Tribute:

The NM I knew

One evening in December 1959 I was summoned by Dr N M Perera to his residence at Campbell Place in Punchi Borella and asked by him to contest on the LSSP ticket, the Kilinochchi electorate, to which I was a total stranger with hardly a friend or a relation known to me, except that I had passed through Kilinochchi to and from Colombo. It was just after the Colombo Municipal Council elections at which I was a candidate nominated by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party to contest the UNP stalwart and Mayor of Colombo the late V A Sugathadasa.

Realizing my reluctance to accept my nomination to an electorate about 50 miles away from my place of birth, where I would be a total stranger, Comrade NM as we affectionately called him, advised me to accept nomination, since I was selected among a few applications having been found as the most suitable one for a working class electorate like Kilinochchi and prophetically assured of victory within ten years.

So in 1970 when I was returned to Parliament from the Kilinochchi electorate a local national daily carried a news item under the caption “NM’s prophecy comes true.” During these ten long years, a lot of changes had taken place in the political field.

It was very unfortunate that at the time I won a seat, I was no more in the LSSP. But I concede that it was the LSSP base that I had in Kilinochchi, made me win that seat.

Political Guru

I always had the highest regards for Comrade NM and also respected him as my Political Guru. I never attacked him in Parliament. In my view NM was infallible. I started my politics as a Youth Leaguer of the LSSP in the early 50s and got very close to him in 1960.

Although there were other socialist parties operating at that time, it was the admiration I had for Dr NM Perera in particular and for some other leaders like Comrades Dr Colvin R De Silva, Bernard Soyza, M/S Leslie Goonawardena, Vivien Goonawardena, A Viswanathan ex-senator, P Nagalingam and some others that made me join the LSSP. I was also the President of the Kotahena branch of the LSSP Youth League and had our office at Barber Street, Colombo.

Comrade NM was a great leader and a statesman whose value was not realised by the Sinhalese and the Tamils in particular. It may not be out of place if I make reference to a speech by me 25 years back in 1980 at the annual conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association held at Lusaka in Zambia, attended by me along with the then Speaker M H Mohamed, Lokubandara and the late Maithripala Senanayake.

I had to speak on the advantages of ‘one party’ system in comparison to the ‘multiparty system’. At the meeting chaired by the then Speaker of the Zambian Parliament, in reference to Dr N M Perera I said, “It is because of the multiparty system prevailing in Sri Lanka those eminent personalities like Dr N M Perera, holder of double doctorate and a contemporary of the great Kenyan Freedom Fighter Dr Jomo Kenyatta, had to go into political wilderness” Dr Jomo Kenyatta who became the Prime Minister also served as President of the Republic of Kenya. The view expressed by me in Lusaka was raised in our Parliament by somebody.

Multiparty system

Objecting the multiparty system does not mean that I am in favour of one party rule. Let us not forget that we have over 50 political parties in Sri Lanka today. I am still of the view that the multiparty system prevailing in our country is not only the cause for several evils but has deprived the country of the proper services of just and honourable men like Dr NM.

The suffering of the Tamils today is partly, I would say fully due to the lack of foresightness on the part of the Tamil leaders. The problem of the Tamils started with the passing of the Citizenship Act which the LSSP vehemently opposed. In fact the entire leftist group voted against the bill in Parliament.

On the official language issue, the LSSP took a firm stand and advocated parity of status for both the Sinhala and Tamil languages. I very distinctly remember how a bomb was thrown at Comrade NM while he was addressing a public meeting in the Old Town Hall, defending his official language policy.

I remember with gratitude, Comrade Reginold Mendis who lost one of his limbs in trying to save Comrade NM who narrowly escaped death. I believe that this was the first political assassination ever attempted in Sri Lanka.

I saw with my own eyes how a violent mob, that assembled outside Parliament when it was debating the ‘Sinhala as the only official langauge bill’ on June 5, 1956 cursing the LSSP leaders in indecent language and demanding the heads of Comrade NM and those of other members of Parliament of his team.

May Day rally

I admit that the lack of foresight on the part of the Tamil leadership contributed to a great extent in preventing Comrade NM Perera from taking over the reigns of government. Instead he had to serve as a subordinate to others.

Some of my colleagues in the Tamil United Liberation Front had admitted to me that the Tamil Parties should have given at least one seat for the LSSP from the North as a token of appreciation for the stand taken by the LSSP on the official language and the citizenship issues, in which case the country would have been different today.

I faced the 1965 General Elections also on the LSSP ticket and left it with the May Day of the same year. In my letter of resignation sent to Comrade NM when I quit the LSSP, I accused him of failing in his duty to prevent the communal trend in the party. After many years I realized that it was a hasty decision of an immature young politician of 32 years.

At that time I failed to realize that I should not have taken seriously a few anti-Tamil slogans shouted at a May Day rally and found fault with the leadership for the outburst of a handful of frustrated sincere party workers, who could not bear the defeat of the party, which championed the cause of the Tamils.

With limited power and in-spite of the obstacles placed by some reactionary forces within the Coalition govt. of 1970, Comrade NM as Finance Minister proved his capacity beyond any doubt. Apart from many other progressive proposals, he very cleverly brought out billions of hoarded black money by declaring currency notes of higher denomination invalid. Unfortunately he was not given a free hand to show his real capacity.

It may not be out of place if I mention here that the foreign exchange allowed to me and to other Parliamentarians when we went on a delegation to the United Kingdom in 1972, was only three Pounds. Comrade NM was a real miser as far as conserving foreign exchange was concerned. He was acting in the best interest of the country.

Great statesman

I have a lot of interesting things to narrate about NM. He liked me a lot and never refused any of my requests as Finance Minister. When he paid a visit to Kilinochchi in his official capacity to open a branch of the National Savings Bank I could not attend the function although it was at my request that he decided to open a branch at Kilinochchi.

Although the TULF organized a black flag demonstration I refused to take part in it and the TULF approved it.

In the good old days when LSSP leaders visited Jaffna propaganda meetings we had made it a practice to hold the first meeting at the Kilinochchi market square on Saturdays where people from all parts of Kilinochchi meet to transact business. Then we proceed to Jaffna for more meetings.

On one such Saturday when both of us were going to Jaffna after a meeting at Kilinochchi, Comrade NM asked me about my chances of winning the Kilinochchi electorate, for which I promptly said, “Don’t worry Comrade I am winning.” Comrade NM roared with laughter and patting my back said, “That’s why I like you man”, I remember giving the same answer to him to a similar questioning of his, during the Municipal Council elections in Colombo.

I am only sorry that Sri Lanka failed to make use of this genius, who could have changed the destiny of our country. I owe a lot to him.

I am grateful to him. I thank the Commemorative Committee for giving me an opportunity to write a few words in memory of a great statesman of our time, with whom I did politics for over a decade and served in Parliament with him for a period of seven years, a rare opportunity any other politician living today could feel proud of.

- V Anandasangaree
President
Tamil United Liberation Front