Politics in Ceylon Since 1952

Abstract

THE GRAND Old Man of Ceylon politics, Don Stephen Senanayake, was thrown from his horse and died in March 1952. His son, Dudley Senanayake, was forthwith commissioned to form a Government and succeeded, in spite of the fact that the United National Party, of which his father had been leader, contained two members whose claims to leadership had long been thought better than his own. Sir John Kotelawala, Minister of Transport and Works, had been continuously in office since 1936. Since i95i he had been Leader of the House of Representatives. On grounds of seniority and experience he had much the strongest claim. On the other hand he was, and still is, a controversialist, a fighter: he is blunt and forthright not only against opponents outside the party but also against his critics within it. What is more, he had none of the popularity in the villages which Don Stephen Senanayake had evoked. The Senanayakes and Kotelawalas are closely related; but whereas the Senanayakes seemed to be villagers called to lead their country, Sir John was thought of as a brown sahib, an Englishreturned (i.e. a Ceylonese educated in England), a Ceylonese whose spiritual home was in Europe, and, above all, a capitalist employer. It was feared that if he became Prime Minister he would split the party. J. R. Jayawardena, the other competitor, was of the same generation as Dudley Senanayake. He had been Minister of Finance for five years; and, superficially at least, he had made a success of the office. He was a fluent and attractive speaker, a little inclined to be too intellectual for politics, but the best speaker in the United National Party and one of the best in the House of Representatives. His claims were less strong than those of Sir John Kotelawala, and he waived them as soon as he found he was not supported. Sir John was persuaded, with some difficulty, to remain in the Cabinet: but he was a very disappointed man and, though he ran his Ministry as efficiently as before, he took little part in active politics as long as Dudley Senanayake was Prime Minister. Never in the history of Cabinet government, probably, has there been a Prime Minister as reluctant as Dudley Senanayake. In an un-