Appreciations
View(s):Those halcyon days in Maha-Illuppallama
Ajith Abeyratne
Ajith, my older brother, was born on April 28, 1949 and passed away unexpectedly on October 26, 2023. We were all deeply shocked and saddened by his untimely demise. No one ever imagined he would pass on before celebrating his 75th birthday which would have been today – April 28, 2024.Ajith distinguished himself at school by captaining the first XV rugby teams of 1967 and 1968 and winning both the Rugby Lion and the Ryde Gold Medal – the two top awards at Trinity College.The 1967 Trinity rugby team is revered for having won all of its matches. Ajith also excelled in cricket. A genuine all-rounder, in 1968 he scored the fastest century in the history of the Trinity-Royal schools match encounter.
I am three years younger than Ajith and we grew up in Maha-Illuppallama (MI) where the country’s leading Dry Zone agricultural research station is located. It was headed by our dad, the late Dr Ernest Abeyratne, a pioneering agricultural scientist who had expert knowledge of rainfed farming systems. At MI, Ajith and I led a carefree, idyllic existence. We were then in boarding school and would wait to come home for the school holidays.
After our sister, Visaka, was born the twosome became a threesome. We taught her to fish, swim, ride the bicycle, run races, and climb trees! Going with our parents on a picnic to Kalawewa was the highlight of our school holidays. Our youngest sibling, Harsha, was born in January 1964. There was a change of government in 1965 and my dad was transferred to Colombo. So Harsha missed out on those halcyon days in MI.
At school my older brother displayed strong leadership qualities which he continued to exercise in his working life. An ardent Christian, he was Senior Pastor at Calvary Church, Mirihana for 34 years until his demise. His life was dedicated to the congregation of this church. In 1981 he established a successful steel trading company called Metal and General Trades Ceylon Ltd which was one of the pioneering agents for importing steel products from South Africa. Ajith was married to Lohini, his devoted wife, for 50 years. They have three children, Surovi, Kishen and Vashni, and four grandchildren, Mishaal, Tameem, Tahlisa and Araen, all of whom he loved dearly.
Ajith played rugby for and coached the CR&FC as well as the national team. A born leader, he was head of selectors and national coach from 1985 to 1988. He was also a top rugby commentator and served in a technical advisory capacity at the national level for many years. He was made a life member of the CR a few years before his death.
Ajith was a kind, sincere and affable human being with a just and generous heart and fine sense of humour. At his funeral service held in Mirihana on October 28, 2023 the church was packed to capacity and there was a massive outpouring of grief. May he find peace, tranquility and eternal bliss in his after-life.
Seneka Abeyratne
My brother the politician who did much for the country
A.C.S. HAMEED
My late brother Abdul Cader Shahul Hameed was born on April 10, 1929, and had his education at St.Anthony’s College, Katugastota and at Vijaya College, Matale.
In March 1960 he was elected to Parliament from the Akurana seat as the 2nd member. The UNP had 50 members and Dudley Senanayake formed a minority government. When the throne speech was defeated, another general election was held in July 1960, and Mrs. Bandaranaike became Prime Minister with a large majority.
In 1977, when J.R. Jayewardene was elected, he appointed my brother as the Foreign Minister which portfolio was held by the head of government until 1977.
My brother was also given in charge of immigration and emigration and with this portfolio he made it easier for Sri Lankan citizens to get their passports with their birth certificate and identity card. No guarantors were needed. This made it possible for Sri Lankans to get employment in the Middle East with ease.
Since he was made Foreign Minister, he had to travel to most of the countries in the world to meet the heads of states to explain President Jayewardene’s government policies, and his extensive travel made
Sri Lankans pun on his initials A.C.S. as All Countries Seen Hameed.
President Jayewardene had implicit faith in my brother to do what was right in furthering the interest of the country and my brother never let down that trust.
