Happy 84th Birthday Mr. Kalyananda Thiranagama
In times where people’s values, integrity, ethics are waning, it is for those who hold the same traits highly to appreciate personalities that can never be replaced. One such selfless person is Mr. Kalyananda Thiranagama who is celebrating his 84th birthday on 20 November.
There are many lessons his life story can provide for the youth & even adults of today. It has become fashionable to look down on the old, things of the past are regarded with disdain, people who hold the golden past are demeaned, however, it is these very attributes that have built up this nation with their will power, their passion & the determination of great minds complimented by their strong policies and steel conscience. Had individuals of our past not been brave & honorable people, unlike the impulsive easily giving up mentality found in many today, our nation would not be a sovereign today.
Mr. Thiranagama, born on 20 November 1940 had to suffer many traumas growing up. A happy childhood was denied, when the presence of his father was suddenly removed after being unfairly framed and sent to prison to be hung when he was just 7years. The trauma suffered to be told that his father would be hung on 30 January 1948 weeks away from independence, only he can explain. But the stars were to bring hope with a pardon being given to prisoners on death row prior to independence & though still in prison, his father’s life was spared. It is not difficult to assume where Mr. Thiranagama got his leftist tilted genes as his father even while in prison was busy advocating leftist thoughts. In those times the decades of foreign rule meant that the locals were put into 2 categories – the elite vs the rest & generally all elite amongst the Sinhalese in the villages were from the UNP. Even the temples were not given dana if the theroes were considered communist.
Life was a struggle, with only the mother & 2 other family members to look after, but the sheer gut & determination sufficed to ensure he topped the class in all subjects. Today, most youth give up, complain, find upteen excuses for failure. Rising up amidst hardships and bitter lessons bring home satisfaction & pride like no other & these memories are golden & eternal. Having being admitted to the Christian Bona Visa School in Rumassala, Galle District, Mr. Thiranagama could not even afford the 10 cents required for the bus. How many of todays school going children would even consider walking 9km to school as did Mr. Thiranagama on a daily basis plucking fruits along the way & running through the day’s lessons.
Having passed the SSC in 1957 with a 1st division, he was admitted to Mahinda School for higher studies in 1958. Nevertheless, tragedy was to surprise him again with the death of his mother the same year on 25 July. With father still in jail & dearest mother now no more, Mr. Thiranagama boldly appealed by letter to the Governor General Sir Oliver Goonetileke placing the facts of his life, the death of his mother & the imprisonment of his father & appealed for his father’s release. Unlike the lethargic public sector of today, that letter was passed on to the solicitor general thereafter the DRO all of whom ensured that within 3 months of an appeal letter falling into the hands of decision makers, a decision was taken. His father was freed within 3 months & the DRO went the extra mile by even helping with Mr Thiranagama’s education another example of the fine gentlemen that prevailed in the Public Sector at the time.
Having empathized with his financial situation the principal even went out of his way to waive the school fees while initiating a collection to buy whatever material he needed for his studies. These were all wonderful traits of humanity for us to wonder where have all these great human touches disappeared to & why. These are serious food for thoughts for all of us.
Just as strong as the determination to forge ahead in life whatever the odds, was the passion for politics & the trip to the prison always meant opportunity to listen to political speeches by stalwarts like W. Dahanayake. These played an integral part in shaping his future political thinking as well. Unlike the usual frivolous eye catching entertainment todays teens indulge in, the political speeches awoke the critical & analytical mind & these are essentials lacking in today’s youth.
In 1960 it was off to Peradeniya campus to commence another chapter and having selected arts initially, encouragement by peers even helped in changing the law to accommodate transfer of subject and Mr. Thiranagama went on to pursue law with the requirement of having to pass Latin to enter the law faculty. The passion for politics & communist thought did not escape mind even during his studies while that got him reprimanded by his senior lecturer R K W Gunasekera, whom he fondly recalls. It is no surprise, that he went on to become the Secretary of the Communist wing in the university & unlike the youth of today, he never neglected his studies for politics. The lesson here is the ability to balance one’s life’s passions. Even though he did not attend Latin classes, what he listened to and the books borrowed were enough to self-study & become first in the exam with highest marks. Once again books were given by lecturer Mr. Kulatunga to help him study. How many such kind hearted lecturers exist today?
Mr. Thiranagama went on to start a magazine titled “Ginipura” (Spark) which sold 10,000 copies islandwide on a monthly basis thus signaling its popularity. He also became a member of the SLFP & formed its first student wing & met Mrs. Bandaranaike in 1965. He has great respect for her & her amazing memory having went to see her with report Ariyawansa Pathiraja 6 months earlier, which she had recalled when he next met her. The level of leadership of leaders then & now has drastically declined too.
