Dr D.S. Bandarage :

Father of Modern Management of Sri Lanka

The much renowned management guru from the 50s upto the 2000s Dr D.S. Bandarage left us on July 1, 2009. For those who associated him, Dr. Bandarage seemed immortal.

The aura that spread from him was noble and powerful, that everyone showed respect to him. He was a remarkable man with much wisdom, distinction and persona. He had a most distinguished personality. It was very sad to hear that someone in his stature had been lying helplessly in a hospital bed unable to speak, eat or drink for about two months before succumbing. This reinforces in us what the Lord Buddha had taught - that life is impermanent.

When D. S. Bandarage was born to Baron Gunawardana Bandarage and Margaret Hewawasam Bandarage of Induruwa, they may have never thought that their son was going to become a gigantic figure in Sri Lanka's management field. From a very young age, Devapriya Bandarage showed signs of extraordinary talents for studies. He became first in class at his village school, then first in the whole of the Southern Province by winning the coveted Valencia Rupasinghe trophy for the most outstanding student from the Southern Province to gain admission to Ananda College, Colombo.

After an illustrious student hood at Ananda, Bandarage did an Oriental Studies degree at Vidyodaya and later completed degrees in Management Studies from reputed universities in the UK (Cambridge) and Australia. In the early 70s he was awarded the Doctorate of Human Resources Management by a US University.

At Ananda, Bandarage flourished with academic achievements plus extra-curricular activities. He was instrumental in forming the Bosath Lama Samajaya under the patronage of the then teachers, L.H. Meththananda, P. De S. Kularatne, Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maithri Thero and Sagara Palansuriya (then a Buddhist monk). The members of the Lama Samajaya included some latter day luminaries as Ananda Tissa De Alwis (former minister), Ranapala Bodhinagoda (former Chairman Lake House). Duncan De Alwis (former Colombo GA), L.B.T. Premaratne (former Solicitor General), P.L. Berty Silva (former Deputy Postmaster General), G.B. De Silva (former Colombo Fire Chief), Major Gen. P. Walter De Silva and L.S. Perera (Banker). Bandarage was the President of the Bosath Lama Samajaya .

Bandarage was unfortunate to have lost his father, a school Principal, at a young age. While growing up until his early 20s he lived with his uncle Ponnamperuma, the then Assistant Commissioner of State Languages. Bandarage commenced working in the corporate sector.

A watershed in Sri Lanka's corporate world arose in the late 1940s when Dr. Bandarage was appointed as the first ever Personnel Manager of the Shell Company of Ceylon Ltd. During that time, most of the top corporate positions were held by the British. Dr. Bandarage knew that not only must he succeed himself, but must also prove to his white masters that they made the right decision.

At that time the white company directors were reluctant to offer locals anything more than middle management positions. Bandarage knew that if he failed, the doors in the Ceylonese corporate world in the field of human resources management may be closed for Ceylonese for many more years to come.

Fortunately W H S Bing, the then Chief Executive of Shell gave Dr. Bandarage every encouragement to succeed as the Personnel Manager and Dr Bandarage demonstrated his incredible talents and managerial skills as a Human Resources Manager.

Dr. Bandarage's English was better that that of his white masters. Intellectually, he was far superior than members of his European Board of Directors. His success at Shell, led many other top level companies to establish personnel departments. Noteworthy among them were Lever Bros., Ceylon Tobacco, Walkers, Browns, Whittal Boustead, Lipton, Brooke Bond, Carson Cumberbatch, Aitken Spence, BCC. Collettes, Freudenberg, Rowlands, Pfizer, Mackwoods, Pure Beverages, John Keells, Ceylon Nutritional Foods, Walker and Grieg, Baurs, Hayleys, CIC, Elephant House, Bartleets, Muller and Phipps, J.L. Morrison, Son & Jones and United Motors to name some.

In the early 50s the Shell Company wounded up and Dr. Bandarage was absorbed into Lever Brothers. He spent nearly 18 years at Levers during which time he positively revolutionized the personnel management system not only within Levers but in the entire Sri Lanka. During his sojourn at Levers, Dr. Bandarage created and published the very popular magazine 'Lever Pavula' in English and Sinhala which showed to the world that at Levers, everyone was equal (one family).

