Gamini Dissanayake – the Visionary

In Retrospect

By Nanda Abeywickrama

That fateful mid-night of 24th of October 1994 was one of unbelievable shock and deep sadness. Sri Lanka lost a promising presidential candidate, erudite and dependable political leader and above all a wonderful human being, at the hands of the dreaded LTTE. Srima Dissanayake lost her beloved soulmate and the young family an endearing father and guide. It was the end of a saga and a turning point in national politics. As we commemorate this unfortunate event and going back four decades and more in time brings me to September 1976 when after nearly seven years in the then Ministry of Agricultures and Lands under the leadership of Minister Kobbekaduwa and Secretary Mahinda Silva I left for Cambridge University to pursue postgraduate studies in Land Policy my chosen field as an SLAS Officer. My immediate boss, K H J Wijayadasa, said, “Nanda, you are very lucky to be away at this unpredictable juncture”.

His words proved prophetic; the next few months had been chaotic, characterized by internal dissension in the government ranks, severe shortages of essentials, trade union strikes, agitations and demonstrations.

By the time I returned to the country, in September 1977, Sri Lanka had witnessed a sea change: a change of government, some communal riots and plans for a shift from the parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency and blue prints for an unprecedented development thrust. Gamini Dissanayake, at age 35, was a leading driver in this team. Paradoxically, although my specialization was in Land Policy, I was sucked in to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs under the leadership of Minister Montague Jayawickrema and Secretary D B I Siriwardana. When I expressed my preference to be back in my Agriculture and Lands Ministry DBI gave a strong warning that SLAS officers had to be fitted in where their services are needed and I was ‘fitted in’ as Senior Assistant Secretary-in-charge of District Administration. I settled down to my task the bulk of which was transferring Assistant Government Agents at the whim and fancy of new local politicians.

My first encounter with Minister Gamini Dissanayake was around March 1978 when Engineer Douglas Ladduwahetty then Chairman of the Mahaweli Development Board introduced me at the makeshift Ministry office at Darley Road. My first impression of the Minister was positive; very positive. He had a charming and calm disposition and a cultured and charismatic personality. He inquired about my background but seemed to know a lot more! the Minister invited me immediately to join his Ministry but there were processes to go through.

As a Member of the Accelerated Mahaweli Project (AMP) Task Force, which met every week and reported progress to the President at an evening meeting every fortnight, I had a ringside view of how the AMP was evolving and the leadership provided by Minister Dissanayake. Although the government had made a formal decision the AMP was not as yet fully accepted by the public or by the financiers. It required a lot of convincing –of opposition parliamentarians and their supporters and equally or more important, the donor community. The then Finance Minister Ronnie De Mel has recounted the massive efforts taken to lobby heads of state and mufti – national donors to garner funds for the AMP.

At this juncture, the AMP had many detractors on grounds of high costs, doability and the risks of heavy foreign borrowing. The task of convincing fell squarely on Minister Dissanayake’s shoulders. Based on professional advice he was able to use his persuasive skills to convince the head of state that the AMP was doable and having got it, to take on the detractors of the calibre of Dr Colvin R De Silva and of Dr. N. M Perera and convince them using his communication and inter-personal skills. He was equally comfortable with testy international and multi-national donors as with local and international NGOs and civil society representatives to get them on board in his fund-raising drive.

Between March and September1978 a massive effort was in operation behind the scenes to reach consensus on the scope of the project, initiate feasibility studies and to engage with international and multi-lateral donors to identify funding. Practically every week at dinner meetings with donors Minister Gamini was in his elements marketing the project with a range of donors who had been evading Sri Lanka in previous years. He was so effective that by the latter part of the year donors were scrambling for a piece of the cake. The legal framework for the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) too was formulated during this period.

Unlike in the present day there was a rationale in the assignment of subjects, functions and agencies to the Ministry. Positioning pedigreed departments like the Surveyor General’s, Forests, Irrigation. Land Settlement and Land Commissioner along with related Boards and Corporations was conducive to developing an integrated strategy and work plans which we identified as natural resources management in line with contemporary scientific thinking. MLLD was also positioned to provide technical advice and support to the AMP. I got the Minister’s blessings both to procure the best national and international expertise for advice as well as to hand pick my professional team of senior technical officers and administrators together with reputed managers drawn from the private sector.

We immediately set about obtaining expert advice and assistance from Cambridge University in formulating our scope and from the Indian Institute of Management on implementation in partnership with ARTI, SLIDA and national Universities. Working closely with related ministries Of MMD, Agriculture, Home Affairs and of Planning we developed a mini six year plan and a strategy for endorsement by government in order that the administrative machinery that has to deliver is on all fours with the Ministry’s philosophy and strategy. We established a close rapport with the Government Agents (District Secretaries) who were a critical link in the implementation of our programmes. This worked out very effectively in delivering our programmes to the grass roots level where our target group the rural poor were struggling with the land and water in their immediate environment. Despite his preoccupation with the AMP and other interests as cricket, and trade unions, the Minister paid due attention to the programmes of MLLD to reach out to the rural poor in the rest of the country.

