Appreciations
View(s):My friend Asoka – a man of uncompromising honesty and simplicity
Asoka Samararatna
My dear friend Asoka Samararatna, Attorney-at-Law and principal partner of Samararatna and Associates passed away on January 10, 2023.
I would like to use these columns to honour him and also recall the many memories of our long friendship, spanning 60 years.
It was at Royal Primary that Asoka and I first met as five-year-olds when both of us were admitted to school on the same day in 1957. In those days, ours was a playground comradeship, when we played children’s games together.
Then in 1963, we entered Royal College together and the foundation was laid for our long friendship. Asoka was clever and shone in class. At that time, very few of us had aspirations or career ambitions for the future. Asoka was an exception – he was very clear in his mind that he wished to pursue a career in law when he joined the Arts stream along with me in 1966. This was reflected in his nickname at that time “Pattaya” which became “Law Pattaya”.
Having a serious aim in life did not mean that Asoka’s schooldays were devoid of fun and adventure. He and I shared many escapades such as taking unauthorised leave from school to visit the cinema, lighting forbidden cigarettes and indulging in other forms of schoolboy mischief. He introduced me to the delights of Hindi cinema and I recall he never missed a Hindi movie with Shanker Jaikishan’s music.
After leaving Royal College,Asoka obtained an LLB from Aquinas University. Then in 1972 he joined the Ceylon Law College to acquire his professional qualifications. In 1973 I also entered Law College. Once again Asoka and I were in the same educational institution. Asoka was already a prominent figure and in 1973 he with elected the Vice President of the Law Students’ Union. He was also a student activist and organised a protest against the changes to legal education introduced by the government in 1974. As a consquence of the change in admission rules, a sitting member of parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa, the then MP for Beliatta entered Law College as a fresher. As advised by the Vice President he was accorded the same ragging treatment as the other freshers! It was all done without malice and at the end of the rag, Asoka and Mr Rajapaksa were seen having a cup of tea together at the nearby Crown Hotel.
In his politics, Asoka was a member and supporter of the UNP from the age of 13. He remained so till the end of his life, unlike many politicians of today who change party loyalties at the drop of a pin for personal gain or other personal benefits. He never had any desire or ambition to contest a seat or to enter Parliament. Asoka had the greatest admiration for the late UNP stalwart M.D. H. Jayawardena and participated in his canvassing activities. Because of the affection and regard he had for Mr Jayawardena, he accepted the posts of Rent Board Chairman of Battaramulla and Kaduwela and that of Kaduwela Cooperative Chairman. I have had the experience of being out with him and seeing him hailed and greeted by many as ‘Asoka Aiya’ or Asoka Mahattaya’.
I left Sri Lanka in 1987 but we remained close friends and were in constant touch, either on the telephone or on my visits to the country. I have a deep interest in the events of Sri Lanka and Asoka was always available at the end of the telephone to give information and talk on any situation. We had regular conversations and discussions on many subjects of common interest. His death will leave a void in my life for many reasons and it is difficult to think that I will not hear his voice again.
As a lawyer, his mind was razor sharp. He also spoke his mind fearlessly in his profession and in his communications. He was fiercely and unswervingly loyal to his friends and family, the causes and the political party he supported and to his old school – Royal College.
His firm had a wide ranging and very successful practice. Asoka was well known in the community as a lawyer who championed freedom of expression and other civil liberties, as was acknowledged by The Editors Guild of Sri Lanka in a statement issued shortly after his death. A fearless and independent man himself, it would be natural for him to stand up for journalistic freedom. His support for such causes is a reflection of the liberal values deeply ingrained in him.
He was a man of uncompromising honesty, integrity and simplicity, totally unimpressed by wealth or the trappings of wealth. He enriched the lives of many. He had a close relationship with his only and beloved sister Dr Savitri Kellapatha who was at his bedside in his last moments, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to her.