Through Lever Pavula Bandarage allowed journalists like Mahanama Dissanayake (then Lankadeepa editor), D.B. Dhanapala (Davasa supremo) to do write ups. Gunadasa Liyanage was introduced to journalism through Lever Pavula. Dr. Bandarage was ably supported by Ariyapal Pathirana, who was a sub editor of Lever Pavula. Only a genius could produce Lever Pavula, it was Dr. Bandarage. Dr. Bandarage recruited a number of managers for Levers, some of them became luminaries in Sri Lanka's corporate world.

In his career as Personnel Manager, Dr. Bandarage provided trainee-ships and employment to many thousands of Sri Lankans, selected solely on merit. The white employers at Shell and Levers were amazed in the skillful way Dr Bandarage devised management strategies to identify the talents and abilities of prospective job seekers. His staff would shortlist and finally recruit the best persons for the firm, after providing them with the best possible package deal. The salary cum other incentive packages afforded by Levers at that time was far better than for someone going overseas to work.

Dr Bandarage’s main ambition was to screen and employ the cream of Sri Lankan talent into top positions of the Sri Lankan private companies that he was associated with. He did this task remarkably well. When doing this not only did he always have the best interests of his company at heart, but also of the country and the candidate he interviewed. It was Dr Bandarage who dissuaded film legend, Gamini Fonseka from joining Levers saying that Gamini's future lay in the film industry.

Dr Bandarage had realised that Sri Lanka as a young nation required teams of talented mangers for its emerging mercantile sector, and that doors must be opened up for the best and the brightest, irrespective of their race, creed, class or caste.

Those who tried to canvass him to obtain jobs by various ways and means were immediately disqualified from the selection process.

It is stated that at Levers he ran ‘on the job training’ for the staff so well that the parent company in the UK started sending their staff to Sri Lanka. So did Hindustan Levers in India (previously Sri Lankans were sent to those institutions for training).

In the fifties and sixties Dr Bandarage had emerged as a giant in Sri Lanka’s Management field. Along with Sir Cyril De Zoysa (then Chairman of Associated Motorways group), he established the Institute of Personnel Management.

This was way back in 1960. In the formative years of the institute, Sir Cyril was the President and Dr Bandarage was the Secretary. Later, Dr Bandarage became the President of the Institute and held this position for a long time. He is the first Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Management in Sri Lanka – bestowed on him on when Brigadier Cecil T. Caldera was the President of the IPM.

At a Council Meeting at the Institute of Personnel Management, a large collection of historical newspaper articles mostly published in the Ceylon Daily News, the Evening and Sunday Observer from the 1950s and books on Management written by D S Bandarage, were presented to the IPM by Dr Bandarage’s son Chanaka Bandarage, a Barrister/Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW.

In 1959 an ILO sponsored workshop of Personnel Executives was held in Sri Lanka with Dr. Bandarage playing the leading role of the organisation. Just prior to the Seminar in late November 1959, he wrote an article to the Ceylon Daily News, wherein he emphasized the need to establish the Institute of Personnel Management and even presented a draft constitution of the Institute.

Another ILO conference on Personnel Management was held at the CISIR Auditorium in 1964 where the IPM introduced the Handbook of Personnel Management (Ceylon) edited by Dr Bandarage. This book is regarded as the ‘Bible’ of Modern Personnel Management of Sri Lanka. Dr Bandarage established a close link with the IPM until his demise from this world.

When the IPM was in strife in early 1980s and nowhere to go, Dr. Bandarage took the Institution to his home at Ohlums Place, Colombo 8. At the IPM National Conference in 2003, the Institute bestowed upon him its highest award – the ‘IPM Gold Medal’. He was the First Recipient of this prestigious award.

It was Dr Bandarage who accredited the IPM with other leading Management institutions in the western world, especially with the bodies in the UK and Australia.

