Sam Wijesinha’s life and times in Parliament

Sumanaweera RAJAPAKSA

Sam Wijesinha’s name is synonymous with Parliament. There was a Clerk to the House before Mr. Wijesinha assumed duties as Clerk to the House and there were several Secretaries General (as the Clerk to the House came to be known later) after him but only some of their names come to mind when one speaks of Parliament.

Sam Wijesinha was a brilliant Public Servant with a scintillating career in whatever post he held, be it as a Crown Councillor, Clerk to the House or Ombudsman. He had the knack or the correct perspective to understand and assess human beings.

Sam Wijesinha

Sam Wijesinha joined Parliament service in late 1963 and succeeded Ralph Deraniyagala as Clerk to the House of Representatives as Parliament Secretary-General was then known in 1964. He joined Parliament at a crucial period of Parliamentary history as Parliament was just about to undergo a vast change. Looking back, it appears now as the correct person was chosen for this most important post at the most opportune time. Hailing from Getamanne in Hambantota district in the deep South, he had not forgotten the rural touch and being educated in Colombo and having married into a prestigious family in the heart of Colombo he was able to adopt himself easily to the Colombo 7 lifestyle too. He had the knack of fitting into both worlds equally well. This helped him a lot in his new career.

He came to Parliament forsaking a lucrative career where he was gaining fast a prominent name as a Crown Counsel. This legal background helped him to face the hustle and bustle of Parliament life with remarkable expertise. To this day he remains an unquestionable authority on Parliament procedure as well as Parliament politics.

The hallmark of an efficient Secretary General of Parliament is tact and diplomacy. Sam Wijesinha possessed these qualities in abundance and it is well reflected in his activities right throughout his Parliament career. The very first test he had to face as Clerk to the House was to oversee the debate on the Vote of Thanks to the Throne speech in December 1964 which followed the Prorogation of Parliament subsequent to the disastrous Press Council Bill introduced by the then government.

Legal profession

This was a highly controversial Bill which had been vehemently opposed islandwide. There was a great furore over the Bill both inside and outside the Parliament. Parliament at that time consisted of great luminaries of the legal profession and clashes were imminent in Parliament. These were masterfully avoided through the intervention of the Clerk to the House in his Room. Great pressure was brought to bear on the Members of Parliament through the press, Church and public rallies; lobbying went on incessantly. The aftermath was government being defeated by 1 vote.

This was a busy period for Sam Wijesinha. He handled his task quite gracefully and dexterously. It was a challenge for him and looking back one is amazed to see how Sam Wijesinha overcame many a problem with his diplomacy winning over unruly Members. As was stated earlier, the House was full of prominent lawyers of the country which made Sam Wijesinha's task that much difficult.

Although Parliament is known for its legislative powers Wijesinha found it more like a Treasury, devoting much time on allocation of funds. This led to the formation of a powerful Public Accounts Committee. The Tamil members who were in this Committee were highly qualified accountants who knew the ins and outs of accountancy and Sam was its Secretary.

Parliament was undergoing other changes as well. In 1970, the SLFP came to power under Sirimavo Bandaranaike again gaining a massive majority. In its manifesto SLFP had promised to set up a Constituent Assembly. Since SLFP gained a massive 2/3rd majority it went on to change the constitution. Unfortunately instead of seeking the consensus of the Opposition parties it went ahead guided by its own plans. Thus, the Dominion of Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka with a President at its head instead of the Governor General. William Gopallawe, sitting Governor General, became the first President.

Public Service Commission

Getting rid of Article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution which safeguarded the rights of the minorities, the new constitution asserted that Parliament was supreme. Instead of maintaining a separation of powers whereby the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary act as checks upon each other, the 1972 constitution specifically states that judicial power shall be exercised by Parliament and by courts responsible to Parliament. Public Service was deliberately politicized.

District administration under the Government Agent was subject to a political authority under a Member of Parliament. Public Service Commission which was supposed to ensure impartiality was politicized by appointing a defeated candidate as its Head; plantations and lands were nationalized which led to an economic crisis. As a result, at the 1977 General Election SLFP was decisively defeated and UNP under J. R. Jayewardene gaining an almost 5/6th majority, formed the government.

Although the UNP vehemently criticized and opposed SLFP excesses it too continued many of the same features. Sam Wijesinha expresses it most succinctly thus: “A sad feature of Sri Lankan political culture is that, though the system Jayawardene introduced was seen as dangerous by many in his own party none of them criticized it openly or dared to break with him on this issue.”

J. R. Jayewardene consolidated power in the hands of one person through his 1978 constitution, creating an Executive Presidency with aspects of the Parliamentary system. He ensured the control of Parliament Members by obtaining undated letters of resignation making Parliament merely a rubber stamp for the Executive President.

General election which was due in 1982 was avoided by holding a rigged election to extend the term of Parliament by a further 6 years; an election result of which the Commissioner of Elections in his Report declared “was a mockery of democracy”. This added to certain draconian regulations passed by the Jayewardene government further exacerbating Tamil grievances to the point of driving them away from Parliament.

