A.C.S Hameed's seventh death anniversary falls today:

Skills of negotiation

Prof. G. L. Pieris, MP

APPRECIATION: My association with the late Dr. A. C. S. Hameed goes back a long time. It goes back to a period prior to my entry into active politics. When I served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Dr. A. C. S. Hameed, as Minister of Higher Education, was in charge of the entire university system of the country.

This was, without question, the most turbulent period in the history of universities in our land. My predecessor in the office of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo, the late Prof. Stanley Wijesundera, was brutally gunned down in his own office. I was in the building at that time and I will never forget the spectacle, which I witnessed.

The late Prof. Wijesundera, clutching his tie had been shot through the head. Prof. Stanley Wijesundera was not the only Vice-Chancellor who paid the supreme price at that time. Prof. Patuwatuvitharana, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, was also killed.

At that time, it meant a great deal to us, to all the Vice-Chancellors, to have at the helm of affairs with regard to higher education in the country; a man of the understanding of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed. I am personally aware that at one o'clock in the morning if a Vice-Chancellor wished to speak to him on the telephone, he would come to the telephone.

I have said so, during the lifetime of the late Dr. Hameed. His concern, the intensity and the continuity of involvement, which he showed in the affairs of our universities during that unprecedentedly difficult period, gave us all courage to go on Dr. Hameed instilled in us confidence and that is what kept the university system alive during those very turbulent moments.

Because of the intimacy of my association with Dr. Hameed and my knowledge of his personal qualities, I would like on this occasion to mention not about Dr. Hameed, the parliamentarian with 38 years of experience, the Foreign Minister who held that post for 13 years or the Chairman of the United National Party.

I would prefer instead, to focus upon the personal qualities and attributes of the late Dr. A. C. S. Hameed, qualities, which made him a truly unique human being.

Machiavelli in his famous work, "The Prince", set out a certain vision of politics and politicians. The essence of the thesis propounded by Machiavelli in that celebrated work which has been quoted throughout the ages is that morality and normal ethical values have no application whatsoever to the world of politics.

Machiavelli said that a practising politician has to be judged by one standard and one standard alone, namely, the degree of success that he has been able to achieve in accomplishing the objectives that he has set himself. The means do not matter. Murder, pillage, any kind of knavery is acceptable in order to achieve the ends, which a practising politician has set himself.

The gravamen of the thesis of Machiavelli, therefore, was that there is no room for human qualities in the thrust and parry, in the hurly-burly, of the political world. The life and the qualities of A. C. S. Hameed, stand out as a refreshing testimony against the validity of Machiavelli's thesis.

The late Shahul Hameed was, above all, a man of great gentleness and compassion. He was a true friend. He talked and he walked with characteristic gentleness, which pervaded the entirety of his personality. His word was his bond: these are qualities, which he upheld in all aspects of his life, and politics was certainly no exception.

There was also one other guiding principle, which illuminated the whole of Dr. Hameed's political career.

He believed, in the very fibre of his being that political power, if it is to be justified, must be applied towards purposes, which are beneficial to the community at large. He had no use whatever for the trappings of political power. He was interested in the substance.

In one of his last conversations with me, the late Dr. A. C. S. Hameed said that if no solution to the ethnic problem is in sight, if we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, he has no wish to contest the next general elections.

He realized full well, that not problem in this country can be solved in a durable manner unless a viable resolution of the ethnic conflict in this land is achieved in the near future.

So deep, so strong was his conviction on this point that he was quite prepared to leave his political career and to go into retirement if this objective continued to elude us.

Dr. A. C. S. Hameed throughout the 38 years of active political life represented a constituency, the majority of whose voters are Sinhalese. It is the Sinhala people who chose the late Dr. Hameed as their representative.

The late Dr. Hameed gave no place to ethnicity in his political thinking. He made no divisions among different segments of the population of our country. He was equally devoted to the well-being of all sections of our people.

I am personally aware that on one occasion when a group of Buddhists were looking for a Sima Malakaya on the banks of the Mahaweli river, it was the late Dr. Hameed who took the initiative not only in securing that land for this purpose, but also raising a considerable part of the money that was required for the construction of the Sima Malakaya.

When he was in California on one occasion on his return from New York where he had attended the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he came across a bar which had been called the 'Buddha Bar'. He was indefatigable in the agitation campaign, which he launched on that occasion to ensure that a change was made with regard to the name of the bar.

He was a living example to the politicians of our time, to rise above ethnicity and to work towards a conception of national identity which is truly comprehensive and is able to embrace within its scope the aspirations of all the people who inhabit this Island.

Another characteristic of the life and the work of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed was the range and the depth of his interest: I think, very close to his heart was his commitment to education.

Before the late Dr. Hameed embarked upon a political career, he was in charge of a Muslim training college in Kandy. Throughout his career he devoted himself to the cause of equity in education.

