He never aspired to be a leader but was indispensable to leaders of the day
D.R. Wijewardene
When recalling the memory of Don Richard Wijewardene, the founder of Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., we recall the memory of a man who never aspired to be a leader but found himself in a position in which he was indispensable to the leaders of the day.
He will always be remembered as one who brought about a silent revolution in this country which he inspired and nurtured unto his life’s end.
“It is probably correct to say” according to a commentator, “that no other Ceylonese during the present century exercised a more pervasive influence on his countrymen than Wijewardene did.”
When Wijewardene bought the Daily News in 1918, this country was only a Crown Colony ruled by British Governors who lorded it among themselves and ruled the country like monarchs responsible only to a Secretary of State for the Colonies.
And when he died in 1950 the country had gained its independence as a full-fledged member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The contribution he made towards this objective earned for himself a place for which his name must be cherished.
Had D.R. Wijewardene followed his father’s readymade business career of having logs of wood bought in the jungle and floated down the river to his father’s mill, in Sedawatte, he would still have been a reasonably rich man but he was meant for greater things.
He entered the business of a newspaper publisher though he did not have any experience in journalism nor in business management. He ran a calculated risk in this undertaking.
As stated by his biographer, ‘failure would have spelt financial ruin for one, who though well-off, was by no means a very rich man. As it turned out to be, he succeeded and when he died, left a considerable fortune.”
Politics became his passion from his University days at Cambridge and continued up to his death. After graduating at Cambridge, he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple and returned to Ceylon in 1912 and endeavoured to begin a legal career.
He entered a field in this country which at that time was characterised as “the golden age of lawyers”.Those were the days of Sir Alexander Wood-Renton on the Bench, Sir Anton Bertram, a famous classical scholar as Attorney-General, and eminent King’s Counsel of the calibre of Sir Fredrick Dornhurst, Sir Thomas de Sampayo, Benjamin Bawa, H.J.C. Pereira, the Jayewardene brothers, G.S. Schneider, Alan Drieberg, E,J. Samerawickrema and H.A.P. Sandrasagara.
Perhaps Wijewardene thought it futile to try to compete against this galaxy of brilliant intellects, not the younger men who were his contemporaries. He must have realised his own limitations and his shyness and inability as a ready speaker.
Still this helped him in the selection of his career as a newspaper proprietor which brought him fame with his name being perpetuated in the pages of this country’s history.
There were many influential papers in Ceylon when D.R. Wijewardene bought the Daily News at the termination of the first World War. Apart from the Daily News there were four other daily newspapers published in English. They were the Times of Ceylon, the Observer, The Morning Leader and the Ceylon Independent.
The Times of Ceylon was exclusively the preserve of the Englishmen and became known as the planter’s Bible; the others were more neutral in their views and catered to the Ceylonese community. There were also a number of Sinhalese and Tamil newspapers.
When Wijewardene died, his newspapers were available in every corner of the country, helped no doubt by new methods of transportation.
As his biographer H.A.J. Hulugalle states: “The remarkable increase in literacy together with new methods of production and distribution sent up the circulation by leaps and bounds…Wijewardene was, in fact, fulfilling in Ceylon the same function which Northcliffe had set for himself in England a dozen years earlier.”
The Ceylon Observer was bought by Wijewardene himself in 1923 for Rs. 100,000. The Observer was then “in the heyday of power in the land” manned as it was by the Fergusons – A.M. and John.
This generally is the way Wijewardene built his chain of newspapers which today stand out prominently in the life of this country. He was the dread of some politicians and always sought after by others for advice. He always criticised a government when they did what he thought was wrong but was not prepared to bring down a government.
There are several in this country who claim to be freedom fighters but no man contributed to this result as D.R. Wijewardene did.
Sir Oliver Goonetilleke records in his biography by Charles Jeffries, how they once upset articles to appear on a particular day in Wijewardene’s papers. The influential Lake House group of newspapers had decided to support the Ministers in taking a strong line against Lord Soulbury and his fellow commissioners. Sir Oliver who was chief spokesman for D.S. Senanayake at the Independence talks, had to convince Senanayake in the first instance of the inadvisability of a strong line. He succeeded with Senanayake and then proceeded to the residence of Wijewardene, the man whom they had to convince, if freedom had to be achieved.
The official chauffeurs of both Senanayake and Sir Oliver had been sent home for the day, and taxis were rare. They therefore rode in two rickshaws (now an anachronism if any are to be found) in the darkness of the night to see their newspaper magnate friend and tell him of the new policy of the government.
After a long discussion, Wijewardene himself was brought to agree with this moderate course and the articles which the Wijewardene papers were to publish a day later, were withdrawn.
This was the power and influence which Wijewardene wielded and commanded in the country and which no one dared oppose. He was always fair in his political dealings and was always prepared to listen to a situation if necessary and be convinced by arguments, which the other party or parties could adhere to the contrary as was more in the case of D.S. Senanayake and Sir Oliver Goonetilleke.
As Hulugalle says in his biography of D.R. Wijewardene, when Ceylon became an independent nation, it accepted many of the things that he (Wijewardene) had advocated through his newspapers over a period of more than thirty years. As a result of his labours Ceylon was more prepared than many other newly-emancipated countries to embark on an era of peace and prosperity under a democratic form of government, for no one can deny that his newspapers did as much as any other influence to bring about a smooth transition.
D.R. Wijewardene has always been looked upon as a ‘star disciplinarian and a hard taskmaster”. But it was felt that this attitude of mind and heart was essential by one who was in the process of building his own business, if it was not to end in failure.
It is said of him that later in life, he developed a more liberal outlook to judge by his decisions to give second and third chances to his staff who made lapses, which in earlier circumstances he would not countenance.
Wijewardene was a man of few friends and that friendship was not confined to any particular community, caste or religion. His close friends included Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors and Burghers, be they Buddhist, Christian, Hindus or Muslims.
Today we recall the memory of one who though an autocrat and a martinet was a man of generous and kindly disposition; a man who left nothing to chance where the independence of the country was concerned and saw to it that such independence was gained; of a man who succeeded in building a newspaper business which was the envy of many, and to which several aspired but whose efforts ended in failure. Above all, a man who stood firmly for liberty of the press and the liberty of the individual.
It is said by H.A.J. Hulugalle that “the lesson of Wijewardene’s life is that man can achieve great things for their native land if they have faith in the future and are prepared to work for their ideals with self-discipline and tolerance.”
(H.B.W. Abeynaike was Parliament Editor of the Daily News and veteran foreign
correspondent)
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