Appreciations

Lakshman Kadirgamar

LK was born in Colombo, baptized and brought up in Christian, church going home and educated at Trinity College, Kandy, an Imperial institution, which was run by British Christians, in the 30s, 40s and 50s attending these missionary schools was the only way to enter or remain among the Ceylonese middle class.

Hence, in order to consolidate one's place in the middle class one had to ensure that one had scholastic achievement. So an University degree conferred by the University of Ceylon was a prerequisite. LK religiously took all these steps along with many others before and after him to be qualified to be the flower of Ceylonese middle class society, which encompassed all races.

Missionary education was the stuff that was doled out by Imperial Masters, who sang 'God save the King or Queen," with the sole objective of perpetuating the British Empire and willing subservience by the Ceylonese.

Had it not been for Mahatma Gandhi and his fellow Indian Liberators, we would still be British subjects and LK would have received a knighthood for all his achievements. But in 1960 we were still British subjects and LK was uncomfortably conscious of the lowly position that Sri Lanka, with its agricultural economy and poverty stricken villages, occupied in the world polity.

Being the lofty thinker with foresight and wide vision LK proceeded to the University of Oxford. THE PRIDE OF THE imperialists, to ensure that he couldqualify for a lucrative job somewhere in the industrialized parts of the British Empire. He however, succeeded in finding a well paid job in the magnanimous Third World Employment Centre, called the United Nations.

From 1960 to 1993 LK lived comfortably and with his head held high in Switzerland siring a Swiss wife and producing three children and imbibing and adsorbing all that Europe and America could offer and protected the Property Rights of the European and Western manufacturers against the marauders and plunderers of the East.

In 1993 having completed his bondage to the United Nations, he sloughed off his entanglement to his Swiss family and came home to the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka to begin his metamorphosis.

LK came home, discovered that he was head and shoulders above the living Sri Lankans and decided that he should crown his achievements with a career in politics like the Oxonians before him.

Just at this moment, the LTTE with their devastating anti Sri Lanka propaganda blitz had presented Sri Lanka to the world as Sinhala Buddhist racist murderers, engaging in acts of genocide and violating all Human Rights and international conventions and norms. It was into this battered and bruised and limping Sri Lanka that LK entered.

Sri Lanka needed a counter propagandist, who would at least ensure that promised AID and GRANTS would arrive. Who was it going to be? LK surveyed the political scene and having found that one of his ilk in the form and shape of Neelan Thiruchelvam was acting for the Tamils on the political stage. LK laid his plans.

LK, the versatile man that he was. assumed his guise of Laurence Oliver, rehearsed his part in the British School of Drama and appeared on the Sri Lankan stage as a Representative of the Tamils with Neelan Thiruchelvam as the puppeteer.

In fact. In the presence of a host of ambitious Tamils he sought the approval of all the Tamils in Colombo by asking a simple question- "Am I fit to represent the Tamils?" The majority nodded in assent. G.G. Ponnambalam, who was in the minority, Stepped aside.

But, the calculating Neelan Thiruchelvam, who believed that he was supreme puppeteer, presented LK to the Producer of the play CBK. (Act One Scene One). It was at this point, having brushed aside Neelan Thiruchelvam and his federalism that the inimitable LK with his personality, charm, cleverness and subtlety swept into the firmaments as Foreign Minister to represent a battered and humiliated Sri Lanka. (Act One Scene Two)

It was from here that LK' with his quick and sharp observation of the depth to which Sri Lanka had fallen, its image distorted with allegations of torture and murder, splattered with blood of innocent Tamils and twisted to look like an inhuman demon, burst forth with his eloquence and his Oxford accomplishments to indulge in propaganda against the LTTE.

WHO WERE INDESCRIBABLE BRUTES, LK FOUND WORDS TO DESCRIBE THEM in his calm and quiet manner to bracket them along with the other Terrorist groups in the world. In this he was assisted by the terrorist crimes taking place all over the globe.

These international crimes occurring in different parts of the globe almost simultaneously helped the people in the world to distinguish Terrorists from Freedom Fighters, incidentally using terrorist tactics to have their voice heard. (LTTE WAS DOOMED). LTTE was declared a Terrorist Organisation and this was ascribed to the efforts of LK.

What Lk did outside in condemning the LTTE, the Singhalese did at home and the two kept on encouraging one another till anti terrorist rhetoric became a cacophonous crescendo. To add to this cacophony was the University Teachers of Jaffna, who fearlessly denounced terrorism without the hope of reward eyed by LK.

LK was an exceptional youth in the mould of the Western concept of "Mens sana in sano corpore". (others who come to mind are the late Upali Amerasinghe, John de Saram and S.J. Thambyah). He beat all his contemporaries and stood out as Colossus. No one was his equal. He was every one's idol. It was his youthful moulding in the English Style (Public School and Oxford) that enabled him to trot on the World Stage to impress and dazzle the West and consequently his fellow citizens. Who now dress him up and cremated him as A SINHALA BUDDHIST MARTYR.

The need of the hour in 1995 was an eloquent spokesman for a country-to country publicity or advertisement campaign to counter the LTTE propaganda and at that hour when everyone seemed forlorn. Arrived Laurence Olivier Kadurugama to perform his stage act and complete his metamorphosis to bathrobe wearing Sinhala Buddhist.

LK in his last appearance on the BBC program named Hard Talk in reply to the question whether as a Tamil he was betraying the Tamils and what his religion was, answered that he had religion was only a label that he acquired at birth, which he dispensed with and that he was a World citizen.

