Celebrating NM's birthday in the 90th year of the LSSP

Today, 06 June, marks the 120th anniversary of Dr N.M. Perera's birth. N.M. was born in 1905, the year of the First Russian Revolution.

- BY Dr. JAYAMPATHY WICKRAMARATNE

He passed away on 14 August 1979, during the month progressives in Sri Lanka commemorate the 1953 Hartal, in which he played a significant role. This year also marks the 90th anniversary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party that NM and his comrades founded.

NM was a multi-faceted man: the first leading man in a Sinhala film, Rajakeeya Vickramaya; captained Ananda College at the inaugural Battle of the Maroons against Nalanda in 1925; founding member and leader of Sri Lanka's first political party; President of the Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC); President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka; Leader of the Opposition in the first and third Parliaments under the 1946-47 Constitution; and Minister of Finance (1964 and 1970-75).

He earned two doctorates from the London School of Economics - a PhD for his thesis on the Weimar Constitution of Germany, supervised by Prof. Harold Laski and a DSC for his comparative study of parliamentary procedures in the UK, USA, France and Germany, becoming the first Sri Lankan to receive a higher doctorate from the University of London. Laski thought that NM would make an excellent Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Sir Ivor Jennings said that he would be an outstanding Labour Prime Minister. For Ajit Samaranayake, NM was "the best Prime Minister Sri Lanka never had." Writing the Foreword to NM's celebrated booklet, "A Critical Analysis of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka," his comradein-arms, Dr Colvin R. De Silva, described him as an acknowledged authority on constitutional law, with his doctoral thesis cited as an authoritative source.