|
|
|
| Sunday, 22 January 2006 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Prof C. Suriyakumaran - 84 years
In our first recall, it was mid 1945, when the remarkable Permanent Secretary to S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, E. W. Kannangara spotted young Suriyakumaran at a debate in what was then University College, and promptly brought him in under the wing of his Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. He had been also the first (then) Ceylonese External Student to obtain the Second Upper in Economics at the London University Examinations. His years in Local Government proved one of the most productive demonstrations of Local Government in practice. Placed in charge of the entire Northern Province, he transformed the whole concept and practice of Local Government from being static implementation of rules and regulations, to innovations in Social and Economic advancements. As one of us was to mention later, 'those were the Mandarin days of Local Government in the Country.' In addition to notable glamour projects such as the enlargement of the famous Keerimalai Tank, the first motorable roadway to Thiruketheswaram in Mannar and essential water supply expansions and others, he launched at a time when there was no Electrical Department in the North, an entire Rural Electrification Scheme using purely the indigenous energies of Local Authority Chairman and others of that ilk with help of one Headquarters Engineer from Colombo. He next went on to establish an Inter-sectoral Economic Development Plan, enlisting what was then considered heresy, namely the convening of Heads of all Departments and Public Authorities to prepare detailed designs and surveys, and establish this Plan. For that, he was reported by the then white Government Agent to his Minister - who at the next Headquarters Conference simply said, "Suriyakumaran well done - carry on!" It is a commentary on ourselves that when the first Chief Secretary of the North East Provincial Council went to the Jaffna Kachcheri to retrieve a copy, it had already been destroyed from the Archives! Earlier on, Bandaranaike himself had said of a Paper Suriyakumaran had prepared in 1947 that "it was the best document he had seen for years... A great contribution at the present juncture... one of high quality, and was determined to give this prime importance in the near future" (Ceylon Daily News 2nd July 1947). He was later to produce some of the most substantive writings from Headquarters on Local Government, Finance and Devolution - all unfortunately dashed by departures from the wisdoms on Devolution to the jungles of Unitarism - and finally, the demise of Bandaranaike. As President - Section (F) of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science in 1963, on a notable Address Titled "On looking into 1980," he came to be widely acclaimed at home. However, with the mounting pressures in the country, despite his hopes to the contrary, he left - for what became a long period of United Nations Service, by choice, at the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, in the Central Office of the Organisation, and never looked back in over nearly 20 years of a 'New Career.' He became directly associated in the establishment of some of the most outstanding Institutions and Programmes for Asia. The handling of some of these, under his Executive Secretary U. Nyun at the time, was an object lesson. When the ADB was mooted at the beginning of the 60s, it was stoutly opposed by President Johnson of the US who sent Eugene Black, a personage of world standing, to state flatly that they opposed the setting up of the Bank. Contrary to normal expectancies, including urgings from New York Headquarters, the project was never withdrawn. Ironically, not long thereafter with the turn of events in World affairs, the US President delivered a notable turn around speech at John Hopkins University, with other US associates like Japan following suit. It was during this phase, as reported, Prof. Suriyakumaran had gently to remind the second in command of the Japanese Delegation to say "Hanabusa - san, please do remember that Japan is not a ship that will float one day to the US West Coast" - to good effect! On another occasion, when establishing The Asian Clearing Union (which could come into its own any day still) was on the anvil, and the crucial penultimate Meeting to consider this conveyed to Prof. Suriyakumaran in Conference (in the unavoidable absence of his Executive Secretary) that they were under brief from their Governments totally to oppose its establishment, he went on - in his style - to welcome it and won consent that we shall all discuss it fully in the coming days of the Meeting. Given his style and certainly the good sense of the participants it concluded in the adoption of the proposal! - and an impromptu closing Address by him which everyone acclaimed as one of the best they had heard. Somewhat later, when the Asian Coconut Community was set up, the multinational lobbies, led by Unilevers England, again with silent support to the latter from the United Nations Headquarters, promptly descended on him in Bangkok - though later resulting in its establishment, with inability to play its dynamic role for Asia. And similarly many others, such as the Asian Highway and the Asian Railway Networks, the Typhoon Damage and Cyclone Damage Control Committees, and the Bangkok Trade Agreement. A particular event of a different nature which came is worth recording, related to certain non Asian Countries, due to reasons of history, being Full Members of the Commission. Canada, one of the best co-operating member countries, had quite fairly applied for similar membership, a truly delicate, situation where the request had to be turned down, but where the applicant member was perhaps more deserving than those who had already come in! With no particular written precedent, as one of us noted, Prof. Suriyakumaran in a Special Meeting of Ambassadors of all Member Countries, made out a presentation of rare and remarkable quality explaining why this could not be accommodated, which in the end led to unanimous acceptance, not least by Canada which continued to be the strong supporter of the UN in Asia as ever she was. There were such innumerable other calls on him in various ways. 