{"id":171986,"date":"2016-12-28T01:05:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T19:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=171986"},"modified":"2017-05-30T17:27:05","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T11:57:05","slug":"jr-to-premadasa-to-chandrika-days-that-changed-a-nations-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/jr-to-premadasa-to-chandrika-days-that-changed-a-nations-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"JR To Premadasa To Chandrika \u2013 Days That Changed A Nation\u2019s Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vishwamithra1984<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe evil that men do lives after them;
\nThe good is oft interred with their bones.\u201d \u00a0~ Marc Anthony, Julius Caesar<\/p>\n

Last days of the SLFP-led \u201970 \u2013 \u201977 coalition government showed sure signs of socio-political degeneration of a mythical charisma. That mythical charisma was Sirimao Bandaranaike. Such a statement might be a way too harsh on the personalities that dominated the \u201970 \u2013 \u201977 government. Nevertheless, when history reads its periods of change, it surely stamps down its conclusive judgments on consequential changes to society in general and certain personalities, in particular. Such judgments might appear harsh and unforgiving. But sins that had been committed, cruel hardships imposed upon the subject people, while hallucinating that the ruling class is of different stature and pedigree from the commoners, \u2018nobodies\u2019, whom they were sworn to represent and whose welfare was their primary concern, had been too severe in content and apathetic in the way they were executed. It is in that heartless context, history judges its crucial characters. Total lack of empathy was the greatest sin the Bandaranaikes, Sirimao and Felix, committed when they wielded power. They may have been extremely empathetic towards their cohorts and close cliques. But empathy should know no boundaries. It should extend beyond the close confines of friends and family.<\/p>\n

\"JR\"<\/a>

JR<\/p><\/div>\n

Socio-economic policies of the \u201970 \u2013 \u201977 regime were drafted and effected with the primary object of stripping their political opponents naked and the rulers chose to play the game on an unleveled field. Surely the readers could remember the famous \u2018Family Tree<\/em>\u2019 (Hath Wasaka Saapaya<\/em> \u2013 Seven Years\u2019 Scourge) book. It was published and openly sold at the UNP annual convention held in December 1976. By the end of the first day, all copies were sold out. When the second edition went into print, the press was raided by the CID on the orders of Felix Dias Bandaranaike and all materials related to the book were confiscated. Two leading members of the UNP were taken into custody. However, J R Jayewardene, a personification of defiance, was not perturbed. He summoned those who published the book, along with a new printer and directed them to go ahead with the publication. Eventually \u2018Family Tree<\/em>\u2019 and its sequels played a crucial role in the ensuing elections. This incident reveals, not only the draconian, undemocratic style in which the Bandaranaike-led government tried to stifle their political opponents, it also tells of the dogged stoicism of J R Jayewardene.<\/p>\n

The \u20182nd Bandaranaike Revolution\u2019, spearheaded by the widow and nephew, ended in the 1977 General Elections and generated the circumstances for the second paradigm shift in Sri Lanka\u2019s post-Independence history. Among others, it ushered in some game-changing socio-economic-political waves that were never to revert. Let me list them out:<\/p>\n