In 1979 while handing over the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement to Fidel Castro in Havana, the President singled out his Foreign Minister A.C.S. Hameed for the excellent contributions he had made in handing down the movement to President Castro, undiluted and untarnished.
One of his greatest contributions to this country was when he played an active role in projecting Sri Lanka’s national interests at the third United Nations 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. My brother 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 India Ocean.
He was accorded an honorary
doctorate in Political Science by the Hankun University of the Republic of Korea in 1978 and a D. Litt by
the Sri Jayewardenapura
University in 1990.
Another significant achievement was the amendment to the Finance Act No:11 of 1963, as previously Muslims of Sri Lanka were deprived of their rights to buy or sell their land without proving their citizenship. As a consequence, the lands of deeds were stagnating in land registries islandwide without being registered.
This problem was not faced by Muslims from the Kandy District as they had Sinhala Ge names in their birth certificates but was a problem acutely felt by Muslims in other parts of the country.
My brother recognized this grave issue and raised the problem with the President and Cabinet. Later this Act was amended thereby enabling Muslims to buy and sell lands without proof of their citizenship like any other citizen in this country.
May Allah grant the highest
felicity to this departed soul in Jennathul Firdous.
Aameen.
Brother Nuhuman
A brilliant mind who taught us to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life
Berton (Bertie) Jayasekera
It has been just over one year since we lost my beloved father Bertie Jayasekera. Sri Lanka lost a good son and eminent engineer. Bertie was kind, generous, gentle, witty, fun to be around, and had a brilliant intellect. He was always charitable to family members, friends and strangers alike.
He was modest about his brilliant mind, highly social and loved the company of family and friends. He was impatient but rarely held a grudge. Bertie was a skilled raconteur: he would enthral my friends with his stories of his adventures in the wilds of Kantale with his pet leopard cub, whilst working in the Irrigation Department. Bertie also was light on his feet and a talented dancer, always enjoying listening to his favourite tracks by Trini Lopez and The Rat Pack, Louis Armstrong and classical music.
As a child at Ananda College, Bertie preferred other pursuits to studying: chief amongst his hobbies was the Radio Club. Even when living in Hong Kong, we would find old tin boxes and amplifiers and other radio parts ready for reassembly into a working radio. Despite his playful nature, he would often be top of the class at school.
Following school, Bertie was recruited by the Irrigation Department of Ceylon and was one of the first persons to be offered training under agreement for the Institution of Civil Engineers. By 1959, Bertie decided to go to the UK, enrolling in the now Surrey University. Within two months he had passed his Part 1 of the Institution of Civil Engineers professional exam by self- study and Part II within two years, an admirable feat. He was elected as a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (M. I. C.E.) by 1962. During this time he was working as a Designer Detailer with Nuclear Civil Constructors and later as a Civil Engineer for Mott Macdonald and Partners on reinforced concrete projects for the Tigris river.
1963 saw Bertie’s return to Sri Lanka to work for the State Engineering Corporation. It was here he met Indranee Weeraman and following their marriage, he returned to the UK to work for Maunsell and Partners, in Manchester.
In 1966, Bertie returned to Sri Lanka as a Senior Project Engineer, (Construction) and later Chief Engineer overseeing major projects such as the Puttalam Cement Factory (still standing over 50 years later) and the Hydro Power Station, Polgolla.
1970 saw drastic political change in Sri Lanka, so Bertie returned to UK briefly, before being recruited to work for the Hong Kong Government, Public Works Department. I still admire his sense of adventure and enterprise at exploring and embracing a new culture in Hong Kong. This marked the inception of an illustrious and varied career. In 1977, Bertie was appointed to the New Town Development Department, where some favourite projects of his entire career stemmed. Here, he was recruited to design and build five new towns, housing an incredible 2.3 million people.
His favourite was probably the once sleepy Sha Tin fishing village, where Bertie oversaw the consulting engineers work, checking design, overseeing sewage treatment works and land reclamation projects. By 1982, he was promoted to Chief Engineer for Tuen Mun and in charge of the construction of infrastructure through consultants Scott Wilson and Partners.
