The Batty Kindergarten of Falsification

By Dayan Jayatilleka replies Batty Weerakoon

(September 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Batty’s back, batting on, and as batty as ever. In his comment on my 80th anniversary essay on my father, Mervyn de Silva, he tells two fibs, one bigger and one smaller. According to Batty Weerakoon, I have it all wrong, and in fact have some pretty odd notions. Going by his account he is able to decipher with some difficulty, a notion I have that my father’s imminent sacking from Lake House in 1964 and his marginalization, was to do with the SLFP-LSSP coalition’s plan to take over Lake House. I go on to add that this effort, which Mervyn was falsely suspected of having some involvement in or expressed support for, was thwarted by Esmond Wickremesinghe who engineered the toppling of the coalition. Batty says I have all this, all wrong. At the time, there was no bid to take over Lake House. The SLFP-LSSP Govt fell because it lost a vote over the Throne Speech. So says he. I quote:

"…its several inaccuracies in respect of what he sees as an attempted take-over of Lake House in 1964 by the short-lived SLFP-LSSP government of that year, and the fate of his father in the hands of the Lake House owners in their false or mistaken belief that it was MdeS … that had lobbied for the take-over decision when he had met the Prime Minister Mrs. B and Felix Dias at the Non-Aligned (NAM) summit in Cairo in 1964.

I may have got DJ wrong in my attempt to unravel his tortuous thinking on this matter and I shall confine myself to stating the fact that there was no decision of the government in 1964 to take over the Lake House enterprise, and that the fall of that short-lived government was when it lost the vote on the Throne Speech that year due to a sudden and conspiratorial change of political positions within the SLFP’s parliamentary group and its impact on the vote on the Throne Speech." (‘Dayan J’s father and the LSSP’, Sunday Island Features, Sep 13, 2009. My emphasis- DJ)

Now, I have a choice. I can either be charitable and attribute Batty’s reconstruction, which makes the "Stalinist school of falsification" look like a Montessori, to a condition that the great LSSP pamphleteer V Karalasingham dubbed Senile Leftism (parodying Lenin’s phrase " an Infantile Disorder’), or I can simply conclude that he is lying.

What after all is the demonstrable, verifiable truth? On what issue did the Government of the day fall? Was there an attempt or at least a credibly perceived one, to take the private media into the hands of the state?

The answer lies in another crucial question: Why did two highly respected and incorruptible members of the LSSP, Edmund Samarakkody and Merrill Fernando vote against their own government and together with the hated UNP? Fellow LSSPer Amaradasa Fernando, keeper of the party’s secret archives in wartime, writing in the Daily News of Friday, January 4th 2002 in an article entitled "Edmund Samarakkody Kept Faith To the Last" has this to say in a section of the piece bearing the significant sub-heading "Press take over":

"An important episode in Edmund’s life should not be missed. In 1965 he as MP for Dehiowita and Merryl Fernando MP for Moratuwa, being in the LSSP (R) from the Opposition voted with the UNP on the Throne Speech on the specific subject of the takeover of the Lake House and Times press. The UNP leading the Opposition found these two MPs, along with C. P. de Silva and thirteen others voting with the Opposition. The 13 crossed over to the UNP." (My underscoring – DJ)

So, the record of History is completely contrary to Batty Weerakoon’s reconstruction – and my memory as a seven year old is a better record than either Batty’s memory or the veracity of his tale telling.

As for my observation that "Samasamajist second raters" dubbed Mervyn a CIA agent, Batty’s rebuttal sets up a straw man. I consciously did not use the term "the LSSP", and by the phrase "second raters" I obviously did not mean the LSSP leaders such Dr Colvin R de Silva, Leslie Goonewardene and Hector Abhayavardhana who were on the best of terms with Mervyn. (He counted the latter duo among his friends). I meant some apparatchiks, trade-unionists and fellow travelers.

The next fib is about JR Jayewardene, Mervyn de Silva and me. Batty says:

"I may also add something to his credit which I knew personally. Though he knew JRJ well enough to have his son released from one of his several lock-ups he waited patiently, despite grave stress, to see him gain his freedom in the course of time. That speaks volumes for him."

Now this actually speaks volumes for Batty. Since these matters of which he writes, he "knew personally", I simply must ask him, which "lock ups" was I ever in and when? He refers to "several", so perhaps, with his intimate personal knowledge he could mention a single one?

The point is that this too is a blatant lie. I was never in the lock-up under JRJ or any other administration before or since. I was indicted in absentia, being the First Accused in a case filed in the High Courts of Colombo, on 13 counts (starting with "conspiracy to overthrow the state through violence") under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency. I could not be locked up in a "lock-up" because I could not be apprehended. Having spent three years underground, I was amnestied under the provisions of the Indo-Lanka accord of 1987. This too I did not receive until December 1988, over a year and a half after the Accord and almost 3/4ths of a year after my fellow comrades in detention were amnestied under the same provisions on April 22nd 1988. My amnesty was secured by the lobbying efforts of the Indian Marxist parties and prominent Left intellectuals, one manifestation of which was an embarrassing question posed about the matter to President Jayewardene at a press conference when he visited Delhi as the guest of honor on India’s Independence Day in 1988. The amnesty finally came through because I had been nominated for the North Eastern Provincial Council. Since I had to take oaths as a cabinet minister of that Council, the Government had no choice but to finally grant EPRLF leader K Pathmanabha, me, and other comrades who had evaded capture, the amnesty.

The next day, Dec 2nd 1988 I think it was, President Jayewardene declared to me in his inimitable gravelly voice, patting the seat beside him on his sofa (embarrassingly) in the presence of Chief Minister Vardarajaperumal and quite a number of others at President’s House where the new chief minister was taking oaths: "I was a friend of your father’s before you were born… and we were neighbors". Totally off balance and at a rare loss for words I replied "yes Sir, I remember you playing cricket with your grandchildren". That, I must admit ruefully as one who rebelled against his authoritarian rule, was the style of the man; a style of interpersonal civility in ruler-ship which we shall, to our impoverishment, probably never see again.

-Sri Lanka Guardian