Conversation with Prince Phillip on BIA runway and President Premadasa’s genius for getting things done

Excerpted from the memoirs of Chandra Wickremasinghe, Rtd. Addl. Secy to the President

When Emperor Hirohito of Japan passed away at an advanced age, and the Duke of Edinburgh was scheduled to touch down at Katunayaka Airport on his return flight, after attending the funeral. Wije (KHJ Wijeyadasa) wanted me ‘to do the honours’ as he put it, by receiving him after touch down and entertaining him to high tea at the VIP lounge. Accordingly, arrangements were made for myself and British High Commissioner David Gladstone to welcome the Duke and conduct him to the VIP lounge. This was the time when SL had to face the menace of terrorism on two fronts from the JVP and the LTTE and as a precautionary measure there was a tight security wrap provided for the Duke’s safety by crack Air Force troops under the Air Force Commander.

When the plane, which was a small jet, landed, I went up the ramp with HC Gladstone and greeted the Duke who was in the cockpit. After exchanging the usual pleasantries , the Duke said that he had piloted ‘this small thing’ and what he wanted most was to stretch his legs a bit. I told him that we had arranged tea for him in the lounge to which he replied that he would prefer to do a walk up and down the runway to stretch his tired limbs.

I observed that he was dressed in workaday denims. Whilst walking with the Duke in the company of the British HC and the Air Force Commander, along with the security escorts, I engaged him in a conversation enquiring how the funeral was and how the older Japanese people, reacted to their Emperor, who had seen the country through the cataclysmic WW11, passing away. The Duke responded with his characteristic acerbic humour saying ‘ Oh he was dying for a long time and the Japanese had got used to the idea’!

Then about the funeral itself, he said with his typically wry wit, ‘it was a rather long drawn ceremony with a lot of sticks and incense being burnt.’ As the day happened to be cloudy and without any sun I commented that it was not the best of weather we were having that day, to which he replied smiling ‘Oh, ours is infinitely worse.” I also took the opportunity to ask him about the motor vehicle he was supposed to have owned while in Trincomalee where he had served during WW11 as a Sub- Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, adding that there were many here who claimed that they owned the vehicle.

He laughed and said that he too had heard the story of his motor car being owned by a person here adding that as he did not have much money at the time he remembers buying a small Standard or an Austin which was even at that time in a somewhat ‘clapped out condition.’ Soon after his brisk stroll up and down the runway, he opted to board the plane and take off despite our pleas to have tea in the VIP lounge. I must say it was quite an experience meeting the Duke in person and listening to his witticisms which have now become legendary as they are some times mixed with the occasional faux pas, he is notorious for making.

President RP’s way of getting things done on the double

Just one month before he was assassinated by an LTTE suicide cadre, I remember Dayaratna, the President’s Co-ordinating Secretary meeting me and saying that the President wanted to see me. I enquired from Daya, who was a very amiable officer, whether there was a problem; he replied “I do not know, Sir, HE is there alone in the office waiting for you”. When I walked in somewhat apprehensively into his large office room, Daya approached him and said “Sir, Mr. Wickramasinghe is here.”

I remember the President looking at me quickly and saying in Sinhala “Chandra, I have a big problem”. I was taken by surprise when he addressed me by my first name which he had never done before. My immediate reaction was to try to figure out what this big problem was that he as President could not solve. While studying the relevant file, he spoke to me switching onto English this time and said “There are two MPs who are fighting to get an unused paddy store. One of the MP’s wishes to use the store to rehabilitate 32 ex-JVP cadres while the other is keen on converting the store into a vocational training centre to train the youth in the area in vocational skills. This has become a big headache to me”. He then looked at me and said “Here is the file, you examine the problem and summon the MPs and tell them how it should be settled and let me have your report in two days”. I was totally flabbergasted, wondering how I could possibly summon MPs to appear before me and further, to tell them how the matter should be resolved. I had very little sleep that night and remember telling my wife that I regretted ever having joined the Presidential Secretariat.

It was in this despondent mood that I read through the file carefully that night and mapped out a strategy in my mind. I wanted to start working on it the very next morning as the report had to be submitted to HE in two days. I had decided by then in my own mind that the more viable option was the establishment of a vocational training centre which could cater to the needs of the youth in the area. With this in mind, I phoned the Secretary/Ministry of Mahaweli Development (it was either AA Wijetunge or DG Premachandra) and enquired whether land with a perennial water course was available in one of the border areas (Mahaweli H Division). His first reaction was to reply in the negative.

