Minister Alavi Mowlana

When we made history

Down Memory Lane

By Roshan Peiris

An early, yet deep-rooted conviction that there should be equal opportunities for all, led Minister Alavi Mowlana to enter politics. He was just 19 then and in the years that followed the young man embraced the Leftist movement, becoming an active trade unionist.

"It suited my temperament and convictions," he recalls smiling. Forty-five years later he can look back with satisfaction that he made the right choice.

But the long road to his present position as Minister of Provincial Councils was never easy. He had to face many hardships as convenor of the Joint Council of Trade Unions. At that time, he says, trade union action was looked down upon as being a source of indiscipline.

"I was even kept in remand once," he recollects.

During the July 1980 strike, he remembers vividly being badly manhandled. "I was unmercifully attacked by UNP goons and was stabbed. One of my kidneys was so badly damaged that I was in the Intensive Care Unit for two days."

This experience did not deter the veteran trade unionist. In fact it seems to have spurred him on. "I got my political support from both the Sinhalese and the Tamils, though being a minority member. I could not ask for a better compliment."

The foundation for his early interest in politics came perhaps from his schooldays at St. Peter's College, Bambalapitiya where he was a prefect.

"The early training in leadership was invaluable though it meant I could not be naughty in class," he chuckles. "Only B.R. Heyn, my English teacher punished me for being late to school. I was asked to kneel for one hour. That was considered the only way to inculcate discipline and values like punctuality."

The eldest in a family of six (he had two brothers and three sisters) he was his mother's pet. His father died when young Alavi was just 12 and though he was boarded at school, she would come everyday to see him to make sure he was not neglecting his meals. She died eight years ago and he pays a warm tribute to her memory. "I was looked after, nurtured and guided by her overwhelming love all these years," he says.

Of his political career he recalls how as a youth of 19, he brought in a no-confidence motion against UNP stalwart Dr. Kumaran Rutnam in the Municipal Council. "I was barely out of school but my strong convictions made medo it."

He recalls too how Baduiddin Muhammad appealed to the Muslims to join the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Hitherto, he explained the majority of Muslims supported the UNP. "S.W.R.D Bandaranaike wisely pointed out that all eggs should not be put into one basket. To me there was logic and force in this argument, so I joined the SLFP," he says. He remembers too Mrs. Bandaranaike becoming Prime Minister, the first woman in the world to hold this high office. "It was an unforgettable moment for a young man. I felt we were making history."

With so many years of politics behind him there is nothing Seyed Ahamed Seyed Alavi Mowlana would like more than to see a future of unity dawn for the people of this country. "It is my dearest wish," he says emphatically.

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