APPRECIATION

Y W Gunawardane

We have lost a Giant, though he was a mere scrap of a man physically. He died the other day, after being knocked down while walking, by a motor cyclist, and after being in a coma for more than a week.

Unknown to many, this country has suffered a great loss with his departure. He has left a huge void. Yasasiri was a man of several rare qualities. Predominant among them was his integrity.

Here is an illustration. President Premadasa picked some efficient public servants to run his Presidential Secretariat. They were not necessarily political My Men. Owing probably to his outstanding performance as GA Ampara, Yasasiri too was picked up as an Addl. Secy. Owing to his efficiency, he was soon appointed to Board of Directors of several Boards and Public Corporations, including Bank of Ceylon.

After some time, Yasasiri objected to, during the board meetings, several questionable large loans that came up for approval. Apparently these have been proposed on orders of the President himself for some of his ‘Friends’.

A few days afterwards, Yasasiri had received a polite note from his superior that he is required to relinquish his position in the Bank of Ceylon Board.

Yasasiri promptly wrote his resignation not only from the Bank of Ceylon, but from all other posts he held and also from his post in the Presidential Secretariat. He left his official car key on the table and walked away from office to come home by bus. President Premadasa, though known be a dangerous enemy, especially when slighted, accepted the resignation and left him alone.

Later, his resignation from Public Service was converted into a retirement, obviously to hush up a hornet’s nest, if he appealed.

For a public servant with three school going children, to dare a person like President Premadasa at the height of power, one would say, is insanity. But that was the man. He, though slight in physique, was a man of steel.

In fact Yasasiri never bought a car for his use after retirement. He was a great busser. He went everywhere in the country by bus. When subsequently the governments changed he did not seek to come back as some others did, on political victimization.

It is no surprise that no other subsequent governments touched him even with a barge pole! He cannot fit in to a politcized public service. It is indeed a pity that such men die away unused by the country. I am sure there are so many like him, unsung heroes.

Yasasiri spent the rest of his retirement engaged in many useful activities. He wrote to the Sinhala press regularly. He wrote a book in Sinhala on the stock market which went into several reprints. He translated into Sinhala the Monograph on Batticaloa District. His obituary appeared only in the Sinhala newspapers. It is not that he was a radical Sinhalese. But that is his simplicity.

He engaged himself mainly in Buddhist activity precociously avoiding the polemical and political aspects. Though not a supporter of the JHU, he worked closely with Dr Omalpe Sobhitha Thera.

He assisted the Thera to set up a fee levying English Buddhist School in Embilipitiya, a booming business centre in Ruhuna. This school is doing very well now.

Thera and Yasasiri were contemplating opening a similar school in Colombo District too. He also worked with several other prelates, around the country, along with Ven Madihe Pannasiha when he was alive. His main charity activity was, helping the needy and war victim soldiers. Yasasiri had a flare for it. He organized through the Dharmavijya Foundation, donation of expensive textbooks to needy medical students. Most of his charity work is too numerous to mention here.

We crossed each other’s paths few times in the government service. I came to work with him when I was briefly the Chairman of the National Lotteries Board and he was the president of the Dharmavijaya Foundation. On his request I donated a sum of Rs 100,000 from the Charity Fund of the Board. He stretched it as much as he could and used that money for multifarious charity activities. He invited me for some of those functions and later showed me the detailed accounts of how the money was disbursed, though I never asked.

When their university batch celebrated their 50th anniversary, he suggested that they should give a number of scholarships to needy students. He had people contributing to the Fund freely. They never asked him how they were spent. He had no shortage of donors for such projects. He was extremely happy that his batch-mates co-operated and that the project succeeded.

Coming from solid Baddegama stock, Yasasiri regularly maintained his touch with his village.

He mused once that when he entered the Peradeniya University, during the Rag he was asked by the seniors, from what school he came. When he said that he was from Wanduramba Central, one of them had said : “Yes. You look like one” Yasasiri still enjoyed the wit! But that shows his self-confidence he drew from his being a simple villager.

These two characteristics spread through his entire personality. It is indeed a pleasure to have known him. Above all, he was an unfailing friend.

He leaves his three sons and wife, Mangalani who have accepted the stroke of anicca stoically.

May his sojourns in Samsara be brief.

Gamini Gunawardane