I shall miss Asoka’s friendship for the rest of my days. I console myself with the thought that I had the gift of his friendship for so long and that my friend Asoka lived a full, happy and honourable life, true to his principles and beliefs to the very end.
Tisara Gunasekara
The ‘Smiling Chancellor’- an educationist par excellence
Emeritus Archbishop of Colombo Dr Oswald Gomis
The Most Reverend Dr Oswald Gomis, Emeritus Archbishop of Colombo and former Chancellor of the University of Colombo was called to his heavenly home on February 3, 2023.
If Father Bonjean was considered ‘the Father of the Denominational School System’, Dr. Oswald Gomis can be considered the modern Father of Assisted Schools. Being a product of St Benedict’s College, he wanted to provide similar education through equality and religious harmony for the students. At an interview he said that when he was appointed Archbishop of Colombo he had a special objective – that is to provide a good education for the people.
To achieve this, he wanted to expand Catholic education. He made a valiant effort within the existing legal framework to establish branch schools of the popular Catholic private schools. St. Peter’s College, Gampaha and Udugampola branches, St. Joseph’s College, Enderamulla and Kadolkele branches and many more such schools. Further, a branch of St. Nicholas’ International College in Negombo and St. Thomas Catholic International College in Seeduwa were also established and School of Hope, Paiyagala and– Don Bosco Technical Institute – Nochchiyagama founded under his patronage.
As a historian and author, he has also contributed to education. For example, he disproved that, Catholicism was introduced for the first time in our country by the Portuguese, in his book, ‘Some Christian Contributions in Sri Lanka’. He pointed out that one Jordanus Catalha de Severac, a Dominican Friar, was appointed to Colombo as a bishop by Pope John XX11 on April 5, 1330 according to a document in the Vatican Archives, and he (Jordanus) has written a book called “Mirabila Descripta”(also in Vatican Archives) giving a vivid description about various countries including ancient Sri Lanka and about two kings during his stay here.
He also forwarded evidence according to Vatican sources that another missionary, a Papal Legate by the name of Giovani de Marignolli who was sent to the East by the same Pope stayed in Colombo for 18 months around 1348/1349 and taught catechism in a church dedicated to St. George and also erected a huge stone cross here, before his departure to Europe.
Bishop Oswald Gomis’s contribution to the University of Colombo and to me personally, is invaluable. In 1994 I sent an application to the University of Colombo for a post of Probationary Lecturer in Humanities Education. I was amazed to find the Archbishop of Colombo on the interview panel. Later I learnt that he was indeed there as a member of the University Council as an educationist.
Years later as the Dean of the Faculty of Education when I met him at a convocation, I mentioned this incident to him. With his usual endearing smile, he said “I am glad we made the correct decision at that time.” In 2019 at the Postgraduate Convocation when he as the Chancellor handed me the Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence in research in the Faculty of Education in 2018, beaming with pride he told the Vice Chancellor “I selected her to the University.” Such was his memory!
Bishop Gomis was on the Council of the University of Colombo from 1977-2001. Later, he was appointed as the Chancellor in 2001 and continued to serve the University in this capacity till 2021. Every year I hear the graduands after the convocation commenting on the “smiling Chancellor’ who wished each and every one of them. In spite of the arduous task of sitting through three days of four sessions, and handing over the scrolls, he made it a point to make their big day memorable by that personal touch.
He continued to discharge his role as Chancellor to perfection by attending all the University functions he was invited to irrespective of whether it was Christmas carols or pirith. He took pride in the achievements of both the students and staff of the University of Colombo. I have heard him saying to the students, referring to ragging that such unfortunate incidents do not happen in our university. Bishop Gomis held his position with dignity and pride. In turn the students and staff respected and liked him.
When Bishop Gomis was appointed the Archbishop of Colombo the Bishop’s Conference in a statement said, “He brings to Colombo valuable expertise as a scholar, educationist, historian, author and above all, a revered pastor”. He indeed used his expertise to the maximum and in his retirement continued to impart this knowledge through his writings. People of Bishop Gomis’s calibre are very rare today.
