Extracts from the speech made at the public meeting at Matugama to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Lank Sama Samaja Party (LSSP)
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) was the first recognised political party of Sri Lanka. My political journey also commenced with the same party.
Our childhood hero was Robert Gunawardena known as the ‘Kotte Sinhaya’ – of Boralugoda fame. I still recall as a schoolboy, how I used to carry the ‘Fourth International Flag’ and march around the Maharagama-Pamunuwa area shouting slogans, together with my cousin Dr. Haris Deen (now residing in UK).
I was one of those ambitious youngsters who joined the famed hartal of 1953. That year, on 12th August I joined a group of demonstrators, among whom were comrades brought from Kosgama, under the leadership of Robert ‘Sahodaraya.’ The crowd that gathered on the High Level Road at Maharagama-Nawinna junction cut trees in protest against the Danapathi Aanduwa and blocked traffic on the road. At that time my father was employed in the Port Commission at the Colombo harbour.
He used to cycle to work from Nawinna. When the harbour workers struck work to join the hartal, my father returned home early, purchasing a honey patta from Pettah. As he reached Nawinna, a tree that was being cut fell onto my father’s new Raleigh bike, badly damaging it. Mercifully he escaped with no injury to him. The honey too trickled out of the patta, and a group of women baking ‘Rotti’ on the roadside were quick to collect it and savour the ‘Rottis’ with it chanting the slogan ‘Hameed Baas Ta (my father) Jayawewa.’ They enjoyed it to the extent of even ignoring the arrival of MP Robert Gunawardena on the scene.
What a difference a pot of honey could make! An eminent writer and broadcaster of that era, Mahinda Abeysundara (who produced the popular ITN “Puwath Pasubima”) later commenting on the event, described how the ‘Hameed Baas ta Jayawewa’ slogan was on air for a while instead of ‘Robert Sahodaraya ta Jayawewa!’
Sri Lanka missed the opportunity of forming a ‘Govi - Kamkaru Aanduwa’ of the Leftist movement. A golden opportunity missed by the working class
Despite this hype of activities by the Leftists, the Marxist philosophy and principle suffered a slide due to ideological differences that unfortunately surfaced in the thought and activity of the Sama Samaja leadership. According to prominent journalist and diplomat S. Piyasena, if it had not been for this division, the first Prime Minister of Independent Ceylon in 1947 would have been Dr. N.M. Perera of the Sama Samaja Party . A quick glance at the results of the first parliamentary elections in
Ceylon provides ample evidence supporting this observation:
Party Seats
United National Party - 42
Lanka Sama Samaja party - 10
Indian Congress - 07
Lanka Tamil Congress - 07
Bolshevik Sama Samajaya - 05
Communist Party - 05
Independent Parties - 19
Of the 19 independent candidates, 11 were of left leaning. The Ceylon - Indian Congress too at that time was closely associated with the leftist movements as the Sama Samaja leadership drew inspiration from the independent struggle or Suwaraj of India – some of the Sama Samaja leaders like N.M Perera and Philip Gunawardene were associated with the Leftistsin India when they were hibernating there evading arrest by the British rulers in Ceylon.
If they contested under a single banner without being divided as Trotskyite LSSP and Stalinist LSSP, the results would have been: UNP 42 and the Leftist block 45. In addition to this majority of elected members, 06 more appointed members would have made it a strong government of the progressive forces, with 51 MPs.
Thus, Sri Lanka missed the opportunity of forming a ‘Govi - Kamkaru Aanduwa’ of the Leftist movement. A golden opportunity missed by the working class to establish a government of theirs under universal suffrage. That was a sad chapter in history, in the government making process. This in cricketing parlance - ‘a chance going a begging’- NM lost the crown! , purely due to a rift through a battle of ideologies between the Trotskyites and Stalinists.
The LSSP from its inception based its political ideology on anti-capitalism, anti-colonialism and anti-bourgeois. There were many an artful strategy adopted by this party to propagate their political activity, even when their leaders went underground. The Britishers recruited soldiers for the second world war from the countries under their colonial rule. It was the LSSP that mainly carried on a secret campaign against such arbitrary recruitment.
The LSSP leaders were under the close scrutiny of British rulers and the latter even imposed a strict ban on any type of publications by the left leaders. In order to overcome this obnoxious restriction, they distributed secretly, leaflets throughout the country, to instill patriotism among the people. At the Uramangas Handiya Junction, the LSSP branch distributed leaflets sending down inspirational messages in the form of poems. One of them was written in this manner:
“Harara Dilliye
Uramangas Handiye
Suddagey Yuddeta Jalliye
Gihilla Mariyaw Malliye”
“Oh our ‘Mallila’ (youths) do not fall in to this trap set by the colonial masters. If you want to die, then go and join the Suddhas army ..” The Sama Samajists were patriotic then and are patriotic now. They will never be a party to sell the country to any foreign powers or help divide the motherland in any form.
Today we are celebrating the 81st Anniversary of the LSSP. Let us learn the bitter lesson from the past history, and join to form a well-knit progressive movement under Mahinda Rajapaksa, encompassing all communities and races – Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and others, to establish a strong and united government in the not too distant future.