Bertie was always able to inspire and help others professionally, acting as a Lead Examiner for the Institution of Civil Engineer, UK, for several years.
In his spare time, Bertie developed an interest in sailing and yachts. In 1981, together with two good friends, he embarked on building a 32-foot sloop out of a lightweight ferro cement called Portland Cement, with a teak and fibreglass deck. “The Boat” was built on a cinnamon estate in Sri Lanka, and after several issues, arrived in Hong Kong. We enjoyed many happy outings plus lots of experience in DIY projects onboard. Bertie was also adept at fixing pretty much anything, and I miss that engineering brain of his.
Bertie retired from the Hong Kong Government in 1994, having been one of the longest serving civil servants, securing a further two year position with Wilbur Smith Associates, this time as a Crown Servant. We left Hong Kong finally in 1996, which was a monumental day for us as a family.
Back in Sri Lanka, Bertie joined the Bureau of Infrastructure as Transport Sector Advisor, until being offered another contract, with Wilbur Smith Associates: this time in Sylhet, Bangladesh on an ADB-funded project of the Jafflong Road.
Upon his return to Sri Lanka, Bertie then embarked on an entirely new pathway as an Adjudicator on a number of road projects between the Sri Lankan Government and various contractors. He sat as a Member and sometimes lead on several local projects including the ADB Southern Highway, the Rehabilitation and Improvement of the Puttalam/Mannar Road. He made good friendships with his colleagues. He also acted as an Arbitrator for several projects.
Bertie finally retired in 2016. He was also a committee member of the Sri Lankan Institution of Civil Engineers, a role he enjoyed, as he was always helping other engineers.
By 2018 Bertie’s health started to decline and he suffered cognitive impairment. It was my time to look after him, which I did. This was such a special time for us. We travelled to London and the Far East. Bertie kept up with his base of friends and colleagues worldwide. Covid-19 found us able to spend even more time together, and we kept up our spirits, singing , playing scrabble, drinking cocktails and watching TV. Bertie loved sitting on the verandah of the house, looking at our mango and jak trees and the birds. He never complained about his health, maintaining his gentleness and good humour to the end, passing away on April 2, 2023.
I have been blessed with the most kind, supportive and loving father the universe could bestow. He was a great teacher to both my mother and myself, teaching us to be humble, tolerant, and kind and enjoy the simpler pleasures in life, and always to think intelligently about situations. May the many good deeds Bertie performed in this lifetime be returned to him threefold in blessings as he continues his soul journey and may he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.
Bertie is survived by Indranee,
his loving wife of 59 years and his daughter Samantha.
Samantha Jayasekera
He would go out on a limb to help another human being
Palitha Thevarapperuma
Palitha Thevarapperuma, a former member of Parliament for the Kalutara District, showed by action what it truly means to be a genuine representative of the people. He preferred to be known as a humanist and social worker rather than a politician, who above all other considerations and divisions of politics, party, colour, creed or language, was a dedicated servant of the people. He also never lost sight of the fact that death is the lot of all, and nobody, no matter how powerful or wealthy, would ever be able to escape this. He was that “good Samaritan” in every sense of the word. There were incidents reported that exemplifies the spirit of the good Samaritan. When he was once travelling on the highway, he had encountered an accident and realizing that there were critically injured, he immediately stopped his vehicle and personally carried the injured to his vehicle and transported them to hospital. At another time on his way to Kurunegala, at Mirigama he came across a telephone post that was posing a threat to passing motorists. He telephoned the Police and the Telecommunication Department and waited until action was taken to move the post. During the time of the pandemic he had prepared food for the people in and around his electorate in the Kalutara district.
Our country is poorer by the untimely death of this large-hearted individual who would go out on a limb to help another human being.
Ridley Casie Chitty
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