How Dudley mended fences with JR

By the beginning of June 1972 Dudley Senanayake had re-established his dominance within his own party through a renewal of his partnership with J. R. His reconciliation with his long-time deputy took the country and the government by surprise because, as late as the third week of May, everything seemed to point to a parting of the ways for them.

This vitally important piece of political fence mending done and over with, Dudley Senanayake was intent on a more systematic exploitation of the advantages that flowed to him and the UNP from the worsening economic difficulties of the government and the strains and stresses within the UF coalition resulting from these and other factors.

When the government celebrated the introduction of the New Constitution on 22 May 1972 with the customary fanfare and ceremonial, much of the glitter that had once attached to the UF government had gone.

The JVP insurrection had challenged its socialist credentials.

Although beaten back, the young revolutionaries had exposed weaknesses in the regime's bases of support among the young in the rural areas and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the greatest threat to the government's once extensive political base lay in the deteriorating economy.

Everywhere in the country there were signs of hard times: essential items of consumption were scarce and were becoming scarcer still; Prices were rising steeply, and above all, queues for food and clothing were now a familiar feature of the political landscape .

Never before had the people of the country spent such long hours in queues. The queues and the hours spent in them became longer still as 1972 came to an end, and continued into late 1973. Sri Lanka seemed much like the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe.

Dudley Senanayake was intent on reaping the political rewards available to a credible critic of this situation of economic malaise. None in fact was more credible than he, and that for two reasons.

In his election campaign of 1970 he had warned his audiences that this was the likely result of the economic policies the UF coalition would adopt.

Secondly the UF government had spent several months in dismantling the administrative apparatus for agricultural development that Dudley Senanayake had built in the late 1960s. Their spokesmen had ridiculed his government's claims of substantial improvements in food production.

Now, in the first two years of the UF government, the fall in rice production had been as great as 40% and the shortages of rice, as well as the increase in its price in the open market, were clearly seen to be the result of this mistaken policy.

His vindication was complete when the Minister of Agriculture of the UF government began to re-introduce the policies he had begun. In addition to all this Dudley Senanayake led a campaign against the creeping authoritarianism of the UF government, of which its decision to establish a Press Council, as a prelude to systematic state control over the national press, was only one.

There was also the Interpretation Ordinance which limited the powers of the courts in regard to the interpretation of laws passed by Parliament. More such measures were in the offing.

The opportunity to take this message to the country at large came his way in the last quarter of 1972 when the government decided to hold by-elections to four Parliamentary seats, in one instance because of the death of the sitting MP, and in the others because the MPs concerned had lost their seats as a result of petitions successfully challenging their elections for transgressions of the country's strict election laws and electoral procedures.

The constituencies affected included Nuwara-Eliya where Gamini Dissanayake was standing for election again after being unseated on a technicality; Kesbewa, a constituency close to Colombo, a dormitory suburb for commuters to some extent, but largely a rural constituency with a reputation for political radicalism; Puttalam where the sitting MP had died; and Ratnapura.

These by-elections should normally have been held much earlier, and just after the vacancy occurred.

They were postponed because of the state of emergency imposed after the JVP insurrection, and as a result all four of them were held together, the first real test of public opinion since the government came to power.

For Dudley Senanayake no less than for the government the by- elections were an important challenge. Only one of these seats Nuwara- Eliya - had been won by the UNP in 1970 and there the government concentrated much of its attention, sending Felix Dias to organize its campaign, in the hope of snatching the seat from the UNP. They were much more confident about the other three seats. Dudley Senanayake and J. R. saw things differently.

They felt that the UNP had a splendid opportunity to re-establish itself as a credible opposition and a genuine alternative government. For Dudley Senanayake it was an opportunity to test the public reaction to the new constitution.

He had indicated his intention of resigning his seat at the end of May 1975 to focus attention on what he called the "two stolen" years, the two years the government has awarded itself beyond the five of which they had been elected under the previous constitution.

By curious coincidence the four by-elections covered a quadrilateral within which at least two fifths of the population lived, and four constituencies which also reflected the rich diversity the island's people from Sinhalese to Tamil and Muslim from Buddhist to Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Thus unwittingly the government had provided the arena for a referendum on its performance since it came to power.

Dudley Senanayake was the star performer on this occasion. Attracting more enthusiastic crowds than he had since his successful campaign of 1965.

During this by-election campaign he recovered the credibility that he appeared to have lost in 1970.

He and J.R. between them revelled in exposing the magnitude and difficulty of the government's predicament, Dudley Senanayake with passion and wit and JR, as usual, piling one logical argument after another. The results were enormously encouraging.

The UNP won 3 of the 4 by-elections. It retained Nuwara-Eliya very comfortably, thus securing the services of Gamini Dissanayake for the rest of the life of the current Parliament; it re-captured its once safe seat of Puttalam, won Kesbewa on a split in the UF vote and substantially reduced the UF candidates margin of victory at Ratnapura.

The by-elections of 1972 were to be the first of several over the next few years which the UNP won, often by resounding margins. They restored Duley Senanayake's self-confidence which had been sapped by his party's defeat, and his own narrow victory, at the general election of 1970.

Even more important his party had, at last, shown signs that it was winning the confidence of the electorate as a viable, credible and vigorous alternative to the UF regime.

The Prime Minister that was Dudley Senanayake

Twenth-six years ago on Sinhala New Year's Day this nation suffered a tragic loss in the death of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake in the prime of his life when he could have done so much for the country.

It may perhaps be said that he was born great in the sense that he was the son of the first and a great prime minister, and that he had greatness almost thrust upon him on his father's death.

But history records that he achieved greatness by sheer love of country, dedicated service to the nation and unbending loyalty to true democracy. He was loved by his people and respected by his opponents. Can the same be said of those who succeeded him? No, because they all had in them a little bit of totalitarianism, or pride and arrogance, or animosity towards those who opposed them. I think this nation surely misses a man of his calibre at this crucial stage of its history.

I quote two passages from speeches made in Parliament by two eminent Parliamentarians who knew him well.

Mr. J.R.Jayewardene : "Here was a colleague who touched the deep sea of reverence in a wider world in our country than possibly any other person in its long history . If a man could draw that affection and goodwill, he has a claim to be known as one of its greatest sons."

Mr. Gamini Dissanayake : "Mr. Dudley Senanayake should be remembered as he really was in life - a simple man with his share of human frailties, minus the airs and props that accompany high position, and a man who by his simple ways constantly reminded us of the truth of the saying , 'A truly extraordinary man is in the final analysis a truly ordinary man.'

The iron heel of totalitarianism never appealed to him. The arrogance of power was not a part of his constitution .

He was a true democrat who only believed in the democratic approach towards the solution of ills. Trade unionists, political opponents, power lobbies and agitators of diverse hues and colours will bear testimony to his spirit of democratic toleration and moderation."

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