Sunday Times 2
Memories of an unparalleled politician
Lalith Athulathmudali, PC was assassinated by an unidentified gunman on April 23, 1993. Obviously, the assassination was based on political reasons. In 1991 he along with the late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake, PC was instrumental in bringing an impeachment against former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Parliament was prorogued and the speaker M.H. Mohamed announced that the number of signatures on the impeachment motion was insufficient and rejected the impeachment.
It is in this backdrop that Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, G.M. Premachandra and several other members of parliament, left the United National Party and formed a new political party – the DUNF. In December 1991 Mr. Athulathmudali and the other members of parliament were expelled consequent to a judgement of the supreme court.
Lalith Athulathmudali
I was first introduced to the late Lalith Athulathmudali by Upul Jayasuriya, PC former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. Upul and I were constituents of the Ratmalana electorate which Mr. Athulathmudali represented in Parliament since 1977. Prior to my first meeting I was fascinated by the achievements of this brilliant erudite scholar. I still recall that when I joined the upper school at Royal College, out of the 24 panels which contained the names of the prize winners, Mr. Athulathmudali’s name was included in 20 panels in the college hall.
When I joined Law College in 1982, Mr. Athulathmudali was invited to address the Law Students Union and by this time he had commenced the Mahapola scholarship scheme which has benefited generations of students since 1981. Upul and I met up with Mr. Athulathmudali at his Stanmore Crescent residence about three weeks prior to the general elections of 1989. I observed with amazement, the professionalism of his campaign and the manner in which he attended to every single detail. At this election, which was the first election held under the PR system, Mr. Athulathmudali emerged as the candidate who polled the highest number of preferential votes in the Colombo district.
When the impeachment was in the air, I had the opportunity of meeting up with him at his Flower Terrace residence with the late Asoka Abeysinghe who was my lecturer in commercial law. We never spoke of politics, but we urged him to look after his security. After my resignation from the attorney general’s department in 1991, I had the opportunity of developing a closer relationship with this great personality. I was attached to his chambers as the most junior member and when he returned to the Bar, I realised the professionalism with which he approached every brief. In retrospect, I sometimes wonder why he did not remain in the law for had he done that he may have been alive still.
However, by that time Mr. Athulathmudali was deeply involved in politics and public life. The Mahapola Trust, the Colombo Port, the new innovations in the field of agriculture and establishment of a buffer stock of food for a national emergency were some of the significant contributions that he had made to this country during his tenure of office.
Consequent to his death, several opinions were expressed as to who was responsible for the assassination. Several articles and books have been written and even a presidential commission of inquiry was appointed to probe the killing. Allegations were made against the ruling party and against the LTTE. Twenty five years after his demise the question as to who assassinated him still remains unanswered in the opinion of those who knew him closely and who were aware of the circumstances and the threats immediately before and after the assassination.
The LTTE was alleged to be responsible for many assassinations and killings of prominent personalities during this period. It is very rarely that the LTTE would assassinate a prominent individual through a lone gunman. At the commencement of the LTTE as an organisation, there were instances such as the killing of Alfred Duraiappah, the former respected mayor of Jaffna who was killed on July 27, 1975 and A. Amirthalingam the former leader of the opposition who was assassinated on July 13, 1989. Apart from a few incidents such as these, it was never the style of the LTTE to assassinate their targets through an individual assassin.
On that fateful day Mr. Athulathmudali had wanted to meet me with some lawyers at around 10 pm. I learnt about the assassination at around 8 pm when a friend of mine, a Tamil hindu who is now serving as a very senior officer in a state department telephoned me and inquired whether Mr. Athulathmudali had been shot. He was very concerned since, during the 1983 riots it was Mr. Athulathmudali who had protected his family.
