Ants in the garland

By P.Mapitigama

When President Jayewardene completed 50 years as a politician somewhere around 1992, I was asked to organise a public meeting cum get-together in the Kelaniya electorate. He wished to have this meeting in Kelaniya as he was elected to the State Council for the first time from there.

The date was fixed and the venue was Dharmaloka Vidyalaya which was once a property of Mrs. Jayewardene, known as Jasmin Walauwa. Jasmin Walauwa was donated for the purpose of housing Dharmaloka Vidyalaya which was opened for the education of the children of Kelaniya. The then President R. Premadasa, was to be invited as the chief guest. As I was a stranger to Kelaniya I was asked to meet a few VIPs, in Kelaniya and rope in close associates of J.R. and get their assistance. He was keen to meet his old associates to say "Thank you" to everyone who had helped him to get into the main stream of politics. He called me to "Braemar" one day and the two of us sat at his table to work out the details, I with pen and paper and he rattling off points that he expected me to jot down.

He gave me a long list of people from memory and wanted me to get in touch with them. ''They will be useful as they know me very well," he said. "Some may not even be among the living now." He paused for a moment and said, "I have not been calling on them for sometime and have not met most of them recently." "Write them down, it is a long list, otherwise you will not remember," he said.

The names included Sirisoma Ranasinghe, Halwatte Jayasinghe Ralahamy, Walgama Jayasinghe Ralahamy, Heiyantudawe Gunasekara Ralahamy, John Iskola Mahatmaya's son Sumanasekara, Peter Appuhamy, Gonawala Jayaweera Ralahamy, Gonawala Renda Mahatmaya, Makola Fiscal Ralahamy, Sir D.B.Jayatilaka's nephew, Pattiwila Muhandiram Gunasekara Ralahamy.......

He paused for a moment and wanted me to note down some more.

"This is enough Sir. I will be able to locate at least a few of them," I said. "Why a few? Meet as many as possible. I do not wish to ask any favour from them. I just want to say 'Thank you,'" he said.

He did not know the correct names of many but it was not difficult for me to locate them. They were spread all over Kelaniya-Biyagama, Gonawala, Makola and Heiyantuduwa. Kelaniya area was a massive electorate in the 1950s. As he said, most of the people on the list were dead and some had died long years ago.

Even the few who were available were very old and feeble, some too weak even to come to the venue of the meeting. Everywhere I went they spoke well of him. He had visited most of the voters personally and some even recited a few election propaganda verses.

At Kelaniya I heard many stories about election times. Each story highlighted his qualities in some form or other. "He could face annoyance, heckling, irritating interruptions, insults, innuendoes which could irritate anyone, but he stood like the Swamy Rock. He could not be bowled out," I remember A.C.S.Hameed, former Foreign Minister saying in Parliament on the condolence vote of J.R. on November 1996. Mr. Hameed came to my mind when I heard of an incident that took place at Pilapitiya in Kelaniya in 1952.

It was very great of J.R. to be so quiet at that moment and not show any annoyance. I was told that in 1952 he contested Kelaniya electorate with LSSP candidate Budhipala Waidyasekara. J.R. came out with flying colours and was taken round the electorate in procession. J.R. had been garlanded at Pilapitiya.

After about 10 to 15 minutes, he removed the garland and handed it over to an aide who was walking in the procession along with him. Apparently someone had introduced red ants to the garland. No one knew about this incident until J.R. himself narrated this to some of his friends very much later.

The late Leonard Rupasinghe, Mrs. Elena Jayewardene's father was a landed proprietor who worked as a Notary Public in the Kelaniya area for quite some time. He owned plenty of land in the area.

In Bollegala, Mrs. Jayewardene had a 40 acre prime coconut land known as Manelwatta. This was donated to the Malwatta Chapter in January 1962. Another 15-acre block at Dehiwela was handed over to the present Madya Maha Vidyalaya for a playground. Even "Braemar" the Ward Place house where she now lives has been donated to the government.

