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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Jayantha Kelegama: The patriot as economist by Ajith Samaranayake The unobtrusive exit of Dr. Jayantha Kelegama deprives Sri Lanka not merely of an eminent economist but a rare renaissance man deeply wedded to the interests of this land which is torn asunder by conflict. As Director of Economic Research at the Ministry of Finance in the 1960's and as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Internal and External Trade in the 1970's (with the powerful T. B. Ilangaratne as Minister) he was at the heart of the administration. Jayantha Kelegama therefore was very much an integral heart part of the contemporary Sri Lankan renaissance which unfortunately like many of us, he lived to see being blighted by extremism both on the ethnic and political divides. Educated at Trinity College, Kandy, the University of Ceylon and the Oxford University, Jayantha Kelegama belonged to the first generation of economists of independent Sri Lanka. He joined the Central Bank in the company of Gamini Corea, later Secretary General of UNCTAD, Warnasena Rasaputra who became the Governor of the Central Bank and W. M. Tillekeratne, later a Secretary of the Finance Ministry. But what distinguished him from other economists of the time was his deeply held convictions. This was the time when it was fashionable to hold the view that social sciences such as economics were value-free and could operate impervious to the social and political forces at work at a given time. Jayantha Kelegama did not subscribe to such self-serving facile theories. He saw economics as being integral to and indeed the essence of daily life and sought to relate it to the life of the average man. As Director of Economic Research at the Finance Ministry he played a crucial role with P.B. Karandawela and Nihal Kappagoda (the Director of External Resources and a fellow Trinitian) in formulating the Budgets of the 1960-64 Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government, one of the most exciting times in contemporary political history when political forces fought in daylight rather than the dark underground politics of today. He served three Finance Ministers during this time, namely T. B. Ilangaratne, Felix Dias Bandaranaike and Dr. N. M. Perera and contributed to the preparation of the Budgets of U. B. Wanninayake who was the Minister of Finance of the Dudley Senanayake Government of 1965-70. Another outstanding contribution which he made was his service as the first Professor of Economics of the Vidyalankara University after that pirivena was conferred university status. When others were turning up their snooty noses and laughing at the nation of economics being taught in Sinhala (the language of the 'yakkos') Kelegama was a path-finder. His fellow academics included the late Tilak Ratnakara, later himself a Vice Chancellor of the same university and Kamal Karunanayake later a SLFP National List MP. In another sense Jayantha Kelegama exemplified the desirable relationship between a committed Cabinet Minister and a dedicated public servant, another fast fading feature of the administration today. With Ilangaratne, he was instrumental in establishing the People's Bank and the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and in introducing the Business Turnover Tax. He also contributed to the establishment of the State Trading Corporation, Consolexpo and the State Tractor Corporation. But these bare biographical bones of the man, however dazzling, can still hardly do justice to him. For Jayantha Kelegama was a patriot who saw his vocation as a mission for evolving for his country, a new path towards self-redemption. Influenced by the prevailing forces of Fabianism and Keynesian economics he sought to evolve for the country an economy which would be self-sustaining and would strike a path between full-blooded capitalism and doctrinaire socialism but would yet remain within the framework of practical economics without degenerating into dogmatism. These convictions he upheld till the last, when he became one of the most articulate critics of the overarching globalisation arguing that Sri Lanka was still not ready for a total free market economy because of the not too strong supply base in which circumstances a mixed economy would still be the best option. In his retirement Jayantha Kelegama served for many years as President of the Cancer Society and Sahanaya, the Association for Mental Health. A man of immense personal charm and impeccable rectitude who wore his vast learning lightly, he slipped away quietly. I have walked with him behind numerous corteges leading to kanatte and as last Thursday I did the same for him a sense of ineluctable sadness came over me that we shall not see the likes of him in this land any more. |
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