Wijeyananda Dahanayake was the first iconoclast of the post independent era. It is not fully known whether Dahanayake’s attitudes were entirely through conviction, or whether he was after sensationalist imagery. But, irrespective of the reason, it is clear that Dahanayake’s irreverence had its origins from the time he was a shoolboy of S. Thomas’ College Mt Lavinia.
Warden Stone, the man who liked to wave the British flag in pupils faces, was a cleric who thought that parliamentary tradition was the ultimate cultural experience. Stone took great pride in the mock parliament that was initiated at S. T. C. On the many occassions on which he witnessed the proceedings of the mock chamber, Stone occupied the elevated and exalted position of Speaker.
Dahanayake cut his teeth as the ioconoclast by parrying with Stone, who was for the average Thomian, a martinet and a White Man to be feared and praised. On one occasion, Stone reputedly “named’’ Dahanayake, in true Westminister tradition, and sent him packing from the chambers .
Dahanayake rebelled, and was told bluntly by Stone that the best British parliamentary practise demanded that a Speaker cannot be questioned.
On the next occasion, when Dahanayake occupied the Speaker’s chair, Stone happened to be in the public gallery. Dahnayake “named’’ the Warden, and summarily despatched him from the house. It seemed that Dahanayake never could shed the rebellious spirit after that initiation.
Legend has it that Dahanayake was despatched by Warden Stone for more than an ordinary indiscretion. Apparently, Dahanayake referred to the British as upstarts who “ were climbing trees when a great civilization was flourishing in this part of the world.” Stone was definitely not amused.
Most of these stories about Dahanayake are old hat, and many were bound to resurface at the time of his death. But, since Dahanayake outlived most of his contemporaries, and straddled more than a couple of generations, there will be an entire crop of young people for whom a reminder of Dahanayake’s impish spirit would not be somewhat of an irritation.
Though leader writers and obituary writers have exalted Dahanayake as a office seeker of a different breed, the fact remains that he was a quintessential politician. It would be difficult to say , for instance, that Dahanayake did not have pretensions. For example, Dahanayake was known to have perfected the art of personalized campaigning. In Galle, he was known as a figure who walked into houses, often via the backyard. It was legend in Galle that Dahanayake was fond of walking into kitchens, where he would come out with gems like :” ko me giya sere thibuna kos gaha?”” ( where was the Jak tree that was here last time? ) .
Often there was no kos gaha, and that proved that Dahanayake enjoyed his political posturing. No, he was ‘not a political saint.
But, his posthumous canonization comes out of the fact that he was a politician who regarded incumbency as an end in itself. He didn’t want more from the political game .
Though he inveigled himself into the hearts of the people of Galle, the people loved the rascal. ( I’d say: rascal he was, though a lovable one.) Dahanayake was no visionary, in actual fact, he was more the political eccentric.
It would be a disservice to the image of the man if people discount these realities in his character in their haste to elevate him to the status of political divinity at the time of his passing.
But, Dahanayake’s merit was that he left the political system totally unscathed. That’s more than what could be said of his political contemporaries such as Junius Richard. But, then, Dahanayake never took the great risks, neither did he really have the capacity to take them. He was to the last the political quaintism.
The fact is that he enjoyed the role, and also that he never aspired to be much more than the rebel and iconoclast in a court-jester kind of way, he achieved political mileage out of puncturing the ego’s of his more active political contemporaries.
John Kotelawala, for instance, was Dahanayake’s political polar opposite. Kotelawala made a cottage industry of needling Dahanayake in parliament. Dahanayake was typecast as the simpleton and the political comic.
When Sir John was despatched by the electorate in 1956, Dahanayake had his comeuppance. In parliament, he delivered the comeback in his own pungent style. “Me Dahanayake” he said, “ Minister of Addducation.” (This Dahanayake, Minister of Education!) The way “education” was pronounced was the ultimate in vilification....
(Another interesting anecdote was of Sir John’s pronouncement that he was gong to “ eat that Dahanayake.’ “ Mang Dahanayake kanawa.” Dahanayake’s brisk repartee: “ Ehenang bade wath molaayake thiyeyi.’ ( “Your tummy will have a brain at least.’’)
Dahanayake was always the joker, seldom the joke. That’s where the line could be drawn between the man and the kind of political animal that succeeded him. Iconoclasts of the calibre of Dahanayake were replaced by buffoons and sundry pains-in-the - neck.
It is no doubt poignant that Dahanayake passes away at such a mundane and matter-of-fact time. In the time of stock markets and privatisation, the passing of Dahanayake is not exactly recognized as a political landmark.
It is plainly sad to see the sort of muted reactions to his death — especially in the new fangled media outfits which are clearly merely recording an event.
It is probably a classic lesson on the fact that the political theatre of the kind which prevailed in Dahanayake’s era has inexorably passed. This nation seemed to go into almost hysterical mourning when the Jothipalas and the Nallathambys passed away. But Dahanayake’s death is treated as the demise of another old man.
True that the death of the aged is in the order of things. But, when the old order changeth, and yieldeth place to the new, the transition cannot justly be so muted. It means that the new order is totally alien to the past , that it in no way relates to the old. That’s probably what’s sad about people as colourful and honourouble as Dahanayake dying at a ripe old age.....
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