Dr Bandarage was involved in the establishment of several Management Development Institutes in Sri Lanka. The Institute of Management of Ceylon is one of them, where he was a founder member with Mallory Wijesinghe being the first President. In 1976 Dr Bandarage became the President of that Institute.

Dr Bandarage served as a visiting lecturer of Management Studies at the Universities of Colombo and Sri Jayawardanapura. His contemporaries at the universities included Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara, Professor Karunasena Kodituwakku etc.

In fact, it was only few years ago prior to his death that Dr Bandarage finished his sojourn with these universities.

Dr Bandarage was a long standing panel member in the recruitment to the Ceylon Civil Service (now Sri Lanka Administrative Services). Thanks to Dr Bandarage’s teaching hundreds of educated youth from rural Sri Lankan villages ended becoming senior public servants, including Government Agents and Departmental Secretaries.

During the Prime Ministership of Dudley Senanayake Bandarage was assigned to study and report to the government re. the formulation of the Five Day week.

Dr Bandarage did substantive studies both locally and overseas and recommended to the then government that Sri Lanka should implement a 5 day working week.

Dr Bandarage has written several books in Management first in English, then later in the 90s in Sinhalese. Noteworthy among them are the books “Case Methods in Management” “Administrative Management”, “Comprehensive Management”. These are considered landmark text book in the Management Studies of Sri Lanka. Dr Bandarage had written and innumerable number of articles on Modern Management which had been published in the Sri Lankan and Asian/US newspapers and journals.

After an exceptional career Dr Bandarage left Levers as its General Manager and set himself up as a Management Consultant. Dr Bandarage is unarguably Sri Lanka’s first ever Management Consultant. His company, Sudharshan Ltd was a top level company that provided Management Consultancy to so many companies in Sri Lanka.

Dr Bandarage was appointed as Chairman of the National Textile Corporation. This appointment was non-political where the then Mrs Bandaranaike Government was sticking to the principle of ‘giving the best positions of the government to the best qualified people, solely on merit’.

Dr Bandarage ran the Corporation somewhat like a private company, where strict discipline and able administration was the hallmark. Corruption was unheard of under his leadership.

He used the official vehicle strictly for official purposes. In addition to the two giant textile mills, Thulhiriya and Veyangoda, he prepared the groundwork to start two new mills in Minneriya and Mattegoda, both of which were later established. To everyone’s surprise Dr Bandarage showed profits shortly after taking over the reins of the National Textile Corporation.

In late 1970s and early 1980 Dr Bandarage served as UN adviser in Africa. The Kenyan Government, including the then Prime Minister Daniel Arap Moi, felicitated Dr Bandarage’s efforts to rehabilitate and streamline Kenya’s ailing management and administrative system. A special trophy was presented to him by the Kenya Institute of Administration for the services he rendered to that country. Dr Bandarage associated the late Upali Wijewardane and helped him to become one of the most successful business entrepreneurs in Asia.

Upali Wijewardane considered Dr Bandarage as his personal friend and top most adviser. Dr Bandarage was very saddened by the untimely loss of life of Upali Wijewardane. When Upali Wijewardane started his newspaper company, he especially requested Dr Bandarage to pick the best journalistic talent available in the country at that time.

Thanks to Dr Bandarage’s contributory efforts Sri Lanka today is well abundant with a huge reservoir management talent. Dr Bandarage had close association with the NIBM, Lanka Foundation Institute, CISIRO and SLIDA and the Sri Lanka Society for the Advancement of Science. In the last two or three decades prior to his death Dr Bandarage had not only been involved with management development activities of Sri Lanka, but had also in the propagation of Buddhism.

Being a great Buddhist and a philanthropist himself, in the years preceding his death Dr Bandarage had lavishly donated monies to charities and Buddhist institutions, especially towards the propagation of Sinhala Buddhist values in rural and urban Sri Lanka.

He had been a long standing active member of the ACBC and the YMBA. Dr Bandarage presided over many committees at the ACBC and helped the ACBC to grow from a small organisation to a mammoth one.

