Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe: The Man Vs The Hero

By Darshanie Ratnawalli –AUGUST 27, 2017

Darshanie Ratnawalli

“Salagama? Certainly not”, Sumangala Thera of the Sugatha-Dakshinaramaya temple in Skelton Road refutes my speculation about Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s caste as authoritatively as only a Buddhist monk hailing from Kanumuldeniya, just two kilometres from Rajapakshe’s original village of Horewala in Walasmulla, and went to school with him can. As political issues hotted up and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe became flavour of the month, the first public reference to Rajapakshe’s caste was made on 13 August by Badulla District MP Dilan Perera, couched as an admonition not to rely on the caste ridden as well as chauvinistic Joint Opposition which, whichever Rajapaksa it welcomes, will not accept a Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.

My speculation that Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe may be Salagama was based on his authorship of ‘C.P De Silva, The Minneriya Deviyo, So close and yet so far’, a treatise which casts C. P. De Silva as an unsung hero who was deprived of his rightful destiny to be Prime Minister. On Chapter nine, Rajapakshe writes about the forces which wrested the premiership from C.P. De Silva and conferred it upon Dudley Senanayake in March 1960,

“Although the Governor –General Oliver Goonathileke invited Dudley Senanayake to form a government, the members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and other leftist parties preferred to form a government under the premiership of C.P. De Silva as leftist parties in the opposition had secured a larger number of seats altogether than the United National Party. There was no barrier constitutionally or otherwise for Oliver Goonathileke to call upon C.P. De Silva…When Oliver Goonathileke was shilly-shallying late into the day as to whom he should call upon to form the government, media personnel were compelled to ask him what caused the delay. Then the cat came out of the bag, he queried as to how he could call upon a Silva to form a government in this country…C.P De Silva’s second chance of becoming the Prime Minister of this country unfortunately slipped off for no fault of his, but for the caste-minded attitude of the then Head of the State Sir Oliver Goonathileke.”

“He is said to be of the Deva caste,” says Sumangala Thera who shares ‘old boyhood’ of Kanumuldeniya Maha Vidyalayala with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Pallekande Ratanasara Thera.

Sumangala Thera was the first stop in the necessarily brief journey this writer undertook to discover Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. What are his motivations, what niche does he expect in the history books of the future?.

According to R. J. De Silva, nephew of C. P De Silva, the niche that W. Rajapakshe identifies most with is what C.P. De Silva had, that of the unsung hero, the real patriot, who is marginalized and deprived of his rightful place due to causes including but not limited to caste.

“He identifies strongly with C.P. Otherwise there is no reason for him to write a book on C.P. C.P. was from Balapitiya, while this man is from Walasmulla. Halfway through the book, he had asked Ranil Wickremesinghe to connect him with a family member. Then only was he referred to us. It’s unusual for people to talk about caste in writing, but Rajapakshe talks about how C.P. was deprived of premiership due to caste. Whatever anyone says, people like to give respect to their caste, not necessarily to follow the caste system.”

Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe the lawyer

There are mixed opinions about his competence as a legal professional. The late Totsy Vittachchi who was among those fought Harry Jayawardena over the ownership of the Stassen Group is said to have spoken glowingly of Rajapakshe’s competence. Another reliable source claims to have met people who have experienced Rajapakshe’s incompetence. C. P’s nephew R. J. De Silva who is also an attorney at law and the present Chairman of HDFC Bank of Sri Lanka admits that mixed reports of Wijeyadasa’s competence exist within the legal profession. A reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous claims that a former Chief Justice, who will also have to remain anonymous, recounts an anecdote which casts aspersions on Wijeyadasa’s professionalism. According this, Rajapakshe once undertook to perform some task in courts, which promise he failed to honour, instead sending his junior to say he had to attend parliament, which it turned out was not true. According to R. J, De Silva, this sort of thing is not unheard of in the profession, where integrity of the type displayed by the likes of S L Gunasekera is quite rare.

What is irrefutable is that at just 58, Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe can claim authorship of at least 11 legal books including ‘Case Law on Civil Procedure Code’, ‘Practice and Law of Banking’ and four volumes on ‘The Law of Property’.

Read More