JR, the political colossus

If one wandered around the heavily guarded streets of Colombo, one would encounter statues of various prominent personalities and among them would be Ranasinghe Premadasa in Hulftsdorp, Gamini Dissanayake at Green Path and Lalith Athulathmudali at Flower Road. But they would not find a statute for the man who chaired the Cabinet that included all of them, Junius Richard Jayewardene.

Is that a reflection how this country remembers J. R. Jayewardene? JR, as he was known to one and all, would have celebrated his one hundredth birthday today, had he been amongst us. But he is not and it is almost ten years since his passing — less six weeks, to be exact. It is perhaps an opportune time as any to reflect on the man, his moments, his monuments and the many minuses that clouded his presidency.

JR assumed power in 1977, with his famous and unprecedented five-sixth majority in Parliament. No previous leader had received a mandate of such magnitude. The mandate ostensibly was to rid the country of its closed economy and usher in an era of development.

JR himself had been around for a long time — he joined the Ceylon National Congress as far back as 1938 and had toiled upwards on the greasy pole of Sri Lankan politics. He was content to bide his time in the United National Party, also derisively called the Uncle Nephew Party, then dominated by the Senanayakes and Kotelawelas. Fate, with a fair helping of perseverance and providence, however, decreed that JR should assume leadership of the country at the ripe old age of seventy one!

He was not the most popular of leaders even in 1977. The Readers' Digest, commenting on his election, described him as 'dour and ascetic'. With his anglophile background and reputation for Machiavellian cunning in politics it was difficult for him to become the darling of the masses in the manner his predecessor in the UNP, Dudley Senanayake, was.

But to his credit, JR worked on his image and as the years passed, came to be a figure that the public loved to see and hear. His speeches became shorter but wittier and he cultivated a smile that endeared him to many. His off the cuff remarks became 'JR-isms' that survive to this day: "I can do anything but turn a man into a woman", "Everyone should take care of their own security" and "Let the robber barons come" to cite a few examples. And it is this same knack that his nephew Ranil Wickremesinghe still finds it so difficult to master.

JR's mandate in 1977 to throw open the doors of the economy did usher in a new age. The accelerated Mahaveli development scheme was as ambitious as any yet it saw the light of day. The Free Trade Zones at Katunayake, Koggala and Biyagama kick started the until then stagnant economy. The Colombo Port was modernised, television was introduced and tourism was earmarked as a key sector, resulting in a flurry of five-star hotels springing up in Colombo. A new airline, Airlanka, took wing. Even in retrospect, such a growth spurt in the economy is yet to be matched.

Such was JR's drive towards economic goals, he was even prepared to rub the then 102 nation Non-Aligned Movement on the wrong side by voting with Britain against Argentina in the Falklands crisis. “What do we get from Argentina, when Britain has given us the Victoria dam,” he said.

JR perhaps also had an eye on posterity when he planned his development projects. Crafty as ever he, together with his trusted lieutenant and Kotte MP Anandatissa de Alwis he hit upon the idea of re-designating the capital of the country to Kotte; the catch was of course in the name, 'Sri Jayewardenapura'. If anyone dared ask him about this, JR would have certainly replied without batting an eyelid that it was only a co-incidence but nevertheless as a result we now have a Parliament, hospital and university named Sri Jayewardenepura!

If the economy was JR's strong point, democratic institutions were probably his Achilles heel. Even posthumously JR draws a lot of flak for undermining the institutions that underpin democracy. He had a stranglehold on the Executive arm, anointing himself President but it cannot be denied that JR also burnt the midnight oil to try and weaken both the Parliament and the judiciary.

In Parliament, JR didn't need to do much — he already had a five-sixth majority. But a taste of this majority made him crave for more of the same and he overstepped his mark. His interference with the legislature is now legendary: he set up a commission that eventually deprived Sirima Bandaranaike of her civic rights thereby crippling an already weak opposition, he obtained undated letters of resignation from his Parliamentarians, he opted for a Referendum in 1982 to preserve his steam-roller majority in Parliament and at one time even contemplated having two sitting MPs for the single seat of Kalawana, just to prove that his will prevails.

In the judiciary, JR broke with tradition and appointed Neville Samarakoon from the unofficial bar as the Chief Justice. But if JR ever thought Samarakoon would abide by his dictates, he was in for a rude shock and he was soon contemplating Samarakoon's ouster. Even more ignominious was the stoning of the residences of the judges of the Supreme Court during JR's reign.

