A Public Servant in the truest sense

In every generation there are those who stand up to the tide of injustice. Lionel Fernando is one such person. During times of hardship there are those who shine because of their dedication to the welfare of others and their commitment to fair play. A man who has been in public service for nearly 52 years, he has made an unforgettable and indelible mark upon his age and generations to come.

Reminicences in Gold met up with this man whose feats may yet redeem the follies of our wayward generation.

“I was born in Kandy. My parents migrated to Kandy from Panadura and got a house in a small hamlet in Kandy called Ampitiya. It had a Sinhala vernacular school and a very popular but small English school. They were called the Roman Catholic Sinhala school and Roman Catholic College. Rev. Fr. Berrewaerts was the Rector of the College and now it has been renamed as Berrewaerts College. He was a Belgian prince from the Royal family. He had done theology and joined the order of the Society of Jesus, which is dedicated to education.

Fernando first went to the Sinhala school up to Grade Nine and later joined the Roman Catholic College because his parents wanted him to get an English education, “That was in 1948 when Fr. Berrewaerts was the Principal. He was a very genial and kind gentleman. Because of my good work he gave me two successive double promotions. Then I joined the junior cadet platoon. At that time it was in vogue amongst various English speaking schools. I eventually became the Sergeant of the junior platoon and the Lance Corporal of the senior platoon.

Cadet practices

“We had a wonderful time with absolute discipline. You get up at 4 am and you make your bed and polish your shoes. But I had one problem because I had no shoes to wear to school. But it was not that important because we all came barefooted. Most of the children walked from nearby villages. Maurice Ferdinando, the son of my class master said: ‘Lionel, don’t worry I have a good pair of black shoes. I will give it to you to wear for Cadet practices’. So I borrowed it and polished it nicely with Cobra black cream and used it very carefully and brought it back and the same treatment took place on my return from Boossa having taken part in the Cadet camp.”

“I sat for my Senior School Certificate (SSC) and got a distinction for English and credit passes for Sinhala and History. There were no Advanced Level classes in Ampitiya. Normally children go to the sister school - St. Sylvester’s College run by a Sylvesterian ordination.”

Administrative service

“I entered the Peradeniya University in 1956. That was an era of cultural reawakening in Sri Lanka. I took an interest in theatre - Sinhala as well as English. English was done by Professor Ludowyk. I fell into the circle of Professor Sarathchandra, who became my guru in Sinhala literature, theatre and drama. I also had the occasion to participate very closely with Maname in 1956.

I became Junior Treasurer of the Peradeniya Sinhala Drama Society and President of the same in the following year. I took a deep interest in serious cinema and also I am still a great admirer of Akira Kurosava and Ingmar Bergmann.” He joined the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and proved himself to be a public servant par excellence. He was considered a highly successful Government Agent in Jaffna, and through his dedication and hard work he was able to win the hearts and minds of the people. “As a public servant I think I did good work with the people. I have the capacity to listen to people. For me, a file is not just a sheaf of papers. It has a human face. Either somebody’s house has broken down or the bread winner is lost. At that time there were no corrupt practices; people were very honest.

Birth certificates

“The best part of my career was my stay in Jaffna. Kachcheri is the centre of administration in any District. I knew that the people were getting alienated from the Kachcheri. To reach out to them I thought I must be simple and accessible. I travelled everywhere from Point Pedro to Elephant Pass. I thought I must reach the people in far off areas. I got my officers to find information on a given area which we were planning on visiting. We stayed one or two nights in that area and the people felt that we were interested in their day-to-day problems. The concept of Mini Kachcheri became very popular.”

What Fernando achieved was nothing short of amazing. “I found that there were over 1,000 applications for birth certificates unattended and locked up in a room. I told my staff that I wanted these birth certificates issued within three weekends. We organized a Shramadana to work during the weekends. I appointed a team as Assistant Registrars so they could sign the documents and the necessary approval was obtained from Colombo. Jaffna was the first Government Agency to have had a photocopying machine for the turning out of birth certificates.

Every birth certificate has to be written in triplicate and once you prepare the master copy, the other two parts could be photocopied. The whole backlog was cleared within three weekends.”

It seems that Jaffna holds a sacrosanct place in Fernando’s heart. “My mother was ailing in Jaffna. Wherever I went I took my mother. She was extremely attached to me. She fell very ill and passed away in the National Hospital in Jaffna. My brothers wanted to bring the body back home. But the word got around and the people of Jaffna wanted the body to be cremated in Jaffna. The taxies were running free from the bus stand to the funeral at my residence; shops were closed on that day. At the cemetery there was a throng of men and women. I could see a lot of Jaffna ladies in the cremation ground. The youth carried my mother’s coffin one and a half to two miles on their shoulders to the funeral pyre.”

Political party line

Fernando believes that public servants should set certain standards for themselves in carrying out their duties. “No public servant can hold onto a political party line. The only line they can take is the people’s line. A public servant must be independent. It is only through sheer independence that one can properly discharge his duty. Public servants should carry out the policy of the government and not criticize. If you don’t agree, you hand over the keys and go home. This doesn’t mean that you should be subservient to your masters. I had problems with several ministers. I didn’t give way. Once, there was a tender problem of 250,000 barrels of Molasses to be imported from South Africa. I was serving as chairman of the particular corporation. After everything was done and the order given, the minister wanted to cancel it.

I said: “No, I can’t cancel it. It is a board decision.” A very powerful minister was behind this. He gave an ultimatum to cancel the order. So we wrote to that South African Company and said: “the minister wants this tender cancelled. Sorry.” The company’s top representative came to Colombo and met J.R. Jayewardene who was the Prime Minister at that time. He took the phone and called the minister and instructions were given to reward the tender to the same company. I resigned from the corporation and went back to public administration. That was the only way I could express my inward protest to the minister who thought otherwise.”

Fernando has had an outstanding career as Secretary to several ministries, Commissioner General of Rehabilitation and Essential Services, chairperson of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and Governor of the North-East Province. He was successful not only as a civil administrator but also as an effective diplomat. He served as the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, High Commissioner to Malaysia, ambassador to the Netherlands and France and also as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. He has very rich and interesting anecdotes to relate about his diverse experiences as an administrator and a diplomat but nothing short of a biography can capture them all.