A memorable evening with General Sir John Kotelawala PC, KBE, CH, K.StJ
Prime Minister of Ceylon 1951-1956February 2, 2013, 4:47 pm
by Neville Jayaweera
Part 1
It was on a hot summer's evening in June 1974, on the manicured lawn
of Sir John's sprawling farm Brogues Wood in Kent, that the
extraordinary conversation I am about to narrate took place.
I happened to be travelling in England at that time, when Mrs Lorna
Wright, Sir John's housekeeper and hostess at that time, telephoned me
to say that Sir John will be happy if I would come round one evening
to Brogues Wood for drinks and supper. Needless to say I accepted the
invitation promptly!.
Kent was drenched in sunshine that summer evening and the drive down
to Brogues Wood in Sir John's Bentley, along quaint country lanes
lined by hedgerows, my progress hampered only by herds of lazy cattle
curled up on the roadside, was redolent of a bygone era. Kent had not
yet been crisscrossed by eight-lane motorways and was still holding up
its reputation as being England's apple orchard and the county for fox
hunting.
Sir John received me under the porch of his sprawling manor in his
characteristic expansive style, adding with a loud guffaw, " So! So!
Jayaweera, what foul wind blows you to this fair shore, men?" and
waved me to one of a circle of chairs that had been arranged for
drinks on the lawn and invited me to share his favourite premier malt
whiskey Glenfiddich, before sitting down to supper.
Even allowing for Sir John's notoriety as a raconteur, the stories he
related to me that evening, were certainly not malicious gossip nor
did I think that they were false. Two of Sir John's many
characteristics were his brutal honesty and his unwillingness to
indulge in diplomatic double-talk, as when he confronted Chou En Lai
at Bandung and caused an international furore.
I was so convinced that Sir John was "telling it as it was", that upon
my return to Colombo I urged my one time colleague Godfrey Gunatilleke
of the Marga Institute, to have Sir John's stories recorded on tape
for posterity. I believe that Gunatilleke sent one of the Marga staff,
Lalitha Gunawardena, with a tape recorder to Kandawela, Sir John's
home in Sri Lanka, to record his stories. Those priceless tapes, now
more than 35 years on, may still be languishing somewhere in Marga's
archives.
Historiography
Unless those tapes have been published, which I do not think is the
case, the stories that Sir John related to me that evening will
forever be forgotten and will not be available to historians. To avert
such an outcome, some time back, I responded to an invitation extended
to me by Doug Jones, the editor of the CEYLANKAN, the high class
journal produced by the Sri Lankan community in Australia, to
contribute the Sir John narrative as an article to his journal.
However, for considerations of space in the journal I had to edit out
large segments from the narrative. Except for some of the unprintable
expletives with which Sir John laced the conversation, here below is
the full unabridged version.
I was prompted to put Sir John's stories in writing because much of
history is based on published documents, official releases and
memoirs, whereas anecdotal data and firsthand accounts, which reflect
what had been going on behind the scenes and which lend to the
official versions a very different perspective, are hardly afforded
space.
Historiography is like an iceberg, only 1/7th being visible above the
water. Unseen and unheard, but bulging large below the water line,
there is invariably a tangled mass of cunning machinations, pretences
and deceptions which, though never entering the mainstream of official
history, are often its driving motors and mainsprings.
In the articles that follow, I shall relate the stories that Sir John
related to me some 36 years ago, all bearing on contemporary Sri Lanka
history, which though overtaken by time, resonate in my memory as if
they were related to me yesterday.
To preserve their richness and flavour I shall relate Sir John's
narrations in the first person dramatic form, rather than in a third
person reportage format, which would drain the stories of their
vibrancy, but I shall have to exclude from the narrative some of Sir
John's rich expletives which even for a Sunday reader might be a bit
over the top.
Four narratives
.
This series will include the following narratives as they were related
to me by Sir John.
1. How both Dudley Senanayake and he were involved in planning the
attempted coup of 1962.
