Sunday Times 2
Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar
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Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar
As we near the end of July, I cannot help musing that next month will mark 15 years since Lakshman Kadirgamar, one of the most distinguished and able persons to fulfil the role of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister was cruelly assassinated by the LTTE on August 12, 2005 in his own house in Bullers Lane in Colombo 7.
Lakshman Kadirgamar was a person who did not enter politics for personal aggrandisement. He was someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth, scion of an old and well established family and son of well-known lawyer Sam Kadirgamar Sr. He was a prominent lawyer in his own right with a brilliant academic background at Trinity College, the Ceylon University and Oxford University. He was someone who took to politics, not to make money but because he felt drawn to it by the belief that he could use his talents and position to better the lives of his fellow citizens.
And I could not help remembering him this weekend as we in this country head for yet another vital election next month, an election that might see the two major parties that have dominated this country for over six decades disintegrate into oblivion. The UNP faces destruction as a result of unnecessary internecine infighting while the SLFP could well disintegrate due to the actions of a leader who is intellectually and morally incapable of behaving like a statesman.
Will those who manage to get elected and then find the parties to which they belonged dead and dismembered, seek to ingratiate themselves with the leaders of the newly emerged parties and creep into power? Will the prime minister allow himself to be “head hunted” for the post of SLFP leader, accepting as senior party members the treacherous former president and those who attacked him when he was down? Will the SJB become the dominant force in the opposition after the election – and then allow the ageing and ineffective UNP leader and his Bond-like sidekick to become part of the telephone party?
This August 5 election is one where the ruling party is seeking a two-thirds majority to “get things done efficiently” and drastically change the way democracy will function in our country. Many of our citizens who love this country are wary of giving the ruling party such a majority because they do want good and efficient government — but with a system of checks and balances that will prevent our nation disintegrating into a military dictatorship.
With these thoughts in mind, I felt it prudent to remind myself of the words of Lakshman Kadirgamar, when he spoke in parliament about five years before his death.
He said: “We must never forget that people are always looking at us and saying what are the legislators from all sides of the house whom we sent to Parliament, doing? Ultimately the people are not going to be fooled. Surely they will rightly say that these people are behaving irresponsibly. People expect all of us to put our heads together and hammer out compromises. If we fail, we fail the Nation and the people who entrusted us with the responsibility of working for them.”
I also recall the time when he advised some quarrelling politicians, “We must seek to bring ourselves back on to the rails of decent conduct.”
When I look at the candidates who are now asking us citizens to vote for them, I cannot help thinking to myself that there is a dearth of enlightened leaders in this group of “Chandha Apekshakayas” now vying for seats in parliament. I cannot see any leaders in the wings who can rise above parochial interests and put the welfare of our citizens above their own interests. We sadly see in this list of candidates so many politicians known to be corrupt — folk who started their political life with nothing and now strut the landscape with assets much greater than what they could have earned by legitimate means.
I cannot help recalling the speech made by Lakshman Kadirgamar at the felicitation dinner organised for our national cricket team, captained then by Marvan Atapattu, during their tour of England in 2004.
That evening he — a cricketer of no mean repute who captained the Trinity First XI in 1950 — drew a comparison between politicians and cricketers. I cannot do better today than quoting his very words:
“Politicians and cricketers” he explained “are superficially similar, yet very different. Both groups are wooed by the cruel and fickle public, who woo them today and reject them tomorrow. Cricketers, however, work hard — while politicians only pretend to do so. Cricketers are disciplined whereas discipline is a word unknown to politicians in any language. Cricketers risk their own limbs in the heat of honourable play; politicians encourage others to risk their limbs and lives in pursuit of fruitless causes while they remain secure in the safety of the pavilion. Cricketers deserve the rewards they get but the people get the politicians they deserve. Cricketers retire young while politicians try to go on forever. Our cricketers unite the country while our politicians try to divide it. Cricketers accept the umpire’s verdict even if they disagree with it while politicians who disagree with an umpire usually handle the situation by getting the umpire transferred. Cricketers stick to their team through victory and defeat while politicians in a losing team think nothing of crossing over and joining the winning team. Clearly, ladies and gentlemen, cricketers are the better breed.”