Bandaranaike legacy

In Sri Lanka, September 27 of every year is associated with the Bandaranaikes, a political family that has been responsible for the national renaissance in post independent Sri Lanka. The media reported two ladies offering flowers at the Bandaranaike Samadhi in Horagolla and they, being the only remaining siblings of the immediate family probably were symbolizing their gratitude to their famous parents.

Mrs Bandaranaike once confessed to my mother that the biggest regret she had about having to enter politics is that it prevented her from mothering her family. Mrs Bandaranaike may have been justified in her grouse but the price she had to pay in terms of her family was well worth from the national standpoint. There is a nation of Sri Lankans who look up to Bandaranaikes as the political parents of the modern Sri Lankan nation. What then, is so special about the Bandaranaike legacy in Sri Lanka and what are their accomplishments as against the other political leaders of the country?

Colonial bondage

Independence after 440 years of colonial bondage is a turning point in a nation’s history and in effect it is the birth of the new Sri Lankan nation. Therefore the perceptions, aspirations and outlook of post independent rule has to be in complete contrast to those of the colonial administration that was interested only in extracting some commercial benefit from its colony.

Thus there is no way a post independent government could justify its rule without a thought on the reforms so badly needed in a newly independent nation. For, to continue in the same vein with no reforms, would be to perpetrate the same policy of exploitation and structural command, denying the ordinary man fruits of independence. DS, though a man of wisdom and talent was not prepared to face the challenges of nation building and thus he chose, not to upset the apple cart. Thus he followed the policy of least resistance mainly due to the need to be practical in the midst of a powerful colonial legacy. DS’s main concern just as that of the British was to keep the Communists at bay.

Mr. Bandaranaike however in his foresight realized that the reforms would have to come sometime or the other and sooner they came the better. He opined that a newly independent nation cannot realize its full potential by being ruled by a handful of persons attuned to colonial agendas. Since up to that time Ceylon was ruled by the 6.4 percent English speaking minority the nation was raking in only the talents and capabilities of that minority leaving the balance 93.6 percent of the population practically dormant. That was an inconsistent stand to be taken by a country that considered its human resources to be its vanguard in national development.

Social disparities

At the time, newly independent countries in the world were increasingly embracing communism and socialism. Those doctrines, though people oriented, had the tendency to hoist totalitarian regimes. This was mainly because there was a school of thinking at the time that nation building requires unpopular measures initially and that did not suit the democratic form of government with elections every five years.

Some rulers in newly independent nations advocated this position more out of the need to continue in power than for its practical necessity. With that however the new socialist regimes became sanctuaries for despots with their petty political theories and personal egos. But socialism nevertheless was gaining ground in the world over because the social disparities in most of the newly independent countries were just the breeding ground for popular discontent.

For instance the situation in Ceylon was that the country was administered by a 6.4 percent elite with no thought for the aspirations and social emancipation of its majority. At the time however, in Sri Lanka we had our own Leftist movement in the form of LSSP, CP and the Bolshevik Party but for some reason these parties were headed by the same members of the elite community in Ceylon and hence they lacked radicalism required for social upheaval.

Foreign policy

The survival of the Left in those days depended, not so much in its relevance as a doctrine of the average indigenous Ceylonese but rather on the brilliance of the individuals who led the movement. But radicalism and social upheaval was very much in the cards and the Ceylonese society was simmering with social discontent waiting to be ignited.

It was at such a juncture that the SLFP made its mark in the political firmament of Ceylon with much needed reforms of emancipation that gave the average citizen hope and a sense of belonging, wooing him away from the radical and alien elements. SLFP also initiated a progressive foreign policy for independent Ceylon ushering its entry into the UNO.

Thus when radicalism finally emerged in the form of Rohana Wijeweera and his JVP in the late 1960’s, the masses were well entrenched in the Bandaranaike policies obviating the need to take this country on a radical path towards a totalitarian regime. People of Sri Lanka should therefore be grateful to Bandaranaike policies for saving this country from totalitarianism preserving its democratic form of government. Hence the Bandaranaikes belong to the whole grateful nation who reaped benefits from Bandaranaike policies.

[email protected]