2. How Sir John designed and carried out a plan to have the coup
detenus released from prison.
3. How he executed a cunning conspiracy designed by Prime Minister D.
S. Senanayake to influence Lord Soulbury in writing his report and
4. How he was instrumental in cementing the marriage of Sirima
Ratwatte (later Mrs B ) to S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.
While relating stories focusing on a range of personalities and events
referred to above, although unsolicited by me and interspersed between
those stories, Sir John also gave me the benefit of his distilled
wisdom on such issues as democracy and governance. While some of those
views were quite startling even for a man of Sir John's reputation,
they all bore the stamp of his unadorned and brutal honesty.
Sir John's views on democracy and all that
Sir John ( Sir.J.): So! So! I understand you have taken early
retirement. Damn shame! No wonder! Who the hell can work with this
bunch! (meaning Mrs. B's United Front coalition government of 1970
which included the LSSP and the Communist party )
Neville J ( N.J. ): Well Sir! I had only just turned 40 and I thought
I should launch out on a new career and took early retirement.
Sir. J. You know something? I'll tell it to you now and if you wish to
you can quote me. Sri Lanka is not ready for democracy. In a country
like Sri Lanka democracy becomes government by bloody mugs and idiots.
You take a villager, wash the mud off him, clothe him in a national
dress and he is ready to govern the country. Look at the present lot
(i.e. the 1970 UF government).They got in by promising to give our
poor buggers (sic) two measures of free rice, even from the moon. The
rulers as well as the people who voted them to power are total idiots.
N.J. Hang on a moment Sir John. Mrs B's present government ( UF
government of 1970 - 77 ) has on its Cabinet people like Dr N. M,
Perera, Dr Colvin R. de Silva, Pieter Keuneman, and several other
professionals who are hardly illiterate gamaralas whose mud has just
been washed out! Also please don't forget Sir, that it was Dudley who
first gave one measure of free rice and Mrs B went only one better.
Dudley also started the Poya Day holidays. Don't you agree that both
policies were utterly idiotic? Dudley and you come from the same upper
class. So it is not always the gamarala who comes to town who is an
idiot but upper-class gentlemen who have been to St. Thomas' and
Cambridge are no better.
Sir. J. You are damn right!. But why did Dudley give the people a
measure of free rice and Poya Day holidays because that was the only
way to placate our bloody illiterate voters. You give our buggers
(sic) a plate of buriyani and you have them by their "b - - - s". It
will always be like that in this country. Look at the great Thomian
and Oxford intellectual the great SWRD, "Sinhala Only in 24 hours".
Why? That was the only way to beat me. He got elected and he put the
country on reverse gear. I stood for two official languages and I got
booted out!
N.J. So what alternative would you recommend in place of majority rule?
Sir J. Majority rule is OK when the whole electorate is politically
educated. I say Jayaweera! You bloody well know that literacy is not
education.
N.J. I know that Sir, but until the whole electorate is politically
educated, which can take a century or more, what do we put in place of
majority rule? Rule by a junta? Isn't that what the attempted coup of
1962 planned?
Sir J. Exactly! That was how Dudley and I also got involved in the
coup. We were going to save the country by booting out those bloody
SLFP mugs and forming a junta to run the country.
N.J. Tell me Sir John, who was your junta going to be answerable to?
Now (in 1974) at least there is a prospect that someday Mrs B's
government of mugs and idiots, as you call them, will have to face the
polls and may be turned out. If your coup had succeeded and a junta
had been set up to whom would it have been answerable? How would they
have been evicted from power?
N.J. ( Continuing ) - Incidentally Sir John, you just mentioned that
Dudley and you were both involved in coup attempt and also that you
both were to be in the proposed junta. That is completely new to me!
Tell me more.
Dudley's and Sir John's involvement
Sir J -"Oh I see! So, that bit of information about Dudley has upset
you. I understand that you are a great Dudley loyalist eh?"
