Gamini Dissanayake as I remember him

M H Mohamed

Gamini Dissanayake was born on March 20, 1942. His father, Andrew Dissanayake, was a Member of Parliament for Nuwara Eliya in the SLFP-led Government from 1956 to 1959. Gamini joined the Sri Lanka Law College after completing his education at Trinity College, Kandy.

It was Dudley Senanayake, then Leader of the United National Party, who changed the course of his life by inviting him to contest his father’s former electorate as the UNP candidate in the 1970 General Elections.

The UNP lost, but Gamini won - the youngest and newest Member of Parliament at that time. Even though he was unseated by an election petition, the party leadership decided to nominate him for the ensuing by-election, which shows that within a short span of time he had won the hearts and support of most of the senior members of the Working Committee.

After Dudley Senanayake’s death in 1973, and by the time the 1977 General Elections came around, Gamini had become one of UNP’s stalwarts. Both he and his party returned to power with an overwhelming majority, under the leadership of J R Jayewardene.

Jayewardene was quick to spot Gamini’s potential and invited him to join the Cabinet, as the Minister of Irrigation, Power and Highways, a portfolio held by Maithripala Senanayake, the doyen of SLFP politicians.

Later, as the Minister of Lands, Land Development and Mahaweli Development, Gamini was the successor to some of the great political icons of that time - D S Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, Bulankulame Dissawe and C P de Silva.

But, Gamini carved his very own niche. He was destined to be the architect of a plan to accelerate the Mahaweli Diversion Scheme, telescoping it from 30 years to approximately six years. This was by far the most awesome project ever undertaken in the annals of our history and which, I firmly believe, cannot be rivalled in the foreseeable future.

Sacrifice

Gamini’s dream was to once again make the Dry Zone the legendary rice bowl of the nation. He intended to give pride of place to the paddy farmer, because he realized that the farming communities would have to sacrifice a great deal before they could be resettled in the new Mahaweli areas.

He led by example when he sacrificed his own ancestral lands in Kotmale. What drove him was his love and compassion for the people and their way of life. He knew that if the waters of the Mahaweli could be used effectively, it would not only make the land fruitful and assure food security, but also reduce unemployment and consequent poverty among the people.

To that end, Gamini set out to woo the best brains in the land. He was impatient of the bureaucratic red tape - a hallmark of most development schemes. He wanted action, quick action not reams and reams of paper going back and forth between departments, ministries and the Mahaweli Authority.

He inspired his team members with his own selfless devotion and commitment to the task in hand. He spent his time commuting between his Ministry and the field. While impeccably clad in his immaculate white national dress during his Ministerial duties, Gamini would often be seen in an old pair of jeans working side by side with the many volunteers who were doing shramadana work at the dam sites.

Mahaweli team

His inspired leadership was the driving force behind the Mahaweli team, who accomplished their daunting task well before the projected deadline. The result of his insight and understanding of the people and their aspirations paved the way for bold decision-making.

Alongside the generation of hydro-electric power was an equally important aspect, that of settling the displaced families.

Almost 75,000 families were resettled during the first 10 years, making it the largest ever movement of people. It was a challenge to their resilience that they went from one geographic location to another, hopeful of a better tomorrow for themselves and generations to come.

Instead of the then existing homestead system Gamini introduced the hamlet settlement scheme.

He empathised with those settlers who had been evacuated from their homes to start life anew, so he saw to it that every hamlet had the basic amenities like shops and local markets, a primary school, a cooperative store, a post box, an agri-service centre and even daycare centres for working mothers.

Meanwhile, the village centre - formed for four hamlets - had a sub-post office, a secondary school, a health centre, a market place and transport service. The system was pyramidal with the township as the apex administrative centre, serving around 10,000 farmer families, and equipped with all the facilities that are associated with a town.

To appreciate even a small segment of his strategic planning, one has to remember that he introduced a unified administration of the settlement schemes, and instead of a plethora of officials and agencies, he made it possible for a settler to deal with just one or two individual officers to resolve their problems.

Gamini did not forget the importance of sports and recreation. He constructed a fully-equipped sports stadium where the first Mahaweli Games were held in 1986. This has now become an annual event.

ICC

Apart from his preoccupation with the Mahaweli Scheme, Gamini played yet another role - that of the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, to which he was appointed in June 1981.

Soon afterwards he set out for London to charm the opponents of Sri Lanka’s entry to the International Cricket Conference (ICC) as a full member, which they had persisted in doing for six long years.

Lobbying the powers that be, Gamini assured the ICC that if given full status, he would see that Sri Lanka improved the infrastructure needed for the game, even though he had already initiated the process through the extension of the Asgiriya grounds in Kandy (one of the most picturesque locations in the world).

At their Annual General Meeting at Lords on 22 July 1981, Sri Lanka was accepted as a full member of the ICC. From then onwards, there was no turning back.

Gamini insisted that existing stadiums should conform to international standards. He also initiated the construction of the Cricket Board Headquarters in Colombo, launched the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation to ensure financial stability, and constructed Indoor Nets - once again, to approved international standards.

He persuaded cricketing greats such as Sir Garfield Sobers, Rudi Webster and others to provide coaching and guidance to the fledgling test cricketers so that they would do the country proud in the international arena.

One other aspect of his many achievements was his role as a leader of the UNP-led Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU), where Gamini found time to see for himself the problems of the plantation workers.

He made it his mission to forge a Union almost as strong as the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, with affiliation to international trade union federations. For a short time under President R Premadasa, he served as the Minister of Plantation Industries, where he introduced the “cluster system” of management to the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB) and the State Plantations Corporation. He also visualized an estate-village integration, but he was removed from the Cabinet before this could be put in place.

Gamini was one of the legal luminaries who excelled in the political sphere. He believed that democracies could only flourish in an atmosphere of order, discipline and justice. This was the rationale for his involvement in the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of 1987, where he sought to stop the country from slipping into anarchy.

During his illustrious career spanning 22 years in politics, Gamini was responsible for so many programs that are now part of our political and administrative structure.

Among them are the irrigation systems at Lunugamwehera, Inginimitiya and Muthukandiya; the 75,000 acres of land given to 540,000 farmer families; the distribution of Swarnabhoomi land titles; the completion of the Forestry Sector Survey and National Forestry Master Plan; the establishment of the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI); the INMAS program and the Land Use Policy Planning Division (LUPPD).

He was also involved in the development of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to develop management systems for the Sinharaja and Knuckles Range; the Forestry Institute at Nuwara Eliya; and the Irrigation Training Institute in Diyatalawa to usher in a degree program in Surveying.

He had just begun the final phase of his political career, as a UNP Presidential candidate when a LTTE bomb claimed his life and the lives of several others. A true martyr of Mother Lanka, he will be forever in our hearts - a gentleman par excellence.

His untimely death changed the political landscape of the country. His calm approach, human qualities and unassuming personality had made him a great friend of the Muslims.

His concern for the downtrodden, irrespective of caste, creed or religion was exemplary. I remember him with profound grief and sincere gratitude and salute him on his 66th Birth Anniversary as one of the great leaders of modern Sri Lanka.

May he attain Nibbana!

The writer is Minister of Parliamentary Affairs