Appreciations
View(s):Dr. Ranji Salgado
A man of great achievements he was the epitome of humility
It is five years since Dr. Ranji Salgado (1929-2009) passed away, but his memory is fresh in the minds of his many friends and colleagues, both in Washington and Colombo. An outstanding development economist who held senior positions in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1966 to 1988, English scholar, mathematician, patriot and good Buddhist, he gave his services to his country even as a senior IMF official. When Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister again in 1970, he accepted her invitation to be Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs for a year taking a leave of absence from the IMF. Had his rational recommendations been fully accepted, the economy of the country would have taken off much earlier than happened.
He had his primary education at Royal College, Colombo, where he excelled in studies and was the outstanding scholar of his time, winning the Turnour Scholarship Prize, Steward Prize, Rajapakse Prize, C.M. Fernando Memorial Prize, Makeen Memorial Prize, English Literature Prize, English Essay Prize, etc. At the University of Ceylon which he entered in 1947, he topped the First in Arts examination to win the Muncherji Framji Khan Prize and later went on to obtain a First Class in Mathematics. After a brief spell as a Lecturer in Mathematics at the same university, in 1952, he joined the Central Bank of Ceylon which he served for 14 years during its crucial formative years. Proceeding on a Central Bank scholarship to Cambridge University in the UK, he first obtained the Economics Tripos and later a PhD in Economics, studying under renowned economists such as Richard Stone (Nobel Prize winner in economics), Joan Robinson, Richard Khan, Austin Robinson, Maurice Dobb and James Meade.
His PhD thesis of 1960, ‘The Ceylon Economy, 1920-1938, A National Accounts Study’, was a seminal work which covered the uncharted inter-war period. The first official abstract of National Accounts was first published in Ceylon only in 1949 and was refined and improved in the following years resulting in the comprehensive Central Bank Annual Reports that have been available since then. The first comprehensive assessments of national income for the years 1938-1944 were prepared by Dr. B.B. Das Gupta. Hence the national accounts of an important period of Ceylon history, which included the Great Depression, from 1920-1938, remained unavailable. In the absence of adequate data, Dr. Ranji Salgado made a valuable contribution by doing considerable original research, delving into public and corporate accounts and seeking information from leading business and government leaders of that past era to fill in the gaps in official documents, to create a broad picture of the economy at the time.
Beginning in 1966, Dr. Salgado had a distinguished career at the IMF. He worked primarily in the Asian Department. During his career there, he served as the IMF Resident Representative to South Korea in 1969-70 during that country’s growth take-off, and was highly regarded by many of the senior executives in Korean finance. After returning to Washington from his subsequent stint in Sri Lanka, he was promoted to Division Chief in the Asian Department in 1972 and among other positions, led IMF teams working on Singapore, the Philippines, and Bangladesh. It was a period when many Asian countries were rapidly developing, especially in East Asia, requiring both international investment and policy guidance, and he was often travelling to these countries on funding and economic policy issues. In 1979 he was made an Assistant Director in the Asian Department with responsibilities for policy and operational planning and implementation. In 1984, he was transferred to the IMF’s Bureau of Statistics to help in the preparation of the voluminous statistical data from around the world that the IMF issues. He was on IMF committees that reviewed its policy papers and was also on the Editorial Committee for the IMF Staff Papers. He received encomiums from the IMF Managing Director, Michel Camdessus, when he retired in 1988. After retirement, he continued to serve as a Consultant to the World Bank and IMF. In 1991/1992 he provided valuable services to Sri Lanka when he served in a voluntary capacity as Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Finance and Banking.
A quiet, courteous and simple gentleman, he never spoke of his outstanding achievements and conducted himself with the humility and kindness of a true Buddhist. His friends never saw him raise his voice even in contentious arguments. During his retirement in Washington, he gave his services to the two Sri Lankan Buddhist Vihara societies in Washington D.C. and to the support of his native Sri Lanka in an era when the U.S. Congress and the State Department were hyper-critical of Sri Lanka’s efforts to end terrorism. He personally visited dozens of Congressional offices and the State Department annually with like minded patriots to canvass the Sri Lankan point of view.
He was strongly influenced by his parents, Simon and Muriel Salgado, devout Buddhists who played a significant role in expanding the Mettharama Temple in Colombo. He was married for half a century to Surangani Salgado, nee Amarasuriya, daughter of Thomas Amarasuriya, proprietary planter, a past president of the now defunct Ceylon Senate, and Lucille Amarasuriya.
