Upali Wijewardene

Upali Wijewardana as a young child.

Upali Wjewardana was born on 17 February 1938 at his paternal grandmother's house in Sri Ramya, Colombo, to Don Walter Tudugalle Wijewardene and Anula Kalyanawathie Wijesinghe. He was the youngest and only son; he had two older sisters, Anoja and Kalyani. The Wijewardene family was from Kelaniya. His grandfather, Muhandiram Don Phillip Wijeywardene, a timber merchant, founded the family business that his father later joined. Upali lost his father when he was eighteen months old and was raised by his mother in the family home Sedawatte Walawwe in Kolonnawa.[4][5]

The Wijewardene family had made its money by supplying timber for construction in the city of Colombo. They reinvested their profits in various ventures, including real estate, ultimately becoming influential in local politics. Upali's paternal uncle, Don Richard Wijewardena, was the press baron, and his cousin J. R. Jayewardene assumed the role of the second President of Sri Lanka, serving from 1978 to 1989. Ray Wijewardene, a cousin, was an engineer, aviator, inventor, and Olympic athlete.[6] His sister Anoja married Stanley Wijesundera, a professor of Chemistry and he was the first vice-chancellor of the University of Colombo, while his other sister Kalyani married Dr. G.M. Attygalle.

On 7 November 1975, Upali married Lakmini Ratwatte, daughter of Dr. Seevali Ratwatte, brother of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Lakmini is the granddaughter of Barnes Ratwatte Dissawa.[7][8] He moved into his house on Thurstan Road, designed by Geoffrey Bawa, which included a helipad for his private helicopter. He also owned a country house, the Sunnycroft Bungalow, in Nuwara Eliya.[9] He held the position of Basnayake Nilame (chief lay custodian) at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, a temple that had been supported by his family.[4] An amateur racing enthusiast, Wijewardene participated in races with his mother's Opel Kapitan at the Katukurunde Races in the early 1960s.

He attended Ladies' College, Colombo, along with his two older sisters, Afterwards, he enrolled in Royal College, Colombo and later attended St John's School, Leatherhead. He pursued a degree in economics at Queens College, Cambridge in 1956, and successfully completed his studies in 1959 and earning a BA degree. During the time at Cambridge, he held the position of secretary within the Marshall Society.[4][5]

On his return to Ceylon in 1959, Upali joined the British manufacturing company Lever Brothers as a management trainee and was assigned responsibility of overseeing soap processing. However, he left Lever Brothers in 1961 due to a disagreement with its British Chairman.[5]

Delta toffee

He ventured into the business by setting up a confectionary business, establishing a candy ball machine on his property along Bloemendaal Road. He later expanded the business and branded it as a 'Delta Toffee'.[3][5]

Kandos chocolates

In 1970, after the passing of his maternal uncle Senator Sarath Chandradasa Wijesinghe, Upali assumed control of the underperforming 'Ceylon Chocolates Company'. He expanded the 'Kandos chocolates' brand from domestic to an international market. With the help of his one his friends Ratnam, he cultivated 14,000 acres of cocoa in Malaysia. During the transition of the business, he acquired cocoa plantations, processing plants, and factories in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.[4][5][3]

Upali Wijewardana founded the Upali Group of Companies in the mid-1960s, consolidating his holdings and forming a conglomerate of companies.[10][11]

Manufacturing

Upali began soap manufacturing, introducing the brands Crystal and Tingle Sikuru.

Aviation

In the aviation sector, he founded Upali Air in 1968. However, its operations started in the later 1970s with several aircraft for private, domestic and international flights.[3]

Electronics

He started the Upali Electronic Company in the 1970s introducing Unic Radios, Calculators, Wall Clocks, Air-conditioners and NEC TVs. These were assembled locally under the import restrictions of the time.

Automotive

In 1970, Wijewardene founded the Upali Motor Company (UMC), which began assembly of Mazda Capellas under license in his Homagama plant, known locally as the UMC Mazda or, more colonially, Upali Mazda. Over 500 units were assembled. In 1978, UMC began the assembly of Fiat 128, known locally as Upali Fiat.[12]

Print media

In 1981, he started Upali Newspapers and published daily and weekly newspapers, including Divaina, The Island and Navaliya. He used his aircraft to deliver newspapers to remote areas such as Anuradhapura and Jaffna before 8 am.