He wanted educational opportunities to be available on an equitable basis to the rural children of this country. He was particularly interested in the teaching of English and in the availability of facilities for computing and knowledge of computing in the rural parts of Sri Lanka.

I am aware of how tactfully he dealt with some of the most pressing problems, which evolved in the university system during his stewardship as Minister of Higher Education. He had to solve some very complicated problems with regard to salary increases, which were demanded by the academic staff, administrative staff and minor staff in the universities.

A. C. S. Hameed also took a great interest in matters connected with the administration of justice and the law in this country. I remember one of the last speeches he made on the Floor of the House. This was when he participated in the debate on the Community Service Orders Bill.

He took a great interest in legal aid and access to the mechanisms of justice. He was always practical and down to earth in his approach to problems connected with litigants, and the administration of justice.

As Minister for Foreign Affairs or an unbroken period of more than a decade. If I were asked to identify his most significant single achievement in the field of foreign relations, I would say that that achievement consisted of the depth of his commitment to institution building in the international sphere and I think the best example of that is the very creative and imaginative role which he played with regard to the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Non-Aligned Movement at that time was in the process of formation. It had not acquired a complete identity of its own and it is against that backdrop that the statement by the previous President J. R. Jayewardene in 1979 takes on a particularly important meaning.

President J. R. Jayewardene while handing over the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1979, to Fidel Castro of Cuba in Havana, specifically singled out his Foreign Minister, A. C. S. Hameed for the excellence of the contribution which had been made by his Foreign Minister in handing down the Movement to President Jayewardene's successor, undiluted and untarnished. I think these achievements came naturally and easily to the late Dr. Shahul Hameed for one fundamental reason.

I would identify that basic reason of Dr. Hameed's deep knowledge of human nature, the well springs of human motivation. That is why he was the negotiator par excellence. He understood why the other party was approaching the problem in a different way. He understood the different nuances and gradations pervading the stand taken by the other side.

He realised that, in negotiation, one single method would not always work. Some people can be coaxed and cajoled, some people need the carrot, other people the stick. Yet others need a combination of these methods.

This late Dr. Hameed had a certain resilience of mind, which enabled him to use the proper modalities and the proper instruments on a particular occasion. He would decide when to take a problem head on and when to launch a frontal attack on a problem.

He would also decide when to skirt the problem. That is part of the finesse, which pervaded the personality of the late Dr. Hameed and that is why he stood out as an outstanding negotiator.

At this particular time it is a tragedy to our nation, not to any political party, not to any constituency but to the nations as a whole, that we have been deprived to the unique talents of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed as a negotiator par excellence.

I say so for a very good reason, we are today on the threshold of a complex negotiation with regard to the constitutional structures of this country. Those negotiations, before they reach culmination, must of necessity include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

It is abundantly clear that there cannot be a viable solution to this problem unless the LTTE also plays a part in the negotiating process. The late Dr. Shahul Hameed had an intimate knowledge of the mindset of the LTTE. He had negotiated with them for long periods.

He was aware of the manner in which the LTTE thought about situations and reacted to very complex and convoluted situations. This is not the kind of knowledge, which can be gathered from a textbook.

It is a kind of knowledge that emanated from a whole lifetime of experience and that is the experience which the late Dr. Shahul Hameed possessed in abundant measure. Those are the insights, the talents that our country desperately needs at this moment then we are poised for negotiations with all parties to this conflict including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

That is precisely the moment at which this country has been deprived of the signal and invaluable services of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed.

On this occasion I must pay a tribute to the continuity and the excellence of the work done by the late Dr. Shahul Hameed as a member of the parliamentary select Committee on Constitutional Reform of which I had the privilege to serve as Chairman.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform had 77 Meetings, spanning a period of almost three years. I do not mean to be invidious in any way and I do not think I would be misunderstood, if I state the fact, that of all the members of the United National party it was the late Dr. Shahul Hameed who took the most active interest in the deliberations of that committee.

Whenever he was in the country, he attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee. He was of the greatest possible assistance to me in carrying those negotiations forward when overwhelming and potentially insurmountable problems arose from time to time. He would give me very good advice on the sequence of topics to be discussed.

He would suggest, for example, that the easier topics be taken up first so that we build good will as we go along, and that good will provides us with a foundation to build upon as we come to grips with the more difficult and intractable issues.

In particular, the late Dr. Shahul Hameed was active in informal fora outside the official deliberations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms. One of the areas in which these informal deliberations were of particular value related the unit of devolution in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.

This was not merely a matter between the majority community and the minority community and the minority community. It had a separate dimension in-so-far as it involved the reconciliation of Tamil and Muslim interests in the Eastern Province. The late Dr. Shahul Hameed played a very critical role in that area.

