Witnessing a hanging: Another grisly experience at Bogambara

I read with great interest the recent article by Mr. Arulpragasam (Sun. Island June 5) about his experiences as a Cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service in the 1950s.> The  entrants to that exalted CCS were blessed not just with intelligence, integrity and efficiency, but also with a strong sense of compassion.> Mr. Arulpragasam’s experience at the execution of an estate worker in Kandy in a crime of passion is echoed, almost to every detail, by a similar experience my father, M. Chandrasoma, had as a Cadet, also in Kandy in 1939, where it was his unsavory duty to officiate at the hanging of an estate worker, who had murdered his wife in a crime of passion.> In his book, my father writes of one of his first assignments as a Cadet in Kandy:> “If you were posted to Kandy in the bad old days when men used to be hanged for murder (why do we kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong?), the Cadet had to officiate at every fifth hanging. The GA took the first, the AGA the second, the OA the third, the extra OA the fourth, and if you were the Cadet, the fifth was your baby. I was given two days’ notice of my ordeal and two foodless, sleepless days and nights had been followed by the dawn date with the hangman.> “Representing the fiscal, I was the last to speak to the condemned man. He was a Tamil from an estate in the district. It was of some little consolation to me that I had not enough Tamil to speak to him except through an interpreter.> “In the cold Kandy dawn, he was in a sweat, shivering and his teeth chattering as he stood at the door of the condemned cell. I was in little better state. I had to ask him whether he was the man condemned to death in the Supreme Court in case number so and so, presumably to make sure the wrong man was not killed. He nodded speechlessly.

“It was then my duty to ask him if he wished to make a will, make any disposition or convey any message to anybody. That was the sum of it and then I stepped back to see him hooded and walked to the gallows. I had finally to witness and certify that he was duly hanged by the neck till he was dead.> “I scratched my signature on the official paper and staggered away. Despite the superintendent of the prison telling me of the grisly details of how this man had hacked his young wife to death and showing me the knife with which the deed was done in a vain attempt to help me regain my composure, I was not able to eat and sleep until the GA accosted me on the stairs (two days later).”> Many of the young entrants to that exalted Service in those days, when our senior bureaucracy was one of the great assets of our Island, were forced, often against their will, to act as Judge, Jury and Executioner, among other distasteful functions. That they, without exception, carried out these duties without fear or favour, with unquestioned integrity, made our bureaucracy great, unlike the sycophantic public servants of today, who can be relied on to pander to the whims and fancies of our crooked politicians.I would like to add another anecdote about the independence of the senior members of that Service. One night, there was a crisis at the Port of Colombo, and Prime Minister Bandaranaike called the Permanent Secretary in charge of port operations in a most agitated manner, insisting they meet immediately. The Permanent Secretary was fully aware of this political storm in the teacup, and said to the PM, “This can wait till tomorrow. Besides, my soup is getting cold!”

Vijaya Chandrasoma