Though many may have forgotten it, yesterday, July 21 marked the new chapter in the history of Sri Lanka. Exactly 56 years ago, on July 21, 1960 the 44-year-old Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman Prime Minister. At that time even the Western media to a large extent, were not gender friendly and somewhat male chauvinistic, though the widely respected Guardian newspaper yesterday spotlighted five strategies for creating gender equality in the media.
For instance, the widely read Time Magazine ran a cover story on Ms. Bandaranaike referring to her as the ‘Weeping Widow’.When Ms. Bandaranaike’s husband S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was assassinated on September 26, 1959, the then Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its coalition Mahajana Eksath Peramuna did not have a powerful or charismatic leader.
Popular Minister Wijeyananda Dahanayake, known as Bunis Mama and hit the front pages of newspapers when he came to Parliament in a loin cloth (Amude), took over as Acting Prime Minister, but there were major divisions and he fired several Ministers. When the SLFP lost the General Elections in March 1960, Mr. Dahanayake reportedly came out of Temple Trees with a small suitcase, took a public bus to Galle and went back home with full respect for the people’s verdict, unlike some of today’s leaders, who cannot or will not accept defeat, even though the people defeated them twice.
The Dudley Senanayake led United National Party Government, which won the March 1960 General Elections with a small majority, did not last long. The SLFP leaders, apparently left with no option, called upon Sirimavo Bandaranaike to lead the party, though as Mr. Bandaranaike’s wife, she had played a low profile role in contrast to some First Ladies of recent decades.
Though male chauvinists cynically asked whether we would have something like a ‘Balangoda Kitchen Cabinet,’ Sirimavo Bandaranaike turned out to be a powerful Prime Minister, because in most instances she listened and acted on the advice of top level Civil Servants, mainly in Defence and Foreign Affairs, which were then portfolios normally given to the Premier. However, one of her weaknesses was her inability to face criticism from the media, she publicly said she was deeply hurt even by some cartoons published in some newspapers and the lack of her sense of humour or her inability to laugh at herself eventually brought her down in December 1964. This happened when she introduced a Bill to take over the then largest newspaper group, the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) popularly known as the Lake House Group. About 15 MPs led by senior minister C.P. de Silva, known as the Minneriya Deviyo crossed over.
The Press take over Bill was defeated and immediately the UNP led Opposition moved a motion of No-Confidence and it was passed by a majority of one vote amidst some of the most dramatic scenes in Parliament. At the 1965 General Elections Ms. Bandaranaike’s SLFP led coalition was defeated. The UNP leader Dudley Senanayake became the Prime Minister and a national Government was formed with the then Federal Party —now the Tamil National Alliance - getting the important portfolio of Local Government. It was similar to the political culture of today and Premier Dudley Senanayake after talks with Federal Party Leader S. J. V. Chelvanayakam agreed on the setting up of District Councils as a solution to the ethnic conflict and to meet the grievances or aspirations of the minorities. But the racial or religious extremists came together to force Dudley Senanayake to drop the Bill and the devastating consequences were seen during the ensuing five decades.
During the campaign for the July 1970 General Elections Sirimavo Bandaranaike led the United Front Coalition to a massive victory though she had made some rash promises including the famous one, to bring rice even from the moon, because one of the main reasons for Mr. Senanayake’s defeat was the decision to cut the subsidised ration of two measures of rice and to give one measure free.
Ms. Bandaranaike reigned till 1977 but her policies created queues and quotas for essential items and she was resoundingly defeated in July 1977 by the J.R. Jayewardene led UNP. Overall, Ms. Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the first woman Executive President (From November 1994 to November 2005) showed that women, whether they be from a Balangoda kitchen or Sorbonne University are fully capable of being good leaders. We hope that the recent law to allocate at least 25 percent of the seats to women in Parliament, and the Local Councils, will produce women, who will become dynamic leaders in this new era of digital technology and the globalised society.
