Appreciations
View(s):You leave behind an irreplaceable vacuum, dear friend
DION JAYASURIYA
I was overcome with grief when the news of the passing away of my dear friend Dion was conveyed to me by phone on the morning of December 18.
Death is inevitable. It comes to all, but when it comes to one who is so close in a relationship built on values that have mattered, parting is indeed extremely sad. Dion was a gentleman and friend par excellence.
Dion was educated at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. He was actively involved in all college activities and a member of the Old Boys’ Association, where he held many positions in committees. He was a livewire of ‘The Thomian Freshmen of the’59 Group’.
After leaving College, Dion joined Pure Beverages Company Ltd as an Executive Trainee. Thereafter he joined Carsons Cumberbatch PLC as a Management Executive and became a Director in 1987 when I was on the Board of Directors. Later he became the Managing Director of CML MTD Construction Ltd.
Dion was a very keen golfer and won many trophies. He was Captain and President of the Royal Colombo Golf Club and was also elected President of the Sri Lanka Golf Union in May 2004.
Dion was gentle, upright, kind, and loved and revered by all who knew him well.
Honesty and integrity were the hallmarks of his life. His multifaceted personality was characterized by truly rare qualities by which Dion made tremendous contributions in every human activity he undertook. He was a devout Buddhist and regularly visited the Kataragama Temple.
A fine conversationalist, his flair for public relations made him a great asset to his company, his friends and his family.
Notwithstanding his busy schedule and social activities, he was also a workaholic.
He was a loving husband to his wife Rouza and devoted father to his two children Dmitri and Nadira.
Rouza was a great strength to him providing strong support in his challenging duties. She looked after him with admirable care and affection right to the end.
Throughout his life he gave generously to the underprivileged. He was honest and forthright in his speech, whilst at the same time always demonstrating love and compassion towards the poor and marginalized.
Due to his immense capacity for making friends, he had a wide circle of friends. He was a wonderful friend who reached out to his friends, particularly in times of distress. He was steadfast in his loyalty to his friends. This was evident from the very large crowd at his funeral including eminent personalities.
Dion illuminated any and every task with his unique organizing ability and his dedicated harmonizing touch. There was a ring of authenticity and nobility of courage and earnestness in whatever he did and said.
The death of my dear friend Dion has created an irreplaceable vacuum in my life.
I end this appreciation by quoting William Shakespeare: “His life was gentle, and the elements, So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’
I thank God for his life. I will not say farewell because I know we will meet again.
Sega Nagendra
A beloved teacher is no more
BERTY FERNANDO
It is with a sense of sadness that I write about one of my devoted cadeting teachers at Ananda College, Berty Fernando who passed away peacefully on December 16, after a brief illness. He was 84. Berty hailed from a distinguished family, his father S.H. John Fernando and his mother Mrs. Fernando from Aluthgama. The youngest in the family, he had two elder brothers and four elder sisters.
Berty started his primary education at Aluthgama Vidyalaya, Aluthgama and at the age of eleven, was admitted to the Richmond College, Galle, where he was a hosteller till completion of his Ordinary level. Thereafter his father who was keen to educate him at a popular public school admitted him to St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, for his G.C.E. Advance Level examinations.
After completing his A/Ls in 1957 he joined the Ceylon Tea Board, as a Junior Executive and worked till 1960.
As a youth of 24 years, he entered the Teachers’ Training College. Maharagama. After completing his training, he joined the staff of Ananda College in 1961 . Mr. S.A. Wijeyatilake who was Principal at the time assigned him to the Ordinary Level classes to teach Mathematics and Physics. Berty was a hosteller and his room mate was P.W. Samarakoon and the Warden was Nimal Abeywardene. In addition to his normal duties, Berty served as senior cadeting Master-in-Charge.
The staff at Ananda College then included distinguished teachers such as the Most Venerable Kotagama Vachissera and Hettimulle Vjirabuddhi Theras, Col. G.W. Rajapakse, V. Thanabalasingham, C.M. Weeraratne, A.A. Fernando, Sextus de Alwis, S.G. Dharmasena, Lushman Perera, K.L.F. Wijeyadsa, D.G. Kumaradasa, K.D.S. Perera and others.