'Watching him at work', wrote Shelton Wanasinghe in the Felicitation Volume 'one was able to appreciate how ably he did this, all the time, so seemingly effortlessly.' Much later, after a spell as HQRS Global Director for Education, Training and Technical Assistance, when he moved as the Regional Director of UNEP for Asia Pacific, creating a number of innovative programmes and ideas, and came to South Asia to set up SACEP, the distinguished Head of the Indian Delegation at the Bangalore Preparatory Meeting conveyed India's determined opposition, only acceding to Prof. Suriyakumaran's suggestion that they proceed nonetheless to discuss the Proposal. Not two days had passed when, having exchanged urgent messages with Delhi, he came to report that he was so taken up with the concept that on his personal urging India was now fully behind the proposal! And so in numerable fields, his contributions were truly legion. In recognition of his outstanding services to Asia he was knighted by the King of Thailand, only the Second United Nations Dignitary to have been so honoured. Upon his return to his Country he was invited as Visiting Professor, the first such from here, at the London School of Economics, on International Development and Co-operation, and on Environment, covering a period of near 20 years. "Veritable word raft. The School owes you a small debt" wrote Senior LSE Liberation who was following his Lectures. Jan Tinbergen the World's First Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, went out of his way to provide extensive endorsements to what he called were truly innovative ideas, in the whole field of Environment and Development. The LSE too sponsored and published his outstanding book - "The Wealth of Poor Nations." Those years led to his being consistently invited to centres of learning Worldwide, from The East West Centre, San Diego, Berkeley, Waterloo, Harvard, MIT, through to Delhi, Chennai and on. From much earlier beginning with his UN years, a whole series of Professors and Professionals, as stated in the Felicitation Volume, referred to his "insight into Environment and Development a full decade before Brundtland." All the while, from his early years, he was a keen student of Religion and Philosophy writing his first paper "Illusion and Reality" while an undergraduate. His writings were Catholics; and on Buddhism as much as on Hinduism; Christianity and Islam. It was in a presentation at the Centre for Science and Religion in a talk on Religion that one of us wrote "It was rather a meditation on the common core of the Four Religions in our country... Rich in Wisdom and Humanity, it reached to the depths of Spiritually and Union with the Absolute." One of his favourite subjects was Rural Based Development. It was while at CRDS, directing a special Asia Foundation Programme on sustainable Development, that he was asked for advice on a major problem in the Ritigala Mountain Ecosystem where the plants were being robbed by the population around. At a special Meeting of various specialists convened in the Secretariat of the Provincial Council, where all these accusations were being levelled against the people when finally asked to round up, he simply declared - "They must rob the plants!" The problem was not them, but the poverty in which we had allowed them to be. A Local Resources based Area Development Programme was launched which soon produced so much income that, as Prof. Suriyakumaran declared later, "Now the robbers of Ritigala have become the guardians of Ritigala!" In two personal episodes back home, in the first, twice in his career, his Country failed to support his in the highest rankings, as Assistant Secretary General and later Under Secretary General. He never carried this back home. In fact when one of his Tamil friends was said to have observed that he had been recruiting more Sinhalese into the UN, his only comment was that he had never realised that!" His only riposte was when first offered the Deshamaniya, under President Premadasa whom he admired, and later the Vidya Jothi under President Wijetunga, he politely declined both. He had also declined the urgings, first by Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and then by President Premadasa to be the Tamil Nominated Member in Parliament - long before the first crop of such Members came on - professing he was a Professional not a Politician! As in his life, and now, he remained an outstanding example of one ever ready to give - and not to talk of what may be given to him. A tribute - by Thanthirimale Chandrarathana Thera (Ritigala Hamuduruwo) - Father Tissa Balasuriya, Manel Abeysekera, A. Kandappah, Dr. Frank Jayasinghe, N. Sivakurunathan, Prof. Ashley Perera, V. K. Nanayakkara, Nishantha Seneviratne, Jayantha Wickremanayake on the occasion of Prof. Suriyakumaran's 84th birth anniversary which fell on Thursday, January 19. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
In our tributes, on this Prof. C. Suriyakumaran's 84th Birthday, we have
chosen to recall down the years, outstanding examples of his leadership and
breakthroughs in ideas and programmes, each of us separately as we knew him.
His earliest days of Public Service to his own country indeed began in 1945,
continuing to what he has stated as his final retirement from now, provoked
by illness rather than age. 
