Remembering the lovable lyric maverick
The 113th birth anniversary of Wijayananda Dahanayake of Galle, the former caretaker Prime Minister of our nation, falls on Thursday. He was born on October 22, 1902 as a twin in a conservative Kachcheri Mudliyar’s family.
Wijeyananda Dahanayake, perhaps more than any other politician, was a sphinx-like and captivating individualist.
They say that mavericks may not make the world go around, but they do make it an infinitely more interesting place. And so it was with Daha, as Wijeyananda was affectionately called.
He set the nation’s political universe in a whirl with an unprecedented charm and anti-establishment sassiness seldom encountered in this nation’s political firmament then or now.
The Dahanayake twins Wijeyananda and Kalyanapriya were born in their ancestral home Dangedera at Richmond Hill.
Their incorrigible mischievous streak later provoked a teacher to quip that they were the impish ‘Dangalayas’ who hailed from ‘Dangagedera’ –– the young offenders’ rehabilitation institution.
Even as an elder statesman Wijayananda was the personification of perennial youth, a sort of ageless delinquent with gray hair.
Yet no one would have predicted then that the elder twin would storm the national political arena and rise to the highest rung of legislative power.
They were educated at two leading multi-ethnic Christian schools – Richmond Galle and S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia.
Dahanayake was part of an accomplished breed that had adapted resplendently as anglicised elite but clung fiercely to their proud local ancestry.
Largely he was gifted with an extraordinary assimilated intelligence that was a consequence of colonisation. A demonstration of his crossbred outlook and way of life is best expressed in his unblemished command of both the Queen’s language and the Sinhala vernacular in which he could expound on any theme with equal competence.
His chimerical temperament was grist for the right wing press which satirised him without respite. His wordplay and rhyming couplets parodying his peers provided dream ‘copy’ for lobby correspondents, political columnists and newspaper editors.
Wijayananda Dahanayake’s political profile is as fascinating and as multifaceted as was his contradictory character.
This is his political legend in a nutshell. He was a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and Mayor of Galle before joining the administration of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Prime Minister and leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
He served as Cabinet Minister of Education from 1956 to 1959 and as Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, External Affairs and Education when Bandaranaike was assassinated in September 1959.
He contested the March 1960 General Election under the nomination of his newly formed Lanka Prajathanthravadi Pakshaya, LPP, also amusingly nicknamed the ‘Lanka Pisthola Pakshaya’.
He was not re-elected as an MP as he lost his Galle constituency in that election. He had also served as a Minister of Home Affairs in Dudley Senanayake’s government from 1965 to 1970 and Minister of Co-operatives in J.R Jayawardene’s government from 1986 to 1988.
But Daha, could not be pigeonholed in the grouping of any of his contemporaries in the dovecotes of political power. On many occasions he set feathers flying in that august assembly with his mischievous, almost insufferable streak.
Above all he was a maverick. His chequered political career testifies to that appellation quite precisely.
Throughout his career he waged his polls campaigns, not on a shoestring but on a no-string budget. All it took was an old jalopy, decorated with gokkola – tender coconut fronds – coloured paper bunting and a loud-hailer to attract the curious crowds in both townships and villages.
But toeing any party line was never his style. Astoundingly in an era of feudal domination he developed his image of a nonprofessional politician, a maverick.
But mavericks make enemies and Daha had more than his fair share of them. He was a fearless critic of government and a staunch defender of the people.
His very contradictory character reflected his untamed style and rural roots as he peppered his conversations and speeches with salty language more commonly heard in fields and among the ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ while hitting the campaign trail.
He elicited his biggest cheers, however, when he talked about improving conditions for the working poor.
Yet, when the effervescent Daha was performing, everyone in the House would be certain of a theatrical treat. Dressed in his homespun white cotton national dress, which was derogatorily referred to as the ‘vauwula’ suit by his more anglicised peers, he brought a touch of entertainment and zest into the most jaded sittings.
But he was a man of diverse talents. He was an accomplished educator, constitutional commentator, poet, parody writer and parliamentary reformer.
A deeply generous, cosmopolitan and civilised man, he was widely read with the facility of thinking on his feet.
Daha loved public life and could never resist cutting a figure wherever he was. He was considered an endearing and entertaining subject always compellingly engaging with his rib-tickling cameo roles within the legislature and outside it.
And it was almost impossible to separate the reality from the myth of the anecdotes attributed to him from time to time.
He was perhaps the only public figure who always rode the rails on the Colombo- Galle route ‘third class’.
When questioned as to why he chose to travel ‘third class’ he pithily countered: “Because there is no fourth class!”
The death of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike hurled the island headlong into yet another political crisis. Bandaranaike’s chosen successor, Education Minister Wijayananda Dahanayake was asked to take over the government.
He was a stand-in no doubt, propelled into the leading role by default.
As caretaker prime minister he faced internal party dissensions as well as thunderous opposition demands that his government resign. But Daha had a flair for the unpredictable.
He showed that he had been around the track before, knew when to cruise and when to gun the engine.
He baffled the entire political shebang with a series of trumps. He did so with aplomb in an overnight operation that left the whole country blinking.
In quick succession he dissolved Parliament, fired five Cabinet ministers, quit the Freedom Party, and announced the formation of a new political party of his own.
In all, he was considered the most flamboyant and charismatic political figure this country has ever seen. He was voluble and enlivened every Parliamentary debate.
We will never see the likes of such a bubbly personality ever again.He was certainly a hard act to follow. Sadly the country does not make politicians of his calibre anymore and it never will.