Savumiamoorthy Thondaman A legend in his lifetime

by Harry Sandrasekera

October 30, 2003 marks the fourth death anniversary of the late Savumimoorthy Thondaman whose towering personality pervaded every aspect of Sri Lankan life transcending imaginary barriers of caste, creed and ethnic origin, both as the long-standing President of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress and a Member of Parliament ending as the Minister of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure. He was a cabinet minister from 1978 to his demise in 1999. He, in fact became a legend in his lifetime.

The year 2003 rekindles Senior Thondaman’s personality as an innovative thinker and a stickler for procedure but never ever losing sight of his long cherished ambition to get the people of Indian origin into the mainstream of Sri Lankan life as equals with members of other communities living in the country.

Statelessness

The recent legislation which effectively removes the stigma of statelessness from persons of recent Indian origin was in the forefront of his thinking so much so that he prevailed upon the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa to have as an agenda item in the Indo Lanka Economic Committee Meeting the status of those persons of Indian origin who constituted a residue of the Sirima-Shastri Agreement of 1964. Contemporaneously this subject was discussed on a number of occasions with the Foreign Ministry and the Immigration authorities in Parliament. Thus the conferment of Sri Lankan citizenship to those persons has become a fait accompli and constitutes a realization of Thondaman’s dream translated into reality by his young grandson Arumugan Thondaman, on whose broad and capable shoulders the mantle of the CWC leadership rests with commendable ease.

Apart from reaching an important milestone in the geo-political perimeters of the country, the name Thondaman invokes the gamut of the current discussion of devolution of power to the north and east by way of an Interim Administration as a means leading to the establishment of a permanent peace in the country at present actively pursued by the Government.

Thondaman did not confine himself to the proposal for an interim administration for a trial period of 5 years; but also went further in advocating a federal system within a unitary Sri Lanka as exemplified by the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. In other words, one country, two systems. At that point of time, of course, his ideas were seen as outlandish particularly among the chauvinistic groups who are even today vociferous opponents of the ongoing peace dialogue.

It is also opportune to reflect upon the contribution he has made to enhance the quality of life of plantation workers, whose every aspect of existence, be it terms and conditions of employment, education of their children, vocational training, health, nutrition, gender parity etc. upon which he has left his mark.

At present social dialogue among the tripartite partners has become a key pursuit of the International Labour Organisation as the best means of promoting harmonious labour-management relations and improving productivity and the purchasing power of the workers.

British Raj

Under Thondaman, as early as the 1940, he was able to pressurize the all powerful Planter Raj controlled by British colonials to enter into a 10 Point Agreement that laid down formalised guidelines relating to disciplinary action against workers, which had hitherto been indulged upon by the employers at their will and pleasure. The 10-Point Agreement followed by a 13 Point Agreement between the CWC and the Ceylon Estate Employers’ Federation in 1951 (disbanded after the nationalization of the plantations in 1974) brought in some semblance of dignity of labour to the plantation community.

Thondaman’s innovative approaches led to the introduction of "check off" or the deduction of the union subscriptions of the workers from the pay sheet by the employers and remitting them to the union headquarters in consequence of a Collective Agreement between the CEEF and the CWC in 1967. Today all trade unions enjoy this facility.

Consequential dismissals

Up to very recent times, the law provided for consequential dismissals of plantation workers i.e if either spouse of a plantation worker family is dismissed from employment the other spouse was automatically dismissed in consequence and they had to leave the quarters provided by the plantation. The alternative was to face criminal trespass charges in the magistrate’s court which invariably led to a conviction.

Thondaman challenged this system in the law courts and the courts finally held that a plantation worker occupying estate housing does not constitute criminal trespass. This writer will not dwell on the saga of the disenfranchisement of the persons of Indian origin by the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 and the epic struggles headed by Thondaman to restore their citizenship status. It is suffice to say that he fought the effect of this legislation in every forum and took the rejection of applications by the Commissioner for the Registration of Persons of Indian Origin to the Privy Council successfully and established the principle that "presumption of domicile is strengthened by the length of residence".

Parliamentary procedures

Thondaman also created precedents in the realm of parliamentary procedure that were never envisaged by Erskine May - the constitutional pundit. When the PA Government came to power in 1994 he accepted a portfolio and became a member of the cabinet, whilst the rest of the CWC’s sponsored members in Parliament seven in number, remained seated in the Opposition benches. Being in the opposition they, however, voted with the Government. There was nothing that the UNP could do about this situation as the CWC contested the elections on a MoU that allowed it to act independently in and outside Parliament.

In the steady progression of his influence in national politics he never forgot the community whose interests he represented. He created the necessary conditions for ordinary estate workers to enter parliament, provincial councils, municipal councils, town councils and pradeshiya sabhas.

Thondaman’s statue stands proudly in the grounds of the old Parliament, presently the Presidential Secretariat in the company of other distinguished Sri Lankans who had passed away. So one may ask what would be the best method of revering his memory. The answer is to rededicate oneself to the cause with discipline, forbearance and unswerving loyalty.

The poet Wordsworth can be quoted very aptly in this instance.

"The lives of great men all remind us;

that we can make our lives sublime;

and departing leave behind us;

footprints in the sands of time".