It was the Attygalle report compiled under UNP that claimed Thiranagama to be worse than Wijeweera that attributed to his arrest in 1971 though he was never a member of the JVP. He was however severely beaten by police & had to undergo physiotherapy for many weeks. The beatings were to obtain confession of names the police wanted to arrest & with such confessions not coming, the beatings were the answer & he was even dipped in chillie powder. Eventually, Mr. Thiranagama was released after intervention by the bar association & thereafter he went to China to see how the communist party functioned. Between 1980-1988 he had travelled to China 10 times.
He married in 1975 & together they have 5 children. No doubt sharing the same sentiments, both husband & wife went on to set up Womens Organizations across villages islandwide and his wife became a versatile speaker as well.
Later, Mr. Thiranagama went on to form the All-Island Farmers Union & the New Lanka Communist Party which even gained international recognition together with Ariyawansa Gunasekera, K A Wimalapala & L Jayasekera.
Throughout the 1970s inspite of being a lawyer, he was simply known as “Sarath Sahodaraya” but he had a very lucrative practice as a criminal lawyer for 12 years in Galle mostly handling murders & rape cases. But several incidents eventually tilted the decision to move away from criminal cases. Once such incident was in 1984 when a female came upto him during one of the village programs organized to claim that he had defended the man who had raped her & won the case for him. In another case, associated with a Galle merchant whose home was attacked & 2 children raped, he had appeared for the defendants & they too escaped the justice that should have come for the crime they had committed. Eventually, justice depended on how well the case was argued. This pricked his conscience to such levels, that he decided to give up criminal legal practice & came to Colombo & formed the Lawyers for Human Rights & Development.
With every nerve pinching for justice, Mr. Thiranagama was quick to take up cases against the privatization of land to foreign companies under the JR Jayawardena government on the guise of development. He came forward to fight for the rights of the citizens whose fundamental rights were being denied for development. He even managed to rally the farmers against the initiative.
Throughout the period of 2002-2004 landmark cases filed by Mr. Thiranagama prevented privatization of assets & resources that should remain under the State. The Bill attempting to privatize water even privatization of water resources was prevented. The attempt to privatize all of Sri Lanka’s forests & wildlife on the guise of waiving off loans was stopped, the foreign exchange bill was also prevented but eventually passed in 2017 by the yahapalana government. The recovering loans by banks & debt recovery special provisions Bill was also stopped as a result of the timely intervention by Mr. Thiranagama. The Supreme Court heard the cases & highlighted the inconsistencies to such an extent that even the then Speaker expressed concern over Supreme Court ruling against Bills tabled by the UNP Government.
Then we come the 1988-1989 “bheeshana” period under the JVP who arose against the Indian presence & the 13th amendment. He was hounded by JVP though ironically his wife had beckoned him to save the very young boy who had come to murder him. However, this JVP youth had been killed by the UNP. Mr. Thiranagama however, went on to appear on behalf of jailed JVP youth arguing that anyone guilty should be charged instead of simply keeping them in prison.
One such case was a man given a prison sentence simply for his inability to pay compensation. He was slapped with a sentence of 277 years by the Colombo High Court & had been in prison for 5 years before the case took the interest of Mr. Thiranagama who argued that the maximum he could be given for such a crime was 1 year & 9 months as per the books. Eventually, he was released after having unfairly served 5 years in prison because of a bad judgement. He had intervened in over 100 such cases.
He used this same argument for the LTTE citing the need to file charges against them for any crime committed by them or release them. In all of these cases he appeared without charge. He had filed over 400 such cases on behalf of those arrested LTTE. Of the 13000 who surrendered after 2009, those that remain are the ones who have charges against them & these are the one’s that are being released unfairly as “political prisoners” by governments doing deals. Imagine how unsafe society will be when terrorists who have committed crimes, who have cases against them being released as “political prisoners”.
Having attempted to present proposals to rectify areas in the judicial system that have done wrong by innocent offenders as some of the examples highlighted above, Mr. Thiranagama unfortunately failed to receive any favorable reply from those in power & those sitting where the correct decisions could have been taken or at least the obstacles for such be removed. Nevertheless, it is not too late at least for the current government & new Justice Minister to give some valuable time to Mr. Thiranagama & make use of the decades of legal experience that should be used for the betterment of the legal fraternity in Sri Lanka.
It is not too late for the younger legal counsels to tap into the vast knowledge of Mr. Thiranagama for no new legal luminary cannot dream of gaining the indepth knowledge and experience gained by Mr. Thiranagama across 60 years. What is great about Mr Thiranagama is that even at 84 years, he never says no to coming forward to argue in favor of the rights of the State/Nation, its People and its assets & resources.
There are only a handful of such individuals in Sri Lanka who have always put Nation first & Mr. Thiranagama is one.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Kalyananda Thiranagama, may you be happy & healthy always.
Shenali D Waduge
