All our plans and energies were turned topsy turvey when on December 26, 2004 a catastrophic Tsunami hit the southern, eastern and the northern coastline of the country. The BBC described it in the following way: “At 00. 59 GMT on 26th December 2004 a magnitude 9.4 earth quake ripped apart the sea floor off the coast of Northwest Sumatra. Over 100 years of accumulated stress was released in the second biggest earthquake in recorded history. It unleashed a devastating Tsunami that travelled thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean, taking the lives of more than 200,000 people in countries so far apart as Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

“Billions of tonnes of sea water forced upward by the movement of the seabed now flowed away from the fault in a series of giant waves. The first wave hit Sri Lanka with no recede and no warning. The waves, up to six of them, weighing over 100 billion tonnes, rushed inland like a giant tide. As they hit Sri Lanka’s southern tip they began to change direction, an effect called refraction. A part of a wave closest to the shore slowed down in the shallow water, leaving the outer part, travelling at faster speeds, to bend around the island. The south west coast of Sri Lanka, the side that should have been safe, was suddenly in the waves direct line. Cities such as Galle were destroyed”.

As a consequence of this sudden turn Tsunami waves hit a train from Colombo on its way to Galle near Peraliya sweeping it away from the rail track and killing every one of its passengers. It was estimated that approximately 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the Tsunami. [TAFREN placed the number at 37,200 while the Ministry of National Planning quoted a figure of 27,724].

I was in Munich at that time to attend a meeting of investors arranged by our representative there. At the conclusion of this meeting a farewell dinner was arranged in a lodge in the snow capped mountains close to Berchtesgarden where Hitler had built his Albert Speer designed winter retreat. The television set in the lodge started displaying a live coverage of the swirling waters of the Tsunami including clips of the mayhem in Galle. I immediately made arrangements to return to Colombo the following day.

At a Tokyo meeting with Kuroda the head of Asian Development Bank

CBK who was in London also returned and the Foreign Ministry was inundated with queries from our missions abroad. Members of the public in European countries began lining up to contribute their mite for Tsunami relief. When I visited our embassy in Berlin I found that schoolchildren were lining up outside to contribute to Tsunami relief in Sri Lanka.

Inventorisation

Our first task was to take stock of the situation and provide immediate relief for those who had lost their loved ones, dwelling places and a livelihood. Pathetically the first request was for assistance in disposing of the dead. We immediately asked the Grama Sevakas of the affected areas to make lists of those requiring assistance. The Treasury released Rs. 15,000 to each of the affected families through the GA and Grama Sevakas. We waived the usual judicial proceedings which were necessary before burials took place because such arrangements were not practical under the circumstances.

After investigation we found that one million households were affected and we would need five billion dollars for rehabilitation and reconstruction. Another one billion dollars was needed to provide immediate relief. As many as 174 schools were affected and we decided to “build back and build back better” no matter the cost. The whole of Galle city centre had been inundated and had to be rebuilt. While the Ministry of Housing was responsible for rebuilding plans they were dragging their feet due to bureaucratic issues. Due to their delays I asked my friend and distinguished architect Ashley de Vos to do some type plans and his firm quickly provided them without a charge.

At the same time several international NGOs undertook to build schools at their expense and they too employed some distinguished internationally known architects. Some hospitals were also rebuilt. But the most noteworthy was the rebuilding of Mahamodera Hospital in Galle which was financed by the friends of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. I will recount that story later in this book.

Pass books

There was one innovation that we in the Finance Ministry were particularly proud of We had to face the perennial problem of ensuring that the funds earmarked reached the recipients in full and in time. Along the way intermediate officials siphoned off the money allocated for relief and the poor recipient was not given his due. Since it was a “hand out” the recipient was also satisfied with what little he was given by the official. We decided to eliminate middlemen and go direct to the recipient by opening a bank account for him in the nearest branch of a state bank, particularly the People’s Bank.

Bank officials worked round the clock to issue pass books and soon every affected person was covered. It was heart-rending when we found that they referred to the Passbook as their Passport since they had lost all other documentation such as birth certificates, educational certificates and salary receipts in the Tsunami. Our innovation took hold even though many sceptics did not believe it possible. Even CBK was doubtful. I then got the People’s Bank to send me a list of the pass books issued daily with a schedule giving the names of the recipients. This list was sent to the President daily so that she could double check the progress of our project.

In fact James Wolfensohn the charismatic leader of the World Bank was so impressed that he introduced the Pass Book scheme to Brazil. He told me that he dreaded to visit the Favelas or slums there because he could see the corruption of officials who siphoned off the World Bank grants to the poor. Much later India too used modern technology to launch the “Adhar scheme” by which the poor could use the banking system and bypass the notoriously corrupt lower officialdom. During my presentation to the donor meeting in Kandy I referred to our innovation thus, “We have been able to innovate in the field of immediate monetary relief and reimbursements through the state banking system which has drawn the support and satisfaction of the World Bank.”

In passing I can refer to a meeting arranged by Transparency International on “combating corruption” which was held in Cape Town in South Africa. TI was represented by Nihal Jayawickreme and the Sri Lankan invitees were Rukman Senanayake, Aritha Wikremanayake, Waruna Karunatilleke and myself. I believe we were recommended by Rukman who was a wild life enthusiast and cameraman like his uncle Dudley Senanayake. His main objective was to visit the wild life reserves in South Africa after the meeting.

The lead speaker at this conference was Robert McNamara- the famous Defence Secretary of the US under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson- generally considered to be the “Butcher of Vietnam” for his unrelenting pursuit of a military solution in that unfortunate country. After an ignominious defeat he changed his attitudes and as a way of repentance became an international “do gooder”. He became the chief of the World Bank and poured money into Africa which perhaps may have been the reason for his presence at this meeting.