We will miss you dear Father, but you will live through your good deeds.
May host of angels lead you to your eternal rest!
Emeritus Professor Marie Perera
A stalwart of Sri Lankan structural engineering
Eng. S.A. Karunaratne
Singappuli Arachchige Karunaratne had his school education at the St. John Bosco College in Hanwella and Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya. He was among the top performers at the GCE (Ordinary Level) examination of 1956 and graduated with a BSc Engineering degree from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering in the Peradeniya Campus of the University of Ceylon in 1966. After graduating, he worked for 55 years in structural engineering, around 10 of those overseas. He died in harness, while being the Managing Director of Stems Consultants (Pvt) Ltd.
Like many other eminent structural engineers of his vintage, Mr Karunaratne started his professional life at the State Engineering Corporation (SEC), coming under the influence of the legendary Dr A.N.S. Kulasinghe. After this he had a spell of around 10 years overseas, first in Nigeria, and later in Brunei and Oman too. However, the bulk of his practice was at Stems Consultants, a firm that he helped to set up with his SEC colleagues Dr B.M.A. Balasooriya and Eng. Ananda Senarath. He was Managing Director of the firm since the untimely demise of the former in 1994, until his own demise on the last day of 2022.
Stems at its inception was unique in that it was a specialist structural engineering practice to which he is widely known to have contributed directly. Undergraduate trainees were required to meet him weekly, and report not only on what they had learned at their various construction sites, but also on what they had read in the daily newspapers! He was in the business of producing engineers with rounded personalities, not least of which involved the instilling in his young charges a sense of honesty and integrity.
Some of the major projects he was directly involved in at Stems are the Tri-Zen High Rise Development Project with 3 towers over 50 storeys, the ‘On 320’ at Union Place, Colombo with 3 towers of 39 storeys, the 39 storey Empire Residencies at Braybrooke Place, the 22 storey Secretariat Building for Personnel Identification at Battaramulla, the 17 storey Ceylinco Seylan Towers at Colombo 3, the 14 storey Administrative Building for the Sri Lanka Ports Authority at Hambantota, the Head office for the National Development Bank at Nawam Mawatha, and Phase II of the Katunayake International Airport Project in collaboration with Japan Airport Consultants, a feature of which is a novel roof design.
His contributions to structural engineering through learned society and professional association activities were noteworthy. He was one of the few Sri Lankan Fellows (since 1990) of the Institution of Structural Engineers, U.K. and an active Fellow (also since 1990) of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL). He was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K. since 1970. He was a regular member of examination panels for the Charter Examination of the IESL. He made significant contributions through the Institute for Construction Training & Development (ICTAD) in the committee for drafting the Construction Industry Bill, and in the panel for the Construction Excellence Awards. He served on and chaired many of the code drafting panels for the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, making notable contributions in developing Sri Lankan Annexes for the globally established Eurocodes.
His greatest contributions were however, through the Society of Structural Engineers, Sri Lanka (SSESL), of which he was a founder member in 1990. He was wholeheartedly involved in the Society, especially as President from 2004 to 2008, significantly raising the profile of the profession in the process. He co-authored an SSESL publication titled Reinforced Concrete Detailing to Mitigate Seismic Effects and spearheaded the introduction of seismic design and detailing to Sri Lankan practice. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 2009.
Eng. Karunaratne also engaged with academic institutions, especially at the Universities of Moratuwa and Peradeniya, serving on their Industry Consultative Boards. He was not averse to helping even emerging institutions such as the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), in spite of heading a busy consulting practice. He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Moratuwa Master’s programme in Structural Engineering.
