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I first met Dudley Senanayake in 1967 when he was Prime Minister. I was then a university student and went to meet him as part of a group of representatives from the United National Party student organization.

After this first meeting, I continued to have a close association with the UNP and became close to the party leadership during its reorganization activities after the 1970 election defeat. In 1971, Dudley appointed me as the Acting General Secretary of the All Ceylon UNP Youth League. I was fortunate to maintain this close relationship till Dudley's death on April 13, 1973.

I feel that neither historians nor political analysts have adequately assessed or understood Dudley's politics. When D.S. Senanayake died in such an unexpected manner in 1952, most people expected Sir John Kotelawala to be appointed Prime Minister. However, most UNP members, including J. R. Jayewardene, wanted Dudley to take on the position. This is why he accepted the post. Yet with allegations that he became Prime Minister through the back door, he immediately dissolved Parliament and called for fresh general elections.

His decision proved to be the correct one. The UNP's 1952 election victory was the most fitting indication of his popularity. His victory was even superior to his father's election victory in 1947. The UNP won 54 of the 95 seats in Parliament. Even more satisfactory was the response from the Tamil community in Jaffna.

However, the government Dudley formed in 1952 was short-lived. In the face of ill-health and the situation that arose after the 1953 hartal, he resigned his post. After his resignation, he continued to serve as a Member of Parliament, but when the 1956 elections came around, he did not contest. His unexpected and premature retirement from politics was one of the main reasons for the UNP's huge loss in 1956.

The Rejuvenation of the U.N.P.

After the 1956 defeat, the key decision-maker in the UNP was JR. He knew that his image and skills alone were inadequate to win back the confidence of the people. Therefore, the UNP invited Dudley to rejoin politics and once again become the party leader. At that time, he was not even an MP.

The UNP's victory at the next elections in March 1960 showcased the people's acceptance of Dudley's leadership and JR's strategy. Although the U.N.P. received the highest number of seats as a single party, this was not sufficient to form a government. Therefore it held discussions with the Federal Party to gain its support. However, due to the FP's impossible demands, Dudley decided that the decision should be laid again in the hands of the people. This was why elections were called again in July 1960 just four months later.

Although the UNP's vote bank increased in the July elections, the first-past-the-post system, which prevailed at the time, and the SLFP's no-contest pact with the LSSP and the Communist Party enabled the SLFP to form a government. The SLFP was led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who had been assassinated just a few months before.

As a result of the July 1960 election victory, Sirimavo became Prime Minister and Dudley the Leader of the Opposition. The LSSP joined the government in 1963. Then the government attempted to control all print media through the state machinery. It was obvious that the government was gradually leaning towards a more dictatorial rule and Dudley and J.R. launched a campaign to defeat it. Soon, with the cross-over of fourteen government parliamentarians, including C.P. De Silva, the Leader of the House at that time, Sirimavo's coalition government collapsed.

The 1965 National Government

With the fall of the government, new elections were held in March 1965. Though the UNP under Dudley's leadership won the most number of seats in the elections, this figure was inadequate to form a government. Hence, the UNP enlisted the support of the parties, which had helped it defeat Sirimavo's government. Thus, a national government was formed with Dudley as the Prime Minister. In this extraordinary government, men with completely opposing views were able to work together under Dudley's astute leadership. K.M.P. Rajarathne, the symbol of Sinhala extremism, S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, the symbol of Tamil extremism, and G.G. Ponnambalam, who had once asked for fifty-fifty representation in Parliament, were all in Dudley's government. Both the "Father of Socialism" in Sri Lanka, Philip Gunawardena, and the greatest proponent of the open market economy, J.R. "Yankee Dickie" Jayewardene, worked in tandem with each other in the same cabinet.

Not only did Dudley unite these opposing viewpoints within a "hath havula," but he also kept this government in office for the full five years of its term, the first government to do so since independence. Dudley, who had accepted the role of Prime Minister so reluctantly in 1952 and let go of it so easily, had now proven his magnificent skills as the head of the government. In fact, Dudley was the last government leader who had parliamentarians elected from both the Southern and the Northern Provinces within his cabinet. Further, after Dudley's government, no MP elected from the Federal Party or the Tamil Congress ever sat in government benches again.

Before the 1965 elections, Dudley had negotiated with the Federal Party to reach a compromise to resolve Tamil political grievances. Dudley and Chelvanayakam had come to an understanding to form District Councils, which would decentralize the country's administration. In 1968, Dudley presented a parliament Bill, which would allow these councils to be set up.

The Bill would need to be passed in the House of Representatives for the councils to become a reality. However, the opposition, including the SLFP and the leftist parties, gave no ear to Dudley's explanations and refused to even consider the Bill. There was opposition to it even from within the UNP. In the end, Dudley withdrew the Bill, concluding that, "it is evident that the majority of the people of this country do not want the Bill, and it is not my intention to force anything against the wishes of the people”.

