Tribute: Dr. H N S Karunatileke

I was deeply saddened to receive the shocking news of the passing away of my friend Neville (Dr. H N S Karunatileke), a former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a past President of the Sri Lanka Economic Association. My wife and I were thinking of visiting him presently, as he was ailing, when we got this unexpected news.

I came to know Neville well, in 1950, six decades ago, when having passed the First Examination in Arts in the University of Ceylon, Colombo. he decided to follow the special degree course in Economics. I belonged to the previous batch of Economics Special students. We became friends since then.

Neville graduated in 1952 with Second Class Honours having specialized in Money and Banking. Having topped the batch, he was selected as Tutor in Economics. I was already on the staff of the Department of Economics as an Assistant Lecturer.

We became closer when he joined Marrs Hall as a resident tutor where I was resident Sub-Warden. Neville did not stay long on the staff of the University. He was snapped up by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as a young staffer promising- even though hardly any one could have predicted at that time- to blossom forth eventually as its Governor.

Our friendship did not wane after he left the university campus. It grew from strength to strength, and we remained in close touch with each other, particularly watching each other’s progress in our respective careers. We were together in England in 1955-1957 doing our post graduate studies, he at the London School of Economics and I at the Faculty of Commerce and Social studies at the University of Birmingham. I still remember those enjoyable days we spent together at his flat in London during our university vacations.

Both of us returned to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), after successfully completing our post graduate studies at the beginning of 1958. I got married soon afterwards in September 1958 and Neville was my best man at my wedding.

Neville had a very interesting hobby, astrology. The astrological charts of the horoscopes of my three children were cast by him. Whenever my wife wanted to get a reading of our horoscopes or get an auspicious time for any of our functions we used to rush to Neville. He used to attend to it with delight leaving aside whatever other work he was engaged in.

The above speaks of his long standing friendship with my family, in a nutshell.

How about his professional work? As a central banker, until he became the Governor, he maintained a very close relationship with the academia. He was much sought-after as a Visiting Lecturer not only in Colombo where I was the Head and Professor of Economics, but at Kelaniya and Jayewardenepura as well. When universities were finding it difficult to get teachers competent in the Sinhala medium, Neville was one of the few who came forward to fill the vacuum. Many of the students who did Monetary Economics at these universities will remember him as a very inspiring, dedicated teacher.

In 1985, Neville and I along with Gamani (Dr. Gamani Corea), the late Dr. Jayantha B Kelegama and four others formed the Sri Lanka Economic Association of which he was one of the founder Vice-Presidents and later President. After he became the Governor of the Central Bank in 1988, he was able to build the stature of the Association with increased enrolment of members from the banking community as well as with the input of their active participation in its activities.

Neville’s contribution as the Governor of the Central Bank was outstanding. He selected the best people available as young staffers. I still remember his asking me whether I could recommend any bright promising young people passing out of Colombo and he was not a bit hesitant to snap them. Examples are too numerous to mention.

Neville was a hard worker, almost a workaholic, and he expected the others to be also the same. He judged his staff by their performance. Bank appointments and promotions were based purely on merit. There was no favouritism. Although he was firm on the staff, no body was hostile to him, because he also looked into their welfare. Neville was, in fact, responsible for building circuit bungalows in several outstations for their benefit.

The average annual output of Bank publications during Neville’s governorship in 1988 -1992, was significant. He was a prolific writer himself and he encouraged and helped the others to research and publish. He helped to bring up the Bank library to be the best and most up-to-date in Economics in the country, and he himself had one of the finest Economics libraries. Neville did not stop writing after his retirement from the Bank but continued even at a greater pace. His monumental work on “Fifty Years of Central Banking” on Bank’s Golden Jubilee is ample evidence of this.

Neville was well known for his forthrightness and outspokenness. He was not afraid to call a spade a spade, and at times got into difficulty with the higher authorities for this reason. He never allowed the IMF to have its on way with the Bank. He had to resign in 1984 as Deputy Governor when Mr. Ronnie de Mel was the Minister of Finance, only to have been brought back by the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1988 as Governor. In 1992 he had to retire after his first term was over, for he was not reappointed presumably because, by that time, he had proved that he was not prepared to sacrifice the independence of the bank or of his own for personal gain or merely to keep his position.

Neville applied meticulous care to whatever he did. He was disciplined and patriotic. He loved his country and remained here declining attractive foreign offers.

He always fought for the rights of its people. Although he appeared rough externally, he was religious within. He was one of the chief Dayakayas of Isipathanaramaya, Colombo 5. All in all, Neville was a role model of a professional and a good man. Mani his wife, and the children will be for ever missing a good husband and good father respectively. Sri Lanka will miss a great son of the soil. My wife and I will miss him as a good friend for the rest of our lives. I wish that his journey in Samsara be short and he attains that supreme bliss of Nirvana soon thereafter.

Professor A D V de S Indraratna