N.J - " Well Sir! He was my Prime Minister and loyalty to the Prime
Minister of the country was natural for a senior public servant"
Sir. J. - "I say! I know you think that Dudley was a man of great
integrity. You know, there is no such thing as integrity in politics.
That is all balderdash! We all wear masks and our so called masters,
the voters, who vote us to power are bloody stupid. They are bloody
idiots! So you see, democracy is how effectively we can dupe the
voters with our aes baendun (masks). True, neither Dudley, nor anyone
of our time would ever think of taking bribes but that was because we
did not need any money. Not because we were any better than the other
buggers (sic). But when it concerns power we politicians lie all the
way to hell, are all bloody corrupt and will do anything to gain power
and keep power, and it is only the fear of getting caught that makes
us honest gentlemen!
Sir J.(continuing) You know, I have always felt sorry for you bloody
Civil Servants. Most of you have got brilliant degrees and first class
minds and then we buffoons are elected to power, and you buggers (sic)
have to serve us. I remember in 1956, when SWRD formed his government,
that bloody fatso (mentioning the name of a very corpulent Moslem
Cabinet Minister whose name I will keep anonymous) was made a Minister
of Posts and one of your most brilliant men, Rajendra, had to be his
Permanent Secretary. That is cruel men! No wonder you decided to
retire!! I understand you have been offered a job in London. Take it
men, take it!. Buggers ( sic) like you have no future in our country.
Sir John continues. You know something? All that SWRD'S Cabinet
Minister of Posts did was personally to appoint all sub-post
mistresses. He personally interviewed all applicants for posts of
sub-post mistresses throughout the country in his bedroom in the
Mawanella Rest House, and gave them "efficiency bar" tests before
appointing them. How do you like that!!
N.J. Well Sir! To be truthful we have heard similar stories about you
and your several " purple brigades of Colombo 7". How about Zou Zou
Mohammed and the belly dancers you got down from Egypt ? The problem I
have with your story is that what seems acceptable in Kandawela seems
very bad in Mawanella!
Sir. J. Ha! Ha! Ha! You are a cheeky bugger (sic). I like you!
Suddenly, Sir. J stands up pours me another drink and switches topics
- I say Jayaweera! Have you read the "Premier Stakes"?
N.J. Yes Sir, I have "
(note : the "Premier Stakes" was a vitriolic political pamphlet
published anonymously in 1951, shortly after D.S. Senanayake's death,
recounting the sordid machinations that led to Sir John's eviction
from the race to succeed D.S. as Prime Minister, and the installing of
Dudley as Prime Minister instead. Although written anonymously, it was
widely known that the real author was Sir John himself, who had asked
Sri Lankan journalist J. Vijayatunge to ghost write the pamphlet for
him)
SJ. Well then! If you have read the Premier Stakes you must know how
gentlemanly we politicians are! Let me tell you something you do not
know about Dudley.
NJ. "Please do!"
SJ. "Will you believe me when I say that Dudley and I were both ring
leaders of the attempted coup of 1962?"
N.J . "I have heard the story about Dudley's alleged involvement in
the coup before, but I do not think there was a grain of truth in it!
As for your involvement in the coup this the first time I am hearing
it, and you must be very brave to talk about it even 15 years later. "
Sir. J. "This is the problem with you bloody (sic) Civil Servants! You
think you buggers (sic) know everything! Let me tell you some home
truths"
N.J. "Ok!"
Sir. J. "Here are the names of the buggers (sic) who met in my house
on consecutive evenings in early January 1962 at Kandawela to plan the
coup. It was all hatched by that bloody (sic) colleague of yours,
Douggy Liyanage, along with F.C de Saram, Maurice de Mel, Jungle
Dissanayake and a few other police chaps and both Dudley, his cousin
Upali Senanayake, and I, went along with them and all along we were in
their confidence and gave them support. They shared all their plans
with us three! In fact even Thattaya (i.e. Sir Oliver Goonatilleke the
Governor General) was in the know!