In February 1981, he published a comic, Chithra Mithra. Within a few months, the magazine reached a circulation of 200,000. Media initially described the magazine as "romance, booze, money, travel, dreams, adventure, wild women", crammed into 16 pages.[2] It expanded into 32 pages with a different story on every page. Editor Janaka Ratnayake noted that the publication had "many topics-romance, detective, sci-fi, heroes, two pages built around movie stars, and almost a page of pen pals" (1993). All the stories were serialised and in black and white with a "spot" of one additional colour.[13] The comic magazine fell apart after Wijewardene's death and ceased publication in 1986 with a circulation of 15,000. Ratnayake cited the magazine's failure to Wijewardene's early demise, the sub-standard printing quality of the paper due to unskilled mechanics and competition from other magazines.[13]

In 1980, he travelled to Silicon Valley and signed five agreements, including one with Motorola.[2] The construction of chip plants started in 1983. However, the Sri Lankan Civil war brought bombing over the country and killed some of the engineers assigned to the construction of the plants, which led the chip manufacturers to leave Sri Lanka in favour of Malaysia.[14]

Upali Wijewardene was influential in restarting horse racing at the Nuwara Eliya Race Course. He was the chairman Board of Stewards of the Sri Lanka Turf Club and was a keen turfite who raced in Sri Lanka and England, where his horse "Rasa Penang" won the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot, ridden by the world-famous jockey Lester Piggott.

In 1980 he also won the Singapore Derby at the Bukit Timah Race Course in Singapore and the Perak Derby at the Perak Turf Club in Malaysia with his horse, named "Vaaron". He raced "General Atty" too and won many races in England. He flew to all these countries in his private aircraft, where his horses ran. He made it a point to fly from Newmarket Racecourse in England to Nuwara Eliya Racecourse in Sri Lanka to watch his horses and ponies racing.

In 1978, Upali Wijewardene was appointed by President J. R. Jayewardene as the first Director General of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC), which subsequently evolved into the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan political establishment did not favour his arrival in politics.[14] In this position, Wijewardene worked to attract foreign investment to develop local industries in the new open economy. He formed Free Trade Zones in Katunayake, Biyagama and Koggala.[2] He set up an organization called 'Ruhunu Udanaya' and worked hard to create opportunities for young people in Kamburupitiya and the surrounding areas to learn English and computer technology. It was claimed that Upali laid the groundwork to enter parliament, with Kamburupitiya serving as a possible constituency.[3]

Learjet 35A

Upali, a licensed pilot, travelled on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport as Chairmen of the GCEC. He owned a private jet, a Learjet 35A, which he had modified with another controller to the rear body.[3] The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur at 8:41 pm on 13 February 1983, bound for Colombo. On board with him were his Malaysian lawyer S.M. Ratnam, Upali Group Director Ananda Peli Muhandiram, pilot Capt. Noel Anandappa (ex-SLAF), co-pilot Capt.Sydney De Zoysa ( former Air Ceylon Captain ), and steward S. Senenakye. Fifteen minutes later, the aircraft disappeared while flying over the Straits of Malacca. Extensive search operations by air and naval units of Sri Lanka, India, the United States, the Soviet Union, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia failed to locate any evidence of a crash.[15][16]

A wheel that was suspected of being part of the disappeared plane was found on Pandang Island, leading the authorities to conclude that the plane had suffered a mid-air explosion. Later investigations revealed that the plane manufacturer did not manufacture this wheel.[17] According to K. Godage, former Malaysian High Commissioner, the government of Sri Lanka did not show interest in further investigating the disappearance.[14] Rumours later circulated that Upali could have been named the Minister of Finance by President J. R. Jayewardene the next day on his return to Colombo, replacing Ronnie de Mel.

• List of people who disappeared
• Upali Air
• Upali Newspapers

• De Silva, Mervyn (31 March 1983). "Sri Lankan millionaire Upali Wijewardene goes missing in his Learjet, massive search on". India Today.

• Wijewardene House, Colombo, Sri Lanka