Funday Times

Since gaining Independence in 1948
We celebrate February fourth as Independence Day. What does it mean?
It means the end of foreign domination since 1505 when the Portuguese landed and took control of the maritime provinces. The Dutch took over from the Portuguese in 1656 and ruled for 140 years when the British took control, first of the coastal regions and later the Kandyan kingdom in 1815. The whole country then came under British rule until 1948. It was really with the capture of the last Sinhalese king, Sri Vickrema Rajasinghe who ruled from Kandy that we lost our Independence totally.

On February 4, 1948 Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known gained Dominion Status within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Until then we were a Crown Colony of the British Empire. The Sinhalese leaders rebelled against the British administration in the Kandyan provinces as early as 1848 but the rebellion failed.

As the years passed by and the Sinhalese and the Tamils became more and more educated, the leaders began to agitate for participation in the country's administration, which was in the hands of the British Governor representing the British monarch, and English bureaucrats. Gradually they gained a foothold in the administration even though it was limited.

With the advent of World War II in 1939, the British were involved in trying to win the war and constitutional reforms in colonies including India and Ceylon were pushed back. It was only after the conclusion of the war in 1945 that serious discussions began to take place on granting independence to the colonies.

With the granting of Dominion Status, the British decided to let our political leaders manage the affairs of the country. While a Governor-General represented the Queen, Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake became Ceylon's first Prime Minister under the Soulbury Constitution, named after Lord Soulbury, the Chairman of the Royal Commission appointed to recommend constitutional reforms.

The United National Party (UNP) led by Senanayake had secured a majority at the 1947 General Election when Members of Parliament (MPs) -101 in all -were elected to the House of Representatives. The Soulbury Constitution had recommended a bicameral legislature and Ceylon also had a Senate comprising 30 members.

The first Senanayake Cabinet had both senior Sinhalese and Tamil political leaders. Members of the Marxist parties formed the opposition in Parliament under the system of government based on the British system popularly known as the 'Westminster Style'.

The opening of the dry zone once again by building large irrigation projects to give water to the farmers was the highlight of the Senanayake administration. Colonization schemes were started whereby peasants were settled in hitherto uncultivated land and provided with facilities to develop the land through agriculture. Having been the Minister of Agriculture prior to becoming Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake had the vision to develop the country giving priority to agriculture. His accomplishments included the vast schemes based on the MinneriyaTank and the new multi - purpose Gal Oya project.

The death of Senanayake in 1952 saw his son, Dudley, Minister of Agriculture taking over as Prime Minister followed by Sir John Kotelawela in 1955. Meanwhile, a major challenge to the UNP government was organized by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, a senior member of the Senanayke (Sr) Cabinet who left the government in 1951 and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). He won the 1956 general election and became Prime Minister and worked towards giving a place to the common man. Sinhala became the official language replacing English and the national dress was given pride of place.

Just three years later, Bandaranaike's assassination created a sense of uncertainty. W. Dahanayake Minister of Education, served as Caretaker Prime Minister until the March 1960 general election when Dudley Senanayake and the UNP came to power. However, the government lasted just four months. The July 1960 general election saw Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of the former Prime Minister leading the SLFP to victory and being appointed the world's first woman Prime Minister. She governed till 1965 when the general election saw the people electing a UNP government under Dudley Senanayake once again.

At the end of five years, at the 1970 general election, the United Front led by Mrs. Bandaranaike formed the government winning a two-thirds majority in Parliament - a record for any democratic election. The members of the House of Representatives formed themselves into a Constituent Assembly and the new Republican Constitution was adopted on May 22, 1972. The Upper House, the Senate was abolished in October 1971.

With the promulgation of the new constitution, the country's name, 'Ceylon' was replaced by 'Sri Lanka', a non-executive President took the place of the Governor - General. The country was officially named 'the Democratic Socialist Republic'.

The general election held in 1977 resulted in a landslide victory for the UNP led by J. R. Jayewardene, who introduced the Presidential system of government by promulgating a new constitution for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, commonly referred to as the Second Republican Constitution.

The 1978 Constitution created the Executive Presidency whereby the President of Sri Lanka became Head of State, the Head of the Executive and the Government, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is elected by the people for a period of six years. It introduced proportional representation on the list system in place of the Westminster style, first-past-the-post system.

We have had five Presidents under the new constitution - J. R. Jayewardene (1978-89), R. Premadasa (1989-93), D. B. Wijetunga (1993-94), Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (1994-2005) and Mahinda Rajapakse who was elected President in November 2005.
We have come a long way since 1948 and yesterday we celebrated the completion of 58 years of regaining Independence.

Uncle DeeCee

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