After her demise this property will not pass on to their heirs but will be used for a public purpose.

The writer is the Secretary General of the Jayewardene Centre. He was the Secretary of retired President Jayewardene for seven years until his death.

Col. G.W.Rajapaksa:

What he taught us

It is often said that teaching is a noble service. History shows us that the better teachers were those who not only taught students to pass exams or excel in specific skills, but more so, those who were also able to inculcate in their students a strong sense of values and duty, which would make them good human beings and citizens.

In the latter half of this century in Sri Lanka, few teachers, if any, could surpass the contribution made in this respect by Col. G.W.Rajapaksa, former Principal of Ananda College, who passed away earlier this month. Having previously had a long association with Ananda College from 1921 to 1967, as a student, teacher, Hostel Warden, Cadet Master, Prefect of Games and later as Vice-Principal, when Col. Rajapaksa returned to Ananda as Principal in 1969, I was a Grade 3 student. I left Ananda a few months before he relinquished duties and retired in 1981.

Throughout this period, and more so in later years when we as student leaders were to interact with him more regularly, my contemporaries would without doubt agree with me that his influence was an unseen force that propelled us along - first through school and now through work and life.

The anecdotes of the times we shared are many and are still vivid in my memory. But to me, those appear as mere footnotes compared to the larger lessons he gently taught us during our years under his spell; lessons the true significance of which we are still in the process of fully understanding and appreciating.

What Col. Rajapaksa sought to cultivate in Anandians of my generation was not textbook style education more prevalent in these times of considerable academic competition, but a more 'holistic education': one which sought to make us academically accomplished, competent sportsmen, eminently sociable, humanely sensitive and most of all, good leaders and team players.

Everyone of his students did not become all of these things, but thanks to him, we all developed an appreciation for all these qualities, an aptitude in some of them and respect for those who did acquire skills different from ours.

This possibly explains how in Col. Rajapaksa's years Ananda's academic record, sports achievements, social activism and national role surpassed that of any parallel institution.

The most remarkable feature about his stewardship of Ananda College, was his concept of 'student leadership'.

Every time we rise today to make a speech, we are reminded that in his period, even when the highest in the land was to visit Ananda, it was not the Principal, nor the teachers but we, the students who received them, welcomed them and conducted proceedings. Col. Rajapaksa was often watching unobtrusively from the top of one of the many new buildings, which incidentally were also results of his labours.

There was many a VIP at the time who was not amused and even considered it an insult that students were being put to do what superiors should and that the levels and protocols followed were not right. But then again they couldn't fault the students, because the task was performed to perfection.

Those offended were obviously not aware of the many days and weeks of preparation Col Rajapaksa or his senior staff members would have put us through beforehand, covering all the angles and contingencies that could happen nor the many ticking-off sessions we would get after an event, which all thought had gone off without a hitch, but he thought could have been done better. Under his tutelage we were to learn that leadership was not doing everything by yourself, which was easy, but to be able to motivate others and work developing 'team spirit', in seeking to achieve goals. He did this by example, one which was vivid to us from the way he himself handled his staff.

His times were not very different from ours- teachers were even lesser paid and extra-curricular activities were not even regarded as proper school business, but Col. Rajapaksa was able to evoke a deep sense of loyalty and dedication from among his staff, naturally some more than others, but all did give their best.

It would be unfair to name individuals, for one might inadvertently leave out some, but suffice to say that there were more than a handful of our teachers who regarded Ananda as a second home, and as Col. Rajapaksa did, would come to school at the crack of dawn and leave well past dusk. Had it not been for this support, the Rajapaksa era at Ananda might not have been as luminous as it was. This ability to get the best out of his team, working around their shortcomings, was his strength and what kept him above the rest.

In dealing with the world outside, Col Rajapaksa was clever at reconciling interests and coming out with a synthesis that he believed served the interests of the institution, but one that others too could live with. He learnt this the hard way, having been educated at Ananda College in the Kularatne period (1918-1943) when Ananda was in the vanguard of the independence struggle.