When the commission of inquiry was appointed, I was selected to prosecute along with Mr. Upali Gooneratne, PC and to lead the evidence before the commission. The commission findings were subsequently quashed by the supreme court. In my view the commission lost its objective and at one point, I was requested to lead evidence which would have led to the inference that a former head of state may have been involved in the assassination of Mr. Athulathmudali. By this time the head of state had also been assassinated. When I refused to lead the evidence, as I was not convinced of the truthfulness of the statements or the nexus between the evidence and the assassination, a lot of pressure was brought upon me by one individual in the commission, at which point I tendered my resignation. On the same day Gamini Amaratunga who was one of the commissioners tendered his resignation also on the same lines. I am aware that Mr. Upali Gooneratne, PC also resigned subsequently.
As I have said before, it is very rarely that the LTTE would adopt the method of sending a lone gunman to assassinate a target. Furthermore, the LTTE never had the habit of sending assassins with their national identity card in their pocket.
It is interesting to state that immediately after the shooting, several individuals, most of whom are alive even today searched the entire area looking for the assassin who was reported to have been shot by a personal security officer of Mr. Athulathmudali. The entire area in the vicinity of the Kirulapana grounds was searched, including Mugalan road, where the body of the purported assassin was found the next morning. At the time of the search no one found a body or signs of an assassin, dead or alive.
In my view the above three issues, namely the method of killing, the assassin being found with an NIC and the absence of any assassin dead or alive when the search was conducted on the night of April 23, clearly demonstrate that the question as to who assassinated Mr. Athulathmudali still remains unanswered.
During my brief association, I learnt many things from the late Mr. Athulathmudali. He taught us law, politics, values and traditions, fearlessness and confidence and above all how to conduct yourself in society.
Despite his very busy schedule, Mr. Athulathmudali always found time to enhance the knowledge and the skills of individuals. I still recall with gratitude an incident which taught me about simplicity in life.
One day he arranged a private dinner for me at the Hilton in a private dining area. When I received the invitation for the dinner I never knew that only he and I would be there for the dinner. I was 27 years old and struggling to come up in the legal profession after having left the attorney general’s department. The purpose of the dinner was to teach me to go through a full western meal without making mistakes. Handling cutlery was something alien to most of us and to this day I appreciate his gesture. At the end of the dinner he told me that one should be proud to be a Sri Lankan and that as Sri Lankans we should be second to none.
In 1994, I had the opportunity of following a course in law and politics in England. My internship was under Mr. Keneth Clarke who was the chancellor of the exchequer of the British Parliament. One evening, I was invited for tea by the speaker of the British Parliament, who inquired from me about the assassination of Mr. Athulathmudali. In the course of the conversation she related to me, a dialogue between her and Mr. Athulathmudali a few years prior to 1994. On a private invitation, Mr. Athulathmudali had met her where she had asked him what the British Government could do to help Sri Lanka. This was during the thickest times of the conflict. The reply that Mr. Athulathmudali had given her made me proud of being a Sri Lankan. He had told her initially “Madam Speaker, I do not think that you could help my country by giving me what I have in my mind”. The Speaker had insisted that she would do anything within her power, at which point Mr. Athulathmudali had curtly replied “Madam Speaker, there is nothing else that I would want, except if you can give us back the pride of the nation that the British took away in 1815, that would be sufficient”.
We have today an era where lot of public funds are wasted on insignificant events. Today for most politicians everything is a project and a ceremony. Opening bridges, repairing of buildings, restructuring of projects, opening of sinks and fixing alternators to buses are the contributions that most politicians of today have the capacity for. Most of them lack vision, foresight and national interest. Most of them thrive on cheap publicity and popularity. Every night, every single television channel would beam programs on the theme ‘How to make this nation’. This has been happening since 1994. The nation is still in the same place in view of the fact that most politicians except for a very few, do not know the meaning of the term “national interest”.
It is in this context that I would always refer to Mr. Athulathmudali as an unparalleled politician. He was a visionary and was fearless in taking decisions.
He is fortunate to have many who associated with him, remembering him even today. Most of them are either from his constituency or from the Colombo port or Mahapola recipients. We all remember him for the contribution that he made for 14 years as a Cabinet minister of Sri Lanka.
When we commemorate his 25th death anniversary, my only wish for him is that his journey through samsara be shortened and that he attains the supreme bliss of nirvana. May his life be an inspiration to those who aspire to be politicians and lawyers.
(The writer is a President’s Counsel)