The 11th death anniversary of Dr. Ranjith Navarathne, former leader of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party and former Kurunegala District Member of Parliament, fell on May 1.
Born on January 7, 1948 at Nikawewa in the historical Nikawagampaha Korale, Hiriala Hatpattuwa, North Western Province, his life experiences are parallel to the development of independent Sri Lanka.
Choosing Sri Devanam Piyathissa Central College, Nikkewa for his education, he showed exceptional talent for education from an early age and became the best player in the school and an outstanding student in other co-curricular activities. In 1967, he passed the G. C. E. (A/L) examination with top honours and had the opportunity for higher education at the University of Colombo, realising that only education can get rid of the harshness inherent in that area.
He started his higher education by joining the then University of Ceylon (currently Colombo University) and his university student days became a period in which he led student protests with unique memories of his political journey. He was an active student leader of the Student Federation affiliated to the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.
He joined the JVP not only to stand up against the social injustices he had to face in the era when he was looking for a job after graduating and was suffering from unemployment, but also he led the JVP rebellion that emerged in 1971. He led an armed group and was later imprisoned as a rebel for many years in Kurunegala, Welikada and Polonnaruwa prisons. Although he joined the JVP, after discussions about the political ideologies that emerged in the prison while being rehabilitated and released, he left the JVP ideology and joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and started his political journey.
He started his professional career in 1975 as an English Assistant Teacher in the Department of Education and later worked as a Trainee Graduate Teacher and later as an Officer of the Sri Lanka Education Administration Service as a Deputy Director of Education in the North Western Provincial Education Office. He served the Department of Education for 21 years as a teacher and as a Director of Education. He has taught English to thousands of people for free. He also taught Sinhala, literature and history to the students of many colleges, fulfilling his role as a teacher.
He joined the 1980 July strike and lost his job. He was also one of the main strikers among the trade union leaders who joined the anti-UNP protests and were imprisoned in the Anuradhapura jail.
Unique mission
However, it is a known fact that he carried out a unique mission to establish the youth organisations of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party by going across the country with Anura Bandaranaike and Basil Rajapaksa in the face of the terror of the then Government.
In the 1982 presidential election, a great commitment was made by him for the victory of Hector Kobbekaduwa, the candidate of the Sri Lankan National Party. However, he was defeated as a result of a conspiracy launched within the Sri Lanka National Party itself.
After the defeat of this Presidential Election, he was one of the founding leaders of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, which was formed on January 22, 1981, with the split of Vijaya Kumarathunga and T.B.Ilangaratne and others, and he made a great contribution to the spread of the party nationwide. He was also a unique character among the talented orators that the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party had. On February 16, 1988, even after Vijaya Kumaratunga’s death, he did not waver and bravely faced the terror launched in 1988-89 with his comrades.
He was appointed to the post of Deputy Secretary of the party on July 10, 1988 and to the post of Vice President of the party on November 12, 1989.
The members of the Mahajana Party sacrificed their lives to establish the Provincial Councils, which were brought as a solution to the ethnic crisis. The people who were in favour of the Provincial Council system got the answers from JVP with a gun when 117 people, including their leader, were brutally killed. Facing the horror, he led the United Socialist Front group in the first North-Western Provincial Council election held in 1988. He was elected to the Provincial Council with the most number of votes. As the inaugural Opposition Leader of the North Western Provincial Council for five years, he led the work of the Opposition within and outside the Provincial Council together with his comrades.
At the time when the Mahajana Party was divided as Aussy and Y.P, the progressive camp was further strengthened by Ranjith Nawarathne against betraying the party’s rights to the UNP and to secure the Mahajana Party bravely standing together with Y.P. De Silva, and finally he was elected Chairman of the Mahajana Party on September 26, 1992.
He was the chairperson of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, who worked to establish the Sri Lanka Podujana Eksath Peramuna, with the leadership of Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike in 1993, breaking the right-wing rule and bringing up a populist rule, together with the public rallies, foot marches and massive people’s movements. In 1994, Ranjith Navarathne made a special contribution to the formation of a Podujana Eksath Peramuna Government under the leadership of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.
Fulfilling political responsibility
The defeat of this person who was a popular candidate in the Kurunegala District in the 1994 General Election, which was a massive popular vote, is still unbelievable to us. However, even after the defeat, he fulfilled his political responsibility well, and in a few years, in the 1999 North-Western Provincial Council election, he won the third place. After receiving 50,000 votes from the Kurunegala District in the election held in 2000, he was elected to Parliament.
Then in 2004, he took the leadership of the Mahajana Party to form the United People’s Freedom Alliance and fulfilled his historically assigned task. In 2005, under the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the people rallied again and he took the lead as a pilot in the struggle for a national development path against privatisation, separatist war and foreign domination.
Due to Dr. Navarathne’s knowledge, skills and experience in the field of education, he was offered a consultant position in the Ministry of Education. Even today, teachers, parents and employees in the education boards say with great respect that he performed his duties well.
To solve the acute shortage of teachers in schools, especially in rural areas, the work of hiring thousands of people who worked voluntarily in those schools as teacher assistants and taking steps to hire English higher national diploma holders as teachers is the work that started with his dedication.
Ranjith Navarathne was a philanthropist who excelled not only in politics, but also in art and literature. In addition to his extensive knowledge of Sinhala literature, his admiration for all literary arts, including poetry and drama, is extremely evident, as noted by the literary critic and advocate W.A. Abeysinghe in a critical letter written by him at the launch of the poetry book “Wangatha Sarasaviya” written by Ranjith Navarathna.
Ranjith Navarathne was known by the people all over the country as a poet, lyricist, literary critic and an excellent preacher.
He was honoured for his social service by the Amarapura Mula Vamshika Maha Nikaya with honorary titles such as Education Chakravarthy and Professor on Education.
In 1975, he got married to Kamala Dissanayake who was a teacher by profession and had three children.
As a dedicated politician, he was engaged in public service for 45 years. No matter how high he raised himself, he did not forget the people who lifted him up. He was a humble village leader who stood up for the oppressed class. He guided the political course by sitting on the same policy until the end of his life and was respected by the people until his death. Even today, the people of Vanni remember him with great devotion.
The writer is Senior Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya.
