A Lankan pioneer at the United Nations

Lakdasa Hulugalle, who passed away on Christmas day, in Colombo, was one of the earliest Sri Lankans to join the United Nations. Most of his career in the United Nations was with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, where he lived most of his life. As a senior economist, his main concern was with international trade and particularly in primary commodities. He played an important role in the 1970s and 1980s when UNCTAD was at the centre of the North-South dialogue. He had a special place for Sri Lanka right through his career and was much involved in assisting his country, formally and informally, in formulating its international trade policies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lakdasa Hulugalle (Laki) was born in 1932 in Colombo, to a well-known Sri Lankan family. He had a lifelong interest in family history and genealogy, and I should be remiss if I did not describe his family background. Lakdasa’s parents were H.A.J. (Herbert) and Lilian Hulugalle. He had six siblings – Damayantha (who married S.K. Wickremasinghe), Upatissa, Harris, Arjuna, Lilamani and Ranjan. Laki was extremely close to his siblings throughout his life. His father, Herbert, was one of the early Editors of the Ceylon Daily News in the 1930s and 1940s. Herbert was also a popular historian who wrote many books, including biographies of D.S. Senanayake and D.R. Wijewardene.

Herbert Hulugalle had his roots in the Kandyan aristocracy (Kurunegala branch) and was a descendant of Adigar Hulugalle. One of Herbert’s sisters married a brother of D.R. Wijewardene of Lake House. On his mother, Lilian De Soysa’s side, Laki had low-country upper class connections. His maternal grand-mother was Regina Perera Abeywardena of Closenberg, Galle, from one of Galle’s leading families. His maternal grandfather was a De Soysa, a son of C.H. (Sir Charles) De Soysa, one of the great philanthropists of Sri Lanka. Laki married an English girl, Moira, and they had two daughters, Tamzin and Natasha, and a son, Tikiri. In his later years, his great joy was to be in the company of his twin grand-daughters. His wife Moira, predeceased him.

Laki had his early education at St. Thomas’ College, Bandarawela, then Guruthalawa, and later at Mount Lavinia. He talked of his early influences and St. Thomas’ had been a great influence on him. He had a great regard for men like W.T. Keble (Head Master of St. Thomas’ Prep.) and Warden, Canon R.S. De Saram. Laki was at the University of Ceylon, between 1952 and 1955, and read for a special degree in Economics, which he passed with honours. Then he proceeded to the University of Oxford, where he was at St. Catherine’s College. He read for a post-graduate degree, B’Phil., and his supervisor there was Prof. Sir John Hicks, the Nobel Laureate in Economics.

After leaving Oxford, he joined the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, in the late 1950s. At that time his father was Sri Lankan ambassador in Rome. Laki was one of the earliest Sri Lankans to join the FAO and the United Nations. His spell in Rome was brief, and he moved to London to join the International Wheat Organisation. Then in 1965 he joined UNCTAD, in Geneva, at its very inception. The famous Latin-American econ- omist, Raul Prebisch had been appointed as the first Secretary-General of UNCTAD, and he was looking around for bright young economists. Along with Laki, economists like Manmohan Singh (later Prime Minister of India), Liaquat Ali (India), Lal Jayawardena joined the UN at this time. Laki remained a friend of these early UNCTAD associates throughout his life.

Throughout his career at UNCTAD, Laki’s major interest was in international trade in primary commodities. UNCTAD is now a backwater. It was not so from the 1960s to the 1980s. At that time UNCTAD had the task of organising negotiations on international commodity agreements. (With the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in the 1990s, UNCTAD had lost its key negotiating functions). In the 1970s UNCTAD emerged as the key UN organisation for negotiations between developing and developed countries. UNCTAD and Geneva were at the centre of what was referred to as the NorthSouth dialogue. Laki was actively engaged in these negotiations and specially in the Integrated Programme on Commodities (IPC), which was the centerpiece of the North-South dialogue.

In 1974, Gamani Corea, from Sri Lanka had become the SecretaryGeneral of UNCTAD, and for the next ten years Laki worked closely with Gamani on international trade issues. During this period, Laki was particularly concerned with the international tea negotiations, which were jointly sponsored by UNCTAD and FAO. This brought Laki into a close relationship with Sri Lankan tea delegations in Rome and Geneva. Laki had a close relationship with developing country delegations to the United Nations in Geneva. He was of great help to them and guided them through some of the intricacies of the commodity negotia- tions.

One particularly notable experience I had with Laki at this time, was in the context of the Non-Aligned Summit held at Colombo in 1976. One of the key issues of that Summit was international trade. I had been appointed as the secretary of the Economic Committee of the Summit. Many of the delegates attending the Summit’s Economic Committee were also designated to UNCTAD in Geneva. I requested Laki to assist me in the Economic Committee and he had no hesitation in doing so, spending some time in Colombo. Laki’s familiarity with the issues and the people involved were of great value. Laki was always eager to be associated with Sri Lankan issues and be of assistance.

Laki was unusual for an economist. He had inherited from his father, a deep intellectual interest in the humanities and especially in history, biography, politics and literature. He had a great interest in the British political and social scene. He was much interested in the history and politics of Sri Lanka. He had close friends like Sena and Janaki Wijewardene, (Vienna) Walter Perera (Geneva) and several others with whom he enjoyed talking of things sublime and ridiculous, particularly in his long retirement, which he spent in Geneva and Colombo.

Although he was interested in his upper class ancestors as a part of social history, he was a truly humble person, very much concerned with the plight of the poor, especially in Sri Lanka. One of his great pastimes was walking, and he walked miles and miles in the Swiss countryside and by the shores of the beautiful lake of Geneva. He was a close friend of 50 years and we had much in common. I shall miss him enormously.

Leelananda De Silva