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| | id=ISBN 0-906334-03-9 }}</ref> This was one of the factors that triggered the ] that still rages between ] insurgents and the government. It is not known whether Jayewardene had known of the plans beforehand, but once the riots started he refused to take any action to halt them, blaming the violence on |
| id=ISBN 0-906334-03-9 }}</ref> This was one of the factors that triggered the ] that still rages between ] insurgents and the government. It is not known whether Jayewardene had known of the plans beforehand, but once the riots started he refused to take any action to halt them, blaming the violence on Tamil terrorists and their civilian Tamil supporters in Colombo. This riot started after Tamil terrorists had ambushed and killed 13 soldiers. | ||
| At first, the war went badly for the government, and the LTTE ended up in possession of ] and most of the northern province. The army counterattacked with an offensive that threatened to retake the city, at the cost of many |
At first, the war went badly for the government, and the LTTE ended up in possession of ] and most of the northern province. The army counterattacked with an offensive that threatened to retake the city and win the war against Tamil terrorists, at the cost of many LTTE casualties. Jayewardene had to halt the offensive after pressure from ], which had trained and equiped the LTTE for purposes of destabilizing Sri Lanka, pushed for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister ] finally concluded the ], which provided for ] of powers to Tamil regions, an ] in the north, and the demobilization of the LTTE. | ||
| The LTTE rejected the accord, as it fell short of a separate state. Sinhala nationalists were outraged by both the devolution and the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil. Young, deprived Sinhalese soon rose in ], organized by the ] (JVP) In order to suppress the JVP, Jayewardene's government formed secret paramilitary units{{Fact|date=February 2007}} and unleashed a wave of killings against supposed JVP supporters. Thousands{{Fact|date=February 2007}} of youths were killed. | The LTTE rejected the accord, as it fell short of a separate state. Sinhala nationalists were outraged by both the devolution and the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil. Young, deprived Sinhalese soon rose in ], organized by the ] (JVP) In order to suppress the JVP, Jayewardene's government formed secret paramilitary units{{Fact|date=February 2007}} and unleashed a wave of killings against supposed JVP supporters. Thousands{{Fact|date=February 2007}} of youths were killed. | ||
Revision as of 06:11, 18 March 2007
Junius Richard Jayewardene (September 17 1906–November 1 1996), famously abbreviated in Sri Lanka as JR, was the president of Sri Lanka from 1978 until 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades after independence. Before the presidency, he served as the prime minister of Sri Lanka between 1977 and 1978.
Early years
J.R. Jayewardene, who was the eldest in a family of 11 children, was the son of a judge of the Ceylon Supreme Court. He was schooled at Royal College, Colombo where he played for the cricket team, debuting in the Royal-Thomian series in 1925. Although he was born into an elite family, the family traced its roots to an South Indian named Don Andryas Wijesinha Jayawardena Tamby Mudaly who ingratiated himself with the British colonials.(1)
Jayewardene was converted from Christianity to Buddhism in his youth. He became a lawyer after attaining a distinguished academic record in the Colombo Law College.
Jayewardene did not practice law for long, however. In 1938 he became an activist in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), which provided the organizational platform for Ceylon's nationalist movement (the island was officially renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). He became its Joint Secretary in 1940. At the outbreak of war, he and Dudley Senanayake had secret discussions with the Japanese aimed at ousting the British from the island. He was elected to the colonial legislature, the State Council in 1943.
After entering the United National Party on its formation in 1946, he became Finance Minister in the island’s first Cabinet in 1947. He played a major role in re-admitting Japan to the world community at the San Francisco Conference. he is the architecture of the constitution of sri lanka in 1977.
Political career
Jayewardene's acute intelligence and subtle, often aggressive political skills earned him leading roles in government (1947-1956 and 1965-1970) and in opposition (1956-1965 and 1970-1977).
As Finance Minister in D.S. Senanayake's government, Jayewardene struggled to balance the budget, faced with mounting government expenditures, particularly for rice subsidies. His 1953 proposal to cut the subsidies - on which many poor people depended on for survival - provoked fierce opposition and a hartal campaign, and had to be called off.
By the late 1950s, the UNP struggled to deal with the rising force of the Sinhala-nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Jayewardene pushed the party to accommodate nationalism and endorse the Sinhala Only Act, which was bitterly opposed by the island's minorities. Throughout the 1960s Jayewardene clashed over this issue with party leader Dudley Senanayake. Jayewardene saw how skilfully the SLFP had played the ethnic card, and felt the UNP should be willing to do the same, even if it meant losing the support of ethnic minorities.
