D B Wijetunga’s fourth death anniversary:

Elected President by unanimous decision of Parliament

Miran PERERA

The fourth death anniversary of late President D B Wijetunga fell on September 20, 2012. Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was born on February 15, 1922 to a middle-class Sinhala Buddhist family living on the outskirts of the then Udunuwara electorate.

On completion of his secondary education, he joined the Cooperatives Department as an Inspector. He closely associated with veteran politicians like George E de Silva and A Ratnayake. Ratnayake who was then the Minister of Food and Cooperatives in the D S Senanayake Cabinet took him as his private secretary.

He joined the United National Party in 1946. He entered Parliament for the first time when he successfully contested the Udunuwara seat at the 1965 general election and quickly made a reputation for himself as a fine Member of Parliament ever mindful of the needs of his electors. In terms of meeting the needs of his constituents, he was considered the most effective MP in that Parliament. He lost the Udunuwara seat in 1970 and was returned in the 1977 UNP landslide being appointed Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the J R Jayewardene administration.

He later served the same administration as Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minister of Power and Highways and Minister of Agricultural Development. He served briefly as the Governor of North Central Province in 1988 before returning to Parliamentary politics a few months later.

Executive President

D B Wijetunga was appointed Prime Minister in 1989 by President R. Premadasa which was a surprise to the country. D B Wijetunga who had never sought the limelight or high office himself reacted with surprise to the announcement.

He also held the Ministries of Finance and Labour and Vocational Training in addition to being the State Minister of Defence in the Premadasa Administration.

At the untimely death of President Premadasa, by the unanimous decision of the Members of Parliament from both government and the Opposition, he was elected as the third Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to serve the rest of President Premadasa’s term. He retained his previous portfolios of Finance and Labour and took over the Ministries President Premadasa held, that being Defence, Buddha Sasana, Education and Higher Education.

President D B Wijetunga wished to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort of labour and strife. He wished to impart the highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger from hardship or from bitter toil and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.

President D B Wijetunga maintained an untarnished reputation for honesty, integrity and public service which was its own record. Looking down those dusty corridors, the political foes cannot accuse him of graft or dishonesty.

He was humane and simple. He was naturally warm and homely in manner putting visitors at ease at once. President Wijetunga’s dynamism and personal charisma had helped to bind and strengthen the UNP. He should be measured by some substantial values.

He should be measured by the strength of his character and his political convictions, his devotion to the democratic ideal and his sincerity to the cause and the love he had for his people. The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over civilized man who has lost the great fight, the ignorant man and the man of dull mind whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills all of them shrink from seeing the nation undertake its duties.

Material prosperity

If not for the late President Wijetunga many politicians would have feared the strenuous life while he aspired to lead the only national life which was really worth leading.

While many believed in the cloistered life which absorbed the hardy virtues of a nation as it absorbed them in the individual, others were wedded to the base spirit of greed and gain which recognizes commercialism the be all and end all of national life.

President Wijetunga realized that though an indispensable element it is after all one of the many elements that go to make up true national greatness.

He realized that no country can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep in the material prosperity which comes from business energy and enterprise, and from hard unsparing efforts in the fields of industrial activity.

The silver haired President Wijetunga emerged as a tough talking, no nonsense President steeping himself in controversy and not giving an inch to his rivals.

He took meaningful steps during the first year as President to protect Parliamentary democracy. He has during tumultuous decades as a Parliamentarian, as a minister of the Cabinet, Prime Minister and as third Executive President of Sri Lanka, provided a good example to others in public life and citizens of the country. He had no enemies but rivals mostly political.

His life has been made more colourful because of them and how he encountered them with imperturbability brings to mind Lincoln’s philosophy of life; ‘With malice towards non and charity towards all.’ Historic Udunuwara, the stronghold of President Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, covers scenery so varied as to include ravines and streamlets and acres and acres of sparkling paddy fields vanishing into the distant purple mountains.

Hopes and aspirations

Backward villages in the Udunuwara electorate were provided with roads and neglected roads were repaired enabling far flung villages to gain access to development and modern amenities.

With the assistance of officials and with the cooperation of constituents he implemented several schemes for the development of Udunuwara. Within Udunuwara are four ancient and historic ‘devales’ viz.... Lankatilleke, Gadaladeniya, Embekka and Wallahagoda.

Then in the past, these ‘devales’ were neglected and needed the attention of the Archeology Department. As the member of Parliament for Udunuwara with the assistance of the Basnayake Nilames who made representations he forged ahead to get these devales renovated and monuments and frescoes maintained.

President Wijetunga stood on any rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride, humility in the wake of those great architects of our history who stood there before him with pride in the reflection that the home of legislature the Parliament represent human liberty in the purest form yet devised.

Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human race. President Wijetunga didn’t stand there as an advocate for any partisan cause for the issues were fundamental and reached quite beyond the realm of partisan considerations.

He was of the view that they must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest if our national course is to prove sound and our future protected.