Berty served as a sub-warden of the College hostel and some years later he was a warden and also Prefect of Games. He performed these duties with dedication and enthusiasm, treating the pupils under his care with kindness and understanding. He was a friend to the academic as well as non-academic staff.
Some of the hostellers are at that time included the present President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Ranjith Maddumabandara, Basil Rajapaksa, Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, C.V. Rajapakse, Nimal Piyasena, Suddarshan Mannamperi, Gamini Angamana, Udaya Kumarasinghe, Ranjith Jayasinghe, J.L. Mallikarachchi, Wasantha Karannagoda and many others.
Ananda has been able to produce a significant number of distinguished Sri Lankans who had gone to excel in various fields and professions thus placing mother Lanka on the world map. Berty Fernando realised the value of cadeting at a young age, and some of the cadets in his period who rose within the Army are Jayantha Ranaweera, Weera de Soyza, Daya Nadarajasingham, who represented Sri Lanka as a shooter in the 1970 Asian Games and at the 1972 Munich Olympics and two officers who become Army commanders – Major General Lionel Balagalle and Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.
In 1965 some of cadets under his supervision who joined the Police Department and rose to become Deputy Inspector Generals were S.C.P. Jayasuriya, Lionel Gunathilake, Lal Kulasekera, Nimal Kariyawasam and Susantha Panthiyadewa.
In 1973, Berty joined Singer Sri Lanka as a Security and Administration Manager and climbed the ladder of success the hard way. His wonderful cadeting achievements of solid work, dedication, a sense of selflessness, sacrifice and relentless commitment to training enriched Berty’s life.
Berty retired from Singer Sri Lanka after nearly (26) years as a Commercial Director. He also held the post of President, Mercantile Cricket Association for a number of years.
He was married in 1971 to Kumuduni de Silva, a teacher at Ananda Balika Vidyalaya and later Vice Principal at Princess of Wales Girls School in Moratuwa. They led a happy married life and had two children, daughter Nadee working at NDB Bank and son Udana who is abroad and five grandchildren.
My beloved teacher, may you attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana.
Meghavarna Kumarasinghe
A legal giant who will be missed at this challenging time in our country
Justice Prasanna Jayawardena
Justice Prasanna Jayawardena passed away suddenly and quietly one night in December 2019. The many tributes paid at that time to this distinguished son of Sri Lanka by his family, colleagues, friends, and young lawyers he mentored, showed how he touched many lives. One year has passed, and yet this is a time to recall again his contribution as a judge of the apex court of our country. His wife, children and family who have grieved for him, and will experience the pain of that empty seat at the table during a time of Christmas celebrations, may gain some comfort from the thought that his contribution to our justice system will not be forgotten.
Justice Jayawardena came from a Sri Lankan family that combined their professional responsibilities with a sense of commitment to public service. His father, Late Stanley Jayawardena was a leader in the business and corporate sector. Those of us of an older generation will remember his mother, Sujatha Jayawardena’s role as “Mother Lanka,” a dancer of great beauty, in that “Pageant of Sri Lanka”, performed at the Independence Day celebrations. She became a presenter of popular radio and TV programmes, when multi media first came to this country. Both Stanley and Sujatha became actively involved in supporting the University of Colombo, the successor to their alma mater.
Many of us will remember Stanley Jayawardena’s contribution to University governance as an engaged and committed member of the Colombo University Council. Sujatha’s fund raised tirelessly and successfully to address the needs of women students without hostel accommodation. The family connection to the university has continued through three generations, all of them graduating from the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, giving leadership in the legal profession, and in the Alumni Association of the University.
Prasanna valued his link to academia and the Faculty. I like to think that his decision to leave a very lucrative practice in business and corporate law for judicial office was influenced by his family tradition of engagement with issues of public concern, and the belief that the judiciary, as an institution, could make a meaningful contribution to the administration of justice in our country. Many of his judgments in the area of environmental law and fundamental rights of disadvantaged social groups like persons with special needs are testimony to a commitment to see that “justice is done and must also be seen to be done”.
