An Island in the Sun; a tribute from a friendly foe

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the birth of one of Sri Lanka’s most charismatic personalities in recent times, Upali Wijewardene, who mysteriously disappeared 25 years ago on February 13, 1983 and was later pronounced dead. Indeed, Upali Wijewardene rose so fast and so far that there was a widespread belief he was being groomed and would be fit even for the executive presidency.

As a tribute to him we republish today a glowing appreciation carried in the popular Weekend of Independent Newspapers Ltd. Though the INP was a rival group, the article demonstrated the healthy competition between the two independent newspaper groups of that era.

The Weekend article, published on New Year’s day 1984, said that Upali Wijewardene would be Lanka’s uncontested Personality of the Year though ironically the Upali Newspapers Group which Mr. Wijewardene launched had named the then President J.R. Jayewardene as the Personality of the Year in a reader poll they themselves had conducted that year.

The Weekend newspaper tribute went like this:

“No account of the “Year 1983” would be complete without the mention of a person who, though absent since that fateful Sunday February 13, still continues to loom large in the collective mind of Sri Lanka.

“He is of course that dashing, brilliant outgoing business tycoon – the greatest that Mother Lanka produced. We write of Philip Upali Wijewardene – confectioner, plantation giant, landed proprietor, director of private and public companies here and abroad, car maker, industrialist, publisher and racing sportsman.

“Indeed he embraced almost every section of Lankan life – from the toddler who delights in sweets, the lover who finds chocolates so enchanting a gift, the young music fan to whom the Upali cassette recorder brings so many happy hours, the traveller who but for Upali’s car, would be queuing long hours for buses and to the man of the world who wants to know and to whom his newspapers bring so much information and humour.

“Indeed Sri Lankans read, hear, travel, eat and even bet from things he makes or owns. “No wonder though he is in the missing persons list for well nigh ten months, people still talk of him and news about him continues to dominate the public mind.

“Wherever and whenever the islanders gather, whether in the village kopi kades or the town bars and restaurants or the city’s clubs or in the drawing rooms of the rich and the mighty, that ultimately veers around Upali -- his works and the mystery of his disappearance.

“Were he to return today and read all what people have said of him since February, he would be the first to shrug off this testimony to his popularity and indispensability. For all his extrovert postures he is at heart a very shy person.

“But he would, I am sure, have been pleased to know that had he cared to even shyly and slightly allowed himself to be nominated, he would indeed be widely acclaimed as Lanka’s uncontested undoubtedly Personality of the Year.”