{"id":120923,"date":"2021-12-05T18:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T01:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120923"},"modified":"2021-12-05T18:44:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T01:44:56","slug":"douglas-wickremaratne-is-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/05\/douglas-wickremaratne-is-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Wickremaratne is no more."},"content":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I first met Douglas Wickremaratne  somewhere in 1984\/85 when we were searching\nfor a speaker for a debate on the ethnic problem to be held at the University\nof Cambridge.  I was then working in\nCambridge and we Professor  Atula Ginige\nand a few others  were in charge of the\nSinhala side to make a presentation. We heard about Douglas and called on him\nin London to invite him to speak on occasion. Douglas  readily agreed and also suggested another\nspeaker Dr Cappie Kannangara, who was approached. Dr Cappie  too readily agreed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the  morning of\nthe day for the debate, It was a bad start as though Cappie came to Cambridge,\nhe  had to get back as his brother in law Denzil Peries had suddenly died\nat a restaurant meal. Denzil was the Editor of the South, a journal  that had recently unearthed with photographic\nevidence  that Indira Gandhi, the Prime\nMinister of India had established training camps for the LTTE cadres and this\nhad been given prominence in the Issues of The South.  I had to step in place of Cappie and we were\nworried  as our team looked weak without\nDr Cappie.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However at the debate Douglas excelled in speaking. His\nspeech was organized well and full of facts all rattled from memory without a\nscrap of paper. His was a store of knowledge of how the ethnic problem\ncommenced, full of historical detail of how facts had been misrepresented.\nThere was pin drop silence as he spoke. Douglas excelled in presenting facts-\nit was a flow that kept listeners mesmerised. \nIn  answering the questions raised,\nDouglas was on the ball with specific details of the carnage caused by LTTE\nattacks on unarmed civilians and even novice monks at Arantalawa. Douglas was\nalways the winner in arguments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That occasion \nbrought us close together and whenever we wanted to discuss the ethnic\nproblem we in South London always invited Douglas, who always came dead on\ntime, at his expense.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were occasions when he would telephone me in the\nmorning to join him in a few hours to be present in a Room at the Houses of\nParliament where members of parliament were being briefed by LTTE supporters. Douglas\nas usual  always won the day whenever he\nspoke. He was then actually doing the task that should have been done  by the High Commission for Sri Lanka which\nwas more in slumber than awake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas was in many years requested to be present at Geneva\nat the UNHCR Sessions and I am aware that he accomplished himself creditably\nwell on all those occasions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas was a close admirer of Ven. Elle Gunawsansa Thera . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His life was an innings well done, a glorious service to\nthe Motherland he dearly loved. He dedicated his life for the country in every\nrespect.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My condolences are for his wife and children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May life be short in Samsara for Douglas. It has to be so\nfor a personage who dedicated his time and energy, unreservedly,  for the cause of his Motherland <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 th December 2021 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne \u00a0 I first met Douglas Wickremaratne  somewhere in 1984\/85 when we were searching for a speaker for a debate on the ethnic problem to be held at the University of Cambridge.  I was then working in Cambridge and we Professor  Atula Ginige and a few others  were in charge of the Sinhala side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120923","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=120923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}