Farewell to the Public Service

by Leelananda De Silva

The General Election in mid 1977 brought an end to the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government. The next six months were the last months of the 12-year old Planning Ministry. Once J.R. Jayewardene assumed duties as Prime Minister, the Planning Ministry was neglected and JRJ had no time for it. H.A.de.S continued as the Secretary of the Ministry for the next few months. None of us had any contact with the new Prime Minister.

On economic matters, he relied on the new Finance Minister, Ronnie de Mel. The Prime Minister appointed a new Deputy Minister of Planning , A.H.M. Naina Marikkar, the _MP for Puttalam. He was a fine gentleman, educated at the University of Cambridge, and above the petty bureaucratic politics which were rampant at the time. I got on well with him, and our friendship extended beyond the few months in the Ministry and he came and saw us in Geneva later on, when he was on some official visit.

During these six months, I did not have much work, apart from managing the two UNDP projects, continuing on the Tea Board as a member and travelling on tea negotiations with Bradman Weerakoon who was the new Secretary in the Ministry of Plantation Industries. In December 1977, the Prime Minister, in preparation for the new Executive Presidency, gave up his role as the Minister of Planning and the Planning Ministry was merged with the Ministry of Finance.

The Minister of Finance met me and told me that I had no place in the new ministry. I knew the minister and he said that being an administrative service officer, I should have no problem of finding another place. I was now transferred to the “Pool”, without any particular duties. As I did not like to spend my time doing nothing. I got myself attached to the Ministry of Plantation Industries, without any designation. Bradman in his autobiography mentions that I was Additional Secretary in his ministry, but before that designation was given to me, I had left the public service.

In my two months at the ministry, I met the minister, M.D.H. Jayawardana a few times and when I wanted to leave, he suggested that I remain in service. M.D.H. was a fine gentleman and politics sat lightly on him. M.D.H. was the father of Neelakanthi, who is one of Rukmal’s closest friends. Neelakanthi was married to Rohana Hapugalle, and he was a contemporary of mine at the university.

It was my privilege later to write an appreciation to the newspapers of M.D.H. on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. I must mention here my relationship with Bradman Weerakoon, which was excellent. He was serving a minister for the first time, after serving so many Prime Ministers. He was a fine public servant, always master of his briefs and with an incisive mind. Since that time, we got to know Bradman and his wife Damayanthi, and son Esala better, specially when Bradman served in London as Secretary General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. He has written an engaging memoir of his life and times in the public service.

In early March 1978, I left Sri Lanka, on two years no-pay leave and signing a bond to come back. If I did not return, I had to pay back two years salary and at the end of my leave that is exactly what I did. I paid the Government Rs 50,000 (two years salary) for it to accept my resignation. After 17 years, I left the public service having paid my bond, and without any pension. I must be one of the few public servants after 17 years of service to be without one.

The climate in the higher rungs of the public service at this time was unfriendly, and that of place seeking, and long-standing acquaintances and so-called friends avoided me. I remember Mahinda Wijenaike, who was government agent in Kurunegala long years ago and whom I had kept in touch with, calling me on the telephone about this time, and telling me that there was a black list going round, and my name was on it, as one of the officials to be removed. It was not the politicians who wanted officers like me removed from their posts. It was other bureaucrats themselves, who were aspiring to new positions in the new Government.

So I left after 17 years without a pension. Later on, when the Chandrika Bandaranaike Government was in power, a committee was appointed under minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle to inquire into political victimization of public servants under the previous regimes. This committee recommended pensions and improvements on their pensions for a large number of public servants, on grounds of political victimization.

I submitted an application to the secretary of the committee requesting that my circumstances should be considered, and I should be given a pension. I was abroad, and knew about this committee late and as a result, my submission was also late. The secretary, in my view most unfairly, rejected my application, due to its late arrival. He was a man whom I knew in my Planning Ministry days as a junior official there. So, after 17 years, I am without a pension from Government. I do not get a pension from the United Nations, as I always worked as a consultant and not as a staff member. I must be one of the few former public servants in Sri Lanka who has no pension of any kind.

Before I leave the Sri Lankan public service in my memoirs, a few observations on my 17- year experience might not be out of place. The Administrative Service to which I belonged consisted of 500 officers in the late 1960s and the vast majority were highly competent. There were those who were not that interested in their work and I would estimate that about one fourth of the officers would have been better working outside the service instead of being inside it.

When we talk now of declining standards, we must bear that in mind. There is a general impression that the country was run by the civil service and then later the administrative service. This vastly exaggerates the importance of administrators. The clerical services, especially in the kachcheries and in the districts, and even in Colombo had an important role in ensuring that there was an efficient administration.

The Hambantota kachcheri in which I served in the 1960s was largely run by the clerical service. I found that my tasks were less cumbersome because of clerical officers who had a thorough knowledge of the issues we were dealing with. Equally we have to recognize the critical role of technical services (engineers of all kinds, scientists, technologists, and many other types) who had made a significant contribution to the economic development of this country, and continue to do so even to this day.

One of the main reasons why there was a high degree of efficiency in the overall administration of this country until the end 1970s was that there was a proper system and methodical organization of the machinery of government. Departments and ministries had institutional memories going back over 50-60 years. and they were grouped together in a meaningful way. Once the machinery of government is disorganised, as can be seen now with a hundred ministers or so and departments being attached to one or the other of these ministries for no logical reason, there cannot be an efficient public service.

In the Hambantota kachcheri, the original Leonard Woolf diaries remained in the kachcheri record room until 1960, when they were transferred to the government archives. Similarly, records of some of the old colonization schemes like Beragama were also to be found in the kachcheri 30 or 40 years later. That kind of institutional memory is now lost, and not many seem to care about it. I recently asked the Sri Lanka Tea Board (I was a member of the board in the 1970s) whether I could see the board minutes of my time. They said that they have been told to destroy all papers which are older than 10 years, including board minutes. That is the kind of administrative culture that we seem to have now. There is a lack of historical sense in our new administrative culture.

One last word about the relationship between administrators and politicians. I had an excellent relationship with most politicians I had to work with, whether they were cabinet ministers or members of parliament. The politicians had a good understanding of the role of the public servant. In my first years in the public service in the 1960s, I met a few senior public servants who yet thought they were the rulers like in the British days. They did not accept the politician as their master. That generation of public servants is no longer there. Now it has turned the other way, where politicians generally lord it over hapless public servant.

(Concluded)

(Excerpted from The Long Littleness of Life, the autobiography of Leelananda De Silva)