NU classic example of self-made man - Prime Minister

N.U. Jayawardena was a classic example of the self-made man, said Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka. The Prime Minister was speaking at the launching of Selected Essays on Economic Policy by Deshamanya N.U. Jayawardena at the People's Bank Training Centre Auditorium on September 2.

What took him to the top was not only an exceptional inborn intelligence but also hard work; what is perhaps little known is that he worked well into his nineties, till his death in 2002. His long and prolific career spanned over three quarters of a century.

He said I must begin by admitting that I have not had the benefit of reading the collection of Selected Essays on Economic Policy by Deshamanya N.U. Jayawardena. As you all know this launch that we are attending here is of a commemorative volume of that collection of Essays to celebrate Deshamanaya N.U. Jayawardena's Centenary.

N.U. Jayawardena is not a name that needs any identification or introduction. Any reasonably educated adult in this country would know who and what he was. What some, or most, would not know is that he began his career as a junior clerk in government service at the tender age of 17. He ended his public service career as the Governor of the Central Bank. He did not stop there; from the public service he launched into the private sector to become if not a captain of industry but certainly a captain of commerce (if I may coin a phrase).

"N.U. began his formal education at his birth place in rural Hambantota to end at the London School of Economics. But as he says in a note penned by him about himself a few years ago, that did not complete his education; it continued in the university of life. His experience, gathered both in the public as well as in the private sector was vast and varied. He was an economist whose advice was sought by the highest in the land.

"N.U. Jayawardena's economic outlook may have differed from that of the Government I represent. I say may have, because I do not rally know; perhaps he would have been on the same wavelength with the Government today. But I do know that we do need economists of his knowledge, experience and stamina today when the Government is engaged in a massive effort to develop our motherland to provide a better life and a better future for all our people, while fighting a debilitating war against a bunch of barbaric terrorists, who are out to divide this land. I assure you that we will not permit them to do that. N.U. Jayawardena was a true son of the soil and I have no doubt that he would have been shoulder to shoulder with us on that.

"I am told that this volume brings together only a small sampling from his writings, which were extensive. "But I am also told that this selection will provide the reader with a historical outline of the major socio-economic and development issues which confronted Sri Lanka during the twentieth, century. I am therefore happy to commend it to all those who would wish to read it.