In the Old Parliament by the sea - Part III:

Scintillating debates in an intellectual atmosphere

Premil Ratnayake

We in the press gallery were apprehensive and indeed dreaded whenever Dr Colvin R de Silva rose to speak. His one sentence, a pressman noted, was a mile long. He started mildly and then went along covering the full gamut of the subject without a pause and the reporter covering him was lost in mid air, as it were, unable to trace the origin of the sentence with no inkling where it would finally end.

One reason for this was the reporter got carried away by the sheer eloquence of the deputy leader of the LSSP.

Great liaison

He listened aptly to the speaker and forgot to scribble down the notes. Dr de Silva literally danced in the space between seats and when he was on his feet other members moved out to give way to him. He moved around like a panther and his speeches were edifying.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Dr N M Perera

Dr Colvin R de Silva

Even when a reporter was in a fix unable to have covered him fully there was no despair, for Dr de Silva in his great magnanimity went out of his way to help him out usually in the cafeteria.

He knew exactly what impeded the reporter and very often repeated his speech in summary form to the reporter. It was a great liaison. Even when Dr de Silva took a swipe at a member it was done with finesse with no malice or rancour.

On the contrary Dr N M Perera the Samasamajist leader who was also once the Leader of the Opposition was restrained in his speech, the delivery was measured and there were no histrionics. But NM could be devastating on occasion when he took opponents to task. Having crossed over to the Opposition after he severed link with Ms Bandaranaike’s Government in which he was the Finance Minister, NM pulverized the Government. Casting away his usual conventional manner of Parliament he placed his feet on his seat and mockingly asked ‘What’s wrong with you TB?’ - meaning T B Ilangaratne.

Sinhala verse

In the first Parliament when the Speaker was Sir Francis Mollamure and while the Budget debate was in progress LSSP’s Somaweera Chandrasiri wanted to deliver his speech in Sinhala verse.

The Speaker disallowed it. Then NM as Leader of the Opposition told the Chair that Chandrasiri was a poet and wanted to make his contribution in verse. Sir Francis relented but said Chandrasiri could not recite his poem rhythmically; he could however read it like prose.

The bard of Kesbewa agreed - the poem was satirical, it called the Budget Peedita Panthiyata Gena Dena Peedanaya - Ilakkam Godaki Ayaweya Leknaya - the Budget designed to oppress the poor is a jumble of numbers. In 1970 after Mrs Bandaranaike’s coalition was returned to power at the commencement of the Budget debate the Government fielded T B Tennekoon to open the debate for the Government. Tennekoon, a Sinhala scholar burst into verse as a preamble to his speech.

Tennekoon almost sang the poem with all the Samudraghosa nuances but he was allowed to proceed. The Chair presided by Stanley Tillekeratne did not object as was the case with Somaweera Chandrasiri. Times had changed since Sir Francis and Sinhala was finally given its due place.

Parliamentary tradition

It was a great diversion to watch and listen to Prins Gunasekera the frail MP for Habaraduwa. Prins had a puckish way of directing his criticism towards Mrs Bandaranaike, his prime target. The attack was laced with pungent sarcasm - his delivery in choicy Sinhala was a treat - there were only a few members at the time who could command the language as exquisitely and proficiently as Prins did.

Prins used to wear a cardigan to the House presumably gifted to him by Lord Averbury.

Mrs Bandaranaike taunted him about the gift much to the chagrin of Prins and Prins retaliated by tormenting the Prime Minister over the devastating graffiti that university students scrawled on the walls around the campus. Prins turned classical when he addressed the Chair as ‘Swamini’ much to the amusement of Speaker Stanley Tillekeratne.

Prins repeated the same mode of address when he made representations before the Constitutional Court which had briefly quartered itself in a room of the Parliament on the ground floor. It was constantly listening to the lengthy arguments of H W Jayewardene who was representing his brother J R Jayewardene. But ironically and perhaps in keeping with age-old Parliamentary tradition JRJ objected to the presence of the Court within the precincts of Parliament - “there is an outsider (the Constitutional Court) in the House,” JRJ complained to the Speaker.

In the 1977, regime of JRJ Dr Anandatissa de Alwis who was first elected Speaker relinquished the post after some time and was appointed the Minister of State.

It was a splendid move by JRJ - because as Minister, de Alwis couldn’t speak and his extraordinary oratory was lost to Parliament and the country.

The maiden speech of Anandatissa was a classic - the former newspaperman of Lake House made an impassioned plea on behalf of journalists, cataloguing their hardships and calling for redemption; we in the press gallery were touched and felt as though a new warmth had pervaded the otherwise cold atmosphere.

Next morning the Daily News prominently displayed the speech in its Lobby column on Page One under the heading ‘Darling of the Press.’

Shortly before he quit the Chair, Anandatissa hosted all MPs to tea barring the press. We were dismayed and disappointed but Anandatissa summoned us and said “I didn’t invite you because I knew tea would be too mild for you - I am inviting you all to Mumtaz Mahal (the official residence of the Speaker) in the weekend.”

So at Mumtaz Mahal we were entertained lavishly with gallons of booze.