Dudley's initial role was to stand under the large clock of the
General Post Office opposite Queen's House, on the night of the coup,
and light his pipe and Thattaya ( (meaning Sir Oliver ) who was
scheduled to stand watch on the balcony around midnight, would take
that as the cue that the coup was on and declare a state of emergency
and order the arrest of Mrs B, Felix Dias Bandaranaike and Dr N.M
Perera and the rest. After that we were to form a Council to run the
government and both Dudley and I were in it, with Dudley as chairman.
However, let me tell you something, there was not going to be any
shooting. No one was to be killed. We were in fact going to treat Mrs.
B and the men who were arrested very nicely and supply them with all
their meals from Galle Face Hotel, no less!
N.J. So, why didn't all this come out in the course of the police
investigations or at the trial? Surely!!
S.J. That is the beauty of it men!! F.C de Saram took all the blame
upon himself as the principal conspirator and all the others who were
sworn to secrecy, just kept their mouths shut about the involvement of
Thattaya, Dudley, Upali and myself!! All the coup leaders were guilty
as hell, but they were all splendid gentlemen! You know, unlike now,
(i.e. in 1974) those days there were only gentlemen at the top and no
bastards!!
Hilarious drama at Kandawela
Sir John then went on to tell me how one evening in the last week of
Jan 1962, (the coup had been planned for 28th Jan) he, F.C de Saram,
Dudley and Maurice de Mel sat together for drinks at his Kandawela
residence to plot the final details for the coup. They had placed
Upali Senanayake ( Dudley's cousin) in a jeep at the entrance to
Kandawala to sound the alarm by pressing the horn of the jeep should
any police vehicles be seen approaching the gate. At this point, to
make the narrative come alive, I think I'll switch back to the first
person dramatic mode.
Sir. J. You see, all of sudden the horn of Upali's jeep started
sounding loud, and went on sounding and what was worse, the jeep
started approaching the house at speed, with the horn blasting away!
We thought that the police were about to stage a raid and Upali was
warning us. All hell broke loose inside my dining room where we were
gathered. We all panicked! F.C de Saram ran upstairs and hid in a
dirty linen room and. Maurice de Mel hid in the broom cupboard under
the stair case. But that fatso ( sic) Dudley could not make up his
mind where to run, (side comment from Sir. J "just like him! cannot
make up his bloody mind in a dam crisis" ). So I shouted to him, "
Yakko! reddha yata ringapung!" (You bloody fool! hide under the table
cloth!) So, Dudley crept under the dining table and hid behind the
draped table cloth. Can you imagine anything more bloody funny?
Already twice Prime Minister of the country and to be Prime Minister
yet again some years later, hiding under a dining table, with his fat
arse ( sic) showing through the table cloth? If only the bloody
electorates know how damn ridiculous we politicians really are!
Sir John begins bellowing with hysterical laughter!
N.J. I am all ears Sir!. This is so exciting! Go on! Tell me more!
Sir. J. But there was no police raid or anything like that! It was
just that Upali had been meddling with the steering wheel of the jeep
and the horn suddenly short circuited and got stuck. So he drove back
to the house, the horn blasting away, to tell us what had happened.
Bloody idiot! (sic) That is a bloody Senanayake for you.
N.J. So, do you mean to say that the investigators could not break
through FC de Saram and company and unearth yours and Dudley's
involvement?
Sir. J. Exactly! Nothing the police did could get FC de Saram and
company to confess and spill the beans about Dudley and me. They stuck
to their story that they and they alone were responsible. Which of
course put a huge burden of guilt upon us and we had to do everything
possible to get these poor buggers (sic) out. After all, we were all
with them in the conspiracy and we could not allow them alone to take
the rap. So we had to plan a cunning plot to get them out and
implementing that plan was my job.
Next instalment - . How Sir John put into operation their master plan
to get the coup convicts released.