He served as Secretary of the Colombo YMBA. He was closely involved with the World Fellowship of Buddhists and represented the country at many WFB conferences. Dr Bandarage worked in close collaboration with such Buddhist luminaries of then Ceylon as Professor GP Malalasekera, HW Amarasuriya, Albert Edirisinghe, Boghoda Premarathne, YR Piyasena, Douglas Umagiliya, JW Piyatissa, Thomas Amarasuriya, Lawrence Thudawe, HK Dharmadasa, PC Perera, Leelananda Caldera.

Apart from Buddhist activities he was involved in many social welfare work for the community. For many years he was the President of the North Colombo Lions Club, an active member of the Jaycees, SSC and the Colombo Mid Town Rotary Club. As an active playing member of the Royal Colombo Golf Club he is well known to have first introduced a golf tournament solely for the golf caddies.

May he attain Nibbana!

Jayaweera M. kumarasinghe

Seetha Kumarihamy Mahadiulwewa :

Food and Agriculture Minister’s remarkable wife

Our dearest Amma passed away on January 10, 2013 at the age of 90. Appachchi died 40 years earlier. His demise was totally unexpected and how Amma took upon herself the responsibilities of both parents, is truly remarkable. She literally had no time to think of her own sorrow, because on the very night after Appachchie's funeral my sister Visaka developed labour pains and had to be rushed to hospital to deliver her first baby. And so life continued with no respite for Amma who was practically ‘on call’ 24 hours of the day almost all her life, until the very end when she was eventually confined to bed. During this period we witnessed an extraordinary side of her personality which had gone unnoticed. She displayed an unbelievable degree of upekka, never complaining of pain, discomfort, hunger, thirst, boredom or of the humid or cold weather affecting her. Such upekka only comes from someone who had developed great compassion and is totally unselfish. It was something she would have brought over from Sansara. Another of her most admirable traits was her great sense of humour which never deserted her to the last.

Often, before we could even inform her she seemed to know by intuition, as she did when my two year old daughter Chaturika was seriously ill in 1976. My husband was away in Australia at the time and I was distraught with worry. Amma arrived like a Devatha from heaven. She had had a disturbing dream and decided to take the first available train. (She never had qualms about travelling in public transport even as a Cabinet Minister's wife). I recall her soothing presence on the innumerable occasions when my siblings were ill. And it was not only her children – she would minister with equal caring to the needs of her relatives and of all her domestics and the villagers. Whenever a family wedding was in the offing among her numerous grandchildren, Amma used to be more anxious and excited than the parents. When Diniti was to be married, she insisted on having the engagement at Panaliya and although frail, even attended the Home Coming at Hanguranketha, perhaps because it was Appachchi's old electorate.

She and her two sisters had been educated at Hillwood College, Kandy where the language of communication was English. Having lost their mother early in life they had been brought up by their father almost single handedly. Naturally he had to be a strict disciplinarian. Despite all this, Amma we are told, had been very mischievous. Amma had the highest respect bordering on reverence, for this remarkable father of theirs.

It is from such background that she came to live in the small remote village of Panaliya in the Kurunegala District, as a bride of twenty one years. Here everyone lived in the old traditional Sinhala way in an extended family set up. She had to adjust her life as no other in her family. Her innate goodness, kindness and concern for others combined with a high degree of commonsense made the transition easier. Pretty soon she found the new relatives and the simple village folk turning to her to solve their problems. She had to take on multiple roles, as doctor, nurse, chief advisor on educational matters, lawyer, counsellor, President of the Mahila Samithi and even had acted once as midwife.

For a good part of her married life she was either the wife of a Cabinet Minister or the wife of an MP. But she never wished to be in the limelight, remaining her unassuming, simple, gracious self at all times. As a Cabinet Minister, Appachchie had to travel abroad but Amma chose to stay behind each time, saying humorously that seven children were too many to take along or left behind unattended.