The last occasion on which I saw him and spoke to him was just three days before his death. This was at the conclusion of a meeting, which was chaired by Lalith Kotelawela on behalf of the business community.

We had along, productive and interesting meeting, at the end of which, for the first time, I was able to persuade the late Dr. Shahul Hameed to speak to Rupavahini on the attitude of the United National Party to the constitutional reforms process.

As I left the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, the late Dr. Hameed was talking to Ashraff about various aspects of the unit of devolution in the Eastern Province.

The late Dr. Shahul Hameed realised that, in order to arrive at a durable solution to a problem of this kind, there had to be a combination of short-term and long-term approaches.

While our commitment to the devolutionary structures as a means of empowering minorities in this country is unyielding he realized full well that the day-to-day problems of the minorities have also to be addressed in the meantime.

That is why the late Dr. Shahul Hameed was a very strong and consistent supporter of such initiatives as the On the spot service, and the anti-harassment committee both initiatives by the Former President which were intended to alleviate the anguish and the sufferings of the minority communities at the present time.

Dr. Shahul Hameed was a strategist. He realised that tactics are also important in achieving political goals, but he never for one moment sacrificed substance to tactics.

I think that is a point that is worth bearing in mind in any pragmatic evaluation of the contribution made by the late Dr. Shahul hameed to the public life of our country.

Dr. Hameed, towards the latter part of his life, became very reflective. He had the intellectual capacity to do so. There is no the slightest vestige of doubt about it. He began to reflect in detached manner about men and matters, about the whole pageant history, which he had seen unfold throughout his political career.

Some of his reflections are embodied in certain works that he prepared during that period, which are well worth reading. I refer in particular to the little book The Owl and the Lotus, which consists of a series of parables.

These were presented to the public in a seemingly light - hearted fashion. There was no pedantry. There was nothing heavy about the manner of treatment of people and life that the adopted in those books.

But there is very deep truth about human nature that is embodied in that little book, The Owl and the Lotus. The approach is anecdotal. I think that those parables reflect the epitome of wisdom which the late Dr. Shahul Hameed had garnered from the diversity of experiences that and had in the many roles that he played in the public life of our country.

There is one final point, which I would like to make. It is the importance of a sense of humour. I do not think that any body can survive long in the political life of our nation without a sense of humour.

The late Dr. Shahul Hameed was able to stand back from situations, to repudiate the immediacy and the tyranny of the here and now and to take a broader view of matters. He used to do this form time to time.

The example given by some one illustrates that point very effectively. The occasion, which was referred to by him is something that would have rattled many people.

As one is called upon by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations to walk-up to the rostrum and to address that distinguished assembly, if one is upstaged by a member of a revolutionary group which embarks upon a vitriolic diatribe against the government that one is expected to represent, that would be enough to fluster most people.

But that did not happen to the late Dr. Shahul Hameed. His sense of humour did not desert him even in a situation of that kind. He was able to turn the tables with a deftness of approach and a lightness of touch that was typical of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed. He simply thanked the last speaker for keeping his speech short that transformed the entire atmosphere of the United Nations General Assembly.

To conclude with a personal observation, I looked upon the late Dr. Hameed as one of many closest friends. He had much more experience of men and matters than I have. It was a custom, which we had developed, to meet from time to time.

The late Dr. Hameed and I would have a personal conversation once a month. We used to meet in my office in Parliament when I was a cabinet minister.

If he or I were busy, and if we did not meet for sometime he would telephone or I would telephone and we both looked forward to these conversations. The rancour, the bitterness and the acrimony of party politics did not touch the substance or the tenor of these discussions. They were conversation between friends.

I spoke to him and he spoke to me in the fullest confidence that everything that was said was strictly between us and neither side would attempt in the slightest way to make any political capital of the thoughts and views that were exchanged between us.

We live in very troubled times. It was a source of great solace and strength to me to be engaged in those discussions with a friend who had far greater experience of the world than I had.

I would like to say in all candour and sincerity, that I greatly miss those conversations. I miss the warmth of the personality of the late Dr. Hameed at a time when I myself am subject to very considerable strain with regard to the public duties, which I was called upon to discharge.

In those circumstances the greatest tribute that we can pay to the memory of Dr. Shahul Hameed is not to make eloquent speeches on the Floor of Parliament, not to write articles evaluating and assessing the multifaceted contribution that was made by Dr. Hameed to the Public life of this land.

I would say that the true spirit in which we can recognize the quality of the work that was done by the late Dr. Hameed for a period which spanned almost half a century is to do everything in our power, in any modest capacity we can, to make a reality of the objectives to which he devoted his life with a zeal and an enthusiasm that was truly a characteristic of the late Dr. Abdul Cader Shahul Hameed.

I consider it a great privilege to have known such personality and to have benefited from his wisdom, from the range and the depth of his experience. It has enriched my life in many ways.