{"id":102663,"date":"2020-05-21T17:04:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T00:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102663"},"modified":"2020-05-21T17:05:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T00:05:45","slug":"national-heroes-memorial-statues-and-politicians-unworthy-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/21\/national-heroes-memorial-statues-and-politicians-unworthy-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"National heroes, memorial statues, and politicians unworthy of them"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Vinod\nMunasinghe\u2019s constructive feedback comments (\u2018A statue of Mandela will do no\nharm\u2019\/The Island\/May 18, 2020) on my opinion piece of Saturday (May 16) titled\n\u2018This is no laughing matter\u2019 provided the cue for this attempt to submit my\nideas, for reader scrutiny, about the subject hinted at in my title today, for\nwhat they are worth. I appreciate Munasinghe\u2019s suggestions. Sincere thanks! I\nstand corrected about the location of the International Crisis Group which, I\nerroneously wrote, was headquartered in South Africa. It is in Brussels,\nBelgium as you correctly point out. My sincere apologies to the readers for the\nerror. You have also given a better idea in outline about the history of formal\nand informal interactions between Sri Lanka and South Africa over a longer\nperiod of time than I suggested. But I believe that Munasinghe will agree with\nme that the SA High Commission\u2019s request for a Mandela statue to be erected in\nColombo needs to be interpreted in terms of its timing: May 19, 2020 marks the\n11th anniversary of the defeat of armed separatist terrorism; and it is also\nthe day that a memorial ceremony is held for the fallen war heroes; meanwhile\nthe Cabinet\u2019s seemimgly casual compliance with the superficially innocuous\nrequest needs to be commented on, too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nthe question implicit in my previous piece, i.e., \u2018Why a Mandela statue in\nColombo?\u2019, was not meant to detract in the least from the great admiration that\nI have for Nelson Mandela as a fierce anti-imperialist, heroic freedom-fighter,\nand great human being. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with the Sri Lankan\ngovernment taking a decision to install a Mandela statue in an appropriate\nplace in Sri Lanka so long as it doesn\u2019t do so at the behest of some coercive\noutside power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back\nto my subject. Munasinghe is right about Yasmin Sooka and Navaneetham Pillai\nnot being representative of the South African government. Of course, he doesn\u2019t\nsay that I think they are. My point is that Sri Lanka is being baited,\nparticularly at UNHRC, Geneva, for alleged perpetration of war crimes, human\nrights abuses, non-observance of democratic norms in domestic politics, and the\nwhole caboodle of similar offences that the country could be falsely imagined\nto have committed; this makes us wonder whether the powers that be are using\ninternational civil servants (like Sooka and Pillai who seem to be possessed by\nsome inexplicable personal grudge against the majority ethnic Sinhalese\ncommunity) as a cat\u2019s paw in persecuting the whole Sri Lankan people for applying\npressure on its nationalist political leaders, in pursuit of their own\ngeopolitical ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally,\nthe sovereign people of Sri Lanka who would resent their own civil servants to\nlord it over them, reject with the deepest contempt the current undue advances\nof international civil servants. By allowing them to act in an imperious manner\ntowards Sri Lanka, these global powers are violating the collective human\nrights of all Sri Lankans, while compounding their already artificially\ncomplicated internal problems, rendering them even more intractable.\nInternational nosy-parkers\u2019 unsolicited interventions turned to cases of brazen\ninterference in Sri Lanka\u2019s civil disputes during the Yahapalanaya. The Western\nimperialist powers (aka international community, neoliberalists, neocons,\nchampions of globalization, and so on) try to manipulate internal politics in\nSri Lanka under the pretext of protecting the minorities from the alleged\nmajoritarianism of the Sinhalese, something that these selfish foreign powers\ndo in  their own national interest back home. Nationalism is good for\nthose imperialist powers,it seems, but when the Sinhalese majority practice\nnationalism (embracing all Sri Lankans as one nation), they denounce it as\nracism, and use that bogus criticism to suppress and persecute the\nSinhalese.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthis theme is incidental to the basic point that Munasinghe sets out to\nenlighten us on in his response to my piece. He touches on what could be called\na tradition of delaying the setting up of statues in memory of national heroes\nworthy of such honour. Munasinghe says that \u2018Why a Mandela statue in Colombo?\u2019\nis a good question because …..Sri Lanka has been tardy in erecting statues\nof people, who contributed to the country’s liberation from colonial\noppression. For example, CWW Kannangara, the father of free education, in this\ncountry, did not have a statue erected to him, until 1989, 20 after his demise.\nIt stands in front of the Matugama auditorium\u201d. I agree. Petty personal\npolitics, in my own opinion, is at the root of this perennial anomaly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually,\na more recent instance of the same phenomenon was at the back of my mind when I\nstarted writing about the proposed Mandela statue in Colombo: the case of the\nLakshman Kadirgamar statue. It took eight years after his assassination for a\nstatue of Lakshman Kadirgamar to be erected! He was an independent minded\npatriot but an unwilling politician who put himself in the firing line in the\nliteral sense, as it were, out of love of his nation\/country and the sincerity\nof his commitment to the establishment of national unity. In that, he stood in\nstark contrast to most average politicians who have or demonstrate little\nunderstanding of the real meaning of nation or national unity, and care less\nabout whether these terms mean anything to the voters whose support they woo\nusing those terms exclusively as rousing slogans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\napparent sloppiness of attention with which the Cabinet of Ministers seemed to\nhave decided the matter about the Mandela statue made me a little angry. It\nincidentally reminded me of the shabby treatment that the late Kadirgamar was\nsubjected to by some of his closest political allies, both in life and in\ndeath, with a single honourable exception, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nIsland editorial under the title \u2018An overdue honour for Kadir\u2019 on August 12, 2013\n– the day that the Lakshman Kadirgamar statue was unveiled in the premises of\nLakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies\nat Horton Place, Colombo on his eighth death anniversary after it had been\nstored away in a crate for a number of years – opened thus: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lakshman Kadirgamar, one of Sri Lanka\u2019s illustrious sons, is\nhonoured posthumously today. His statue which was lying in a crate for years in\nthe backyard of an institution named after him has been taken out, dusted and\ninstalled at long last\u2014eight years after his untimely demise. Better late than\nnever! