15th October 2000
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TRIBUTE
- Queen B
- Family ties...
- Mother of the nation...
- "When human life is involved, all else is secondary"
- Her eyes
- Sirima will be missed
- In her own words…
Queen B
For more than forty years, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, held centre stage in Sri Lankan politics. Catapulted into the limelight in1959 following the shock assassination of her brilliant politician husband Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike, the diffident housewife from Horagolla, disparagingly called the 'weeping widow' by her critics, soon proved her mettle.Sirimavo Bandaranaike put little Sri Lanka on the international map when in 1960 at the age of 44, she became the world's first woman prime minister. She held office from 1960-65, then again from 1970-77 presiding over the country's change into a Republic and finally became prime minister for the third time in 1994, this time with her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga as the country's executive president. Ill-health however, dogged her last years and in August this year, she relinquished public office.
In the 1960s, Mrs.Bandaranaike wowed the world with her presence as the only female leader amongst an international stage dominated by a galaxy of prominent men, especially from the Non-Aligned Movement among whom were India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser,Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito and Indonesia's Gen.Sukharno. She maintained excellent ties with neighbouring countries and shared a close personal friendship with Indian premier Indira Gandhi. She was also close to the Chinese leaders Mao Tse Tung and Chou-en-lai. In 1976, she hosted the Non-Aligned Summit in Colombo and this was considered the pinnacle of her career in international affairs.
During the Bangladesh war in 1971,she permitted Pakistani flights to re-fuel at Colombo and yet kept the confidence of Mrs.Gandhi. Another notable achievement was when she obtained for Sri Lanka sovereignty over the barren but disputed island of Kachchativu situated between India and Sri Lanka.
Whilst she shone on the international stage, at home, though her career was chequered.
She faced a military coup in 1962 and swiftly quelled the JVP insurgency in 1971.
Her takeover of Lake House and closure of the Independent Newspapers Group were, however, blots on her record. On the economic front, propelled by her Marxist allies, she implemented unpopular left-oriented economic and social policies which brought about an era of shortages and queues.
In 1975,she removed the Marxists from her coalition and began pushing right-wing policies but it was too late and the opposition UNP swept to a landslide victory in 1977.
In what was possibly the darkest hour of her political life, the UNP under President J.R. Jayewardene cruelly stripped her of her civic rights, forcing her out of politics for what was loosely called "abuse of power" in 1980.
Five years later, the grand old lady once again led the SLFP to power and was sworn in as Prime Minister by her daughter Chandrika.
Her death marks the end of a remarkable career of a woman who emerged from her husband's shadow to write her name in this country's history as a stateswoman of courage and integrity.
Family ties...
The Bandaranaike-Ratwatte wedding
"I
attended the wedding of 'Young Banda' to Miss Ratwatte (daughter of Disawa
Barnes Ratwatte and niece of the late Sir Cudah) at Balangoda and a week
later, their ceremonial homecoming to Sir Solomon Bandaranaike's residence
near Veyangoda. This marriage is 
of
great sociological and political importance. Whatever opinion one may hold
of young Bandaranaike as Minister for Local Administration, or as founder
and leader of the Sinhala Maha Sabha or as a pervert for political purposes
from Christianity to Buddhism or as a master of nationalist rhetoric, one
is bound to admit that he has taken to himself a wife who appears 
thoroughly
nice, placid and sensible and that this union between a first-rank family
of the lowlands with a first-rank family of the Kandyan highlands represents
an accretion of considerable political influence to the Sinhala Maha Sabha."
Extract
from 'Things Ceylonese': twelfth periodical report by Sir Andrew Caldecott
for CO (Colonial Office) from British Documents on the End of Empire edited
by K.M de Silva.
Mother of the nation...
Sirimavo
Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike had.... achieved distinction on her own account
by becoming the world's first woman Prime Minister. But rather more important
than the accident by which she preceded Mrs Indira Gandhi, Mrs Golda Meir
and Mrs Margaret Thatcher to a winning post set up by keepers of world
records is the fact, undisputed I should imagine by those who follow Lankan
politics, that she is the most formidable and charismatic leader the country
has ever seen. A woman of 
unusually
strong will and possessed of a sturdy resolution that her later career
has given her frequent opportunity to display, she did not allow public
criticism to deter her from what she doubtless saw as her duty both to
her children and to her husband's memory.
The French newspapers in Lausanne where I found myself in 1960 carried
pictures of Sirimavo, her face pale, her eyes rimmed with dark shadows,
campaigning from public platforms for the Sri Lanka 
Freedom
Party. They used the terms volupteuse and seducteuse to describe the placid
lady I had last seen at Horagolla Walauwa acknowledging with conventionally
folded hands the greetings of her husband's supporters and later quietly
but efficiently organising the midday meal that fed hundreds of rejoicing
SLFP partisans gathered to celebrate uncle Solomon's 'famous victory'.
Most conservative members of our clan, ...reacted with deep misgivings
.......when on the death of her husband, Sirimavo was persuaded by senior
members of his party to enter politics. Even uncle 
Paul
Deraniyagala who had been Solomon's best man when he married Sirimavo shook
his head gravely over the idea of his cousin's widow in national politics..
"She can't achieve anything by it," said Uncle Paulie. "What does she know of politics. In Solla's time, Sirima presided over nothing fiercer than the kitchen fire. And think what Ceylon's like-would people ever tolerate a woman at the top? She'll end up by spoiling her personal reputation and ruining the family name."
From Relative Merits- A Personal Memoir of the Bandaranaike Family of Sri Lanka by Yasmine Gooneratne ---> More
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