLFP to a mere eight members.

This victory gave JRJ an opportunity to introduce a new Constitution and also an Executive Presidential system to the country. Jayewardene became the Executive President of Sri Lanka in February 1978 and immediately initiated a number of major development projects which provided several employment opportunities to local youth.

JRJ had great faith in the younger generation, who would be the leaders in the country tomorrow. The distribution of free school books and uniforms to all schoolchildren was a result of it and became the first national leader in the entire world to do so.

Developing irrigation

JRJ also had a great interest of developing the irrigation network of the country which helped to develop the agricultural sector. Accordingly he developed the irrigation system at Kotmale, Maduru Oya, Randenigala Rantambe, Lunugamvehera and Inginiyagala.

He pioneered the introduction of Sri Lanka's first Free Trade Zones that created over 400,000 employment opportunities for youth.

Thereafter, he introduced the open economy system and generated nearly 300,000 jobs in the Tourism sector and the open economy also helped the country to attract foreign investors to start various industries.

JRJ introduced new economic policies to Sri Lanka before the same policies were introduced by other leaders of the day such as Ronald Reagan of USA, Narasinha Rao in India, Margaret Thatcher of UK and Dengxia Peng of China. The concept of garment industries were also introduced during the tenure of President Jayewardene and at present over 500,000 persons in the country are engaged in direct and indirect employment.

In addition, JRJ's name will go down in history for introducing television to Sri Lanka and establishing the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment to send Sri Lankan skilled and unskilled workers for employment in Foreign Countries. As a result over 1.5 million Sri Lankan workers are currently engaged in foreign jobs.

The construction of the one million housing program was also commenced during the period of President JRJ and it immensely benefited a large number of rural and urban homeless people. The program was also recognised by the United Nations.

The Japanese government also constructed the new Parliamentary Complex, Rupavahini Network and the thousand bed Sri Jayewardenapura Hospital as a token of appreciation and gratitude for the historical speech made by JRJ on behalf Japanese government at the San Fransisco International Conference in 1951.

Global Village

JRJ also turned Sri Lanka into a global village by introducing Information Technology to the country. This immensely helped Sri Lankans to bridge the gap between various international communities through the internet.

The development in the field of Information Technology later led to the introduction of the mobile phones which over 10 million people use today.

In addition the Colombo Plan was also initiated by Jayewardene to get financial assistance for developing countries from developed nations.

Prime Minister J.R.Jayewardene taking oaths as the first Executive President of Sri Lanka before Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon

As Minister of State under Dudley Senanayake's government of 1965-70 Jayewardene rendered an invaluable service to promote the tourist trade in the country. A number of hotel projects was initiated, Travel Agents and Tour operators were encouraged and entered into a number of contractual agreements with other countries to facilitate the promotion of tourism in the country.

There is no argument even by his political rivals that J.R. had been instrumental in developing the socio-economic standards of the nation during his tenure as a parliamentarian and as the first Executive President of Sri Lanka. But quite ironically to all these positive achievements it is also recorded in political history that there had been a number of occasions during JR's tenure where Democracy was threatened, the judiciary was condemned, justice and fairplay was not upheld, human rights violations were rampant and rigging of votes at elections on a large-scale.

JR soon after assuming duties as the Prime Minister in 1977 demanded letters of resignation from all UNP Parliamentarians contradictory to accepted democratic norms, mainly to keep his subordinates under his iron fist. But as a politician he tried to project himself as a true democrat right throughout his career before the public.

The new Constitution that he introduced has vested all powers on the Executive Presidency and it was the general saying that the only thing which cannot be done by the Executive President is to make a man a woman and vice versa.

Scant respect

President Jayewardene exploited all executive powers during his tenure to suit his political ideology sometimes paying scant respect to the rule of law.

When Kalawana MP Pilapitiya was unseated on an election petition by the Supreme Court, J.R. immediately moved the 8th amendment to the Constitution and accommodated Pilapitiya in the House to the surprise of all politicians and the public.

J.R. swiftly took legal action against his political rivals who were even marginally involved in anti-government activities. It is the general belief that JRJ with his far-sighted political vision, was not happy with progressive political forces of the day and placed all possible restrictions across their political paths.

During JRJ's tenure, there were a few occasions where high ranking police officers were convicted by the courts for certain offences and monetary punishments were imposed on them, which were subsequently paid by the government and the officers were promoted to higher ranks by the relevant authorities with the blessings of the government.

Although JRJ hailed from a family of legal luminaries and himself a lawyer was not happy with the members of the Judiciary who went against his decisions and political ideologies. It is recorded in the police books that the goons who humiliated the judges and pelted stones on their houses were the thugs sponsored by UNP trade union JSS which is a brainchild of JR.

The 1980 July strike marked a gloomy milestone in the trade union history of Sri Lanka. All who took part in the strike were dismissed immediately from their employment.

It was a violation of human rights which took place during JRJ's first term of office. When Chandrika Kumarathunga's government came to power in 1994 some of the employees were re-instated, some were compensated, some had died due to poverty and a few had even committed suicide.

Infamous Referendum

Election related violence and rigging of votes, had its fair share in the infamous referendum held in 1982 by the JRJ government to extend the term of office.

A large number of votes was impersonated throughout the country, ballot boxes were stuffed with marked ballot papers, anti-party supporters were chased away and prevented from exercising their franchise at the referendum. However, no action was taken by the authorities to punish the culprits as they had State patronage.

A massive destruction of life, private and public properties took place in 1983 with the July riots. But the general belief is that the extent of the massive destruction could have been easily curtailed provided the timely actions was taken by the government. It is quite appropriate for a person who writes the recent political history to state that the tenure of J.R. Jayewardene was mixture or a conglomeration of positive and negative achievements and happenings in Sri Lanka.