Jayah, a sparkling statesman

A great visionary, a great statesman par excellence, a great scholar of eminence, a superlative teacher of Latin, a fierce freedom-fighter, TB Jayah, was born at the closing of the 19th century on 01.01.1890.

Jayah played a historical role in the struggle for independence. He was a great national leader, fiercely national-minded, having a passion for his country. Speaking in the State Council in November, 1944, Jayah extended unstinted support towards the introduction of the ‘Sri Lanka Bill’ even to the point of sacrificing advantages and benefits” to the community. Such a stance prompted the Leader of the House S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to pay the highest tribute referring to Jayah that, “he himself was sincerely determined to work for the principle embodied in the Bill.

Jayah was the embodiment of peace and national unity, having had the benefit of teaching at Ananda College a seat of Buddhist learning and took over the reins at Zahira College as principal; he was an undisputed peer in education, social justice, politics and diplomacy, understanding the aspirations of every community, never standing for a division of the country.

He expounded the concept of everyone collectively standing for a united Sri Lanka.

Jayah’s tenure in Pakistan as Sri Lanka’s first High Commissioner established the beginning of a firm relationship between the two countries, from the time of Prime Minister Shahid-e-Maillath Liaquat Ali Khan.

The government and people of Pakistan loved him to the extent of the prime minister himself offering honorary citizenship which Dr. Jayah graciously declined.

He gave the message loud and clear he had only one motherland which was Ceylon. The revival of Muslim education as mainly owing to the scholarly disposition of Jayah whose tenure as principal of Zahira College established a golden era in the realm of learning.

Jayah, whose name the Sri Lankan generation should remember, has left an indelible mark in the sands of Sri Lankan history.

I had the greatest fortune in my life to be so closely associated with this extraordinary personality who took me around this island and made me interpret his profound English speeches into Tamil.Jayah lives in the heart of people! When others flinched to remember him, the Alhaj TB Jayah Foundation ably led by its Chairman Alhaj M. Ashroff Hussain and his lieutenants, on whose lot it has fallen to do justice to revive this greatest patriot’s memory in its annual celebration, deserve to be commended.

A H M Azwer, MP