Twenty fourth death anniversary of the late A.C.S. Hameed

by A.C.A.M.Nuhuman

My late brother Abdul Cader Shahul Hameed’s 24th death anniversary falls today. He was elected to Parliament in both March and July 1960 from the Akurana electorate. From 1965 until his death on Sept. 3, 1999, he represented the Harispattuwa electorate.

In 1977, when the UNP returned to power, he was elevated to the cabinet becoming the first foreign minister of this country. This requires some explanation. Since independence the Ministry of Defense and External Affairs was held by the Head of the Government. In 1977, then Prime Minister J.R. Jayewardene created the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a separate ministry and appointed Hameed as the country’s first foreign minister.

It is noted that JRJ rarely intervened on foreign policy matters, seeking to act through his Foreign Minister A.C.S.Hameed. That was because President Jayewardene had implicit faith in Hameed to do what was right in furthering the interests of the country. He trusted my brother.

Foreign policy

With Sri Lanka holding the chairmanship of the Non – Aligned Movement (NAM) during 1976-1979 period, Hameed was constantly called upon to deal with some of the thorniest international issues of the 1970s.

These included which of the two Cambodian factions had a rightful claim to their country’s seat at the UN. The General Assembly session, while this matter was thrashed out, was held up for over four hours as Hameed negotiated behind closed doors trying to resolve the dispute with the backing from the UN’s legal advisors.

Then there was the question of whether Egypt, which had signed the Camp David Accord with Israel in 1978 be expelled from the NAM. There was also sharp division in the NAM over the disputed territory in the Western Sahara of the Maghreb region of North Africa; and the split in the NAM over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989). Hameed had a significant role in resolving these issues.

During his time, in many ways a Sri Lanka could fight above her weight by making a viable contribution to global foreign affairs and this resulted in many benefits for the country. The Jayewardene policy of opening the long shackled economy attracted substantial support from many countries from which Sri Lanka had little assistance before.

Law of the Sea

One of Hameed’s greatest contributions to this country was his active role in projecting Sri Lanka’s national interests at the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. He was closely associated in formulating Sri Lanka’s case for special treatment in the delimitation of its continental shelf, given the special geological features present in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal. He coordinated with the Sri Lanka delegation to the conference and engaged in intensive consultation with key delegations during his visits to New York and Geneva.

These efforts resulted in a Statement of Understanding being incorporated in the Law of the Sea Convention, which accommodates Sri Lanka’s concerns. This has brought about extensive economic benefits to the country through the exploitation of resources in the extended areas of maritime jurisdiction. Hameed also actively encouraged the formation of the Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Cooperation (IOMAC) to serve as a consultative body of India Ocean States, in promoting their interests in the use of marine resources of the Indian Ocean.

Foreign employment

The full benefit of the Middle East job boom from 1973 was not available to Sri Lanka in the early years due to restriction in issuing passports and the existence of an exit permit system discouraging foreign employers from recruiting from Sri Lanka. The Central Bank annual report for 1977 states only 10,000 workers from here had gone for employment in the Middle East at the time. One of Hameed’s first ministerial directives was to remove all restrictions on issuing of passports and also opening embassies in Middle Eastern countries.

In 1977 our only embassy in the Arab world was in Egypt. Today millions of Sri Lankans are employed in the Middle East and it was Hameed who laid the foundation for this opportunity to grow.

Once when my brother was at his Kandy office, about 20 Buddhist monks sought his assistance to obtain a small piece of Mahaweli land to build a platform on the river for conducting their ordination ceremonies over flowing water as required by the rules of their sect. The previous temporary platform on which these ceremonies were conducted had been washed away due to heavy rain upriver. The late minister offered to build a permanent structure, and constructed one of the three Seemamalakas in the country.

As Foreign Minister he visited Finland, the first VIP visitor from Sri Lanka to that country. That visit resulted in the construction by Finland of a pipe-borne water supply scheme in his backward constituency.

Assistance to the Muslim community

My brother was principally a pluralist at heart and had an abiding belief that we were Sri Lankans first and foremost. The fact that he successfully represented Harispattuwa, an 80 percent Sinhalese constituency in the Kandy District, and developed it into a well-served electorate is testament to that that belief in pluralism.

But my brother also did great things for the Muslim community to which he belonged. In 1955, he was elected president of the Central Ceylon Muslim Assembly and it was through this organization that the Kandy Muslim Teacher Training College was inaugurated. At that time, there was a big shortage of trained Muslim teachers, and the organization went a long way towards alleviating this need for qualified teachers.

Another significant achievement was the amendment of the Finance Act No 11 of 1963. Due to this Act, Muslims were deprived of their rights to buy or sell land without proving their citizenship. As a consequence, thousands of deeds were gathering dust in land registries Islandwide without being registered. Although this problem was not faced by Muslims from the Kandy District as they had ge (like Podiappuhamylage) names in their birth certificates, it was a problem acutely felt by Muslims in other parts of the country. My brother recognized this grave issue and raised the problem with President Jayewardene and the Cabinet. Later this Act was amended, thereby enabling Sri Lankan Muslims to buy and sell land without proof of their citizenship like any other citizen in this country.

Let me finish by saying that my brother was known both for his intellect and wit in equal measure. My good friend Thalif Deen a long time UN correspondent in New York recollects an incident that is the stuff of UN legend. Hameed was to deliver an address at the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of President Jayawardena and Deen recalls how an Eelam activist/lawyer from London, Krishna Vaikunthavasan, gatecrashed into the UN head quarters, took his stance at the General Assembly speaker’s rostrum where Hameed was due to speak and began a diatribe against the Colombo government.

He was soon silenced and taken away. Hameed followed him to the podium beginning with a riveting punchline, “I want to thank the previous speaker for keeping his speech short,” as the Assembly, known to tolerate long winded and boring speeches, burst into peals of laughter.

I conclude with a prayer for my good friend and brother. “O! Allah, make his grave a garden of bliss and also make the grave not a place of hell fire.”

Allahummaj al Kabrahu Rawlathan min Riyalul Jinan Wala Thaj al Kabrahul Huffrathan min Hufrin Niran, -Ammen.May Allah Almighty bestow the highest felicity to this departed soul in Jennathul Firdous.