Born to administer and write

This week’s Reminiscences features a popular figure who belongs to a rare breed of senior civil servant in Sri Lanka who left their institutional memories and life experiences in the form of novels and short stories. He is none other than Dr. Leel Gunasekera, a career civil servant who is blessed with a flair for creativity

He won the State Literary Award in 1961 for his very first novel Pethsama (Petititon). He wrote two other novels (Athsana and Mang Nethi Da) and a collection of short stories (Ira Handa Kodiyata Adhipathi Pedese). The unique quality of these novels and short stories is the fact that they all depict in a graphic way the rural life of Sri Lanka in a bygone era. As he was closely involved with the administration of these districts, he has left lasting memories about the provincial life in rural Sri Lanka.

Before this interview Dr. Gunasekera took me to a shrine at a corner of his house and showed me the many awards that had been presented to him. It was a hint of what was to come in our interview when I unearthed his colourful history.

“I was born in a village, 15 miles from Colombo, called Jamburaliya, a very nice agricultural setting with highlands and paddy lands. I come from an agricultural and rural background. My parents were middle class people. We were not short of anything; not very rich but we had everything,” said Gunasekera.

Pleasant memories

In his family, three out of his four sisters were teachers. All four brothers were government servants. “I have many pleasant memories of my childhood because we were close to nature. As children we had small cows allocated to us. They were our pets. We also had buffaloes, cart bulls, carts and cows. They were part of our lives. We didn’t have very large estates of land; we had about ten acres.”

“I had my primary education at Jamburaliya, a Sinhala school. Normally when you go to school you are put to the lowest grade. In my case I was immediately admitted to Grade 1. Before you are ten years old you had to pass the Sinhala School Fifth standard scholarship exam. I was selected from the scholarship exam and was required to go to an English school. That was the Kannangara educational system. You get a scholarship to a school in the English medium.”

He was admitted to St.John’s College Panadura. Instead of going by bus he had to cross the river by boat for two cents. In 1943, his father died and one of his uncles, a philanthropist and an oriental scholar, invited him to stay at his house. So from St.John’s, he went to S.Thomas’ Matale. “There the Principal Robinson was good at identifying clever boys and he gave me a double promotion. There were other Principals who discovered talented boys. Dr. C.W. Kannangara’s talent was spotted in Richmond College by Fr. Darrel. Dr. Malalasekera was helped by Principal Cyril Jansz at St. John’s College in Panadura. I entered St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy to study for my university entrance examination and I was there for one and a half years. In 1952, I entered the University of Ceylon, Colombo, and then we shifted to Peradeniya.”

Dr. Gunasekera also recounted his days at Peradeniya saying that they had all the comforts and were lucky to have Sir Ivor Jennings as the Vice Chancellor. “Sir Ivor Jennings was a world renowned constitutional lawyer and an adviser to Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake. He could walk all over the university dressed in shorts and for any student problem, he would call us for tea.” He had a memorable time at the Peradeniya University.

Diplomatic service

Asked about his decision to enter the Civil Service, Gunasekera said that he preferred it to the life of an academic, citing an incident from his school days. “When I was in the Fifth standard in the Sinhala school, my teachers gave us an essay topic: 'If I get a scholarship'. I wasn’t even ten years old at that time, and had no idea that I would be a government agent one day. Even as a child my aspiration was to be an administrator and I wrote my essay on that. This became a reality. That year for the civil service they took only six people. And the year before they took only four people. I also got selected to the foreign service or the diplomatic service with a different exam and a different interview. I had to opt for one of the two prior to joining the Civil Service.”

Gunasekera’s first post was as a Civil Service Cadet in Mannar, a district he had asked for. Therefore he had to learn Tamil. Tamil was important for his promotion. “There was a very good government agent who served as my boss. He was late Mr. W. Pathirana. A very nice person. Very strict but also very helpful. He set the pace in my Civil Service career.

After Mannar Kachcheri, he went to Anuradhapura as Additional G.A. That was a bad time after the 1957 floods with much devastation. Mr. Gunesekera mentioned that when he went to Anuradhapura and saw the flood victims, it changed his whole attitude to life. “You become more sympathetic and humanistic. In any country the quality of governance is judged by the extent to how much you treat the down trodden and not the elite. It is there I wrote my books. It has been said that next to Leonard Woolf who wrote ‘Village in the Jungle’ in 1906 in Hambantota, I was the first Government Agent who has written about the people under his jurisdiction since Leonard Woolf. My first novel 'Pethsama' shows how people looked at the government. The next novel 'Athsana (Signature)' is about how the government sees the people. A signature can upset you or help you.”

“After Anuradhapura I was the Government Agent in Kegalle. After that I was the Government Agent in Ratnapura and then in Kalutara. Nobody has got Kegalle, Ratnapura and Kalutara consecutively. They were difficult districts for any Government Agent. You have to balance between the Opposition and the government in power. There were dominant political figures such as Dudley Senanayake, Dr. N. M. Perera, P. B. G. Kalugalle, Ashoka Karunaratne, Clifford Ratwatta, Mallika Ratwatta Seetha Seneviratne, Colvin R. Silva, Leslie Gunawardene, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, and Mangala Moonasinghe. There were no Chief Ministers at that time. The Government Agent was the administrative boss in a district. It was a different political culture. They were very decent politicians. They understood the role of the Government Agent,” explained Mr. Gunasekera.

Asked about receiving the State Literary Award in 1961, he said that it was a surprise for him. Pethsama is a small book of only 125 pages. More than winning the award, he was happy that it highlighted how grateful people were to the Government Agents at the time. ‘Pethsama’ has gone into the 14th edition. During that time Pethsama was sold at Rs. 2.25.

Social activities

Where did the motivation to write this book come from? “The idea of writing a book was always in the back of my mind. When I came to Colombo from Anuradhapura, I used to meet a friend of mine called Nissanka Jayawardene who was the General Manager of the Saman Press. I saw books being printed there and they were by people like Gunadasa Amarasekera, Sarathchandra, Martin Wickramasinghe and Siri Gunasinghe. So very often I ask him: ‘Nissanka, can’t I get a book printed?’ He always said, ‘Yes you write and come’. Every time we meet he used to ask me why I didn’t write a book? One day after seeing Maname, and my friend having told me ‘why don’t you write a book?’ I went to Anuradhapura in my Volkswagen car all the way thinking about this book.

Maname songs were an inspiration. That was the day I decided that I must start writing my book which I did diligently. “Finally it came to about 500 pages but I reduced it to 125 pages. So that was the motivation.”

Gunasekera’s thirst for knowledge has not subsided in his retirement and he is still very active in literary as well as social activities. He is concerned about social issues and he wrote a thesis on “Social Change and Problems of Older Persons in Sri Lanka: Strategies to Meet the Challenges,” for which he earned his Ph.D. at the age of 70.

There are several children’s books to his credit and his latest book is Guru Poojawa (Homage to teachers).