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oxford honoured its outstanding alumnus , Kadirgamar, while he\nwas alive. His portrait  was unveiled at the Oxford Union on March 18,\n2005 a few months before his tragic end. It was indeed a very rare honour. He\nwas the Treasurer and President of the union in 1958 and 1959 respectively.\nThat is the way great men and women should be honoured\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island editorial of August 12, 2013 also stated: \u2018It is\nheartening that the Kadirgamar statue has come up where it should be. But,\nthere is no need for statues to perpetuate the memory of Kadir, who laid down\nhis life for this country. With or without memorials, he continues to live in\nthe heart of every right thinking, grateful Sri Lankan, who appreciated his\nselfless service to the nation. The erection of his statue will only serve to\nprove that Sri Lanka is not a land of ingrates\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island editor paid an even more moving tribute on the day of\nKadirgamar\u2019s funeral, August 15, 2005: \u2018Farewell to an uncrowned king\u2019, wherein\nhe made this biting comment on the shamelessness of the countries that\nsupported the LTTE that assassinated Kadir:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The diplomats of\nthe countries, where the LTTE is allowed to operate need no clothes, when they\npay their respects to Kadir. They can file past his coffin, stark naked. For,\nthey have proved they have no sense of shame.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of the Kadirgamar statue\/s is related by his daughter\nAjita Kadirgamar in her biography of her late father titled \u2018The Cake that was\nBaked at Home:  Snapshots of the Man\u2019s Life by His Daughter\u2019 (Vijita Yapa,\nColombo, August 2015). This is found in the Chapter titled \u2018A Tale of Two\nStatues\u2019 (pp. 324-333). She has some extracts from the editorial of The Island\nof August 12, 2013 mentioned above including what I have quoted above (except\nthe last bit from the editorial written on August 15, 2005 the day of the\nfuneral).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of the Kadirgamar statue is a bit complicated. However,\nit has nothing to do with Kadirgamar himself or his unique legacy to the\nnation. The delay in erecting a statue in his honour was neither caused by\nminor issues of a personal\/family nature resulting from certain disagreements\nbetween his surviving children on the one hand and his widow on the\nother,  but by the determined obstructions placed by his sneaky unworthy\nrivals who would have been beneath his notice when he was alive; reading the\naccount, one feels that this factor was almost entirely responsible for the\ninordinate delay.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Ajita Kadirgamar\u2019s account one can guess that Kadir\u2019s\nunworthy successor put dampeners on the statue erection project. She writes: .\n\u2018Three years after LK\u2019s death, there was still no decision where the statue\nshould be erected\u2019. She   quotes the following from Dr U. Pethiyagoda\nwriting to The Island on April 11, 2013: \u2018His statue must surely be smiling to\nitself as it languishes in a box at the institution, which however is not shy\nto blandish his illustrious name!\u2019 She goes on to extract this from Namini\nWijedasa\/transcurrent.com<\/a> on \u2018Foreign\nMinister Bogollagama\u2019s antics and escapades\u2019, August 24, 2008: \u2018At one cabinet\nmeeting, the question of where the Lakshman Kadirgamar memorial statue should\nbe installed arose. The foreign ministry has been given the task of finding a\nsuitable permanent address for the statue. Bogollagama was absent. President\nRajapaksa asked Deputy Minister Hussein Bhaila where the statue would\neventually be erected. Bhaila said he could not tell as Bogollagama was not in\nSri Lanka. It will take another ten years for him to get back\u201d, Rajapaksa had\nreportedly said angrily. As acting minister, you must make a decision. If you\ncan\u2019t take decisions in such a manner, I will have to appoint somebody else to\nyour place\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ajita Kadirgamar, among many who commented on \u2018the\npredicament\u2019 was former Sri Lankan Ambassador in Doha Satharatilaka Banda\nAtugoda, who in 2012 stated: \u2018A day may also come when it will dawn in the\nconscience of the authorities responsible, petty-partisan-selfish-egoistic\nattitudes should be erased from their minds, when it comes to honouring\nnational patriots like Lakshman Kadirgamar, by deciding to place his statue in\nthe premises of this Institute, which is gathering dust at present.\u2019 I think\nAtugoda hit the nail on the head in this case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the statue was unveiled by the then president Mahinda\nRajapaksa in the Kadirgamar Institute premises at Horton Place on the late\nleader\u2019s eighth death anniversary of August 12, 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What upset me about the SA High Commission\u2019s request for a Nelson\nMandela statue in Colombo and the ministers\u2019 easy-going accommodation of it\napparently without considering the circumstances, if any, that make it \nsomething imperative in the national interest was that it immediately made me\nwonder whether the era of politicians who allow themselves to be blinded\nby  \u2018petty-partisan-selfish-egoistic attitudes\u2019 is still not\nover.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Vinod Munasinghe\u2019s constructive feedback comments (\u2018A statue of Mandela will do no harm\u2019\/The Island\/May 18, 2020) on my opinion piece of Saturday (May 16) titled \u2018This is no laughing matter\u2019 provided the cue for this attempt to submit my ideas, for reader scrutiny, about the subject hinted at in my title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}