This strategy worked as the Agencies and the District administration adopted a collegial spirit to deliver the services. In a short period of time, we had taken corrective action to streamline the allocation of state land to the landless, to rationalize the management of village irrigation systems and to be very stringent in the use and management of forests that had been heavily over-exploited over a long time. This approach enabled us to raise concessional funds from international and multi-lateral donors to mount a medium term programme for the rehabilitation of practically all irrigation systems starting with the Gal Oya Rehabilitation Project all of which had suffered from years of under investment, introducing sound land management practices and titling culminating in the Swarnabhoomi programme, and above all scientific forest management and planning leading to the preparation of a 30-year Forestry Master Plan. In order to widen the field and bring them up to speed with global trends we were able to host the headquarters of the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI now IWMI) though an Agreement signed in September 1983 and the Regional office of the IUCN later in the decade.

Minister Gamini provided the leadership in all these endeavours without reservation and at a political level warded off any resistance or distraction keeping to a clearly identified path. He also maintained very cordial relations with our friendly donors and lobbied intensively in Cabinet which helped in no small measure to raise concessional funding for our long term programmes The MLLD annual budget which started in 1978 at below Rs200 Million grew exponentially to over Rs 2 Billion within a decade maintaining staff strength with only a marginal increase yet improving management effectiveness though through capacity building.

The relationship between a Minister and the (Permanent) Secretary is not clearly laid out anywhere since a lot depends on the personality of each except that the Secretary as Chief Accounting Officer for the Ministry and its Agencies is solely accountable for managing its finances. He left this responsibility entirely in my hands with minimum interference such that after 10 years of working together there were no financial probes, adverse reports or scandals in our operation. In regard to man management the situation was rather dodgy because the 1972 Constitution brought most staff under the control of the Minister and not the Public Service Commission that we were accustomed to.

Minister Dissanayake however in his first briefing after my appointment said “I want to do my politics; you run the Ministry” and thus gave me a blank cheque but it was a tall order. I had to reciprocate by contributing my best effort. The Minister allowed me to select my senior team like Additional Secretaries s and Divisional Directors and discretion in the selection of Heads of Departments, most of whom that I selected were the best available and happened to be my close colleagues from the SLAS and from my Agriculture Ministry days. My administrative tasks became easy because all selectees were self-motivated, highly competent and dependable qualified and experienced having held senior positions in government.

Minister Dissanayake’s achievements in designing Mahaweli as a dynamic and futuristic settlement model, and in getting Test status for Sri Lanka Cricket are well known. Beyond that what impressed me most was his eagerness and constant interest in working towards a modernized Sri Lankan society by the year 2000.He was always receptive to new and novel ideas that could march towards that vision. He knew the constraints in working through a slow-moving administrative system and was ever willing to support measures that could overcome them.

Minister Gamini was a champion of parliamentary democracy; he believed in the value of open and intense debate and dialogue to reach consensus as his parliamentary and public speeches would demonstrate; he accepted the role of intellectuals and professionals in the governance and development processes, the criticality of consistency and continuity in administrative and management structures for governance and the imperatives of keeping pace with emerging global trends through the medium of information technology that was beginning to sweep across the world. Armed with his wide knowledge base acquired through constant reading and combined with his remarkable communication skills as a public speaker Sri Lanka would have reached out to a very wide global audience and benefitted from their contributions the scale of which it is difficult to visualize in retrospect.

Going by my 10-year experience with him in the 1980s, had Gamini survived and led Sri Lanka, the country would have been in the upper middle income category, with its economy growing at around 8%; about 50% of the Sri Lankan population would have been enjoying urban lifestyles and moving towards a sustainable development paradigm deeply conscious of the need to handle the challenges of unfolding climate change scenarios and a sound natural resources management regime. Sri Lanka has lost a leader with a vision to transform its economy and society through a smooth transition from a war ravaged, ethnically estranged nation heavily dependent on worker remittances to a tech savvy, modern, dynamic and sustainable society that could match the best of the emerging economies not merely in the Asian Region but anywhere in the world. That was the dream he did not live to realize.

Frequent references to Gamini in the media in different contexts confirm that he still enjoys wide acceptance as a committed political leader who could realize Sri Lanka’s potential in the medium term. As of today, though, we do not see a leader of that calibre in the making. The best tribute to Gamini would be for emerging political leaders to take the cue from him and pursue his political philosophy and strategies for the welfare of our citizens and inspire a new generation of young politicians and professionals to pursue those goals.