After the 1970 defeat of UNP at the polls, Appachchi took us to visit Dudley Senanayake. That was our first visit to our greatly loved leader. When we walked in one after the other, Dudley was amazed that Appachchi had so many children. He was baffled as to how his Minister of Food and Agriculture had found the time to work so tirelessly for the 'Grow More Food' campaign, touring the length and breadth of the country, with seven children to care for. We heard Appachchi praise Amma acknowledging that he was able to achieve so much at national level only because Amma handled all the family issues providing him with the time and vital mental rest necessary to devote his energy to the needs of the country. Thinking back, yes, it was always Amma who took us to school, who rushed to our bedside when we were sick, who reprimanded us when we were naughty, who settled our squabbles, and comforted and energized us when were down.

Dearest Amma, it is our fervent wish that we travel together in Sansara until we all attain Nibbana some day!

SUMANGALIKA DHARMADASA

K.A. Kodituwakku:

He was eager to help everyone

K.A. Kodituwakku, a religious and social worker par excellence passed away recently at the age of 84 years after a brief illness. He hailed from a respectable family. The most striking feature in him was his eagerness to help one and all in whatever way possible in his day-to-day life. He was of a cheerful disposition and was at the beck and call of anyone who sought his assistance. He was the Secretary of the Matale Municipal Council at the time of retirement from public service. He was the Secretary of the Dayaka Saba of the Kumbiyangoda temple.

The responsibilities that fell on him were numerous. On the advice of the Chief Priest of the temple, he arranged programmes for the benefit of those who observed sil on full moon Poya days. He also arranged discussions on the Dharma for those who were interested in enhancing their knowledge on the Buddhist doctrine.

He was a loving husband to his wife and a devoted father to the children. I take this an opportunity to convey the deepest sympathies of my family to his wife and children on the irreparable loss.

May he attain the bliss of Nibbana on conclusion of his voyage in Sansara.

R.M.L. RATNAYAKE

Srimega Wijeratne:

Published the first Sinhala book on criminal law

Srimega Wijeratne affectionately known as Srimega Aiya to close family members passed away after a brief illness recently. After his early education at Dharmaraja College, Kandy, Srimega entered the University of Peradeniya where he completed his BA and LL.B Degrees and passed out as an Advocate in 1967. Thereafter, he was engaged in active legal practice in the criminal and labour fields.

In the post 1970 period he functioned as a Lecturer at the Sri Lanka Law College where among his students were the present President of Sri Lanka, the present Chief Justice and Attorney General.

He was the first lecturer to publish a book in Sinhala on criminal law and conduct lectures in the Sinhala medium. During this period he also held the prestigious posts of Chairman - Press Council and Chairman/Director - Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation. Having being actively involved in SLFP party politics at that time, he functioned as the Legal Secretary of the SLFP in the post 1977 period.

Thereafter, he joined the UNHCR in the late 70s and functioned in the UN System as a Senior Legal Advisor for almost 25 years which took him to many countries such as USA, Switzerland, Philippines, Afghanistan and Pakistan where he was stationed from time to time. On his return to Sri Lanka he pioneered the establishment of the Legal Aid Commission with aid from foreign agencies and held the post of Chairman - Legal Aid Commission until his death.

He also held the post of Secretary General of the ICLP Arbitration Centre.

He also served as a member of the first Constitutional Council established in 2001 representing the small Parties.

Apart from Srimega’s remarkable academic and professional achievements, he was an ideal colleague in our family circle. Married to Rukmini Herat Gunaratne, he blended with all Herat Gunaratne uncles, aunts and cousins in the most warm and cordial manner.

He was very keen that the extended family should meet at some occasion at least once in three months be it a family dinner, alms giving, Munneswaram perahera or even a family trip. He personally co-ordinated all these activities and was a live wire at all occasions.

He was so versatile and well read that it was a pleasure to talk to him since we could always learn something new. His knowledge of international relations was remarkable as much as his wide knowledge of law and human rights. He also had a great sense of humour and wit and even in the last stages of his illness when he knew that he was steadily going down he remained cheerful and jovial. While the legal profession has lost another of its most eminent professionals our family has lost one of its most loyal and sincere members.

May he attain Nibbana!

MANGALA