Chaos and Pattern – Memoirs of Godfrey Goonetilleke

Reviewed by Leelananda De Silva

Godfrey Goonetilleke is one of the outstanding personalities in the public life of Ceylon/Sri Lanka in the latter half of the 20th century. As a brilliant scholar in English at the university in the late 1940s, he was one of the best known members of the Ceylon Civil Service, after Independence. Leaving the public service in 1972, he had a major role in establishing the Marga Institute. From that time onwards, he worked with many UN agencies especially in Geneva. He came to be considered a leading intellectual on socio-economic development issues.

Godfrey now in his late 90s, has written his Memoirs – “Chaos and Pattern” in three volumes running into over 1,000 pages. The first volume deals with his early life at home and in school, mainly in a rural setting, his university life, and marriage to Bella. The second volume is concerned with his career in the Ceylon Civil Service, from 1950 – 1972. The third volume deals with the founding of the Marga Institute and his emergence as a leading Asian intellectual. At this time, he was associated with various UN agencies in developing, social, and economic policies. At the end, was his key role in setting up the Gamani Corea Foundation.

He was born in 1926, to a rural middle-class bilingual (English and Sinhalese) family. His early education was in several schools in the Kandy region. Godfrey ended up at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo when Fr. Peter Pillai was its rector. Even in those very early years he was developing an interest in English literature. Godfrey mentions that his grandfather established one of the earliest Sinhalese newspapers in the 1880s. This makes me realize that no history of Sri Lankan journalism, English, Sinhalese and Tamil, has yet been written. This is something the local press institutions should consider.

In the late 1940s, Ivor Jennings was the Vice-Chancellor of the university. Godfrey opted to read English under E.F.C. Ludowyk, Professor of English. He relates his university career at some length and his many concerns and interests especially of a philosophical and religious nature. He was undergoing a spiritual and moral crisis and he describes these at length. It was during this period that he met his future wife, Bella. And through this Memoir the loving and lasting relationship with Bella comes out clearly.

Godfrey describes the English Department under Ludowyk, from which he was destined to obtain a first class. One of his contemporaries, Upali Amarasinghe was also a brilliant scholar in English. Godfrey describes the politics of the English Dept at that time, especially concerning the possible appointment of either he or Upali Amarasinghe as a new Asst. lecturer. This was to be followed by either one of them proceeding to Cambridge, on a scholarship to do their PhDs. Ultimately Upali went on that scholarship. Godfrey opted to join the Ceylon Civil Service having passed the CCS Exam. in 1950.

Godfrey Goonetilleke

In Volume-2, Godfrey describes his life as a member of the CCS for the next 22 years. He started his career in 1950 and retired in 1972. He had many appointments and handled varied tasks especially in Colombo. Godfrey was not one of those civil servants who served in district administration. He had a short spell in Anuradhapura in the Land Development Department that was not part of the district administration. During these 22 years, he had a variety of tasks to perform and many interests to pursue. Let us look at them briefly.

One of his earliest assignments was to serve as Asst. Secretary to Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister, D.S. Senanayake. When he was appointed to serve in that office, N.W. Athukorale was the Secretary to the Prime Minister. He was not a member of the CCS. Godfrey’s Civil Service colleagues raised many an eyebrow at this situation. The CCS at that time thought they were superior and that they should not serve under a non-CCS public servant. However, he served in that post to the great satisfaction of Athukorale and himself.

There is a fascinating episode which Godfrey relates. Godfrey had passed on information unwittingly to a university friend, a young woman who was now a journalist. She spoke of that material which concerned another Lake House journalist. The Prime Minister was visibly upset and wanted to know who had released this information. Godfrey admitted talking to Jeanne Pinto. The Prime Minister was courteous, and had a chat with Godfrey, asking him to stay for tea.

He warned Godfrey about talking to journalists. The Prime Minister knew more about Jeanne Pinto than Godfrey. He told Godfrey that she was having an affair with a businessman, Sardha Ratnaweera. Only later did Godfrey know that this was true. The Prime Minister was well known those days for reading police reports which he said was his favourite reading material. Godfrey is the last surviving public servant to have worked with Prime Minister, D.S. Senanayake.

In 1962, the country was shocked by the news that various Army, Navy and Police personnel had attempted to overthrow the government. One of the masterminds behind the coup, was alleged to have been Douglas Liyanage, a member of the CCS, and a close friend of Godfrey. Godfrey’s description of the coup is worth reading. He had the courage to go and meet his friend Douglas Liyanage in remand jail with a couple of his friends like Milton Aponso.