Many of Justice Jayawardena’s judgments in the area of public law reflect a continuity with great jurisprudence in the Supreme Court, by distinguished judges, supported by distinguished and eminent appeal court lawyers. His judgments like theirs reflect the role and responsibility of the judiciary in maintaining that fine balance in a system of democratic governance- recognising that the State must be able to govern, but mindful of its obligation to exercise State power, without violating the rights of the People. Justice Jayawardena, in the judgments he pronounced, in the Supreme Court, decided issues of public concern with an understanding of the responsibility of the judiciary to be constantly aware that the rulers and political leaders derive their powers from a Sovereign People. He also followed that tradition of advocacy and judicial decision making that did not hesitate to reflect on international law and great judgments in other legal systems in interpreting Sri Lankan law, when this could strengthen the administration of justice in the country. I think he truly believed in the ideas expressed by a Full Bench (i.e. all the judges) of the Supreme Court, in the Dissolution of Parliament Case in 2018. Their Lordships all agreed with a statement in a case decided in 1962 in another jurisdiction, which recognised the central importance of Courts of law for the People. Then Chief Justice HNJ Perera, Justice Prasanna Jayawardena, and all our judges agreed that “the Courts authority, possessed of neither purse nor the sword ultimately rests on sustained public confidence. Such faith must be nourished by the Courts complete detachment in fact and appearance from political forces in political settlements.”
Justice Jayawardena graced our Supreme Court for a very short time. Holding office with professionalism and dignity, modest and unassuming as he was, he blazed a trail that linked to a meaningful past in judicial decision-making. He also contributed to and developed further, these important ideas on justice, in our legal system. We will miss him at this difficult and challenging time in our country.
Prof. Savitri Goonesekere
We will never see or hear our good friend again
Friends in grief, I have lived long enough to see many dear friends depart – but never with such rapidity.
He was here but yesterday, bubbling with fun and vitality. It is almost a year and one week since my friend Justice Prasanna Jayawardena left all of us suddenly on December 23, 2019. And we petty mortals are left bereft without him. There is seniority at the bench and bar but the truth is that there is no seniority in one’s exit from life. It is not written that only those who grow older must go first. They go because they must go, because it is so ordained. If only we knew why! But as a famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said “…… if we knew why then we would be gods ourselves.”
It reminds me of what Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion said in Punjabi which when translated reads “…. good men, we come into this world with a stipulated number of breaths, not one less, not one more.”
It is so sad that we are missing him badly on the bench at Hulftsdorp as well as at the get-togethers and functions of lawyers. Your trademark smile and humour is no more. We will not see or hear it anymore. I wonder how one year passed so quickly as we remember we were with you wining and dining at the Voetlight dinner that 19th day of December. Maybe destiny decided otherwise to take you from all of us. The advice you gave my son after the Voetlight dinner that everyone should study the bench before presenting their case is still ringing in my ears and should be taken as golden advice by every junior commencing his practice in Hulftsdorp.
I still cannot forget at a President Counsel’s silk party you took me to Justice K.T. Chithrasiri and told him how I promise to call him for a thosai feed which was long overdue since he was in private practice before joining the bench. I still carried that guilty feeling for not calling you because I was at the same time wondering how to call you after you joined the bench. But anyhow I remember during the August vacation I asked if you could join but you said you were leaving the country on some mission and were unable to make it. That was my bad luck.
Prasanna, while you were on the bench you were pleasant to every lawyer with your smile, humbleness and humour, with temperament shown to lawyers seniors or juniors alike when you gave landmark judgments whether on Commercial, Fundamental Rights or Constitutional cases which are still talked about and cited in cases in court. When you left us we were doubly saddened by the fact that we would hear you no more. Which reminds me of a story…..
The highly acclaimed Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez once described an illuminating dream he had. He dreamt that he was attending his own funeral, walking with a group of friends dressed in solemn mourning but in a festive mood. They all seemed happy to be together. And he was happy, more than anyone else, because of the wonderful opportunity that death afforded him to be with his old friends and even friends he had not seen for a long time.
