REMEMBERING VIVIENNE GUNAWARDENA
in London
By Dr Tilak S.Fernando
Picture Credit: Google.
Vivian Gunawardena has gone down in Sri Lankan politics as a
dynamic woman who embraced politics long before 'Women's lib' was heard of in the West. Being fearless and
outspoken, a quality that she inherited from his uncle, the late Phillip
Gunawardena (Boralugoda Lion), she pioneered and set up Sri Lanka's
first Socialist Women's Organisation – The United Women's Trust.
Vivian Gunewardena's 101st birthday or the 31st death commemoration falls on 3
October 2017. As a tribute to this outspoken, fearless female politician, the
writer wishes to reminisce about a personal interview he had with her in
London, at the time she cut short her holiday, purposely to take an active role
on the political platform in Sri Lanka, prior to the general elections on 16
August 1994.
What inspired Vivian Gunawardena to enter politics at a time
when the Sri Lankan political climate was male oriented? Her father being a
doctor helped her to access hospitals often when she was young. It was then, as
a young girl having seen the level of suffering and inequalities associated with
poverty, and influenced by her uncle Philip Gunawardena, who was aggressively
involved in the anti-British movement, she became exposed to the activities of
the socialist movement.
She was known to be 'rebellious' from her
younger days. She defied her father, who vehemently discouraged her entering the university education, but with the backing
of her two uncles, she entered the university and graduated. Even at the age of
78, she had not changed much in her attitudes and convictions.
Decision-making
Why did she decide to embrace socialism when the cream of
the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) at the time was made up of
either the upper middle class or rich families? She felt, “it had nothing to
do whether one came from the poorest family or an aristocratic family, but what
matters was one's intentions and values to achieve results, in order to help
the majority."
Vivian Gunawardena's intensifying activities within the
LSSP brought her to a close association with Leslie Goonawardena, the chief
propagandist at the time. Finally she fell in love with him, but her father
once again opposed to the match, as the two families were of different castes!
Apart from formal family disagreements, Leslie Goonawardena was a Christian and
a revolutionary, who was under surveillance by the British Colonial regime at
the time. Vivien in her normal fashion endured it all, until finally a judicial
mediation helped her to get married to Leslie Goonawardena in 1939.
Vivian Gunawardena entered Parliament on the LSSP ticket
between 1956–60, 1964–65 and 1970–77 and served as the Junior Minister of
Health towards the latter part. She was also a member of the Colombo Municipal
Council on several occasions. Being a life-long trade unionist, she dedicated
her services as the President of the All Ceylon Local Government Workers'
Association until her death.
LSSP policy
“We focussed next on a vital point with regard to policy
decisions of the LSSP”. The writer was curious to find out as to why the LSSP
did not think of grooming a charismatic young leader, such as Vasudeva
Nanayakkara or Wickremabahu Karunaratne for the development of the party at the
time?
"You mentioned the word Wickremabahu, she
exclaimed! "Nothing will make me think in terms of Wickremabahu as a
leader of a political party that we are aiming to create by making equality in
living standards. I think Wickremabahu's coming into this movement was
accidental! Vasudeva Nanayakkara is so erratic, and he is not capable of
working in an organised fashion”.
“You know in life quite often, you come across many
things and situations where you don't argue and try to win over the majority.
You can't do it all the time! You have to sometimes knuckle under and see how
you can convince the majority, and entice them to your side without harming
your party. But to leave the party and start another faction against your own
party would be to lessen the future influence and the ability of that party to
achieve its goals"(Sic).
"There are, of course, several suitable candidates at
the moment in the party, but the fact of the matter is, to become a leader of a
political party, one should also be educated. And if I may give a direct answer
to your question with regard to the future material, Yes, I admit, the LSSP has
not achieved that important base".
Troublemakers
Diverging our conversation into another area where the
LSSP was branded as 'trouble makers', as back as 1956, and accused
of organising various industrial strikes that crippled the progress of the
country, the writer became anxious to find out how the general public could
have faith in the LSSP in the future, considering such catastrophic situations
of the past?
"That's very unfair and untrue," said
she, expressing that it was the LSSP, which started the union movement in Sri
Lanka. 'In the absence of a trade union movement, workers were helpless
and there was no way of safeguarding the interests of the working forces; we
fought for the basic pension rights and index linked wage rises to help the
working classes to keep them on a par with the rising cost of living. You
know, even the workers today have forgotten what the LSSP did for them! We
brought development plans into the budget as we believed in actual unionism, as
a working class movement, to give a better standard of living for the workers
and their children".
Nationalization of tea plantations became the next topic
of conversation and how the LSSP was blamed for the introduction inappropriate
legislation to curb imports, which resulted in creating numerous queues whereby
pushed the general public into untold misery. It was then the people started to
direct an accusing finger at the LSSP for shortsighted and closed economic
policies adopted by the LSSP, while sharing power with the SLFP.
Vivian Gunawardena viewed this problem from a different
angle altogether, and said: "Actually,
the ruination of the plantation industry took place after the privatisation,
and not before! The plantation industry was the highest income-earning asset in
the country before nationalisation, but nationalisation was done when the foreigners
started to take away the major share of the income. They were not re-investing;
neither did they improve working and living conditions of the workers. Colvin
(Colvin R. de Silva) was just about to introduce a housing scheme for the
estate workers and establish community centres et al, when we were thrown out
of the coalition in 1975! Felix Dias didn't allow us to carry out our
programmes, what we had in mind for the estate workers. We never got the time
to fulfill our commitments to the people. Today even Thondaman himself says, it
is not profitable because the UNP handed the estates over to the private sector
over a five-year period."
The LSSP had the best of brains and intellectuals, such as Dr.
N.M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Goonewardena, Bernard Soyza and
yourself, yet the LSSP failed to make an impact on the masses for the past 50
years or so, and the LSSP was never elected to power! What would have been the
missing element in the LSSP? The writer asked her finally.
The answer to that question she said was due to the
fragmentation within the party into 'Communist' and 'Samasamajist,'
within a very short period time. Two factions of the same party opposed each
other to Stalin's ideology in the Soviet Union while accepting socialism. The
Socialism adopted by Vivien Gunawardena batch was far more superior than to
what existed in Russia!
London 1994 - Lanka Web