After Senanayake's death in 1973, Jayewardene succeeded him as UNP leader.
Presidency
Jayewardene won a sweeping election victory in 1977 to become Prime Minister. Immediately thereafter, he drew up a national constitution which created an Executive Presidency with drastic and unchecked powers, and, on its adoption into law, became, in 1978, the first Sri Lankan Executive President. He moved the legislative capital from Colombo to Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte. He opened the heavily state-controlled economy to market forces, which many credit with subsequent economic growth but also with the greater divisions in society.
After the 1977 riots, the government made one concession to the Tamils; it lifted the policy of standardization for university admission that had driven many Tamil youths into militancy. The concession was regarded by the militants as too little and too late, and violent attacks continued.
Jayewardene moved to crack down on the growing activity of Tamil militant groups. He passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1979, giving police sweeping powers of arrest and detention. This only escalated the ethnic tensions. Jayewardene claimed he needed overwhelming power to deal with the militants. He had likely SLFP presidential nominee Sirimavo Bandaranaike stripped of her civil rights and barred from running for office for six years. This ensured that the SLFP would be unable to field a strong candidate against him in the 1982 election, leaving his path to victory clear.
The UNP had obtained an overwhelming majority in the 1977 elections, and Jayewardene was loth to part with it. He therefore held a referendum to cancel the 1983 parliamentary elections, and allow the 1977 parliament to continue until 1989. He also passed a constitutional amendment barring from Parliament any MP who supported separatism; this effectively eliminated the main opposition party, the Tamil United Liberation Front.
Civil war
In 1983, several of Jayewardene's cabinet ministers, including Cyril Mathew and Lalith Athulathmudali, instigated the Black July pogrom against Tamils. This was one of the factors that triggered the civil war that still rages between Tamil Tiger insurgents and the government. It is not known whether Jayewardene had known of the plans beforehand, but once the riots started he refused to take any action to halt them, blaming the violence on Tamil terrorists and their civilian Tamil supporters in Colombo. This riot started after Tamil terrorists had ambushed and killed 13 soldiers.
At first, the war went badly for the government, and the LTTE ended up in possession of Jaffna and most of the northern province. The army counterattacked with an offensive that threatened to retake the city and win the war against Tamil terrorists, at the cost of many LTTE casualties. Jayewardene had to halt the offensive after pressure from India, which had trained and equiped the LTTE for purposes of destabilizing Sri Lanka, pushed for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi finally concluded the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which provided for devolution of powers to Tamil regions, an Indian peacekeeping force in the north, and the demobilization of the LTTE.
The LTTE rejected the accord, as it fell short of a separate state. Sinhala nationalists were outraged by both the devolution and the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil. Young, deprived Sinhalese soon rose in revolt, organized by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) In order to suppress the JVP, Jayewardene's government formed secret paramilitary units and unleashed a wave of killings against supposed JVP supporters. Thousands of youths were killed.
Jayewardene retired from politics in 1989; his successor Ranasinghe Premadasa was formally inaugurated on 2 January 1989.
Legacy
On the economic front, Jayewardene's legacy was decisive. For thirty years after independence, Sri Lanka had struggled in vain with slow growth and high unemployment. Since Jayewardene's reforms, the island has maintained healthy growth despite the civil war.
On the ethnic question, Jayewardene's legacy is bitterly divisive. When he took office, ethnic tensions were present but the country as a whole was at peace. By the end of his tenure, Sri Lanka was facing not one but two civil wars, both featuring unprecedented levels of violence and brutality.
Though Jayewardene indeed did not take measures to stop the attack on Tamils, he was not opposed to them personally, only politically. One of his most esteemed friends was Hon. Justice Manicavasagar, a member of an elite family and raised in Colombo, but who was strongly linked to his Jaffna Tamil heritage. This is but one close Tamil friend of the president's, and it is quite clear that he was not a racist but rather a man who knew how to win the majority.
Jayewardene's constitutional reforms are now also believed to have given Sri Lankan democracy a blow from which it has never really recovered. The large amounts of power he gave the office of Executive President could be, and were, easily abused. Torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, once a rarity in the country, became commonplace under his administration and have remained so ever since.
External links
References
- Piyadasa, L. (1986). Sri Lanka: The Holocaust and After. Zed Books. ISBN 0-906334-03-9.
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