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Message: <blockquote data-quote="අපොයි" data-source="post: 15933416" data-attributes="member: 491214">උපාලි විජේවර්ධන අද සිටියානම්..80 දශකයේ ලන්කාවේ හිටපු හොද බිස්නස්කාරයෙක්, ඒ වගේම චින්තකයෙක්.. අද හිටියනම් මෙතුමට අවුරුදු 75ක් විතර. 13 February 1983 දින පෞද්ගලික ජෙට්යානයකින් ගමන් කරන අතරතුර මෙතුමා අතුරුදහන් උනාලු.. එවකට ලන්කාවේ හිටිය හොදම සල්ලිකාරයෙක්. අද හිටියනම් ලන්කාවට ලොකු ආයොජන ගේන්න පුලුවන් මනුස්සයෙක්.. පැකර්ලා කැලේ.. <img src="/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/default/P.gif"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":P" title=":P    :P" data-shortname=":P" /><img src="/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/default/P.gif"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":P" title=":P    :P" data-shortname=":P" />මේ පල්ලෙහා තියෙන්නේ උපාලි මහත්තයා ගැන බ්ලොග් එකක ලියපු ලිපියක්.. learjet35A යටතේ විකියෙත් මෙතුමා ගැන තියනවා.. <img src="http://collidecolumn.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/upali-wijewardene.jpg?w=640" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Consumer Empire Upali didn’t make his fortune in government supply contracts,  property development or dubious stock market deals. Instead, it was  mostly everyday products – ranging from confectionary to consumer  electronics – that formed the foundation of his business empire.  His <a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Elkawgw/gen3062.htm" target="_blank">aristocratic lineage</a>  and Cambridge education no doubt helped, and import restrictions in the  early 1970s created a captive market for home grown products. But Upali  always offered good value for money to the Lankan consumer.  He wasn’t just a busy tycoon running a diversified group whose  holdings, at its peak, included cocoa plantations in Malaysia, holdings  in Singapore and an office at World Trade Centre in New York. He was  also his group’s de facto chief marketing officer – always in the public  eye, enjoying the limelight and constantly promoting the Upali brand. The sub-brands he chose — <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/DeltaToffee" target="_blank">Delta toffees</a>, <a href="http://kandos.lk/welcome.php" target="_blank">Kandos chocolates</a>  and UNIC electronics — were not locked into one cultural tradition on  this multicultural island. While he played the dutiful Buddhist when  family heritage demanded, he engaged all Lankans in business ventures.  <a href="http://collidecolumn.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/upali-wijewardene-handing-over-the-first-mazda-car-assembled-to-late-venerable-vijitha-dharmarakkita-thera-chief-priest-kelaniya-temple.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://collidecolumn.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/upali-wijewardene-handing-over-the-first-mazda-car-assembled-to-late-venerable-vijitha-dharmarakkita-thera-chief-priest-kelaniya-temple.jpg?w=640" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>Upali  Wijewardene handing over the first Mazda car assembled to late Ven.  Vijitha Dharmarakkita Thera, Chief Priest, Kelaniya Temple It was these same inclusive, broadminded and liberal values that he  wanted his newspapers to promote. For sure, producing newspapers is  different from making chocolates. But then, readers ‘vote’ for  newspapers everyday – maintaining their trust is an on-going challenge. Upali launched his media venture despite a market survey saying there  was no room for another English newspaper. He assembled the finest  journalistic talent, invested in modern facilities, and most  importantly, gave his editors a free hand. (<a href="http://www.forachange.net/browse/2264.html" target="_blank">Read reminiscences of founder editor Vijitha Yapa</a>) <a href="http://dbsjeyaraj.com/" target="_blank">Journalist D B S Deyaraj</a>, part of the original team at The Island,  recalls:  “The paper’s plus point in one respect was the colour and  modern printing technology. On another level it was due to its editorial  and news content. The paper covered events fearlessly and provided  space to all points of view. One of its strong points then was its  coverage of the ethnic crisis.” (<a href="http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/16383" target="_blank">Read full tribute on dbsjeyaraj.com</a>) Upali made no secret of his political ambitions, and the newspapers  were admittedly part of that grand plan. But he didn’t seek cheap  publicity in his own newspapers – he wanted to create a platform for  discussion and debate on matters of public interest.   There was only one ‘Sacred Cow’: <a href="http://www.island.lk/2003/02/13//featur01.html" target="_blank">President J R Jayewardene, his cousin.</a> All others were fair game… He took a keen interest in how readers reacted to his newspapers. The  story goes how, in the weeks after launching his newspapers, Upali used  to visit newspaper distributors and newsstands early morning to watch  how his products were moving. What If? What if Upali’s private <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet_35" target="_blank">LearJet 35</a> didn’t disappear mysteriously over the Malacca Straits on 13 February 1983? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history" target="_blank">Alternative history</a> scenarios remind us how a single event could rule out a whole range of possibilities, while opening up many others.  Upali was four days short of 45 when he went missing. Considering  what he’d accomplished in that time, we can expect him to have been  similarly transformative in public affairs and political life had he  lived for longer. This month, he would have turned 75.  He wasn’t the first entrepreneur to enter politics, but unlike most  others, he had a modernistic and global vision. His early engagement  with the Kamburupitiya electorate, in the south, offered some glimpses.  He wanted our youth to learn English, master new technologies and go  out to the world – not as manual labour, but as providers of high-end,  high-paying skills. (Compare that with the insular thinking of our  ultranationalists today, who want us to remain aloof and suspicious of  the world, revelling in our own misery.) Might he have succeeded Jayewardene as head of state?  If so, could  President Upali have helped Lanka avoid the dreadful times during  1988-90, when violent southern insurgents were brutally suppressed by  the state that unleashed greater terror on its own people? How might President Upali, with his insights into race relations in  Malaysia, have approached northern separatism and Tamil nationalism?  Upali the maverick billionaire pushed the limits of  enterprise and innovation. Could he have instilled a bit of that spirit  into our conceptually moribund, mostly unproductive and divisive  politics?  We can only speculate, of course.  Lasting Legacy I also wonder: how differently might his newspapers have evolved, had  their founder been around for longer to nurture, defend and gently  challenge its editors and journalists? (Press barons are reviled by  media freedom activists, but brave ones can be journalists’ best bulwark  against state repression.) Not all Upali ventures survived his demise; some – like his aviation  operation – folded up shortly afterwards. Others are an integral part of  Lankan life: Kandos is the finest Lankan chocolate ever.  Sadly, however, The Island has lost most of its original  flavour: it isn’t the progressive and multicultural newspaper that it  once was, when I was proud to be part of that particular Upali  enterprise for a few years in the late 1980s.  And as years pass, Upali’s legacy becomes a distant memory. <a href="http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/15088" target="_blank">Vijitha Yapa</a>, founder editor of The Island,  started writing Upali’s fascinating biography (‘Upali: A Man in a  Billion’) which he serialised in the mid 1980s. But it stopped mid-way  when he left the newspaper, and has never appeared in book form.……</blockquote>

Verification: Hath warak paha keeyada? (hatha wadikireema paha)

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