More on Premadasa and the advent of Wijetunga

From the Memoirs of Chandra Wickremasinghe, Retd. Additional Secretary to the President

President Premadasa was certainly not an easy person to satisfy. He was very exacting and punctilious in ensuring that even the minutest detail met his exacting standards. The four Addnl/Secys., Neville, Dhammika, MBC and myself were surprisingly spared the painful and embarrassing ordeal of being upbraided by him, in public or in private. This was mostly because we carefully avoided meeting with him and did so only when we were summoned by him.

It was Secretary/President, Wijedasa who had to bear the brunt of things as he had to work closely with him. Wije got the works sometimes and when he did, it showed all over his face. I remember walking into Wije’s room one day and seeing him looking morose and surly. When I asked him what the problem was, he looked up and fumed saying -“This man black guarded me today. However much I work for him, he has no gratitude. I am leaving the day I reach my optional age of retirement”.

I told him not to get emotionally distraught over these things as this was nothing unusual for the man. As anticipated by me, just two days later, I found Wije beaming with his faced all wreathed in smiles and before I could speak he said ” Chandra, yesterday the President called me to Sucharita and treated me like a son” I then reminded him of what I had told him the other day. Wije, who was an inveterate ‘workhoholic’, was too good a public servant who could not have been dispensed with just like that. President Premadasa would indeed have been the last person to have permitted Wije to leave him.

President Premadasa could also be very nasty to officials. I know of instances where he castigated certain Heads of Dept. at conferences so devastatingly that some fell ill and left the institutions concerned, on their own. By then I had learnt not to get too close to the ‘Sun’, having read of the fate that befell Icarus in Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun and paid the supreme penalty for his temerity, for not heeding the sagely advice of his father!

I could relate many more anecdotes about President Premadasa but I fear, I would be lengthening these memoirs of mine over much by doing so.

President Wijetunge

President DB Wijetunge’s assumption of office as President transformed the atmosphere in the corridors of administrative power in the country. The new President being friendly and accommodating, everyone including Ministers, were able to relax after the torrid time they had had under President Premadasa, working as if they were ‘in a permanent state of panic.’ In fact Wije, who continued as Secretary to the President, was told by friends that he was seen smiling for the first time, on TV since he became Secretary/President.

The rigid and highly centralized system of Presidential rule under President Premadasa, gave way to a somewhat loose system of governance with hardly a vestige even of controlled delegation. Unlike his predecessor, President Wijetunge did not wish to interfere with the work of his Ministers (much to the immense relief of Ministers and senior officials), which at times amounted to an abdication of the powers vested in the Executive President to the respective Ministers. This was, however, President Wijetunge’s style of governance. As a lawyer friend put it cryptically, “President Premadasa centralized authority and control in himself and President Wijetunge came and decentralized it “!

Although President Wijetunge had a disarming way about him, he could also be tough when the situation demanded. He consistently held the view that there was no ethnic issue in Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict. He firmly believed that the problem the country faced was a terrorist problem. I remember clearly the orders given to the Army Commander at the time, the late Lt. Gen. Cecil Waidyaratne in the presence of the late Major –General Lucky Algama, to clear the Eastern Province of the LTTE in two months. I also recall distinctly, Maj.Gen. Algama in particular, reacting positively and saying he would do it. The Army Commander and the Major Gen. made good their promise in double quick time and had the East cleared of the LTTE within a matter of two months.

President Wijetunge’s charming exterior belied a firmness of resolve as was shown in a case where he overturned a Cabinet decision already given in favour of a particular bidder for a tender, whose bid turned out to be not the best, on closer investigation by Wije and me, based on a report given by a Special Committee of professionals. It was a loss of face for the concerned Minister, but the President went along with our recommendation as he knew that the country was benefiting by way of a huge monetary saving as well as the delivery of proven and well tested items, under the particular tender.

Just two days before President Wijetunge stepped down from office, he telephoned me around 8 pm and said that he wanted to appoint me as Ombudsman. I showed my reluctance to accept the appointment saying that it would be embarrassing for me with the SLFP coming in, as they would like to have some one of their own choice to fill the post. The President then said that it would not be easy for them to dislodge me as they will have to go to Parliament to do so. Before I could reply, President Wijetunge said that he will get Wilson, the C-ordinating Secretary, to telephone me the next morning so that I could convey my decision to him. When Wilson telephoned me the following morning, I requested him to thank the President for his kindness adding at the same time that for personal reasons I would not be accepting the appointment.

As requested by Wije, I prepared President Wijetunge’s farewell address to the nation. He addressed the nation on TV and said in the course of his speech that it was indeed a difficult task for him to preside over a Cabinet of Ministers of a different political hue, but that he carried out the onerous duty entrusted to him, diligently and to the best of his ability. He also said that he was particularly thankful to the Lady Prime Minister, for graciously helping him to carry out his duties by keeping some of the more obstreperous elements in the Cabinet, in check. (the President had told me particularly about a certain Minister from the Galle District who constantly tried to embarrass him). His speech also referred to what people looked upon as a weakness of his viz. when people come to him with their problems, he always tried to see how he could help them He did not regard this quality of his as a weakness, he said. He rather thought of it as one of his major strengths.

I am told that the Lady Prime Minister had been so taken up with the speech that she had telephoned all her Ministers and reminded them that the next day was the last day in office of President Wijetunge. She had also telephoned and told the outgoing President that she and her Cabinet would be coming to President’s House for a kiribath breakfast. Wije told me that they had all gone to President’s House the next day for breakfast. This was the quiet and dignified departure from office of a simple and humble man from Pilimatalawa, who had the highest position in the country, as the Bard pithily puts it, virtually ‘thrust upon him’!