A moot point here is that JR also inveigled the judicial process to confer immunity on the Executive President. Now it has become the norm to cry foul about this practice when in the Opposition but do nothing about it after assuming office!

Any discussion about JR's presidency wouldn't be complete without commenting on the executive presidential system itself. JR's argument in introducing the 1978 presidential constitution was that for sustained development, the country needed a stable leadership which did not have to resort to populist policies in the short term just to stay in power. And, JR was fond of citing Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew as the ideal example. This argument in itself was sound and in 1982, the voters of the country probably endorsed this. But from there onwards, as JR began to tinker with the democratic processes, executive power in the hands of one individual became anathema to the Opposition so much so that "JR ge bahubootha viyawasthaawa" became a familiar battle cry of Chandrika Kumaratunga during her short lived days in the Opposition.

However, to be fair by JR, neither Kumaratunga nor President Mahinda Rajapaksa have shown any inclination to dismantle the executive presidential system, the most embarrassing faux pas being the commitment given by Kumaratunga to the JVP to abolish the presidency within six months! If JR took extra care to jealously guard his hold on power, he also held the reins of the UNP on a tight leash. Dissent was few and far between and those who dared were shown the door. History will record that the opinionated M.D.H. Jayewardene resigned after criticising Ronnie de Mel's budget, the careless E.L. Senanayake had to resign after being implicated in a tender scandal and that the loyal Gamani Jayasuriya offered his resignation as a conscientious objector to the Indo-Lanka Accord, the latter being accepted by JR with great regret. Even Cyril Mathew, once a loyal servant, was stripped of his portfolio without much ado when he tried to joust with JR.

This too must be a lesson for Ranil Wickremesinghe, JR's nephew and perhaps in the later years, chosen understudy in the UNP. Wickremesinghe today finds himself unable to expel party members even when they join the Cabinet of their arch rival. As a result, the UNP is now squabbling over matters such as nomination lists for the Colombo Municipal Council and its organisational capability is in a shambles — JR would surely frown from the heavens at such antics! Of course, within JR's Cabinet, the succession battle was hotting up. Leading the stakes were Ranasinghe Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. Premadasa had a head start by virtue of being Prime Minister but the younger hopefuls were not to be dissuaded. Fully aware of this, JR allowed each of them their own 'empires' — Premadasa had his 'Udaagama' project, Dissanayake dealt with the Mahaveli and Athulathmudali reached out to the voters with his 'Mahapola' concept. Each ran his own race, but they all brought rich dividends to the country. Terribly, all of them would be assassinated years before JR himself passed away, and it would have undoubtedly hurt the elderly ex-President to see his protégés perish, one by one.

But if JR were to have any real regrets, it must be over his handling of the ethnic issue. It must be said that it has become almost fashionable to lay the ethnic crisis at JR's doorstep and conveniently blame him for all the blood that has flowed since 1983. That would be too simplistic and naïve.

Yet, it is also true that given the strength of JR's mandate in 1977 and his re-election in 1982 he had a golden opportunity to bridge the divide between the two major communities. He either didn't see this prospect, or if he did see it at all, did not foresee that coming events were casting their shadows. To say that he deliberately stalled a settlement would probably be unkind and untrue.

Almost like an ageing boxer recovering some stamina for the final round, JR eventually re-discovered his cunning and recouped some of his losses — he invited Rajiv Gandhi and his Indian Peace Keeping Force and got them to deal with Velupillai Prabhakaran and his terrorists. Just desserts, he would say, for the son of the lady who trained Prabhakaran in his terrorist infancy though of course we must haste to add that JR would never have wished Gandhi to be assassinated on Prabhakaran's orders.

So, did JR botch the ethnic question and are we still paying for his follies? He probably made his share of blunders but if so, all of his successors have proven that they are equally stumped. So, why blame only JR?

One decision that JR got absolutely right was his final decision — after dilly-dallying for a while, though — to resign in 1989. There were those who wished that he would continue but wisely, he did not succumb to that temptation. And once retired, he remained so, being careful to keep his own counsel even though the UNP was then going through hell and high water in the form of an impeachment against President Premadasa. He did the occasional newspaper interview though, but that too was either about Buddhism or paradoxically, about how he loved his evening glass of whisky while still aspiring to attain Nibbana!

In the final analysis then, just what then did JR get absolutely right and where did he blunder irrevocably? It is a safe bet to say that eventually history will accord him his due place as the political visionary who first envisaged a modern and economically .