At the end of the funeral service, when the gathering began to disperse, he too attempted to leave, but one of those present made him see with decisive finality that for him, the party was over. You are the only one who cannot go the voice said. Only then did I understand that dying means never being with friends again.
This is the real tragedy about Prasanna, leaving us.
For his caring wife Amala, daughter and son there is only inconsolable grief and sorrow not forgetting his beloved brother Sanjeewa.
For the rest of us his dying has meant that we will never see or hear our good friend again.
Ganeshayogan
A legal giant who will be missed at this challenging time in our countryJustice Prasanna JayawardenaJustice Prasanna Jayawardena passed away suddenly and quietly one night in December 2019. The many tributes paid at that time to this distinguished son of Sri Lanka by his family, colleagues, friends, and young lawyers he mentored, showed how he touched many lives. One year has passed, and yet this is a time to recall again his contribution as a judge of the apex court of our country. His wife, children and family who have grieved for him, and will experience the pain of that empty seat at the table during a time of Christmas celebrations, may gain some comfort from the thought that his contribution to our justice system will not be forgotten.Justice Jayawardena came from a Sri Lankan family that combined their professional responsibilities with a sense of commitment to public service. His father, Late Stanley Jayawardena was a leader in the business and corporate sector. Those of us of an older generation will remember his mother, Sujatha Jayawardena’s role as “Mother Lanka,” a dancer of great beauty, in that “Pageant of Sri Lanka”, performed at the Independence Day celebrations. She became a presenter of popular radio and TV programmes, when multi media first came to this country. Both Stanley and Sujatha became actively involved in supporting the University of Colombo, the successor to their alma mater.Many of us will remember Stanley Jayawardena’s contribution to University governance as an engaged and committed member of the Colombo University Council. Sujatha’s fund raised tirelessly and successfully to address the needs of women students without hostel accommodation. The family connection to the university has continued through three generations, all of them graduating from the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, giving leadership in the legal profession, and in the Alumni Association of the University.Prasanna valued his link to academia and the Faculty. I like to think that his decision to leave a very lucrative practice in business and corporate law for judicial office was influenced by his family tradition of engagement with issues of public concern, and the belief that the judiciary, as an institution, could make a meaningful contribution to the administration of justice in our country. Many of his judgments in the area of environmental law and fundamental rights of disadvantaged social groups like persons with special needs are testimony to a commitment to see that “justice is done and must also be seen to be done”.Many of Justice Jayawardena’s judgments in the area of public law reflect a continuity with great jurisprudence in the Supreme Court, by distinguished judges, supported by distinguished and eminent appeal court lawyers. His judgments like theirs reflect the role and responsibility of the judiciary in maintaining that fine balance in a system of democratic governance- recognising that the State must be able to govern, but mindful of its obligation to exercise State power, without violating the rights of the People. Justice Jayawardena, in the judgments he pronounced, in the Supreme Court, decided issues of public concern with an understanding of the responsibility of the judiciary to be constantly aware that the rulers and political leaders derive their powers from a Sovereign People. He also followed that tradition of advocacy and judicial decision making that did not hesitate to reflect on international law and great judgments in other legal systems in interpreting Sri Lankan law, when this could strengthen the administration of justice in the country. I think he truly believed in the ideas expressed by a Full Bench (i.e. all the judges) of the Supreme Court, in the Dissolution of Parliament Case in 2018. Their Lordships all agreed with a statement in a case decided in 1962 in another jurisdiction, which recognised the central importance of Courts of law for the People. Then Chief Justice HNJ Perera, Justice Prasanna Jayawardena, and all our judges agreed that “the Courts authority, possessed of neither purse nor the sword ultimately rests on sustained public confidence. Such faith must be nourished by the Courts complete detachment in fact and appearance from political forces in political settlements.” Justice Jayawardena graced our Supreme Court for a very short time. Holding office with professionalism and dignity, modest and unassuming as he was, he blazed a trail that linked to a meaningful past in judicial decision-making. He also contributed to and developed further, these important ideas on justice, in our legal system. We will miss him at this difficult and challenging time in our country. Prof. Savitri Goonesekere