Gamini Weerakoon, a brilliant editor

A N   A P P R E C I A T I O N

The curtain has come down on Gamini Weerakoon, 82, one of the last of the great English language editors of Sri Lanka in November, 2023. His passing ends a career of 57 years of superlative journalism.

This burly figure stood out like a beacon not only for his excellence in journalism at home and as a foreign correspondent, but also for his will to carry on as editor, regardless of the challenges leading journalists who were not government stooges or yes men faced. “Gamma” to his close friends and in local journalistic circles and “Mr Weerakoon” to those like me who served under him; Gamini Weerakoon’s specialty was international affairs.

BORN 1941

Gamini Abhaya Weerakoon was born on March 19, 1941. His father, Edmund Weerakoon, an officer of the Ceylon Railway Department, settled down in Mount Lavinia for Gamini to attend S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavania, of which school he was later a loyal Old Boy.

Gamma entered the Colombo University Science Faculty in 1963 and later changed over to the Law Faculty. He also excelled in Rugger, representing his school and later the Combined Universities.

It was while at the University, having edited its magazines as President of the Science Students’ Union and later as President of the Students’

Union that Gamma conceived his love for journalism which led him to be introduced to the then Chairman/Lake House Ranjith Wijewardene by Devinda Sananayake, the son of Robert Senanayake. Cutting short his undergraduate studies in 1966, Gamma joined The Sunday Observer as a cub reporter under the legendary editor, Denzil Peiris, who passed on to him some of the finer points of this noble art.

On The Observer, Gamma cut his teeth at the lowest rung of a reporter’s ladder – the coroner’s court. Subsequently, he was assigned to cover the Colombo Municipality, the then Senate and thereafter the Parliament. At Lake House, where there was stiff competition was then the order of the day and he was picked by the editor to interview Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon in 1969, when the astronauts of Apollo 11 visited Ceylon in 1970.

He also had readers at the time who looked forward to reading his reports of the controversial meetings of the Rationalists’ Association headed by Abraham Kovoor (of firewalk fame and who invited Sai Baba to visit then Ceylon without a visa.) His coverage of the Senate proceedings was also a treat at a time when politicians of the calibre of Reggie Perera and Hema Dabare with their colouful banter, afforded journalists a good report. Later, the Editor of the Sunday Observer and the Evening Observer, Harold Peiris entrusted him with the Evening Observer signature column “Roundabout.” It was also in the Sunday Observer that he met his lifelong partner, Rajitha, herself an accomplished journalist.

While serving as the Additional News Editor of The Sunday Observer which enjoyed the largest circulation for a Sunday newspaper at the time, Gamma was moved to The Daily News.

MOVES OVER TO THE DAILY NEWS

On The Daily News, which then had the largest circulation for a daily newspaper, Gamma took over the role of the News Editor.

In 1976, he was selected to cover for Lake House the Non-Aligned Summit held in Colombo, chaired by Premier Sirimavo Dias Bandaranaike; with 96 heads of state in attendance.

His interests in international politics led him to later cover Non-Aligned conferences in New Delhi, Harare, Belgrade and Jakarta. It was in 1986 when covering the Non-Aligned Conference in Harare as Editor of The Island that a drug addict broke into his house and attacked his wife and daughter. With there being no daily flights out of Harare, Lasantha Wickrematunge who worked on The Island worked out a flight for him to return home through the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

UPALI NEWSPAPERS

In 1981, when business magnate Upali Wijewardena planned to launch The Island and its sister newspaper Divaina, the crme of Sri Lankan journalists were recruited to two newspapers. And, Gamini Weerakoon was appointed the News Editor of The Island. Within a few months, he was appointed as its Deputy Editor. When the other great Editor Vijitha Yapa left the newspaper around 1986, Gamini Weerakoon assumed the post of Editor of The Island .

In 1985 Gamini Weerakoon, on an invitation from the US Government, visited Washington, NASA, the Pentagon and key US state establishments ending his tour in Hawaii.

In 1986, Gamini Weerakoon was struck with a viral attack on his nervous system which confined him to hospital for about four months. It was thought that he would not be able to walk freely but made a seemingly full recovery.

With his deep interest in international politics, Gamini Weerakoon on invitation covered several General Elections in France and Germany.

Besides his interviewees included, the Japanese Prime Minister Kaifu Toshika, Indian Prime Ministers Inder kumar Gujral, and Shri Chandra Shekhar, Pakistan’s President Zia-ul-Haq, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah.

In 1986 Gamini Weerakoon was appointed the Editor-In-Chief of The Island and Sunday Island. In 1999 he was appointed Editorial Director of Upali Newspapers Ltd.

JVP INSURRECTION

During the JVP insurrection in the 1980s with politicians and journalists being gunned down, Gamini Weerakoon’s life was in danger. But despite the JVP and with the LTTE threatening to blow up the whole of The Island newspaper, Gamma carried on regardless, ensuring that it was published.

RETIRED

Retired in 2004 from the Upali Newspapers, Gamma functioned as the Consultant Editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper until the publications closed down. Up to the time of his passing, he wrote the popular column “Doublespeak” in The Sunday Times newspaper.

Gamini Weerakoon, a member of the prestigious Orient Club, walked with kings but did not lose his common touch.

When in 1965 temperamental English cricketer Freddie Trueman retired, someone wrote, ‘There will never ever be another you’; there will never ever be another Gamini Weerakoon.

Elmo Leonard