However, Dudley was able to pass an Act of Parliament in 1966 to allow the Tamil language to be used as the official language in districts where Tamil-speaking people were in the majority.

Dudley and the economy

Dudley's views on both human rights and democratic principles were very much those of a liberal democrat. However, the decisions he made both as Minister of Agriculture and Lands in the 1947 government and as Prime Minister from 1965 till 1970 show a different mindset behind his economic policies. During that time, he concentrated on alleviating the heart-grinding poverty and problems of the landless peasants in the island. He also granted many subsidies and assistance to the people, including one kilogram of free rice per week to every citizen. People venerated him as the "bath dun piya".

Dudley often stated that the poor peasant must be given the right to alleviate his own poverty and be free from hunger. He said that it was the state's responsibility to provide the means for the peasant to have both the physical and psychological strength to work towards lifting himself out of this poverty. When it came to economics, Dudley was truly a social democrat. It was his constant belief that economic prosperity without social justice was fruitless and in the long run, absolutely useless.

In the 1965-70 government, Dudley managed to turn around an economy that had been burdened by restrictions on economic activities and other so-called socialist experiments in the years preceding 1965.

A major stepping stone in Sri Lanka's post-independence economic development was the country's first Multi-Purpose River Valley Development Project, the Gal Oya scheme, which began in 1949 when Dudley was the Minister of Agriculture and Lands. This aimed to construct a reservoir with a capacity of 770,000 acre feet that would irrigate about 120,000 acres of paddy land and also generate enough electricity to satisfy the needs of the Eastern Province. The Senanayake Samudraya is the largest irrigation tank built in the history of Sri Lanka. As a result of this project, even today, Ampara district, where the Gal Oya project is situated, is the largest rice-growing district in the island. Some critics now say these schemes with forced human settlements changed the ethnic balance in the north and the east. However, these settlers were selected with due consideration to the prevailing ethnic ratios in those districts. When the Gal Oya Development Act was presented to Parliament, two parliamentarians, Kumaraswamy and Kariyappar, who represented Tamil and Muslim communities in those provinces, fully supported the bill. Thus this allegation is baseless.

Dudley also concentrated on the restoration of several ancient irrigation tanks like Devahuwa, Kantale, Allai and Kandalama. Simultaneously, he understood the impracticality of applying agricultural research done in the Peradeniya climate to the lands of the Dry Zone -- two completely different ecological zones. Hence, he mounted efforts not only to expand the Maha Illuppalama Dry Zone agricultural farm, but also establish a multi-purpose farm in Ampara and rice research stations in Bombuwela and Kantale. At the Central Rice Research Station in Batalagoda, new forms of disease-resistant, high-yielding seed paddy were bred.

Dudley also initiated the Mahaweli Development Scheme by passing an Act in Parliament to establish an institutional framework, obtaining the commitment of foreign aid, and beginning the construction of the first dam at Polgolle and a tunnel to carry water to Bowetenna.

The Green Revolution

In 1966, with the world rice shortage and escalating prices, Sri Lanka faced a crisis in the importation of its staple food. In response, Dudley launched a food production drive that particularly aimed at increasing rice production. This was the beginning of the famous Green Revolution in Sri Lanka.

It was the most successful project launched during the 1965 to 1970 era to revolutionize Sri Lankan agriculture, especially traditional paddy cultivation. The Green Revolution almost realized the country's dream of self-sufficiency in its staple food. In just a short span of five years, it increased the income of those involved in paddy cultivation and not only doubled the amount of paddy produced in the island, but also the average yield per acre. The total paddy production in the country surged from 36.3 million bushels in 1965 to 77.4 million bushels in 1970. However, with the change of government in 1970, Dudley's Green Revolution lost its direction.

Dudley, the People's Politician

In each election the UNP contested under Dudley's leadership, it was able to increase its vote bank, notwithstanding victory or defeat. This was largely due to Dudley's popularity. At the time of his death, he was just an opposition Member of Parliament. However, more than one million people came to Colombo to pay respect to his body.

Dudley was never a vindictive or bullying leader. He never tried to get even with opponents after they lost an election and always maintained that the electoral loss meted out to them by the people was sufficient punishment. Dudley also never used anything, but verbal argument to entice his opponents to his side. Strong-arm tactics and corruption were alien to him. Moreover, he was a supremely modest man, whose political positions were very much thrust on him, often over his own reluctance. His compassion for the people, especially peasant farmers, made him attractive to the masses of Sri Lanka, as did his unimpeachable integrity.

Dudley was truly a gentleman politician. His politics showed the principles of a liberal democrat and his economic policies that of a social democrat and this combination provided a unique and astute leadership to the nation. In a country that cries for gentlemanly politics and democratic principles, Dudley Senanayake's ideology provides an exemplary guide.

(The writer is a former Minister of Human Resource Development, Education and Cultural Affairs and the present U.N.P. Organizer for Kolonnawa)