The Late Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike has the distinction of being the world’s first woman Prime Minister. But she had another distinction which she had earned by dint of her own efforts. And that was deftly managing relations with mutually antagonistic global and regional powers for the benefit of Sri Lanka.
She served three terms as Prime Minister, between 1960 and 1965, 1970 and 1977 and 1994 and 2000. Between 1994 and 2000, however she had no role to play as Sri Lanka had switched to the Presidential system in 1977. But her earlier stints were very eventful, in which she showed her mettle.
She used the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which was a force to reckon with in the 1960s and 1970s, to achieve her national aims even as she strove to achieve the movement’s global goals. NAM, which virtually covered the entire global South, helped her navigate through the fiercely competitive Cold War politics of the 1960s and 1970s. Regrettably, Sri Lanka’s present-day rulers do not have this advantage as NAM is dead. And the world is again sharply divided, especially after China rose as a power threatening the entrenched global hegemon-the United States, and the regional power-India. With the on-going Russo-Ukrainian war, Cold War is back with a vengeance. Most States are forced by circumstances to take sides. And mediators to help solve disputes are just not there.
Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s achievements in both domestic and international politics are concisely delineated in the new coffee table pictorial biography of the lady entitled “Sirimavo: Steering the destiny of a nation”, put together by Sarath Perera, Nalaka Gunawardene and Wijayabandara.
In foreign policy, Mrs.Bandaranaike’s successes were due to (1) her relentless engagement with world leaders, despite monumental economic and political problems dogging her at home (2) her diplomatic style. She traveled extensively to keep in personal touch with key world leaders of all camps. She kept up her links even when out of office.
Her calm and charming exterior concealed a tough and independent mind. According to her Secretary from 1970 to 1977, MDD Pieris, “she was unruffled, calm, conscientious, and had a mind of her own.” Indian diplomat Gopalkrishna Gandhi remarks that “where she made a mark was in her clear realization that in governance, in diplomacy, and in the many dimensions of political leadership, the surest guide is one’s own instinct.” It is clear from her record that her instinct worked.
She radiated an image of self-assurance, which disarmed detractors. Her daughter, Sunethra, remembers that she carried herself with a “great sense of authority, walking into cabinet meetings with her head held high.” More importantly, “she came across in a strong way when she was negotiating one-to-one with leaders of other countries,” Sunethra adds.
Mrs.Bandaranaike was a tough negotiator. During her visit to the Soviet Union in 1974, she bargained hard for Soviet aid to set up public sector industries in Sri Lanka on terms favorable to Sri Lanka. MDD Pieris recalls that Premier Alexie Kosygin “banteringly wagged a finger and said: “You are a hard lady”, which prompted Mrs. Bandaranaike to say that if she was hard it was on behalf of her country. In 1974, When Indian officials did not give in to the Sri Lankan side on the Kachchativu island issue, she reportedly settled the matter over lunch with her Indian counterpart, Indira Gandhi, convincing the latter of the political need to solve the issue there and then at their level. Mrs. Gandhi yielded to the request to concede the island to Sri Lanka.
The issue of the Indian origin plantation workers in Sri Lanka had soured Indo-Lankan relations from the 1930s. It got worse when nearly a million of them were rendered Stateless in the early years Sri Lanka’s independence. Efforts to get them repatriated to India were resisted by India, tooth and nail. However, the first step towards the solution of the problem was taken by Mrs.Bandaranaike in 1964 in cooperation with the new Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. In a give and take deal, 525,000 persons were to be repatriated to India and Sri Lanka agreed to give citizenship to 300,000.
Though most issues between Sri Lanka and India were eventually solved amicably, the process tended to be bitter and long. In 1962, Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru expected Mrs. Bandaranaike, his family friend of long standing, to condemn China’s aggression across the Sino-Indian border. But Mrs. Bandaranaike chose neutrality to be able to mediate. While India was a close friend with long standing ties, China also enjoyed goodwill in Sri Lanka since the Rubber-Rice barter deal of 1952 which had saved Sri Lanka from a severe food crisis. To defuse the crisis on the India-China border, Mrs. Bandaranaike called a “Colombo Powers Conference” in December 1962 with the participation of NAM countries Burma, Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana and Indonesia. The conference submitted a set of proposals for a negotiated settlement. By then, China had withdrawn its troops, leaving the situation in a stalemate.
The relationship between Sri Lanka and India was jolted again in 1971 when Mrs.Bandaranaike was ambivalent about the Pakistani oppression of the Bengalis of East Pakistan. Mrs. Bandaranaike gave Pakistan refueling facilities in Colombo after India closed its skies to Pakistani aircraft. The Sri Lankan case was stated by Mrs.Bandaranaike’s Secretary MDD Pieris thus: “The Prime Minister clearly did not approve the manner in which (the founder of Bangladesh) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was treated. She considered it an undemocratic, reactionary and unwise act. She was appalled that an elected leader was treated in that fashion. Nevertheless, Pakistan was a friendly country that had come to our (Sri Lanka’s) assistance in our hour of need (insurgency in April 1971). Therefore, the Prime Minister decided that whatever assistance that was legitimately possible was to be accorded to Pakistan.”
“She was aware that both in the political and emotional context at that time, this could cause considerable strain with India. But she reckoned that her relations with the Indian Prime Minister (Mrs. Indira Gandhi) would overcome these. Therefore, permission was granted for Pakistan civilian aircraft to overfly Sri Lanka and refuel here. Permission was not granted to military aircraft. Pakistan was also requested not to ferry soldiers or armaments but only civilians.”
Perhaps in return for this favor, Pakistan sent emergency rice supplies to Sri Lanka during a severe food shortage in the island in 1972-74. Mrs.Bandaranaike asked diplomat Stanley Jayaweera to find out if Pakistan could rush rice to Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto received Jayaweera even though it was midnight, and immediately ordered four Pakistani ships carrying rice to Latin America to be re-directed to Colombo.
But friend or no friend, where toughness was called for, Mrs.Bandaranaike was tough. She was forthright in condemning the inhuman treatment meted out to Z.A. Bhutto by military dictator Gen Zia ul Haq. Bhutto had been sentenced to death in 1978 for an alleged murder and executed in 1979 after a very controversial trial. Mrs. Bandaranaike had appealed to Gen.Zia for clemency and even suggested that Bhutto be allowed to live in exile in Colombo. But Zia paid no heed.
When Zia sent the choicest mangoes to her and other heads of government apparently to placate them, Mrs. Bandaranaike sent the mangoes back to the Pakistan High Commission with a note saying: “I cannot accept a gift from a person whose hands have the blood of Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on them. He was not just the leader of Pakistan but a great spokesman of the Third World. Please return this gift to the sender.”
At the international level, Mrs Bandaranaike will be remembered for proposing in December 1971, that the India Ocean (which is now a bone of contention between China and the Indo-Pacific Powers) as a “Zone of Peace”. She did so because she correctly foresaw that the Indian Ocean will be a flash point sooner or later. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution initiated by Mrs.Bandaranaike to declare the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace.
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