LORD Dafydd Elis-Thomas said he believed former Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans's threat to starve himself to death was an "an error of judgement". The ex-Plaid president, now presiding officer in the National Assembly, claimed the controversial tactic used in 1980 to secure Welsh channel S4C was "morally unacceptable". The Meirionydd Nant Conwy AM was speaking in a new two-part TV series Gwynfor: Yr Aelod Dros Gymru? (Gwynfor: The Member For Wales?) which starts tomorrow. The series, being broadcast on S4C, examines the life of the first-ever Plaid MP who led the party for 36 years between 1945 and 1981. Mr Evans, who died in April, aged 92, said he would starve himself to death unless Margaret Thatcher's Tory government honoured an original manifesto pledge to establish a fourth Welsh language channel. Lord Elis-Thomas, a fellow Plaid MP from 1974-79, said in hindsight it was an error of judgement to use the threatened fast to change the government's mind. Mr Evans, brought up a Congregationalist and a devout Christian, believed it was his duty to employ a tactic used to great effect by India's independence and human rights campaigner Mahatma Gandhi. But Lord Elis-Thomas said: "It was an error of judgement and out of character for Gwynfor to have made such a threat. "It was not appropriate for an honorary president of a political party to use such a tactic. "Fasting, in my view, is morally unacceptable. "It's violence to an individual's life by that same individual. "I now believe there's something pathological about it. "I'm not saying that this was true about Gwynfor in those days. But I wouldn't recommend following that line of action again." The programme looks at how the son of a prominent South Wales businessman and grandson of a Congregational minister became a leading Welsh devolution and Welsh language rights campaigner. Author of a new Gwynfor Evans biography, BBC Wales political correspondent Rhys Evans played a large part in researching the BBC Wales-produced series. He said it portrayed a complex man. "On the one hand you have Gwynfor the unwavering gentleman and on the other hand you have the self-centred, messianic Gwynfor and also Gwynfor the vulnerable figure who made mistakes. "In essence he was flesh-and-blood and that's how we should think of him." One of Gwynfor Evans' sons, Dafydd Evans, told the programme: "My father truly believed that he was the one who was supposed to save Wales. "He had, to all intents and purposes, given his life to that cause. "He wanted to be the one to do that work." * The first part of Gwynfor: Yr Aelod Dros Gymru? is broadcast on S4C at 9pm tomorrow. | 