I then told him that HE was keen on settling 32 JVP cadres in a suitable border area. Thinking it was the President who was behind the request, he asked for half an hour to check and get back to me. He rang me within 15 minutes to say that there was a suitable land available with a perennial stream running through it. I then revealed the plan I had in mind for the settlement of the 32 ex-insurgents on this land. I asked him how much of land could be given to each settler to which his reply was that the normal allotment of two and a half acres would be given. I told him ,the extent will have to be five acres, to which proposal he reluctantly agreed, again thinking that this was being suggested at the instance of the President.

On further enquiry by me as to how much money would be given to each allottee to put up a house, he replied that the normal Rs. 5,000/= would be made available. I told him that the amount will have Rs. 20,000/= as we had to take into account the special circumstances. Thinking once again that these were President Premadasa’s instructions, he agreed to give the enhanced amount. I then requested him to send me a blocking plan of the land showing the stream and a report on the extent to be allocated and the amount of money that would be given to build a house, via fax. In the meantime, I made arrangements with Army Headquarters to issue these 32 JVP cadres the necessary firearms (pump guns, they called them) and ammunition and to train them in the use of these weapons. I also remember quipping that as they were JVP cadres such training may be somewhat redundant.

That evening, I telephoned the two MPs to convey to them ‘the decisions made by the President’. The first MP I contacted was the one who wanted to utilize the store for the rehabilitation of the 32 insurgents. I started the conversation asking him whether there was a problem regarding a warehouse in that area. The MP immediately launched on a tirade against the other MP saying that the JVP cadres were after all ‘our own people’ who had to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. At this point I told the MP that the President had gone into the issue very carefully and had decided to make the warehouse available for a vocational training centre, as such a training centre would be beneficial to youth in the entire area.

He was naturally taken aback and smelling something fishy, asked me what would happen to the JVP youth to which query I replied that the President had a plan of settling them in System H of the Mahaweli project. The MP immediately countered saying that they would be killed off in no time by the LTTE. I assured him that arrangements will be made to provide suitable firearms to them to defend themselves. He then wanted to know the extent of the allotment that would be given and when I said that each would be given five acres expressed disbelief saying that the normal extent was two and a half acres per settler under the Mahaweli project. I had to reassure him that it would be five acres. When asked about the financial assistance that would be given to build a house and being informed by me that Rs. 20,000 would be given per settler, the MP could not contain his surprise as the usual assistance given for the purpose was Rs. 5,000.

I also assured him that there was a perennial stream running through the land that would provide water for irrigation. At this stage he asked me somewhat testily whose decisions these were and I answered him without demur that they were the President’s. He was silent for a moment before telling me rather forlornly “What’s to be done.” I knew the President wanted me to settle the issue in a reasonable manner and that he would not object to this kind of settlement which ensured that the ex-insurgents who were to be settled in ‘System H’ would be treated exceptionally, providing them much better facilities than what the normal Mahaweli settlers were entitled to, without summarily throwing them to the wolves, so to speak.

I do not think the MP himself was too unhappy when I detailed to him the special concessions and facilities that would be extended to the JVP settlers, deviating from what was laid down. Further, the manner in which the MP somewhat timorously ended the conversation, indicated that he was prepared to accept the arrangement which he thought was based on the President’s instructions. I think what troubled him more was that the other MP was getting what he wanted and that this meant a loss of face for him.

The other MP whom I telephoned thereafter, was jubilant that the President had decided to give the warehouse to him to start a vocational training centre and gave expression to his joy by praising the sagacity of the President in making the correct decision. The next morning I took the file back to the President and explained to him at length what I had done informing him at the same time that I had deviated a little from the normal entitlements of a Mahaweli settler in view of the special circumstances of the case. He only asked me what Secy/Mahaweli had said about the deviations and on my replying that he concurred in them given the special circumstances, seemed satisfied that the additional concessions given were quite in order.

The President however examined my report very carefully, going into all the relevant details including the availability of water etc. Finally, he asked me what the MPs had to say about the decision and on my telling him that they seemed to agree with the new proposals, turned to me and thanked me which was again something he rarely or never did. I cited this particular case to show President Premadasa’s way of managing contending parties posing seemingly intractable problems which virtually defied solution. Being a hard-nosed realist with a decidedly practical orientation in working out solutions to problems, what was uppermost in his scheme of things was to forge a quick practical solution.

This is why officials who worked for him were all the time on tenterhooks trying desperately to work out practical solutions to problems which prima facie, seemed impossible to be solved. What facilitated matters in seeking solutions to such virtually intractable problems was the fact that all concerned officials in Ministries, Departments, State Corporations and Public Authorities at the time, were only too eager to chip in and help. This is what made our work, though trying and oftentimes exasperating , still, most satisfying, when the particular problems were eventually, successfully settled.