Election recalls failed coup 48 years ago
Janaka PERERA
By a strange coincidence January 27 - day after the Presidential
Election - marks the 48th anniversary of the abortive coup of 1962. It
was the first ever attempt to overthrow a legally elected government in
post- independence Sri Lanka. The failure of the plot also marked an
important mile stone in Sri Lanka's national revival campaign.
The failed coup was an eye-opener to all patriots at the time that an
anti-national minority still wielded real power in the country, even
though the British had left our shores 14 years before. The conspirators
were a group of disgruntled military and police officers that belonged
to a generation, which was virtually alienated from Sri Lanka's history,
traditions and national sentiments. Their objective was to turn the
political clock back to the immediate post independence years.
The defence establishment then was a far cry from what it is today.
It was largely a ceremonial outfit and the Army had only one Major
General. Many of the culturally-uprooted armed forces officers had no
links to this country's pre-colonial era unlike in neighbouring India
which has a strong unbroken military tradition - warrior tribes
represented today in the form of Sikh, Rajput, Maratha and other
Regiments.
Almost all the top rankers in Sri Lanka's police and armed forces
belonged to a Westernized elite upper class. A direct result of European
colonial rule, they were largely an aberration for a country like Sri
Lanka struggling to re-establish its own national identity.. Not
surprisingly therefore the conspirators failed to comprehend the complex
and sometimes controversial socio-political changes that were sweeping
not only this country but also the rest of post-colonial Asia in the
decades that followed the end of World War II. More than anything else
nationalists in the continent were giving vent to centuries of
frustration and anger under European religious and cultural domination.
Consequently the coup leaders of 1962 and their mentors mistook the
post-`56 socio-economic transformations and the establishment of
diplomatic ties with Soviet Russia and China as a possible shift to
communism. In the words of veteran journalist D.B. Dhanapala "The
sizzling of the diehards carrying the white man's burden by proxy could
be heard echoing through the infuriated press.'' (Among Those Present).
It was left to Felix Dias Bandaranaike - who himself grew up in a
Westernised environment - to abort the coup that would have probably
turned this country into a Latin American style-banana republic or
perhaps like the now-defunct Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) under
the reactionary Dictator Ngo Din Diem.
Aborting the coup was one of the most significant contributions that
F.D. Bandaranaike made to the country at a time when SLFP's egalitarian
politics threatened the interests of his own class. He got wind of the
plot - planned for the midnight of January 27, 1962 - through leading
educationist, Buddhist activist and first SLFP Secretary P.de S.
Kularatne who in turn was tipped off by his daughter Maya and her
husband Stanley Senanayake then SP Colombo. The latter was among those
who refused to join the plot. Kularatne was playing bridge with the then
IGP M.W.F Abeykoon at the Orient Club, Colombo, when the news reached
him on Saturday, Jan. 27th around 5.15 p.m.
The plotters were living in the clouds. They failed to realize that
at the time they planned to stage the coup the Sirima Bandaranaike
Government was still popular as shown in several by-election results.
The conspirators had initially planned to execute several government
members. But a coup leader, DIG Range I, C.C. (Jungle) Dissanayake, had
warned the others not to resort to any killings.
Dissanayake was arrested in his house soon after the midnight.
Altogether 30 conspirators were arrested including former Navy Commander
Royce de Mel former DIG Sydney de Zoysa, L.C.S. Jirasinghe, Commandant
Volunteer Force Col. Maurice de Mel, Commanding Officer, Volunteer
Signals Lt. Co. B.R. Jesudasan, Majors B.I. Loyala and W.G. White both
of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Major L.P.Joseph of the Armoured
Corps, Commanding Officer, Volunteer Engineers Lt. Col. J.H.V. de Alwis,
Staff Officer Ceylon Volunteer Force Headquarters Capt. J.A.R. Felix, SP
(West) V.E. Perera, Deputy Director, Land Development J.F.D. Liyanage,
PA to DIG Range I ASP T.V. Wijesinghe, Commanding Officer, Ceylon
Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Lt. Col. Noel Mathyesz and Captains
D.E. Weerasinghe and A.J.B. Anghie and N.S. Jayakody all of the 3rd
Field Regiment.
But the Air Force - then under the command of a European - had no
connection with the coup d' etat.
January 27 was the day on which Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike
was to be at Kataragama. Planning of the coup had gone on for quite a
sometime. Colonels Maurice de Mel and F.C. de Saram were in charge of
the Army arrangements for the coup, while DIGs Sidney de Soysa and C.C.
Dissanayake were in charge of police arrangements. Former Navy Commander
Rear Admiral Royce de Mel was associated in the detailed planning of the
coup. Sidney Soysa was to coordinate army and police operations.
Government ministers, the Permanent Secretary for Defence and
External affairs, the Inspector General of Police, DIG (CID), SP (CID)
and the acting Navy Commander were among those to be arrested. Other
service commanders including the Army Commander were to be restrained
and prevented from leaving their houses that night after a certain hour.
Soon after midnight police cars equipped with loud hailers were to be
sent out to announce an immediate curfew in Colombo city limits. The
Central Telegraph Office, Colombo and other city telephone exchanges
were to be put out of action. Newspaper office buildings, Police
Headquarters, the CID office and other key points were to be taken over.
Armoured cars were to be stationed at certain points to ensure the
success of the operation. Troops from Panagoda were to be prevented from
reaching Colombo that night at any cost.
Army vehicles fitted with radio transmitting and receiving equipment,
were to be stationed at the two Kelani bridges, the Kirillapone Bridge
and other places. Armed police motorcyclists were to be at Torrington
(Independence) Square from about 11 p.m. that night. A special direct
telephone line had been laid the previous day, from Lower Lake Road to
Echelon Square, for use by army personnel. Armoured cars at the PM's
official residence, 'Temple Trees,' were to be withdrawn.
If the coup had succeeded even for 24 hours - observes retired Police
Superintendent F.N.D. Jilla - the rank and file (roused by political
forces opposed to the coup) would have turned their guns on the coup
leaders (Without Fear or Favour)
Yet, to the anti-national English press at the time the major issue
was not the proven attempt to overthrow a legitimately elected
government but the discomfort and alleged harassment that the accused
experienced in jail. My unforgettable and most disgusting experience as
a school-going teenager at the time was the pathetic mental level (then
as now) of some UNP die-hards - merely because they hated the SLFP
Government - expressed support to the jailed conspirators. It was
alleged that the Opposition UNP was aware of the conspiracy being
hatched, though the party played no role in it.
This is reminiscent of some of today's NGO 'peaceniks' and 'human
rights' crusaders who screamed from the roof tops when LTTE suspects
were detained and interrogated but maintained a deafening silence when
Tigers went on their bloody rampages and suppressed all dissent in the
areas they dominated.
The so-called watchdogs of democracy conveniently ignored the fact
that the plotters had drawn up plans to imprison government members and
leftist leaders among others in the Army Headquarters Ammunition
Magazine, which is a reinforced concrete structure, partially
underground.
Although the Sri Lankan Courts convicted the conspirators they
succeeded in getting acquitted on a technical point upon appeal to the
Privy Council in UK under the law that prevailed in Sri Lanka at the
time. It would have been a far different story if Sri Lanka - like
neighbouring India - had become a republic soon after 1948. |