You were right in identifying Anura’s speech in welcoming the Iron Lady to Parliament as one of his finest moments. Referring to the protest by several leftist parties against the Thatcher visit, Anura recalled how he himself had marched in London to protest the Thatcher govt’s hike in fees for overseas students. He, however, pointed that this was a moment to warmly welcome the British Prime Minister to the House as the Leader of the Opposition.

While Anura seized the moment with a well-delivered prepared speech, the Leader of the House, Montague Jayawickrema badly mangled his. Trying to speak extemporaneously, Mr Jayawickrema repeatedly stumbled, both in content and delivery.

To many of us listening in, it was an abject lesson in public speaking – it is far better to read from a prepared speech than to stumble into the unknown.

Anura never lived to the promise he showed on that day but I will always remember him as a man without malice.

Cheers.

The first question that comes to my mind is Anura, coming from the influential family and circles he did, could have done much to narrow the ethnic differences. Or better still, he could have done much more in his public postures to unite the country. He had great influence with the Mahanayake Theros of Kandy, the other politically inclined high-profile priests-who actually wield real political power in the country since 1956 (save the few years JR was in control i.e.1977-1983) But he (AB) did very little here.

As suggested here and elsewhere – like Hillary Clinton, he probably thought he was “inevitable” to the throne. But fate seems to operate often in strange and unpredictable ways.

He was comparatively clean in public affairs and his name was rarely involved in pecuniary controversies. Yet one of the biggest tycoons of the day and a Post-1970 success sory owes his all to Anura. If Anura was in real political power
we would have had an MRT like Singapore solving much of our transport problem-thanks to an Anura buddy in LA/Calif.
Yes! He spoke well in Parliament; was a good orator and miles ahead of the poor quality of his current Cabinet colleagues.

Veera (1) Forgive me. But your comments in a matter of the personal domain is in poor taste, unfortunate and not quite true.

Soma (18) Your views coincide with that of many Tamils. But about 4 million Tamils in the country must live in the country in the present and the future. Unless we engage in some give-and-take, we will get nowhere. Here I appreciate DBSJ opening his columns to diverse views and with future unity and peace in view. I am happy many of our Sinhala brothers and sisters have sent encouraging comments. As to Anandan Kumaran (26) I think many Tamils think like you do about what
VP has done to Tamils. As to AB as leader of Lankan Tamils???

Thank you for this article.

The info regarding courtesy to Mr. Perinbanayagam however small, seems very interesting. This is from the son of ‘SWRD’, who brought Sinhala policy to SL. Had the ‘Crown Prince’ been ‘crowned as King’ may be Sri Lanka would have been a different and more peaceful country than the sister at the helm.

It is sad to see that many who commented in this column did not perceive the good and valuable side of him which is almost, if not completely absent in the current set of politicians! You did well Jeyaraj.

Thanks for the nice eulogy DBSJ.