But we salute LK for being a Sinhala Buddhist patriot.

Having been childhood friends and having grown up together, always conscious that he was gifted, talented individual who did anything I did ten times better. I wish the last 10 years of his life were erased, leaving no trace.

LONG LIVE THE RYDE GOLD MEDALIST, S. NIHAL SENEVIRATNE.

Dr. Jayantha Kelegama

Dr. Jayantha Kelegama, the eminent economist and scholar, passed away peacefully on the 9th of August 2005. I have known him very well since the year 1943 when he joined Trinity College, Kandy.

He was a bright student and one of the best products of Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. Kele, as he was popularly known, soon made a mark in his academic career at Trinity. On admission, he was first resident in the Squealery Dormitory and, thereafter, for the rest of his student career Kele was in Ryde House. He was made a Monitor of the school in 1946, when he was in the SSC Form.

Whilst at Trinity, he was the brightest and the most outstanding student in his class and he won practically every possible class prize and most of the special prizes. His position in class was always the first. When he sat for SSC Examination held in 1946 he was the only Trinitan to get five distinctions and he headed the list of those who got distinctions. He was allowed to sit for the University Entrance Examination in one year, that was then conducted by the University of Ceylon in Colombo the only University at that time. Kele had very few equals as far as studies and academic achievements were concerned.

His hand writing had a character of its own, both in Sinhala and English. He always wrote with a fine pointed pen, handwriting, to say the least, was very artistic and I have seldom seen such fine handwriting. Kele was very nationally oriented and advocated policies that were not dependent on other countries. He was a great admirer of the socialist countries, particularly Russia and China, and largely advocated policies that did not expose the country to open market forces excessively. In particular, he devoted a considerable part of this research to the analysis of trade and agricultural policies.

At the University of Ceylon, he opted for a Special degree in Economics, specializing in Money and Banking, and secured a class easily. At that time there were no lower second or upper second classes. He was one of the early graduates who did a Special Degree in Economics and graduated in the year 1951.

During the last two years in the University his interest got diverted and Kele decided to contest a post in the University Student Union and was elected. He had the good fortune to be taught by distinguished University teachers and they were Prof. B.B. Das Gupta, Prof. K.P. Kukerjee, Prof. H.A. De S. Gunesekara, Dr. N.K. Sarkar, Tissa Jayakody, Dr. Ian Vandendriesen and L.C. Arulpragasam.

After graduating, he applied and was appointed to the Central Bank of Ceylon. His contemporaries in the Central Bank were S.E.P. Jansz, G.I.O.M. Kurukulasuriya, Michael Seneviratna, Dr. W. Rasaputram, S. Kanesathasan, A.L.B.K. Perera, Dr. S.B.D. De Silva, T. Pathmanathan, Mrs. Elaine Gunewardena, Edmund Eramudugolla, M.P. Perera, D.R. Siriwardena, Arcot Poulier, Mr. M. Swaminathan and B.B.D.M. Perera who were all recruited to the Central Bank during the years 1950 and 1952.

The Central bank during the years 1950 to 1956 was located in the red brick Simes Building in the Fort before we shifted to the Hemas Building that was more or less directly opposite the Simes Building.

Kele got a Central Bank Scholarship to the prestigious Oxford University where his supervisor, Mrs. J.R. Hicks, seeing his academic ability requested him to get onto his thesis straight away. Kele first received his M.A. (Econ) degree from Oxford without an examination as it was customary at that time to receive the MA prior to being awarded the PhD. He wrote a brilliant and pathbreaking thesis for his doctorate on the Money and Banking System in Ceylon. This was the first time when anything had been written on our banking system.

Though disappointed he returned to Ceylon and was posted as the Senior Economist in charge of the Money and Banking Division of the Economic Research Department of the Central Bank. But soon Kele's services were sought by a number of government departments and Ministries and he volunteered to serve them.

In the early sixties, he first worked as Director of Economics Affairs in the Treasury and thereafter was appointed the Director of Commerce. In the period between 1970 and 1977 he was appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Trade and Commerce that was under Hon. T.B. Ilangaratna. Kele was the first Professor of Economics at Vidyalankara University, now called the Kelaniya University. Kele functioned as Chairman of the Tea Commission in 1994-95.

He was appointed the Chancellor of the Rajarata University during the period 1996 to 2002. He was honoured by the conferment of the highest ranking national honour, Deshmanaya. I am not aware of Kele seeking permanent overseas employment at any stage in his career. But he did accept short term assignment as an United Nations Consultant and travelled frequently to distant and neighbouring countries where his balanced approach to economic analysis was required.

He has been writing to the business pages of the Sunday Island regularly for a very long time. He was a quiet and unobtrusive researcher who did not seek publicity. I don't know whether anyone has kept track of his writings that may be easily in excess of two hundred articles on a wide range of very often not directly linked topics in Economics.

His articles were all well documented with a comprehensive range of statistics and written under the pen name 'Kanes'. He has also written extensively in Sinhala for the benefit of the common man on economic issues and he was honoured with the title "Artha Shastra Shiromini" by the University of Vidyalankara in 2002.

At his request, Kele's funeral was not given publicity by an obituary notice, and the time of the cremation was not disclosed. However, the presence of a large and distinguished gathering at his funeral at the Kanatte was clear evidence that he had a very large number of admirers who appreciated his honest and lasting services to the nation and the country.

He leaves behind his wife, Padmini, who stood beside him during the years and his two sons. May he attain the eternal ultimate bliss of Nibbana.

Dr. H.N.S. Karunatilake (former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka)