Dr. Gamani Corea – an exemplary and all round human being

On 4th November 2013, his 88th birthday, Dr. Gamani Corea, Sri Lanka’s most senior and most distinguished economist parted from us all for good, leaving a void that could hardly be filled in the foreseeable time.

Many long glittering tributes have been pouring in from all quarters, since his death, including very eloquent ones from the Head of State President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Jayantha Dhanapala, former UN Under- Secretary – General on Disarmament, another distinguished son of Sri Lanka.

Much has been said in these tributes about the enormous contribution this one single individual has made to the developing economies in general and the Sri Lankan economy in particular and his own unique and singular achievements. I will, without repeating them, highlight our grateful appreciation of his contribution to the Sri Lanka Economic Association ( SLEA) and some other attributes of Gamani ( as those close to him used to address him).

I first came to know Gamani well back in 1950 when he came to address the Political Society of the then University of Ceylon in Colombo, on the state of the economy. I was in the final year (1950/51) of my Economics Special Course. Gamani was then (if my memory is correct) in the newly set-up Central Bank. He spoke so eloquently (in “Queen’s English”) without a written script, as he did always later, that the audience was spellbound and was highly impressed. Some of the Economics Special students almost mobbed him when he climbed down from the stage after the lecture, with a barrage of questions, not having dared to pose them to him while he was on the stage. My batch-mate and friend, the late Dr. J.B. Kelegama, who had arranged the lecture was able to cultivate his acquaintance with Gamani whom, I believed, he had begun to look up to as his mentor, as many other young economists would have later done. Presumably this might have been one of the reasons why Dr. Kelegama joined the Central Bank, immediately after his graduation in 1951, while many of my other batch mates chose alternative careers.

I myself joined the University, and chose to remain in this country except for a short stint (1979/1982) at the University of Sierra Leone, on an assignment of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, as Professor of Economics as well as advisor to the Minister of Devel- opment there. Therefore I did not have the opportunity of working closely with Gamani either here in Sri Lanka or abroad.

Gamani, who spent the latter part of his career abroad, holding various prestigious, high level appointments had finally returned to Sri Lanka in 1985 after completing nine years as Secretary-General of UNCTAD. I was then working as the Director of Planning and Research of the University Grants Commission. Earlier that year, before Gamani had arrived, a few of us of the Sri Lanka Institute of Social and Economic Studies ( doesn’t exist anymore) had met and decided to resuscitate the defunct Ceylon Economic Society as the Sri Lanka Economic Asso- ciation (SLEA) under Gamani’s stewardship. We had, in fact, already had the Constitution of the Association prepared and the Association registered as a national body, in February 1985, under the Companies Ordinance of 1982. Inviting several of our other close associates to join us, we held the first meeting, the Founder meeting on 29th April, 1985, at which Gamani and I were elected President and General Secretary, respectively. SLEA had no office of its own then. The meetings were held at Gamani’s residence. He provided not only the venue but also the refreshments. Gamani was the President for five years. Before Gamani gave up his office as President, he was able to strengthen the Association further by using his good office and tact, and his affable, modest and accessible nature to persuade another body, the Association of Sri Lankan Economists to join our Association. The Sri Lanka Economic Association which commenced with 15 founder members has grown to more than 400 to- date, and has been incorporated by an Act of Parliament and is a member of the International Economic Association (IEA). It has its own biennial Journal, the Sri Lanka Economic Journal (SLEJ). The build-up of the Association to its present stature and image is by no mean measure owing to Dr. Gamani Corea, its Founder President. Indeed, it was in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of SLEA, as well as his unparalleled contribution to national development, that SLEA elected him the first Honorary Fellow of the Association in 2004 and had him also felicitated with a special issue of SLEJ ( September 2004), the year I took over as President.

It is as if it were by intuition, that in my 10th consecutive presidential address to the Annual Sessions of SLEA held on 25th October, this year, 10 days before his passing away, I briefly recalled the history of origin of SLEA and paid a big tribute to Dr. Corea. Above all his contributions and achievements for which glorious tributes have been flowing in since his death, Gamini stands high and will be remembered as an exemplary, all round human being. I can do no better than describe him in the Buddha’s words of such human being as Sakko (competent or skilled), ujucha (straight/upright), sujucha (honest), suwacho chassa (disciplined), mudu (soft hearted), anathamani (humble or modest). May he rest in peace, or as a Buddhist I would wish he be reborn in Sri Lanka.