Appreciation

• Prof. A. J. Wilson
• Kulasiri Kalawilla

Prof. A. J. Wilson

Writing an appreciation of the life of an old friend is an emotionally taxing business, when it was a friendship of over 40 years, that began when we joined the staff of the University at Peradeniya, he in 1953 and I in 1957.

Except in the last stages of his life, my good friend A. J. Wilson or Willie as he was known to us from our days together as teachers at Peradeniya, looked much younger than he really was. Those deceptively youthful looks remained year after year, decade after decade, prompting us to remark, more in fun than in envy, that he would outlive his peer group of the 1950s and 1960s at Peradeniya and write their obituaries. But things began to change in the mid-1990s after he fell seriously ill from a heart attack. He never really recovered fully from this.

The Peradeniya of the 1950s was an exhilarating place to be in; it had all the makings of a great university and the memories of the intellectually stimulating atmosphere of those years are always associated in one's mind with the friends made in those formative stages of one's career.

Willie was among the best of those friends. The 1960s brought us down to earth. Many of our colleagues educated in English, especially our seniors, but not only our seniors, found it difficult to handle the transition to teaching in swabasha and chose to leave for positions in universities in other parts of the world. Wilson took that change in his stride. The more difficult challenge came from other quarters, in particular from the panjandrums of the Ministry of Education. In the early 1960s the schools take-over kept them busy, but in the mid and late 1960s it was the turn of the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya to feel the pressure.

That pressure came in a most direct and personal form in 1969-70 when Wilson was appointed to the newly created Chair of Political Science, and I to the Chair of Ceylon History. Whether it was because of his animus against Wilson, or whether he took offence at Professor E.O.E. Pereira's insistence on protecting the rights of the university to make appointments to the staff, one never got to know, but the then Minister of Education I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla insisted on getting these appointments rescinded.

The Vice Chancellor backed by the Council, stood firm and refused to budge from this decision. Despite the encouragement derived from the principled stand they took, Wilson realised that eventually the matter had to be settled in the courts of law, and the sooner that was done, the better.

Wilson left Peradeniya for good in 1972 to take up the challenge of becoming the Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton. He held that position with great distinction and was elected to three consecutive three-year terms. The success he achieved as a scholar/administrator, and the respect in which he was held helped to make his stay in Canada longer than he had expected it to be. In the last 28 years of his life he spent less than a year in all in Sri Lanka, and that was in the period 1978-1983.

He never returned after 1983 not even for a brief visit. Occasional letters and occasional meetings in the US were all that we had. He used to describe his stay in Canada as a period of exile, and the sense of being an exile became more pronounced once he retired from teaching and moved from Fredericton to Toronto.

While Wilson had gained a great deal from his stay in Canada it would be true to say that he gave back to that country much more than he got from it, because he used his links with former colleagues at the University of Manchester and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London to improve the academic standing of the department he had inherited at Fredericton. It had given him the leisure that he did not have at Peradeniya - because of his heavy administrative duties - to complete the books he always aspired to write. His first three books were, in a sense, dividends received on the intellectual capital that he had gathered while in Sri Lanka.

Indeed his first two books, Politics in Sri Lanka, 1947-1977 and Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: The Ceylon General Election, 1970 were based on material he collected during his career as a teacher/researcher at Peradeniya.

His marriage to Susili, S.J.V. Chelvanayakam's daughter, gave him access to politics at the highest levels - as an advisor and commentator, rather than an activist - both within his community, and at the wider national level, but his deep interest in national politics preceded his marriage. In one of his recent books he recalled how, as a schoolboy, he had been an eager visitor to the sessions of the Soulbury Commission where he sat listening avidly to G.G .Ponnambalam expounding the case for "50-50".

A friendship across the seas and beyond Sri Lanka's ethnic divide still survived. His friends at Peradeniya would remember the old days, remember his generosity to them and others. His forays into the divisive politics of Sri Lanka during his declining years would be weighed against these, and the balance would be still in his favour. I mourn the passing of a good friend and one of the outstanding scholars produced by the University of Peradeniya.

Prof. K.M. de Silva

Kulasiri Kalawilla

The news of the untimely death of Colombo High Court Judge Kulasiri Kalawilla, came as a great shock to all of us.

Mr. Kalawilla was born into a respected family in Kalawilla, Kalutara. He had his primary education at S. Thomas' College, Guruthalawa and thereafter at Holy Cross College, Kalutara. Then he entered the Sri Lanka Law College and passed out as an Advocate.

He was called to the Bar in 1966 and started his practice in the District and the Magistrate's Courts of Kalutara. As a legal practitioner, he commanded a lucrative practice both on the civil and criminal sides.

He joined the Judicial Service in 1980 and served as Magistrate and District Judge in various parts of the country. In 1997 he was appointed a Judge of the High Court and functioned in that capacity in several important provincial cities. At the time of his death he was presiding over the Commercial High Court of Colombo, a court which deals with commercial cases involving complex and intricate legal issues.

I came to associate with Mr. Kalawilla closely when he became a member of the judiciary and assumed duties for the first time as Magistrate in 1980. During the period of this association I found in him a very simple, humble and unassuming person.

As a judge, Mr. Kalawilla maintained at all times the highest standard of ethical conduct expected of a judicial officer. He treated everybody with equality and courtesy. He was a man of undoubted integrity and honesty. He made an indelible impact on every person who appeared before him and on those who came into contact with him.

I can say with confidence that those who had the privilege of pleading their cases before him never once had occasion to doubt his sense of justice and fairplay. He was a man of high qualities who never shirked responsibility.

To all of us who are in the judicial service, he was and always will be an ideal. The character of the life he led can be a summarised in a few words.

He was a Buddhist in every sense of the word and Buddhism was his philosophy and his way of life. Mr. Kalawilla was essentially a family man and was a devoted husband and affectionate father.

May his journey through Sansara be short. May he attain Nibbana.

Chandradasa Nanayakkara
High Court Judge Colombo

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