5 September 2018 12:00 am
The Dudley Senanayake foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung are pleased to announce that the Dudley Senanayake memorial oration this year will be held on September 14, 2018 at 5.15 pm in the BCIS Hall at the BMICH. The orator will be Gordon Mackay, the Acting Secretary General of Liberal International and a former member of the South African parliament from 2014 to 2018, where he served as a senior member of the shadow cabinet as shadow energy minister. Gordon Mackay is famed as a doer, a thinker and a good orator who has achieved great heights in the interests of his country.
He was instrumental in blocking the highly contentious nuclear deal, promoting greater integration of renewable into South Africa’s energy mix and refining an energy policy to adjust to the increasing decentralization of electricity production. He is also one of only three MPs deployed by his party to lead policy decisions with leading banks. Institutional investors and international governmental organizations.
Gordon was appointed Acting Secretary General of Liberal International which is the global federation of liberal political parties in January 2018. This is a wide network which includes seven European Prime Ministers, two African Presidents, the Canadian PM, large number of finance and energy ministers and leaders of the opposition. As a part of his mission, Gordon has worked with the political leadership of Liberal International to introduce a strong focus on climate change and sustainability. He is also working closely with member parties to redefine liberalism for the 21st century with a special focus on the liberal position on institutional and race based inequality. His work experience before entering parliament was working for UNICEF in New York in the office of emergency programmes with a specific focus on peace building and recovery in post conflict settings. Among his many qualifications are a masters degree in International Studies from the University of London, an honours degree in Development economics from the university of Johannesburg, post graduate diploma in Humanitarian Studies from the School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool and professional qualifications in Energy Economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
Dudley Senanayake memorial oration this year will be held on September 14, 2018 at 5.15 pm in the BCIS Hall at the BMICH.
Both the Dudley Senanayake foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung are honoured that a scholar of such eminence with wide political experience and an enviable knowledge of liberalism has agreed to deliver the Dudley Senanayake memorial oration this year. Last year, the distinguished orator was Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe. The chosen date coincides with the 60th anniversary of the worldwide work of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung which is on the same day as the lecture this year.
The resident representative of the Stiftung is Sagarika Delgoda. The chairman of the Dudley Senanayake foundation is Minister D.M. Swaminathan. The directors of the foundation are Ministers John Amaratunge, Rauff Hakeem, Sarath Amunugama, State Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, Bradman Weerakoon, Rukman Senanayake, Ranil Wijesinghe, Ilika Karunaratne, Dr. Channa Ranasinghe,Rohan Edirisinghe, Jith Pieris, Swarna Amaratunge and Shalini Senanayake is the Honourary Secretary to the Foundation.