In 1965, the Dudley Senanayake government came to power. One of the Prime Minister’s first tasks was to establish a new Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs under him. Gamani Corea was appointed as the new Permanent Secretary. Godfrey was brought in to work with him as Director of Plan Implementation. Godfrey’s task was largely to manage the capital budget of the government which was earlier a function of the Ministry of Finance. It was Godfrey’s task, in consultation with others, to decide on the priorities for public investment, and projects to be taken up.

Godfrey relates the difficulties the Ministry faced with other leading government politicians in attaching priorities for public investment. It is the rational development of these priorities that led the government of Dudley Senanayake to achieve an average annual 5% GDP growth rate in the five years between 1965-1970. This part of Godfrey’s Memoirs is essential reading for the new generation of public servants who determine public investment priorities.

Godfrey was engaged in many other tasks in the Planning Ministry. After the change of government in 1970, he continued to work with the new Permanent Secretary, H.A.de S. Gunasekera for another two years. He was engaged in the preparation of a new Five-Year Plan. This five-year plan remained only a publication and was never implemented. In terms of its policies and priorities, it was a far cry from the earlier government’s methodical approach to public investment. I have always wondered how Godfrey could be involved in this kind of so-called socialist policies which had hardly any place for the private sector.

A few months before he left the public service, one of his last tasks was to handle the Dudley Seers Mission to Colombo, to advice on social and economic issues. Dudley Seers was the head of the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, England. Seers and a team of 20 others was commissioned by the World Employment Programme of the ILO in Geneva, to undertake this study.

When the initial request was made for this inquiry, the Ministry of Planning was under Dr. Gamani Corea, and by the time the mission came in 1971, there was a new government which was not over-excited by this mission. The Five-Year Plan which was being drafted by the government did not take much notice of the Seers Report.

Volume-3 of Godfrey’s Memoirs is arguably the most interesting of the three volumes. Godfrey left the public service in 1972. He and Gamani Corea got actively engaged in the establishment of a brand-new research institute in Sri Lanka. The two of them were the founding fathers of the Marga Institute. Several leading ministers of the government which was a left of centre alliance (the SLFP, the LSSP and the CP) was unhappy with the establishment of Marga.

Felix Dias Bandaranaike, who was the Minister of Public Administration sent out a circular prohibiting public servants of having any dealings with Marga. Dr. Colvin R. De Silva who was a leading LSSP minister and even Bernard Soysa, a leading LSSP figure had reservations about Marga. They believed that socio-economic research should be done with a government institution, and not with an independent body. The more pragmatic, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister was quite happy to go along with the establishment of Marga.

From now on Godfrey had several occupational strands in his life. Apart from building Marga, he was employed by many UN agencies as a consultant. In 1973, Gamani Corea was appointed Secretary General of UNCTAD in Geneva. Godfrey was to work with him closely on trade, commodities, finance and technological transfer issues over the next decade with UNCTAD.

Godfrey had another important strand to his consultancy work. He was also engaged by the World Employment Programme (WEP) based within the ILO in Geneva. The WEP was headed by a notable development scholar Louise Emmerij, and Godfrey worked closely with him. He was also working with UNICEF, the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), based in Geneva, with UNDP and UNICEF. He spent a considerable amount of time in Geneva.

He was also involved with the Third World Forum in Geneva, which included some of the leading social scientists of the time. It is obvious that Godfrey came to be a highly regarded member of the top intellectual elite engaged in third world development issues. Godfrey’s combination of leading a research institute of his country and being an advisor to UN bodies to develop their social, economic policies and programmes, made him a leading personality in international development.

Godfrey mentions in his memoirs that he wanted Marga to be closely involved in Sri Lanka’s social, economic and political development, and play an important role in resolving the political issues that were then emerging. His chapters relating to the communal crisis and relations with India are essential reading to present day policy makers. It is clear from Godfrey’s memoirs that the mismanagement of the relationship with India, was a crucial factor in Sri Lanka’s political crisis.

To end on a personal note. In March 1972 the ILO organized a meeting in Geneva to review the three reports of their missions to Ceylon (the Dudley Seers Mission), Columbia and Kenya. Godfrey was invited by the ILO in his personal capacity. I represented the Government of Ceylon. Gamani Corea, then Ceylon’s ambassador in Brussels, was brought in to chair the meeting. This was the first visit for Godfrey and me to Geneva. The next year in 1973, Gamani became Secretary General of UNCTAD and spent the next 11 years in Geneva. Godfrey was a long stay visitor to Geneva during that time. I spent over 12 years n Geneva from 1978 to 1990. This was our Geneva connection.

There is much in this 1,000-page Memoir which cannot be absorbed in a short article.