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carried Lanka’s dignity and honour on his shoulders The sound of the bullet that felled Lakshman Kadirgamar echoed right round the world, drawing condemnation from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan down to members of all communities in Sri Lanka. His death touched hearts and minds of all sectors of Sri Lankan society and the international community. I can vouch for this from responses of my Australian and Indonesian counterparts, who were most forthright in condemning the assassination of yet another Sri Lankan leader. Lakshman Kadirgamar, like most other Sri Lankan leaders assassinated in recent times, shared one notable common feature; they were all opposed to the LTTE. Even former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was seen by the LTTE as a threat to its political future and he was targeted by a suicide bomber who was trained, psyched and driven to it by the fanaticism of LTTE violence. The LTTE has always operated on the principle that there cannot be two Tigers in the same mountain. This is the meaning behind its claim to be “the sole representative of the Tamils”. It is this dogged belief that has led to the elimination of the Tamil and the Sinhala leadership since it launched its killings in 1975 with the cold-blooded assassination of Alfred Duraiyappah. I focus on this point because Lakshman Kadirgamar was fully aware of the dangers of crossing the path of the LTTE. He displayed a remarkable courage knowing that his vision and mission had made him the No. 1 target of the LTTE. Often when I came down to Colombo, either from Canberra or Jakarta, I never failed to meet him. He always had time for me. Our long conversations invariably ended up by my saying; “Sir, please take care. I know the LTTE. They have never spared anyone who opposed them seriously”. He in return would tell me; “You take care yourself. You are also in that list as I am”. Tragically, pro-LTTE Tamils saw him as their political enemy siding with the Sinhala “chauvinists”. That is a common cliché used to denigrate anyone who did not toe the LTTE line. But those who knew him and those who had known him through his actions and words, will guarantee that he had an independent mind of his own; committed to liberalism, pluralism, democracy, rule of law and the preservation of fundamental rights that would uphold the dignity of all citizens of Sri Lanka. A mind encompassing such a broad vision could not be confined to the rights of any one community. His humanity and intellect reached out to embrace all communities. It is on these issues that he differed fundamentally from the politics of the LTTE. He was firmly convinced and greatly saddened that the LTTE had destroyed the culture, the values and dignity of the Tamil people. His crusade against the LTTE was for the Tamil people, for the whole nation and for human dignity and values. It was in 1998, during informal discussions at gatherings in remote villages off Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa and Ampara, I realized the enormous adoration and respect people have for Lakshman Kadirgamar. I was amazed how his personality reached such distant places when he had never visited them. That was the aura of this great son of mother Lanka. His upbringing, his education, both in Sri Lanka and at Oxford, his circle of friends were all attuned to tolerant multiculturalism. The values and principles he imbibed from these sources laid the foundation for his political philosophy and guided him throughout his career. Of course, he had the intellectual capacity and the verbal skills to articulate those principles and values persuasively. He gained the respect of the international community and his own compatriots because of his commitment to unswerving principles of liberal democracy. He applied these principles to analyze and define the political crisis facing the nation. In his estimation, political ghettoes and enclaves were anathema to him. He was an internationalist with a nationalist perspective. Defining national interest within the parameters of globally accepted principles of civil society was his forte. His vision was to take Sri Lanka into the 21st century as a respected member of the global community. One diplomat told me, that he is one of the few Asian foreign ministers who could carry his nation on his shoulders with dignity and honour. He could shine in any forum matching the skills of the best of the best. It was not easy to win his confidence as I discovered initially. But once you convinced him of your sincerity and commitment to principles, he would stick with you through thick and thin. I remember vividly, that in 2000 I was informed by his then Security Coordinator, late Col. Daya Rajasinghe that certain high officials in the Military and the Government were carrying out a vicious defamation campaign against me and the minister was not well disposed towards me. I requested him to obtain an appointment for me to see the minister as early as possible. One week later, as there was no response, I called Col. Daya Rajasinghe, about my appointment and he said that the minister’s mind had been poisoned to such an extent that he was not prepared to see me. This made me more determined to clear my name and my honour with the minister. I then requested an appointment with Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, whom I knew well. After I explained my request for an appointment with Minister Kadirgamar who was contacted over the phone, it was Minister Fernandopulle’s persuasive skill that got me a 10-minute interview. I went for 10 minutes and showed documentary proof of my care for human rights and action taken to protect the interests of the Jaffna people, even to the extent of antagonizing powerful forces. When I got up to leave after 10 minutes, he said, tell me the whole story and show me all the documents. After a discussion that went beyond one hour he said, “I wish I had met you before and had access to all what you had shown; now I know why so many are fearful and jealous of you”. During an interview with the President on the eve of my retirement on January 30, 2001, I was told that she would appoint me as High Commissioner to Australia subject to concurrence by Minister Kadirgamar and when I met Minister Kadirgamar one week later, he told me he could not have got a better person. Amidst false propaganda by the LTTE and their supporters he groomed me well for the appointment as Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia. I believe that the four years I worked in Australia, I have proved to be a worthy protege of this illustrious man. Kadirgamar alive was a prince of peace, champion of democracy, equality and human rights and crusader against terrorism. Kadirgamar dead will be a more potent force against those who tried to destroy his ideals and his goals and will submerge the proponents of this heinous crime in a deluge. The only way we who loved and admired him could honour this great man is by keeping the fire he lit for peace, equality, democracy and human rights glow brighter in the years to come and stand fearlessly against terrorism. Let us all unite in this hour of national tragedy, to take a path that is different to what we have known todate, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, on whose behalf, we need to say, “Never Again”. This applies also to those who lead by terror, using other people’s children as human bombs, while their own children and their kith and kin, live comfortably and in safe havens. It is only united we can stand. Divided we will fall. And “it is only when the power of love, takes over the love for power, will there be peace”! May he attain Nibbana! |
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