Born into a world that no longer exists

The Long Littleness of Life: A Memoir of Government, the United Nations, Family and Friends
by Leelananda De Silva (Stamford Lake Publication) 305pp Rs 1,000/-

Reviewed by Jayantha Somasundaram

Leelananda De Silva’s autobiography is almost a textbook narrative of the generation that inherited a post-Independent Ceylon. Many of that generation were children of the gentry in the countryside, both North and South. He describes his father as a landed proprietor, who had attended Ananda College, and then Richmond College, Galle, where Rev. W.J.T Small made a lifelong impact on him. It was the family, and cultural milieu, that gave the world Professor J.E.Jayasuriya and Martin Wickremasinghe. A clan that instinctively needed to influence local politics, and post-World War II, and, with Independence, in the person of Monty Jayawickrama, go on to make their mark in parliamentary politics as well. The book provides interesting insights into local government politics and the role that caste allegiances play in it.

Such families had firm roots in their ancestral village and were moulded by its social organisation, traditions and relationships. He writes about his sister, Sepalika, who remained in the family home and taught in the local school. But they were also families where the ambitious progeny, like Leelananda and Chandrananda de Silva, would become influential members of the Island’s Public Service.

Born in Ahangama, in 1936, Leelananda had his secondary education at Mahinda College, Galle. It was a Buddhist assisted-school, moulded by F.L.Woodward, an Oxford Classicist, with a mission to impart an education that was ‘the best of East and West.’ Here Leelananda developed his love for the English Classics which resulted in his exceptional command of the language and its elegant prose. ‘One achievement, I am proud of at school, was winning the English Essay prize, at 15, and receiving the award from Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake.’

Leelananda’s next major influence was the University, at Peradeniya, which he entered in 1955, as part of a generation that benefitted most from Sir Ivor Jennings’ ideal of a great residential university. It was the era when the great dons of Peradeniya occupied the high table: J.L.C. Rodrigo, G.P. Malalasekera, W.J.A. Labrooy and B.B. Das Gupta.

Everyone may not share Leelananda’s judgement that ‘at Peradeniya we were encouraged to read and there was much material to read in English. The quality of the University declined after the introduction of the Sinhala and Tamil media, largely because there was no reading material in these languages, in any profusion.’ But none can contest his assertion that extensive reading is what established a scholarly and intellectual foundation which was critical for him, preparing as he did for a Special Degree in Economics. Ideal for those who would seek a career in public administration, he chose the Money and Banking option, studying at the feet of H.A. De S. Gunasekera, F.R. Jayasuriya and Ian Vandendriesan. He also benefitted from the presence at Peradeniya of two visiting academics, the Cambridge economist Professor Joan Robinson and the renowned Asa Briggs. The latter would years later tell him that Political Science Professor “A.J.Wilson told me that you got the highest marks ever given for that difficult and interesting paper” in Political Theory.

He deals at length with the friendships that he forged at Peradeniya with those who would come to dominate the public service, the judiciary and the diplomatic corps; rich and productive personal relationships that would last a lifetime.

In 1959, six months after completing his university finals, Leelananda sat the Ceylon Civil Service examination, coming first in the written test. He opted for the position of District Lands Officer in one of the prestigious departments, the Land Commissioner’s. He spent seven years working out of kachcheris in Anuradhapura, Hambantota and Kurunegala, major provincial towns in the heart of rural Sri Lanka. ‘The Anuradhapura Kachcheri was one of the most development-oriented with so many colonisation schemes coming under it.’ In 1967, Leelananda’s career underwent a major and important change when M. Sri Kantha, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Lands, Irrigation and Power, invited him to serve as Assistant Secretary in this Ministry.

In 1969, Leelananda spent a year on a British Council scholarship at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science, where he had the privilege of studying under academics of the calibre of Lionel Robbins and Ralph Miliband while reading for a Diploma in Development Administration. On his return, he was appointed Senior Assistant Secretary and Director of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Planning and Employment. At 34, this was the icing on the cake of his public service career.

In effect, he was the point man in Sri Lanka’s international economic relations. ‘The seven years (1970-77) I spent at the Ministry of Planning were the best years of my career.’ He liaised with the UN, particularly UNCTAD, ECAFE (now ESCAP), the FAO and UNDP. During the 1976 Colombo Summit, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike made him responsible for the economic agenda at the Non Aligned Conference. Much of this book covers his Planning Ministry years, his travels with the Premier, the world figures that he dealt with, and the important international events that he was party to.

As Senior Assistant Secretary, Leelananda was responsible for the management of the Ministry, including its staffing. It was evident to him that since divisions, like External Resources and Economic Affairs, had to engage with foreign missions and visiting delegations, they required competence in English. Already by 1973 the ‘University could not supply sufficient graduates with a knowledge of English, especially in Economics.’ This hurdle was overcome by recruiting, on temporary contract, Planning Officers from outside the Public Service.

Throughout his book, the author provides interesting, revealing and, at times, amusing pen sketches of a whole generation of public servants, and politicians, whom he worked closely with, over the decades. Many of these personalities are icons of the past in the story of Sri Lanka’s public life.

With the arrival of a new government, in 1977, Leelananda’s fortunes changed as a separate Planning Ministry ceased to exist. ‘The climate in the higher rungs of the Public Service, at this time, was unfriendly…there was a Black List going around, and my name was on it… It was not the politicians who wanted officers like me removed it was other bureaucrats themselves, aspiring to positions in the new government.’

Nevertheless, he concludes that ‘the Administrative Service, to which I belonged, consisted of 500 officers, in the late 1960s, and the vast majority were highly competent … the main reason there was a high degree of efficiency in the overall administration of the country until the end of the 1970s was there was a proper system and methodical organisation of the machinery of government.’

But Leelananda’s fortunes, in fact, changed for the better. He became an international civil servant, spending the next quarter century working for and providing his talents and expertise to a number of UN and other global organisations, as a consultant. He had a varied but no less interesting career including spells with UNCTAD, FAO, UNDP, ILO, ESCAP, IMO, ITC and the IPU, mainly but not confined to Geneva, New York, Rome and Vienna.

With remarkable accuracy and prescience, Leelananda De Silva sums up his life when he says:

“I was born into another world. That world…has vanished forever…I consider that the system of government I worked for is far superior to the model that has existed since…The kind of administrator I knew has long gone. The concept of an autonomous public service now looks strange, with politics having taken the upper hand…

“I have been fortunate in my life and career. There were many disappointments, but they pale into insignificance when I count my blessings…I had the great fortune to be engaged in domestic and foreign affairs at a high level…not many have seen government at the village and the small towns and then seen it in global perspective, working for the UN in New York and Geneva.”