During his speech he made the extraordinary statement that “all the Ministers in West Africa are crooks who owned private fishing boats and were defrauding their Governments”. There was a hushed silence in the hall till a small made African man in a well tailored black suit strode up to the stage and introduced himself as a Minister from Ghana “who did not own fishing boats” and demanded a retraction. After much discussion McNamara apologized and the meeting was brought to a close.

Since that time corruption has been identified by the IMF and the World Bank as a major impediment to growth and I am happy that our attempts to clean up the assistance methodology during the Tsunami was a small milestone in that direction. Happily I could inform the donor community that “Regarding relief and rehabilitation permit me to say that we are proud that the predicted “Second Tsunami” of famines, pestilence, epidemics and lack of basic medicines, clothing and shelter did not come to pass.

Jakarta

Indonesia and Sri Lanka were the worst hit by the Tsunami though parts of Thailand and South India were also affected. India declared that they were not seeking international assistance to rebuild. The IMF and the World Bank held a high level donor meeting in Jakarta and invited us to send a delegation. In response Lakshman Kadirgamar, myself, PB Jayasundera and Prasad Kariyawasam of the Foreign Ministry attended the meeting. Our objective was to get maximum pledges of support as we did not want to emasculate the 2005 Budget which had been passed by acclamation in Parliament. [The UNP boycotted the vote as they did not want to publicly oppose many of the relief measures that we had proposed.]

The donor conference was attended by participants at the highest level. The Managing Director of the IMF Rodrigo De Rato and the head of the World Bank Wolfensohn were there. The US was represented by Secretary of State Colin Powell who was to report direct to his President. The head of ADB and the Japanese Finance Minister was also present. Lakshman Kadirgamar made an emotional speech after which we got down to the business of soliciting funds. Since it was too early to present project proposals the donors were looking to providing block grants at that time. The World Bank allocated Dollars 100 million. The IMF also granted 90 million dollars.

While PB and I were having a cup of tea in the cafeteria, De Rato came to sit with us and inquired whether we wanted the 90 million immediately. When I said that it was crucial he wanted me to hand write a note to him then and there so that he could make the announcement in the plenary session. Accordingly the Jakarta meeting gave us funds which could be disbursed immediately. Other countries like France and Japan pledged to provide funding after meetings in Tokyo and Paris to which we were invited.

Another benefit obtained was that Colin Powell had given a sympathetic report so that a close relationship was established by us with President Bush and President Bill Clinton who personally supervised their Sri Lankan effort. Clinton visited Sri Lanka twice and CBK and I met him again in Washington. Bush sent his father President Bush senior with Clinton on his visit to Galle to inspect the damage. Bush senior said that he will “get his boy” President George Bush Jnr. to help us.

Tokyo

PB and I next went to Japan which had a special interest in Sri Lanka as the biggest lender to the country at that time. It was much later in time that China came into the picture in a big way under Mahinda Rajapaksa who may be called the “father of unsolicited projects”. We had several meetings with the Ministry of Finance and JAICA. While they were willing to intervene with considerable assistance they raised the inevitable question of proper disbursements and corruption which had plagued JAICA projects in the country. Instead of arguing about it we agreed that officials from the Japanese Audit department could be housed in our Ministry of Finance to check our disbursements. This saved much haggling and also increased the quantum of aid. I also admired PB’s quick decision making in sticking to the essentials of our claims and focusing on the results. This would often put him in hot water with the usual bureaucratic audit types in the administration who put rules before success and could not match PB’s decision making skills.

There was an interesting diversion during our visit to Japan. Our Ambassador Tilak Amunugama had arranged for us to travel to a Buddhist Temple in Osaka where the officiating monk had agreed to make a substantial donation to our Tsunami Fund. We went by bullet train to Osaka and were driven to the temple in luxury cars. It was then that we realized that this sect or “Nikaya” catered only to millionaires. It was a well appointed temple building with a large pool stocked with fat “Koi” or Carp.

The temple organized an annual nationwide “Koi” competition and stocked its pool with the winners. I have never in my life seen such well fed carp even in China where similar big fish are kept close to the kitchen for special orders from the diners’ tables.

We were informed that there were several wives of Japanese millionaires whose hobby was rearing carp for such competitions. The chief monk made a substantial donation to our Ambassador’s fund. He had visited India for a Buddhist Conference and was fascinated by the multitudes of worshippers. He said however that he was disappointed with Sri Lankan visitors who had promised to send him a Bo sapling from Anuradhapura but had not done so. Ambassador Amunugama promised to rectify that omission and one hopes that he, unlike his predecessors, had kept his word.

We on the other hand kept our word and daily greeted the Japanese auditors who occupied a floor of the Finance Ministry and carefully went through the vouchers signed by recipients of Japanese largesse. Some years later when the Fukushima tragedy struck Japan I recalled in our Parliament the timely help given by Japan during the Tsunami “For over 50 years, as the Leader of the Opposition mentioned, Japan has been helping us in our development efforts. But it is particularly poignant because when the Tsunami struck Sri Lanka in 2004 the first country to come to our assistance was Japan.

“They gave us an immediate grant of 90 million dollars which was a grand humanitarian gesture. They did not go through the normal Parliamentary procedures which are so important in development assistance. They followed it up with a soft loan of another US Dollars 90 million. So at this time of tragedy for Japan we should all have our feelings of sadness as well as confidence in the Government and people of Japan who came to our assistance at a difficult time.” [Hansard March 22, 2011].

(Excerpted from Vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)