By Rajpal Abeynayake(March 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Would it make a difference if Lakshman Kadirgarmar was not dead, and was running our country today —- as president, or as the numero uno, in whatever capacity, perhaps under terms of a new constitution, as Commander-in-chief?
I think it is a question that’s not too adulatory of the late foreign minister. It’s also not merely a rhetorical or abstract question. Rather the query can be one which draws us a picture of the current political dynamic that obtains in this country, and the alternatives that are available to us now. In other words it’s a highly useful poser.
That’s why what follows is not a hagiography of Kadirgarmar. We are seeing Sri Lanka’s contemporary political dynamic through the prism of Kadirgarmar’s competence. For Kadirgarmar, you could replace any name of a man who you think may be exactly like him - if you can find one that is...
If Kadirgarmar was the numero uno, he probably would not have laid such a premium on eschewing ‘Western influences’, but he certainly would not have kow-towed to the LTTE or its residual diaspora flotsam and jetsam. He would have known exactly how to tell them where to get off.
But it’s unlikely that Kadirgarmar would have encouraged somebody to smash-up MTV studios because they were sponsoring an Akon concert.
Plus, Kadirgarmar would, notwithstanding the current tinder box situation in which somebody from the international community just needs to keep a flame to the chord to light the gelignite that’s called WAR CRIMES PROBE, have possibly salvaged GSP +for us Sri Lankans.
One thing is, even though Kadirgarmar would have converted fully to Buddhism by now had he been alive, he would never have vocalised a Sinhala supremacist project.
He would have tackled the war crimes situation by pledging that he is addressing Tamil grievances such as still exist. He might call Ban-ki-Moon a sissy, but you can be sure that by now he would be patronising of Milliband, and not vilifying him.
He would tell Milliband that his is not the way things are done - - or were done by Kadirgarmar himself —- when he was president of the Oxford Union. This is not to say that every Sri Lankan leader should have been at the Oxford Union or should have a red handkerchief emblazoned on his lapel as Kadirgarmar did — one might say in place of a saataka....
But it is to say that there are ways in which the enemy can be engaged, and indeed those who are inimical to Sri Lankan interests and are calling incessantly for war crimes probes, are enemies of their Lankan state these days....
Enemies masquerading
I am sure Kadirgarmar would have allowed the west to patronise us more, and made the Western countries currently inimical to our interests, look as if they are stakeholders in the country and not unwelcome interlopers.
Make no mistake, Kadirgarmar would probably have seen them as being the most unwelcome, tiresome meddlers; enemies masquerading in friends’ garb.
But he would have still probably let them come to Sri Lanka, set up their little shops and workshops in Hambanthota, to build a bridge or two perhaps —- even an airport, if not in Palali, in some other location in the north...
Most of all, he would not have vocalised the language of exclusion or claimed that the raison de entre in governing the country is to define between patriot and traitor. He would also not have canonised Wimal Weerawansa - - unless that boy agreed to buck up his ideas and voice less exclusionary language himself.
He may have not touched Champika Ranawaka with a bargepole, even though possibly he would have been adored by Champika because he would have still not let the diaspora detritus do anything inimical to long- term Sri Lankan interests, either from within Sri Lankan shores or without.
Lakshman Kadirgarmar would have probably got away with all this not because he is Tamil but because he is a certain kind of a person.
Possibly he would not have cancelled the sanga sabha convention because he would have not considered himself a saviour of the nation but a man who has to run a nation that he saved - - presuming that he presided over the same war that the current administration presided over, and defeated Prabhakaran in this same type of war we saw to a finish in mid 2009.
I have a feeling Kadirgarmar would have been avuncular and patronising of the high priests of Buddhism and palavered them, but not read them the riot act. He would have won their fealty that way, and all would have been well, and there would have been no lingering bad aftertaste.
Having done all this he would have told the TNA that he is not a tribalist and with authority told them to take their Vadukoddai separatist project and get lost.
Turned their volume down
Of course the diaspora would have been chasing after him more than they are chasing after any of the Rajapaksas now.
But I think he would have got around Milliband and talked him into getting the British diaspora to turn their volume down. He would have probably talked the hind legs off that particular donkey, oh yes...
I think he would have balanced the in-built Sri Lankan Mahawamsa complex with more global initiative and claimed probably proudly, that he doesn’t know a word of Tamil even if he did.
I am sure he would have not gone for the Royal Thomian and sung Delilah. But he would most certainly not go to Jaffna and say that he is going to dismantle high security zones - - for all we know (refer Trincomalee LTTE bases issue in 2005...) he may have increased their numbers, but he would have probably engaged and neutralised the forces that are behind Ban-ki-Moon’s Sri Lankan panel, even if he would have had to go deep inside the Imperial Establishment to do so. (Now don’t ask me who or what the Imperial Establishment denotes!)
He would not have said mathata thitha. This reminds me.
When I accompanied him to Washington on his invitation as part of his media entourage, he had us put up at the Waldorf in D.C.
One of his men from the security detail came around and knocked on my room door the first night I was there.
The man gave me a parcel and said “boss wants you to have these.’’
Nonplussed, I opened the bag to find two bottles of whisky I hadn’t asked for.
I can’t say I returned them or drank them both, but I’m sure had Lakshman Kadirgarmar been alive he would have not gone out on a limb to Talibanise the country.
I think by now you get the drift.
I think what we need is a great nationalist who would do everything possible to safeguard the interests of this country against all enemies from within and without, but a nationalist without the Mahawansa swagger. To coin a term, we want a Pragnationalist - a man for all occasions such as Kadrigarmar, a pragmatic nationalist —— in the final analysis, a very patriotic nationalist, who is a pluralist at heart.
Now you see why this article was not about Kadrigarmar at all, but about ourselves and how we should be led. And remember, even Wimal Weerawansa wanted Kadrigarmer to be prime minister when Chandrika Kumaratunge overruled and appointed the well-known Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa instead.
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