In Sam Wijesinha's own words, “What has happened then is that Parliament simply ratifies the decisions of the supreme policy making body, the Cabinet, rather than acting as an assembly where government and Opposition seek accommodation and compromise.” In a matter of few years the Sri Lankan constitution of 1978 was subject to not less than 17 amendments. The earlier amendments were brought in to simply consolidate the power of the UNP majority. For example the first amendment was passed to deprive the civic rights of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the leader of the main opposition party and the arch rival in their political campaigns.

Welfare facilities

The second amendment was introduced to ensure that none of the dissatisfied members of the government crossed over to the Opposition and at the same time encouraging members of the Opposition to cross over to the government. In this way a number of ad hoc amendments were introduced in favour of the governing party. A glaring instance was the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition in the new Parliament that was elected after the General Election of 1977. At which election SLFP, the main Opposition party won only eight seats and the TULF won 19 seats. According to the Westminster system of government, which was fondly embraced by Sri Lanka and as clearly explained in the 'Bible' of that system, Erskine May, the Opposition Leader should be appointed by the opposition parties from among their leaders one who is capable of winning the next election and forming a new government.

However, the government decided on its own, against the far-seeing advice of Sam Wijesinha, to appoint Appadurai Amirthalingam, leader of the TULF as Leader of the Opposition. But within a matter of a couple of years government itself brought a motion of no confidence against Amirthalingam and ousted him. The irony of it was that the proposer of the motion, a Cabinet Minister lost his portfolio and the seconder, a member of the UNP, was ousted from Parliament.

Sam Wijesinha had to work with several Prime Ministers and Presidents who were remarkably different from one another. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake, J. R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa were different from each other in every respect. Where Sirimavo Bandaranaike was more deliberate in her actions, Dudley Senanayake had a sedate conservative outlook. JR's approach was severe, shrewd and Machiavellian. Ranasinghe Premadasa was a go-getter and a quick worker. For him everything was urgent. Sam Wijesinha had the knack to understand their whims and fancies and was able to have a smooth relationship with all of them. His tact and diplomacy stood him in good stead.

Sam Wijesinha had self-confidence in abundance. This set a good example for his staff, who were basking in his reflected glory. They too were self-confident and did not hesitate to take decisions. Sam Wijesinha was much respected and honoured by those who came in contact with him and this reflected upon the staff too. Sam Wijesinha was always mindful of the needs of his staff and saw to it that many welfare facilities were arranged for them.

Sam Wijesinha had implicit trust in his subordinate officers. If he found that any of his subordinates was efficient and capable of carrying out any important responsibility entrusted to him, Sam would go out of his way to promote his upward mobility. C. W. Pannila's case could be cited as one example to illustrate this point. While Pannila was the Head of the Parliament Interpreters’ Division he got through Law College and took oaths as an Attorney-at-Law.

By and by Sam Wijesinha trained him, asking him to work as an Assistant Secretary General in the Chamber of Parliament on sitting days when either him or his deputy were on leave. Ultimately when he was to go on retirement he wanted to appoint Pannila to the post of Assistant Secretary General. He soon found out that others had different ideas to bring one of their own men. Sam Wijesinha forestalled them by appointing Pannila as an acting Assistant Secretary General when Sam had to go on a foreign tour just prior to his retirement. As a result, when Sam Wijesinha went on retirement the new Secretary General had to confirm Pannila in the post of Assistant Secretary General.

Another instance was the case of Dr. Jinadasa Illangasinghe who was attached to the clerical service in Parliament. He soon left Parliament and attended Law College. Later Sam Wijesinha persuaded him to enter Wales University and read for his Master's Degree. When Illangasinghe obtained his Master's Degree, Sam Wijesinha got him to enter Colombo Law College and read for his Doctorate and kept a watchful eye on him.

After Illangasinghe got his PhD and was functioning as a Labour Tribunal President, the Chief Justice of Fiji Islands visited Sri Lanka and while in conversation with Sam Wijesinha, the CJ had inquired from him whether there were suitable persons in Sri Lanka to be appointed to the Judicial Service in Fiji. Sam Wijesinha promptly recommended Illangasinghe and sent him to Fiji on a three years contract as a judge!

On his retirement Sam Wijesinha had the distinct honour of being appointed as the first Ombudsman (Parliament Commissioner for Administration) of Sri Lanka. When he was due to retire from the post of Ombudsman he had no hesitation in recommending Pannila's name as the most suitable person to fill the resultant vacancy on his retirement. He was quite certain that his former subordinate officer (Pannila) was capable enough to fill his shoes! However, President Premadasa had other plans. By then he had selected another person for the post of Ombudsman and as a result Sam Wijesinha's recommendation did not materialize.

During the period Sam Wijesinha was Secretary General of Parliament he had to oversee the promulgation of two Sri Lankan constitutions. The first was the Republican Constitution of 1972 and the other the Democratic Socialist Republic Constitution of 1978. With regard to the 1972 constitution, a Constituent Assembly was first set up which involved additional work. However, change of a constitution involves lot of preliminary work. Sam Wijesinha was able to perform all the additional responsibilities efficiently and transition of constitutions from one to the other was effected smoothly.

The writer is a retd. Chief Parliamentary Interpreter