When hope was young
Swarnamali Salgado (90)
Swarnamali Amarasuriya (later Salgado) from Panadura read the proclamation in Sinhala at the first anniversary of Independence ceremony in 1949.
“My village was Moratuwa. I schooled at Visakha Vidyalaya (and Ladies’ College briefly). My father was Thomas Amarasuriya whose brother was H.W. Amarasuriya, former minister of trade and commerce.
I was given my name because I was born on the exact time when the hathares kotuwa of the Ruwanweli stupa was enshrined with treasure – 4.32 p.m. on December 29, 1932.
However, all this had nothing to do with my being selected to read the message in Sinhala at the first year celebrations after Independence was granted.
The other three girls (representing the Tamil, Muslim and Burgher communities) were from university; they could not get a Sinhala undergraduate because all of them were steeped in leftist ideas and refused.
I was 16 when J.R. Jayawardene and A.P. Jayasuriya came to Visakha to test 10 selected girls. The principal was Ms. Susan George Pulimood. After being selected I was allowed to wear a ‘Kandyan half sari’. There was no security checking on the big day and I participated with Phyllis de
Kretser (representing the Burghers), Srimani Ramachandran (Tamils) and Ayesha Zally (Muslims).
Four runners having traversed the length and breadth of the country gave their messages in the four languages to us. Oscar Wijesinghe to me, the late Lakshman Kadirgamar to Srimani, Duncan White to Phyllis and Mohamed A. Sherrif to Ayesha. The messages were handed over to the Prime Minister.
Those were very good times; not corrupted like now. Even if there is material advancement now, those days were much freer.”