Felix Dias Bandaranaike's 81st birth anniversary today:

Lawyer and legislator

Extracts from a chapter in the book titled 'FDB' by Lakshmi Dias Bandaranaike, the wife of the former Minister. 'FDB' sheds light on Felix Dias Bandaranaike, as a person and politician. FDB passed away on June 26,1985

A C Alles

There are several aspects in Felix's political career which have been referred to by various writers and some of his critics but I propose to deal with only that aspect of his political career which is closely connected with the administration of justice. There is one important episode in this sphere which will always be remembered with gratitude by the people of Sri Lanka - the prominent part played by him in unravelling the attempted coup of 1962.

He tackled a most dangerous situation with considerable skill, almost lone-handed, and saved our country from what might have been a blood-bath similar to those which plagued some South American countries and recently some nations of the African continent. If the coup succeeded it might have been the precursor of future coups which would have shaken the pillars of democracy in Sri Lanka for generations.

In October, 1961 Felix, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence and External Affairs, gave an order to the Armed Services to be prepared to meet the possibility of a series of strikes promoted by Leftist and Trade Union leaders. In November and December, 1961 there were a series of strikes in essential undertakings - the Transport Board, Bank employees and Oil companies. Strikes continued in January 1962 affecting workers in the public and private sector of transport, industry and commerce.

Essential services

A general strike probably accompanied by violence was expected by the end of January, 1962. A critical state of affairs was imminent and the Armed Services and Police had been alerted to ensure the maintenance of essential services and supplies. In Parliament leftist leaders like Dr N M Perera sought this opportunity to suggest that Felix Dias Bandaranaike was making arrangements with the Armed Services to seize power and become a dictator. It was his plan, they said, to arrest Opposition leaders and also some government ministers and stage a coup. (Vide Queen vs Liyanage 67 NLR atp. 202). The allegation against Felix was stated by Sansoni J to have been made by Dr N M Perera, Pieter Keuneman and W Dahanayake. (Vide Hansard (13.4.61) and 9.1.62 and 12.162). Unfortunately there was a hook provided by Felix himself to support this allegation when in one of his speeches he stated "that a little bit of totalitarianism might be of benefit to the country." The dangers pregnant in the critical state of the country at the time was referred to in Liyanage's case (67 NLR 193) when it stated -

'The conditions existing and contemplated in January, 1962, including the imposition of censorship, the full mobilisation of the services on security and civil duties and the public concern was such as in other countries had in fact given rise to attempts, whether successful or not, to overthrow democratically elected governments and to establish some form of unconstitutional rule' (ibid p.203).

Civil administration

In this volatile state of affairs some top-ranking police and security officers conceived the ambitious step of staging a coup and overthrow the democratically constituted government of Sri Lanka on the pretext that Felix Dias Bandaranaike was trying to seize power, arrest Opposition leaders and some ministers to prevent the communists from gaining control. Their ostensible objective was to avoid a catastrophe and ensure that the country would be saved. They decided that once the disaster was averted that civil administration on democratic lines would be restored. The police and security services involved, planned the coup for the night of January 27, 1962.

Were the leaders genuine in their motives or did they contemplate seizing power themselves and bringing the country under military rule similar to the fate that befell many other countries which experimented on this kind of strategy? Would there not be opposition by those loyal to the government and in the case of a confrontation would there not have been violence and loss of life? It was a most dangerous and quixotic plan that had to be promptly nipped in the bud.Felix was unaware of those machinations and sinister plans. On the 26th he had a full night's work in the Ministry of Finance and only returned home in the morning. After a hasty breakfast he had to rush off to Malwana and only returned at 2.30 pm and then able to snatch a few hours of sleep when he was awakened by the visit of Salman who had come to meet him urgently and give information of the proposed coup arranged for that night.

Legal knowledge

Meanwhile the plan had been disclosed to P de S Kularatne by the Senanayake brothers (Stanley Senanayake, Superintendent of Police and his brother Lionel Senanayake, Assistant Superintendent of Police) and Kularatner ealising the seriousness of the situation contacted the Inspector-General of Police, Abeykoon who was at that time participating in a game of bridge at the Orient Club. The only action Abeykoon took was to attempt to contact S A Dissanayake of the Criminal Investigations Department and requested him to telephone him at the Orient Club.

The Order of the Court in Liyanage's case has passed serious strictures on Abeykoon for his seeming indifference and the lackadaisical manner in which he dealt with a matter which seriously affected the security of the state. It was in this background that the Cabinet of Ministers including Felix was hastily summoned to Temple Trees to deal with the situation. The Cabinet decided to take over the investigation and appointed Felix as chief interrogator. With his legal knowledge he was the only member of the Cabinet who could effectively deal with a difficult situation. It was an arduous and highly responsible task. Here were top-ranking police and security officers accused of planning a coup and an Inspector-General of Police who gave him no assistance and the entire responsibility of unravelling the plot fell on Felix's shoulders. The Order of the Court in Liyanage's case refers to the important and responsible task undertaken by him to save the country from a catastrophe when it stated -

'We can appreciate the anxiety of those who were trying to ascertain the facts quickly from Senanayake, for they had to decide what action should be taken. This, we think, was the reason for dispensing with manual recording at that stage and for relying solely on the tape-recorder. The situation in which the authorities at Temple Trees found themselves was without precedent. Bandaranaike said that from the time he arrived at Temple Trees until midnight they were mainly taking measures to ensure the safety of the State rather than to investigate the alleged offence. A decision was taken about midnight that the Cabinet should have overall direction and a control of the entire investigation, while he was to carry on the interrogation on behalf of the Ministers some of whom attended the interrogation of the witnesses.Investigations went on almost continuously till February 2nd. Although the Police also played a part, it is apparent that Mr Bandaranaike largely controlled the course of the inquiries.

National catastrophe

There was no legal basis for much that was done, including the arrest of the 4th defendant and Johnpulle that night. But in time of extreme emergency the State may be compelled by necessity to disregard for a time the ordinary safeguards of liberty in defence of liberty itself and to substitute for the careful and deliberate procedure of the law a machinery more drastic and speedy in order to cope with the imminent danger' - Provincial Administration v Hanniball (1942 AD 1 at P 14).

The observations of the Court reveal the imminent danger to the state which called for swift action. Police officers like Tyrell Gunatileke were present to record the statements of the suspects but the entire burden of investigating the plot against the government rested on the shoulders of Felix who performed a magnificent job in unravelling a dangerous plot which sought to overthrow the democratically constituted government of Sri Lanka. The account of the coup case is now past history and it was only three years later on April 6, 1965 that the Order of the Court at the Trial-at-Bar was delivered by Chief Justice Sansoni with whom were associated H N G Fernando and L B de Silva JJ.finding 11 of the 24 suspects arraigned before it guilty on the serious charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government. A considerable part of the incriminatory evidence against the suspects was the result of Felix's investigations.

Felix surely deserves the plaudits of the entire country for having saved it from a national catastrophe.No minister of justice before or after Felix Dias Bandaranaike has contributed so much to reforms in the administration of justice as Felix Dias Bandaranaike. It was his object to revolutionise the administration of justice to meet the needs of the people. As a strong-willed minister there was determination of purpose in the measures he considered necessary and would brook no opposition from any quarter.