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Oxford Uni launches Kadirgamar Fund to help Asian students
View(s):Sir Adam Roberts’s book on the late Sri Lankan foreign minister launched in Islamabad and New Delhi
Balliol College, one of the largest and the oldest of the OxfordUniversity colleges — established in 1263 (750 years ago) — this week launched the Lakshman Kadirgamar Fund in memory of the late Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka to provide assistance for Asian students at Balliol.
Suganthie Kadirgamar being received by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee when she came to present him with a copy of the book.
Mr. Kadirgamar, whose 81st birth anniversary falls next Friday (April 12), was a post-graduate law student who did his thesis in Roman Dutch Law and played cricket for the College. He also became the President of the famed Oxford Union in 1959 and a distinguished Honorary Fellow of Balliol College. As a barrister he practised in the Privy Council in Britain and later in the Sri Lankan courts.
His portrait was unveiled at the Oxford Union in 2005, the year he was assassinated by the LTTE.
Judy Longworth, Development Director of Balliol College, announced this week that donations to the Fund would be used in conjunction with those from other funds, such as the Stuart Fund, which has a particular focus on the countries of South Asia, including Sri Lanka.
She said that prospective donors to the Lakshman Kadirgamar Fund could send in their cheques made payable to ‘Balliol College’ and marked for her attention (judy.longworth@balliol.ox.ac.uk) with a brief mention that it is for the fund. More information is available at http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/trust-funds.
Meanwhile, the book ‘Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror – Lakshman Kadirgamar on the Foundations of International Order’ edited by Sir Adam Roberts, President of the British Academy, and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford (I.B. Taurus publishers, GBP 54.50) was launched in New Delhi recently. It was earlier launched in Oxford, and London, including the Inner Temple, one of the more famous Inns of Court in the United Kingdom, and also in Islamabad.
The publication consists of contributions by some of the late Minister’s contemporaries and eleven documents written and speeches made by him between 1964 and 2004.
Copies of the book were also presented to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi.
A recent review of the book in Oxford Today refers to a speech made by the late Mr. Kadirgamar at Chatham House, London where he characterised the approaches to international terrorism as “Nelsonian Blind Eye vs. Enlightened Self-Interest” and declared himself tired of “messages of condolences, sympathy and succour” which to him sounded “routine, repetitive and hollow” as bombs exploded and nothing was done (by the West to stop the terrorists in Sri Lanka.
The review states that what comes across throughout this book is the “absolute determination of an honourable man to do his duty” using his gifts of eloquence and rational thought to warn the free world about threats to its freedom.
“It is absolutely no good for any country to say ‘it is not our problem, thank heaven, it is somebody else’s problem’, he sagely warned. “You can’t say that any more. It is eminently a matter of one’s self-interest… the terrorist who was sitting on somebody else’s doorstep yesterday could be on our door step tomorrow.”
“Fortunately, he did more than just warn during his time as Foreign Minister – taking many practical steps to deal with the terrorist threat, both at home and abroad – and, happily, Sri Lanka’s internal wars now appear to be over. It’s just saddening that this book serves as a reminder that Kadirgamar’s death deprived his country of a man of courage, clarity of thought and wise counsel, who could have contributed much to the current peace.”
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