In a book written by James Manner about the secret character of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, it was written as follows. It said that Bandaranaike wears the trousers at home when he goes to the public wearing the national dress made of local cotton fabric. It also states that he wears court pants when he goes to the dogfights and to the club to play billiards. It is said that at his father’s funeral, he took off his clothes, put on a top hat and a tail coat and carried his father’s body.
Everyone knows that JR Jayawardene wore his national dress while going out and trousers at home. But DS, Sir John and Dudley wore tie coats. After losing the general election in July 1960, Dudley’s colleagues pointed out to Dudley that the tie-coat was no longer suitable for politics in Sri Lanka. Dudley reluctantly dressed in his national costume and went to the Temple of the Tooth, much to everyone’s surprise.
People in Sri Lanka go out wearing trousers. But dress sarong at home. Everything is familiar to them. Bandaranaike’s and JRs used to pants. Because of this, when they go out, they wear the national dress and wear trousers at home.
Bandaranaike made this ‘redda’ and ‘banyan’ or national dress a symbol of politics. In 1956, he formed the Association comprised of Doctors, Teachers and Farmers Labor Force, which launched a battle between the Western dressers and the National Dress. The supporters of the U.N.P. were Westerners who wore tie coats and trousers, teachers who dressed in Western styles and officers who wore tie coats. The supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party were the local, Sinhalese teachers and workers who wore the redda and baniyama.
JR and Premadasa destroyed the politics of symbolizing the national dress against Western attire. Premadasa and JR. both of them wore the national dress.
Once again, politics symbolizing the national dress against this tie-coat comes to the fore, after Ranil becomes the leader of U.N.P. He wore a tie. His colleagues told him to take off his tie coat, but he did not agree with them.
In the 2005 presidential election, this tie-coat dress affected him negatively because Mahinda wore a cloth banyan. On top of that, he also carried a red scarf.
Mahindra’s ‘kurahan scarf’, cloth and baniyan were a big reason for Ranil’s defeat because the JVP marketed Mahinda’s local image, with a campaign to ensure Mahinda’s victory.
‘You want a tie-coat-wearing pro-Western Ranil? or Mahinda, a national leader who wears ‘cloth banyan’…?’
That was the question asked by all the JVP leaders starting with the then JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe on Mahinda’s platform. Mahinda swam well in that national wave created by JVP.
Sarath Fonseka came as the UNP- JVP common candidate for the 2010 presidential election. He took off his military uniform and wore a ‘cloth banyan’. It was to challenge Mahinda’s national image.
Maithripala came in 2015 wearing a cloth and banian. Maithri took on Mahinda’s national image by using the story of the village well.
Gotabaya is stuck between Mahinda’s redda baniyam and Ranil’s tie-coat conflict. He doesn’t wear a tiecoat and wears a bush shirt and trousers without wearing a tie to show that he is not a traditional politician. On the day of winning the presidential election and addressing the parliamentary session, the Rajapaksa family insisted that if he could not wear the ‘redda baniyan’, he should put on the red kurahan scarf, but he wore a tie-coat without listening to them. The first conflict between Gotabhaya and the Rajapaksa family was caused by this outfit. On Independence Day, he wears a Bush shirt instead of the national dress or tie-coat amid criticism from his government.
In 2005, he trained the tie-coat patriots, who said no tie-coat, cloth is better. But it was Ranil, who was the president after Gota, who wore the tiecoat for these patriots. The Pohottu councillors who said no to Ranil, who wears tie-coats, threw up both hands to make Ranil the president. Moreover, after Ranil became the president, Aluthgamage and Shehan Semasingha, who used to wear redda baniyama, started wearing tie-coats.
In the 2024 presidential election, Pohottu party members would not look for a red scarf. They have to choose red ties.
Famous businessman Dhammika Perera is famous for the red tie in Sri Lanka, like the Red Hattakari drama. He is one of the main candidates in the Public People’s Front candidate list. American President Trump popularized the red tie around the world. Red is the color of the map showing the electoral victory of the Republican Party, in USA in the 2000 presidential election. USA Today newspaper showed the Republican victory in red on the US map. Trump wore a red tie for the presidential election to the Republican Party in the USA. Remember the red colour given by USA Today. Finally, the red tie was his brand.
Dhammika Perera’s brand is also red tie. He was a red tie before Trump. He is trying to be the candidate of the Podujana Peramuna, which has made the red scarf its symbol, wearing a red tie. Ranil wore green, grey and blue ties while he was the U.N.P. leader and after becoming the president, he too has started wearing the red tie from time to time.
The latest red tie is JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He recently went to India and met the Indian Foreign Minister wearing a red tie. The red tie suits Anura Kumara because JVP’s colour is red. But he also wears a red tie and targets the pohottuwa party members who are fascinated by the red scarf.
It is not yet possible to say whether Ranil, Dhammika or Anura will win the Pohottu party by wearing a red tie-coat instead of wearing Mahinda’s red scarf and redda baniya. But Sajith Premadasa is the only candidate who will not wear a tie-coat in 2024.
