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My association with the late Dr. A.C.S. Hameed goes back a long time. It goes back to a period prior to my entry into active politics. When I served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Dr. A.C.S. Hameed, as Minister of Higher Education, was in charge of the entire university system of the country.

This was, without question, the most turbulent period in the history of universities in our land. My predecessor in the office of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo, the late Prof. Stanley Wijesundera, was brutally gunned down in his own office. I was in the building at that time and I will never forget the spectacle, which I witnessed. The late Prof. Wijesundera, clutching his tie, had been shot through the head. Prof. Stanley Wijesundera was not the only Vice-Chancellor who paid the supreme price at that time. Prof. Patuwatuvitharana, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, was also killed.

At that time, it meant a great deal to us, to all the Vice-Chancellors, to have at the helm of affairs with regard to higher education in the country; a man of the understanding of the late Dr. Shahul Hameed. I am personally aware that at one o’clock in the morning if a Vice-Chancellor wished to speak to him on the telephone, he would come to the telephone. His concern, the intensity and the continuity of involvement, which he showed in the affairs of our universities during that unprecedentedly difficult period, gave us all courage to go on. Dr. Hameed instilled in us confidence and that is what kept the university system alive during those turbulent moments.

Because of the intimacy of my association with Dr. Hameed and my knowledge of his personal qualities, I would like on this occasion to mention not about Dr. Hameed, the parliamentarian with 38 years of experience, the Foreign Minister who held that post for 13 years or the Chairman of the UNP. I would prefer instead, to focus upon the personal qualities and attributes of the late Dr. A.C.S. Hameed, qualities, which made him a truly unique human being.

The late Shahul Hameed was, above all, a man of great gentleness and compassion. He was a true friend. He talked and he walked with characteristic gentleness, which pervaded the entirety of his personality. His word was his bond: these are qualities, which he upheld in all aspects of his life, and politics was certainly no exception.

There was also one other guiding principle, which illuminated the whole of Dr. Hameed’s political career. He believed, in the fibre of his being that political power, if it is to be justified, must be applied towards purposes, which are beneficial to the community at large. He had no use whatever for the trappings of political power. He was interested in the substance.

In one of his last conversations with me, the late Dr. A.C.S. Hameed said that if no solution to the ethnic problem is in sight, if we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, he has no wish to contest the next general elections. He realized full well, that no problem in this country can be solved in a durable manner unless a viable resolution of the ethnic conflict in this land is achieved in the near future. So deep, so strong was his conviction on this point that he was quite prepared to leave his political career and to go into retirement if this objective continued to elude us.

Dr. A.C.S. Hameed throughout the 38 years of active political life represented a constituency, the majority of whose voters are Sinhalese. It is the Sinhala people who chose the late Dr. Hameed as their representative. The late Dr. Hameed gave no place to ethnicity in his political thinking. He made no divisions among different segments of the population of our country. He was equally devoted to the wellbeing of all sections of our people. I am personally aware that on one occasion when a group of Buddhists were looking for a Seema Malakaya on the banks of the Mahaweli river, it was the late Dr. Hameed who took the initiative not only in securing that land for this purpose, but also raising a considerable part of the money that was required for the construction of the Seema Malakaya.

When he was in California on one occasion on his return from New York where he had attended the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he came across a bar which had been called the “Buddha Bar”. He was indefatigable in the agitation campaign, which he launched on that occasion to ensure that a change was made with regard to the name of the bar. He was a living example to the politicians of our time, to rise above ethnicity and to work towards a conception of national identity which is truly comprehensive and is able to embrace within its scope the aspirations of all the people who inhabit this Island.

If I were asked to identify his most significant single achievement in the field of foreign relations, I would say that that achievement consisted of the depth of his commitment to institution building in the international sphere and I think the best example of that is the creative and imaginative role which he played with regard to the Non-Aligned Movement. The Non-Aligned Movement at that time was in the process of formation. It had not acquired a complete identity of its own and it is against that backdrop that the statement by the previous President, J.R. Jayewardene in 1979 takes on a particularly important meaning. President J.R. Jayewardene while handing over the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1979, to Fidel Castro of Cuba in Havana, specifically singled out his Foreign Minister, A.C.S. Hameed for the excellence of the contribution which had been made. I think these achievements came naturally to him for one reason.

I would identify that basic reason of Dr. Hameed’s deep knowledge of human nature, the well springs of human motivation. That is why he was the negotiator par excellence. He understood why the other party was approaching the problem in a different way. He understood the different nuances and gradations pervading the stand taken by the other side. He realized that, in negotiation, one single method would not always work. Some people can be coaxed and cajoled, some people need the carrot, other people the stick. Yet others need a combination of these methods. The late Dr. Hameed had a certain resilience of mind, which enabled him to use the proper modalities and the proper instruments on a particular occasion. He would decide when to take a problem head on and when to launch a frontal attack on a problem. He would also decide when to skirt the problem. That is part of the finesse, which pervaded the personality of the late Dr. Hameed and that is why he stood out as an outstanding negotiator.

On this occasion, I must pay a tribute to the continuity and the excellence of the work done by the late Dr. Shahul Hameed as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.

In particular, the late Dr. Shahul Hameed was active in informal fora outside the official deliberations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms.

One of the areas in which these informal deliberations were of particular value related the unit of devolution in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. This was not merely a matter between the majority community and the minority community. It had a separate dimension insofar as it involved the reconciliation of Tamil and Muslim interests in the Eastern Province. The late Dr. Shahul Hameed played a very critical role in that area.

Dr. Hameed, towards the latter part of his life, became very reflective. He had the intellectual capacity to do so. There is not the slightest vestige of doubt about it. He began to reflect in detached manner about men and matters, about the whole pageant of history, which he had seen unfold throughout his political career. Some of his reflections are embodied in certain works that he prepared during that period, which are well worth reading. I refer in particular to the little book The Owl and the Lotus, which consists of a series of parables. These were presented to the public in a seemingly light-hearted fashion. There was no pedantry. There was nothing heavy about the manner of treatment of people and life that he adopted in those books. But there is very deep truth about human nature that is embodied in that little book, The Owl and the Lotus. The approach is anecdotal. I think that these parables reflect the epitome of wisdom which the late Dr. Shahul Hameed had garnered from the diversity of experiences that he had and in the many roles that he played in the public life of our country.