Harendra Asoka Perusinghe:

Brave hero in the battlefield

The ugly face of death clutched the beauty of a national hero Harendra Perusinghe by rendering all of us into a gloomy fate.

By birth Harendra has humble traits; he was one of the courageous and fearless members of the family and that emerged during his period of service in the battlefield.

As a smart student at the Ananda College he passed the GCE A/L with good results which opened up the avenues to the university.

He was more concerned about the family and he really wanted to share his mothers burden.

Therefore, he took up a post in the Sri Lanka Air Force as an cadet officer in 1984.

Due to his skills and devotions to duty he was promoted to as a flying officer in the year 1987 and further promoted as squadron leader in 1988. In the year 2002 Harendra was further promoted to the post of wing commander and in the year of 2007 was elevated as a group captain.

At the time of his death he rendered his services at the Air Force Base.

When we asked him the reason for not getting married his reply was that he did not want his wife and children to be vulnerable to his sad episode due to the ferocious war that was prevailing at that time. That could not be a surprise to him as he has been witnessing many such incidents.

After the conclusion of the war he indicated that he was ready to get married and we were hurrying to find a suitable partner for him.

But he found the most suitable partner for the rest of his life by himself, Kumudini.

As he spent a major part of his youthful life at the battlefield he must have dreamt of a peaceful family life at his latter part of his career.

When he was proceeding at the wedding, dressed in the smart official uniform on May 11, 2011 all of us followed him with full of joy and happiness.

Although he escaped from a number of terrorist attacks yet, soon after one month and 20 days of his marriage he succumbed to death due to a heart attack which really shocked all of us.

Harendra has been the “Pet” of his mother. Even during his busy official life Harendra visited his mother at Kaikawala. He must have had a profound love for his village.

Due to the fact that his elder brother was very busy and had to stuck in his workload in Colombo, Harendra took upon himself the responsibility of looking after his mother.

At the time of his mother’s illness despite of his busy schedule he attended himself full time on her and provided best medical attention by giving special care.

During his service in Sri Lanka Air Force, specially when he was the commanding officer of Ampara SLAF base, he not only developed the entire camp but also made sure that he improved the relationship with the villagers and government authorities of the area.

He started many projects with the help of his subordinates and the villagers, like cultivating paddy lands which was neglected by terrorist activities, cultivating vegetable farms, starting a brick project and metal quarrey.

This kind of self-employments gave those villagers a fixed income which no doubt increased their standards of living. His involvement was seen even towards the renovation of Buddhist temples and providing security for the Buddhist monuments of the area.

He was awarded with the Purna Bhumi, Rivirasa, Long Service, 50th Independence, Air Force 50th Anniversary, North and East Operation, USP, North and East Humanitarian medals in his career in the Air Force.

He also followed the junior commanders course in India, intelligence course at the Sri Lanka Army and Management of Aviation Security in Singapore during his career.

He was a brave, loyal, humble officer, who served his dear motherland.

He was a dear son, husband, brother and a dear cousin.

He was indeed a good friend. Even though he was a brave hero in the battlefield, he could not fight against his death.

May Harendra attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.

Pushpamala Iriyagolla Dharmasena

Ian Dias Abeysinghe:

Personality who achieved international distinction

The Founder President of Japan Sri Lanka Technical and Cultural Association (JASTECA) passed away at the age of 71 years most unexpectedly three months ago.

Our dear friend Ian’s demise was a great loss to all of us.

He took a unique stand and great leadership in establishing JASTECA in February 1984 at the request of the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) Japan which was headed by the former president Nagaaki Yamamoto who was a great friend of Sri Lanka.

At the time of establishment of JASTECA we did not even have an office to conduct our meetings, so much so that the initial executive committee meetings were conducted at his Campbell Place residence.

I joined the JASTECA Ex-Co as Asst Secretary, but shortly afterwards I was compelled by my dear friend Ian to take over the position of general secretary which was indeed a challenging task.

At hat time we had several Ex-Co members who were very committed carrying out voluntary work in the fields of human resource development and transference of technology linked up with AOTS Japan.

Nagaaki Yamamoto who was then president visited Sri Lanka several times and met up with past Presidents and prime ministers to get their blessings to contribute very much towards the development of Sri Lanka.

Ian at that time was in the directorate of Browns battery division and while working very hard and efficiently at Brown and Co., he used his spare time specially in the evenings to ensure a quick growth of JASTECA with a clear forward vision.

According to the annual calendar of JASTECA he had carried out several training programmes annually in Sri Lanka in improving the industries like the apparel industry and several others by getting down experts from Japan with the strong support of AOTS Japan.

At the formative days of JASTECA, he also took the initiative to visit several large companies in promoting membership for JASTECA to achieve what it is today.

Subsequently with a large donation from Ryoichi Sasakawa, the chairman of the Nippon Foundation a Cultural Centre was established in Colombo 3 with the formation of the Sasakawa Trust with three constituent organisations namely Lanka Japan Friendship Society, JASTECA and JICA Alumni Association which was headed by Dr P R Anthonis. Ian was a founder trustee of this board who made a notable impact in its growth.

I can recall Ian informing me that he first went for a training in Japan when employed at Associated Motorways under Sir Cyril de Zoysa in the battery division and subsequently became a member of the Asia Cultural Association.

Ever since then he contributed immensely towards the growth of JASTECA to what it is today.

Out of 70 a alumni societies in 43 countries, on an evaluation made by AOTS Japan, JASTECA has been rated as the best alumni society of AOTS in the world.

This achievement was made at the beginning itself under the able leadership of Ian as the president of JASTECA, which to our delight still continues to maintain the top position of the alumni societies of AOTS globally.

The Japanese government in recognition of establishing such excellent and close friendly relationship between Sri Lanka and Japan conferred on him this unique decoration of the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays.’

Indeed there are only a handful of Sri Lankans who have achieved this distinction from Japan.

This itself shows the tremendous dedication and hard work Ian put in for the promotion of friendly relations between Sri Lanka and Japan.

Thanks to his effort we have many success stories in Sri Lanka that due to the implementation of Japanese style of management a large number of Sri Lankan organisations have benefited from such training and achieved excellence in management of those organisations which obviously contributes adequately towards the growth of GDP of our country and of course human resource development which are many to mention.

We are indeed very sad of the untimely and unexpected demise of our great friend Ian but needless to say that he will be always remembered for his dedication and commitment as mentioned above.

May his soul rest in peace!

Lal de Alwis