-Kenneth Abeywickrama
Dunstan Fernando and Chinthamani Fernando (née Perera)
Thank you both for the
extraordinary legacy you left
In today’s world, it is rather unusual for a 28-year-old man and a woman 10 years younger to marry, but that is exactly what our parents did back in 1951. Music and the church brought them together. Our grandmother, Edith Perera (née Nonis),would gather the basses and tenors of the Galle Methodist Church Choir in her house to teach them their parts. Our mother, Chinthamani, a beautiful and enormously talented musician, accompanied them at the piano. Our father, Dunstan, with his booming bass voice, was one of the men in the choir. The rest is history!
The four of us grew up in a home where music held sway. Music of every kind, both played (on different instruments)and sung, reverberated through the walls at all times—hymns, classical music, pop songs, baila. Ammi would wake us up every Christmas Day playing “Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn” on the piano. Thathi would gather us together to sing hymns in four-part harmony. We were a ready-made choir. He knew so many songs of the World War II generation. They both knew many of the hymns of the Methodist hymn book, and Ammi hardly ever needed the book to play them.
It was also a household where faith, integrity, hard work and excellence reigned supreme, matched only by an equal measure of humility. Our parents were not wealthy, but they never failed to teach us that money was not everything. Thathi’s dictum was, “We must live simply so that others may simply live.” They made sacrifices to give us the best academic and musical education.
Thathi was arguably the best father, a loving husband, a principal of principles, a friend and counsellor to all. As a teacher and principal of many schools across the country (Wesley College being the longest tenure, as Principal and Vice Principal), he was known for having an iron fist in a velvet glove. Discipline in the home, on the other hand, was Ammi’s territory. Thathi’s interests were wide and far-flung—from Bach to Bradman, from politics to stamp collecting to gardening (which they both loved), and everything in between (except cooking!). He fought fearlessly and passionately against injustice all through his life. Neither of them was afraid to call a spade a spade.
Ammi too was a born leader: practical and wise, vibrant and organized, a no-nonsense woman who took the bull by the horns when necessary. With her on your side, you were never afraid. But underneath her seemingly firm countenance was a heart that melted each time she recalled the losses of her life—her parents’ deaths before she was barely 20, her youngest son’s stillbirth; or saying goodbye to her dear grandchildren when they would return to their homes overseas after a visit to Sri Lanka.
Ammi’s faith was most evident in the way she used her God-given musical and other talents in the service of the church, and in the way she taught much more than music to the thousands of students throughout a nearly 60-year teaching career. We also witnessed it in the way she cared for everyone who came to the door, especially in her last years at the house in Lunawa. Thathi’s gift as a lay preacher and leader earned him much respect within the Methodist Church, which appointed him as its vice president.
Because both of our parents were outstanding educators, they made every moment a teaching moment—whether the lesson was English, mathematics, history, music, or simply life. Ammi’s knowledge of historical dates was phenomenal (as was her memory of telephone numbers and hymn numbers of the Methodist Hymnal). Thathi’s memory of the bass and tenor lines of hymns and carols was paralleled only by his knowledge of Shakespearean quotes and various statistics. He promoted a holistic education to us as well as to his students. Many a time he would stop the car to write a mathematical formula on the windscreen. In the last months of his life, when he had dementia, he would write maths problems in the air with his fingers, in his half-awake state. His students claim that he was a teacher par excellence. In the words of one of his students, “He taught us English and mathematics and above all, he taught us how to face life honestly and bravely surmounting all human failures.”
Our parents always made generosity and caring for others, a priority. They would help those who didn’t get a square meal for the day, couldn’t pay off a debt, or had to be rushed to the hospital. Thathi washed the blood off the back seat of our Hillman car after taking a neighbour with a stab wound to the hospital in the middle of the night. Many were the times when they gave relatives, friends and colleagues refuge in our home. Their hearts melted easily and the wallets emptied sooner!
When it came to honesty, loyalty and integrity, no one came close to Thathi. Excellence and meticulousness were the hallmarks of everything they did, from preparing students for public examinations to the way the asparagus sandwich was made. Compromises and shortcuts were not tolerated.
Finally, they both possessed a wonderful sense of humour. Thathi was known for relating jokes at the dinner table and even in the classroom – matched only by Ammi’s ready and brilliant wit! Some of their most joyous moments were spent with the grandchildren, forging a special bond.
We lost our beloved parents a year ago, Thathi on July 5 and Ammi on September 3. Thathi and Ammi, we thank you both for the extraordinary legacy you left for the four of us, your grandchildren and great grandchildren, and the wider community. We know that God welcomed both of you with open arms, saying, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.”
– Dhilanthi, Devinda, Maheshini and Kavinda