This was a time when with the exception of a few, mainly leftists, including old Anandians like Dr. N.M.Perera, Dr.S.A.Wicremasinghe, Philip and Robert Gunawardena and Bernard Soyza, most Sri Lankan politicians preferred to ape the West, oppose universal adult franchise and even to remain under the yoke of British rule.

Col. Rajapaksa clearly understood Ananda College as having played a special role in the affairs of the State of the time, one that he felt it should continue to do, regardless of the times or the issues of the day. While he appreciated that at a time English education was confined to the missionary schools, Ananda's founding rationale in 1886 had been predominantly its Buddhist identity, he nevertheless was deeply appreciative of the multitude of influences cutting across caste, ethnic and racial lines that was to contribute towards the building of Ananda College.

He seemed keen to inculcate in us that the advantage of having an identity also cast on one the responsibility to recognise similar aspirations in others and was often to remind us of the contribution made towards Ananda by stalwarts of the minority communities like C. Sundaralingam, M.K.N. Pannikar and T.B.Jayah among others.

In an interview published in the Ananda centenary souvenir in 1986, responding to a question as to what his views were on non-Sinhala, non-Buddhist children entering and studying at Ananda, Col. Rajapaksa's reply was, "Ananda should be open to children of all races and religions. That is what I did and that is what I will advise others to do. Even in the past there were children of all races Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim at Ananda. Ananda is a common treasure of all. It belongs to the whole country. Ananda moulded people of all races and religions and gave them to the country. They are the ones who held high positions. They are the ones who continue to do so.

Ananda belonged to everybody, like Lord Buddha belonged to everybody." It is clear from this comment that Col. Rajapaksa saw no contradiction between one being a committed Sinhala-Buddhist, while at the same time working together with those of other races and religions in building a broader multi-ethnic 'Sri Lankan identity', that is the need of our times and the absence of which has been the cause of much bloodshed.

He was convinced that Ananda's identity was strong enough to face upto such winds of change and emerge stronger from the exercise.

He was outward looking and did not fear even swimming alone against the tide, if he felt that was the correct course. He encouraged students to run their own affairs at a time youth were very much the focus of suspicion in the immediate aftermath of the 1971 insurgency and promoted English at a time it was being unceremoniously discarded as the "kaduwa" (sword). Given his social sensitivity, Col. Rajapaksa made us understand that politics was too important to be left to the politicians alone and inculcated in us the importance of the strength of 'civil society', at a time when the term was not in vogue. Broadly speaking, he kept a healthy distance from politicians.

Having initiated the proposal to acquire the adjoining Mackwoods property with the UNP's Education Minister I.M.R.A.Iriyagolla in 1969, he secured the pledge that the project will be carried out by his successor of the United Front Government Badiuddin Mahmud in 1971.

Despite certain financial constraints that faced the government at the time, with support from the then Finance Minister Dr. N.M.Perera, he managed to secure the necessary funds to acquire the land by the mid 1970s, and having developed the land with the support of Housing Minister R. Premadasa, the ground was ceremonially opened in January 1978 by President J.R.Jayewardene.

Many years after we left school and he left school, he kept track of us and was still ambitious for us. He rejoiced in our success and gave us strength in times of adversity right upto his dying day.

The only anecdote I wish to share of my association with him is one from the last time I visited him in his sick bed with my elder son, a Year 8 student at Ananda. As we bid him farewell, not knowing that would be the last time we would see him, he held my son's hand and having recounted an event or two from the past, said to him softly but firmly, "Your father has done well, you must do better."

"I thought I had heard those words before and remembered that it was a similar sentiment that he had expressed when my father, who was a few years his junior at Ananda, first introduced me to him about three decades ago.

As I reminisced with other contemporaries from Ananda in recent weeks about this comment, many recounted that this was the same sentiment he had expressed to their children as well. This was the encouragement he gave not only us, but even to our children. We will not fail him.

-Ravinatha Aryasinha

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