Feeble emulation of Britain’s House of Lords

The old Senate:

*Reggie Perera’s theatre of uproarious oratory

Premil Ratnayake

The Senate is dead. Reggie Perera is dead. Doric de Souza is dead. You cannot recall to mind the Upper House of Parliament without thinking of the two Samasamajist buddies Reggie Perera and Doric de Souza, who despite their hilarity, raised the otherwise drab chamber to an intellectually stimulating forum of discourse and also amusement. There was a paradoxical ambience of levity not normally associated with an assembly of legislative gravity. Virtually it was a royal stamp of the King or Queen of England. Every piece of legislation passed by the House of Representatives (of the people) to become legal had to be approved or ‘stamped’ by the Senate - the royal stamp.

Roly-Poly Reggie Perera - the former LSSP MP for Dehiowita whose bellowing voice thundered on Samasamajist platforms drowning even Dr. Colvin R. de Silva’s - sat next to his bosom Left pal Doric the Peradeniya English Don whose wit and humour though subtle did not boom like his ex-comrade’s. Together they infused colour into the Senate proceedings salvaging it from being a sleep-inducing boring affair.

Of course the Upper House was a constitutional imperative, often a refuge for discarded and expelled third-rate politicians. But Reggie and Doric did not belong to this genre - they were intellectuals indulging in Left politics because they could not shed their passion for its romanticism.

In most instances Reggie and Doric gave expression to their unconventional political thoughts in the Senate though their audience was pitifully poor in their grasp of the subject.

When Senate was abolished under the 1972 Republican Constitution Reggie and Doric were left forlorn.

Especially Reggie. Reggie protesting the abolition shouted “We will go down” fighting. To Reggie the Senate was virtually a home from home. Perhaps this forlornliness led Reggie to create his own place of aesthetic refuge, the Sandella, a waterhole for the Bohemians.

The Senate sat 2 p.m. in the old Defence Ministry building in a small but bonhomie chamber where we the press reporters had easy access to the Senators. My News Editor in the Daily News William de Alwis pulling on his never extinguished pipe summoned me curtly and thrusting a two-rupee note in my hand commanded me, “Go and cover the Senate,” the two rupees was the taxi hire; there was no reason for Willie to spend his own money for an official coverage of an official Daily News assignment. Willie had been slow in the assigning.

I sped it to the Senate and into the Senate restaurant. My colleague from the Observer Stanly Wickramasooriya was there chatting to Reggie who was squeezing into his battered white tussore coat.

Reggie hails me and turning to the bar keeper howls: “Mata thel genenan” (Now, Thela can also be misinterpreted into the boozing jargon of an alcoholic brew - a drink and the bar keeper swiftly fetches Reggie a drink of arrack.

“Oui”, Reggie barks at him,” yakko mun kiwwe Thel - pol thel - adiyak nevei.” Poor barkeeper had misunderstood, he was too intimate with Reggie’s love for a drink.

Veteran politician A. Ratnayake is presiding and twinkles in delight when Reggie takes the floor.

For us in the small cubicle reserved for the press it is a rare opportunity of joy to listen to the corpulent Senator who never utters inanities. The puckish comrade Doric is at the elbow sometimes to interrupt in a light-hearted way.

At that time Reggie had just produced a Sinhala film Sadol Kandulu. It was a maiden cinematic venture of Reggie who was a lover of the Fine Arts. If ever Reggie in his speech strayed in to the cinema, Doric would interrupt “Kalu Dodol” in a deliberate mistaken reference to Reggie’s film, and then Reggie would scream - “Hey it is Sadol Kandulu - not Kalu Dodol”. But it was no use. Even years later Doric couldn’t get rid of his erroneous reference. To Reggie’s frustration, Doric continued to call Reggie’s film Kalu Dodol.

Reggie’s irksomeness with the response to his film did not end there. Viranga (Nihal Ratnaike) in a rather uncharitable critique in the Daily News under-rated it as a film...” The music is good; the acting is good... but the film script is bad. And the film script is Reggie Perera’s.” The day the film review appeared Reggie stormed Lake House and challenged Viranga for a fisticuff. Nihal walked down the steps amused and by then the tension had died and the two friends hugged and drove to Sandella for a cordial drink.

I covered the Senate for the Daily News. Stanley Wickramsooriya did a summary of the proceedings for the Observer. Stanley was my friend and colleague. He was full of fun.

His talents were underrated in the Observer His regular news round was the Education Ministry and he was the trusted loyalist of the Education Minister I. M. R. A. Iriyagolle who called Stanley Putha. Stanley’s latent journalistic talents emerged (for the surprise of Editor Denzil Peiris) when a West Indies cricket team that included Garfield Sobers toured Ceylon. Stanley was assigned to cover it. Stanley in a brilliant move ferreted out a story of a clandestine and sensational love affair of Sobers with a damsel from the Kandyan hill country. The story hit headlines in the Observer and finally the Observer editorship took notice of Stanley.

Stanley had a wide range of friends especially in the police. Very often he asked me to look after things in the Senate and took off as Senate began sittings - he would come late in the night to the Observer and write his story following my copy since the Daily Observer was printed after the Daily News. One night Stanley went off with his cop pal Bartholomeuz riding in his motor cycle and was knocked down at the Castle Street railway crossing. Stanley died instaneously. Minster Iriyagolla came running to the hospital crying: “My god, my putha is gone.”

Finally Sandella to the great chagrin of Reggie was closed down. Bankrupt. Reggie blamed it all on Dr. N. M. Perera - “Nanayakkara Martin Perera did not pay his bills.” It was amusing: both NM and Reggie were close comrades in the LSSP.

In the Senate there was also another corpulent member Oscar de Livera. Oscar and Reggie, perhaps because of their alike physical dimensions, took to each other and became ‘boozing’ friends. Once the two Senators were detailed to oversee a humanitarian exercise in a village in the outstations. Reggie and Oscar visited the rural village, meticulously attended to their duties and retired to rest for the night in a not-so-comfortable village home.

Accommodation was cramped the two Senators had to share a bed. It could hardly carry the two over-sized, heavily built men. Oscar was forever rolling and in deep sleep almost throwing Reggie overboard. It happened several times and Reggie in utter annoyance and anger shouted: “Hey Oscar: Don’t be Wilde!” Gamini Weerakoon wrote the hilarious story in the Observer and bagged a cash prize of Rs. 25 for the story.

Sandella was not only a Bacchus’ paradise but Reggie’s own version of an Ashram of Art and Culture. All Reggie’s friends, artistes, musicians, writers, painters and politicians thronged there.

They were all entertained lavishly, Reggie the inimitable chef turning out the best of food Colombo could offer. Reggie was the finest of cooks and when he cooked at home everybody kept away not wishing to disturb the artistic cook, only the servant woman complaining...” I’ll have a time clearing up the mess.” One day at Sandella, Reggie Perera, Doric de Souza and Nihal Ratnaike were imbibing the Bacchus nectar. Reggie was dozing and suddenly Doric got into the mood of singing.

He crooned: “Govi Sadakam Goyan Kapanakam; Kevul Sadakam Malu Banakam; Dura Sadakam Sura Madinakam; Sala Sadakam Sada Kalikam...” at which point Reggie woke up and ended the lyric with... Thuppahi Sadakam Sapaththu Mahanakam...”

I think with that Doric stopped calling Reggie’s film Kalu Dodol.