Malinda Words: Hector Kobbekaduwa is not a building, statue, street or stamp

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 225th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

Recollecting that the 40th death anniversary of Hector Senarath Rajakaruna Bandara Kobbekaduwa fell on the 18th of September, 2023, taking cognisance of the fact that an institution and a street in Colombo 7 have been named after him and remembering some observations made for a video clip on the occasion of his 39th death anniversary a year ago when I was the Director/CEO of the said institute, I devote today’s piece to a man who made a mark that was deliberately erased at great cost to the country.

Hector Kobbekaduwa died at the age of 67, less than a year after he contested a presidential election highly skewed against him. The government of his principal opponent, incumbent president J R Jayewardene, had moved to strip the probable candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Sirimavo Bandaranaike of her civic rights. Thus the would-be obstacle to re-election had been eliminated. Moreover, the election itself was an exercise marked by innumerable malpractices, violence and rampant abuse of state resources.

Kobbekaduwa probably knew it was a losing cause but he bravely fought a good fight as the SLFP’s presidential candidate in a context where even certain sections of his party worked against him. The victor and his party, note, would go on to subvert all democratic norms two months later through a referendum. It was another election marked by fraud. Most disturbing was the fact that it was used to secure a further six years for the parliamentary majority obtained in 1977.

He was, by many accounts, more radical in the reforms he proposed and implemented than some of the leftists in the United Front government of 1970-1975. He could have resigned when Prime Minister Bandaranaike extended the term of the parliament for two more years. Maybe he went along with the party decision. Those close to him and have intimate knowledge of what the party stalwarts thought at the time might be able to shed more light on such things.

He was obviously acutely aware of the structures of political economy that kept significant segments of the country’s population impoverished. His work as the Minister of Agriculture and Lands clearly indicates a determination to rectify these anomalies in favour of those who were most disadvantaged by existing laws and practices.

Later, he would be vilified for the complementary role he played to the economic policies pushed through by N M Perera, but his detractors forget the play of global politics, especially related to the USA and the Gold Standard. Among them were people who had played kalu-suddha to perfection for decades and of course the colonial interests that were entrenched deep enough to survive Independence.

There was a vision back then. A country is not a territory described by longitude and latitude, square miles (as it was back then), with certain physical attributes, climates and weather patterns. A country is not made of a population, but peoples identifiable in terms of race, caste, religion, location within structures of power and access to entitlements or lack thereof. Kobbekaduwa was aware of all this.

He probably knew the difference between being located in a global political economy and selling the country outright to capital interests, local and multinational. Sri Lanka needed a strong economic foundation and this required a focus on manufacturing as well as the establishment of development banks. There’s no nation without things national.

Ironically, in the aftermath of the economic debacles witnessed a year ago, many who had rubbished the likes of Kobbekaduwa looked back wistfully at those much vilified 1970s were heard to murmur, ‘if only we had continued in that vein…’

It was not all perfect, sure. Mistakes were made. Corruption there was. Political patronage and cronyism was evident although these are not the preserve of that period and indeed would ‘develop’ to degrees that make those times appear quite juvenile.

He believed firmly in the abilities of his fellow citizens. He believed that true independence was possible. His thinking could be captured in the following: ‘progress by the people, with the people and for the people.’ In the ensuing decades people were abandoned, insulted, humiliated and slaughtered.

He spoke of, blazed and walked along pathways since abandoned and today are talked of as opportunities missed. He spoke of a different way of thinking and imagining and did his utmost to develop policies accordingly.

Hector Kobbekaduwa is not a street; he represents alternative trajectories for the country. He is not a building but an institution; he is not just an institution but one that is committed to scientific inquiry that informs policy-making. He's not a stamp although there's one that commemorates him valued at Rs 3.50; and yet he has stamped a vision.

There’s a statue of the man in the premises of the institution that has been given his name. It’s larger than life. And yet, Hector Kobbekaduwa was not about self-aggrandisement. He knew the dimensions of his abilities, what he could and could not do. He did his best with courage and dignity.

There's a primary school in Kubalwathumulla, Kiribathkumbura in the Yatinuwara Electorate he contested that has been named after him. Hector Kobbekaduwa knew the basics. He was a school, one could say. Only, the lessons were unlearnt and there's a marked reluctance to learn them.

21 September 2023

Hector Kobbekaduwa is not a building, statue, street or stamp

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