He was outspoken when defending the interests of the various groups he belonged to, most of which needed a voice to plead their causes. He looked after the interests of private sector consultancies vis-a-vis their much larger state sector counterparts and canvassed for a better fee structure for structural engineers. He was a spokesman for the entire construction industry as well; and was recognized by all relevant parties as a leader in their common cause. Such recognition came probably because he did not hesitate to speak truth to power. He once told an over-enthusiastic Head of State that a piling project could not be completed on time – while all the engineers at the meeting knew this, only ‘SA Karu’ as he was affectionately known, had the guts to articulate it.
Karu’s natural flair for the aesthetics of structures may well have originated from his gift for drawing and painting, for which he won many prizes in school, and also a poster competition for the yearly calendar of the then Shell Company. He was also highly commended, at the Peradeniya Art Circle, for a portrait of Professor M.P. Ranaweera, another SSESL Honorary Fellow and Peradeniya’s most recognized structural engineering academic.
He is survived by his wife, Manel of 53 years and his children – Dushyantha, originally a pilot but now a successful restaurateur in the U.S., and Missara, an architect married to a Moratuwa University civil engineering graduate and domiciled in Canada. We extend our condolences to them, and to his wider family at Stems.
As Managing Director of one of the earliest structural engineering practices, Honorary Fellow of the Society of Structural Engineers (and President for 5 consecutive years), and elder statesman for the entire construction industry, Eng. S.A. Karunaratne came to be known as the face of Sri Lankan structural engineering. Although his would be a difficult act to follow, he has now passed his mantle on to others, who will no doubt strive to continue his commitment to excellence, while staying true to the priorities he held and the values he lived by.
Emeritus Professor Priyan Dias (on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Society of Structural Engineers, Sri Lanka)
From Lanka to Saudi and NY, he made great strides
Al-Haj Mohamed Nazeer Rasheed
Nazeer Rasheed, who passed away after a brief illness, specialized in two of the biggest foreign exchange earners for Sri Lanka in the 1960s: tea and rubber. Starting his career as a tea taster at John Keells, he moved to rubber brokering at C.W. Mackie & Company.
Hopping across continents, he later relocated to Al-Khobar, a city and governorate in Saudi Arabia, where he worked at Saudi Scales & Equipment for five years, and had the privilege of performing Haj.
In 1984, he moved to New York and was employed as a tea taster at Vannier Tea, later switching to the rubber trade. In 1991, he was the first Asian to be elected as Director of the Rubber Traders Association of North America. He also served as Director and member of the USA-Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and President of the Sri Lanka Association of New York (SLANY). His days as a rubber broker began at Philip Billhardt Inc. and when Mr Billhardt retired, he took over the company and carried on a successful business.
He began his junior years at S. Thomas Prep School in Kollupitiya and then graduated to S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. A staunch Thomian, he played an active role in the OBA during the school’s centenary celebrations and was a founder member of Royal/ Thomian Colts Tent. He also played Second XV rugby and was an active member of CR&FC during the late 1970’s.
His friends knew him as jovial and fun loving, always ready and willing to offer a helping hand to those in need. As a son, he took great care of his parents and made sure all their needs were met for a happy and comfortable life. For the rest of his family, he was always there with his advice and support.
Nazeer met his future wife Pauline Ratnayake in London during a vacation and they married in November 1984 at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Manhattan, New York city, followed by a Sacrament Service at St. Paul’s Church. Pauline, his life partner of 38 years, was a tower of strength and was always there by his side, caring and nursing him throughout his illness.
Nazeer died peacefully on January 17, 2023, aged 77, at his home in Manhattan, with Pauline and his sister Zeeniya by his side. His Janaza prayers took place at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Manhattan followed by burial at the Hillside Cemetery, Cortland Manor, New York on the 18th.
He will be missed by one and all, as he was a wonderful husband, loving son, affectionate brother, adorable uncle and a good friend to all those who knew him.
May Almighty Allah shower his choicest blessings upon him and grant him Jennathul Firdhouse.
Razeena Raheem
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