{"id":40786,"date":"2015-01-11T15:45:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T21:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=40786"},"modified":"2015-01-11T18:23:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T01:23:22","slug":"death-of-sl-gunasekera-a-colossal-loss-to-the-country-an-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/01\/11\/death-of-sl-gunasekera-a-colossal-loss-to-the-country-an-appreciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of SL Gunasekera \u2013 a colossal loss to the country – An Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The writer had worked numerous times with the Great SL Gunasekera, and takes pride identifying himself as a close friend of SL.<\/span><\/p>\n

For over 30 years SL was engaged in the struggle against Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. Many times he was the lone voice against Tamil terrorism, especially in the legal scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL wrote vigorously in multiple journals and attended meetings and forums. He represented the country at Thimpu Talks, on behalf of all peoples of Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the midst of the Tamil war, SL received death threats. He knew he would not receive protection from security forces; yet he continued his self -styled struggle against separatism.<\/span><\/p>\n

A hallmark in SL\u2019s struggle is that he constantly fought to preserve the unitary status of mother Lanka; without fanfare.<\/span><\/p>\n

A man of steel, SL did not deviate an atom from his strong beliefs and convictions. No personal favours afforded to him could have persuaded him otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

An unassuming man, SL was never arrogant or uppish. SL moved freely among people from all walks of life, especially the common man. SL had a passion to closely associate with the Buddhist clergy.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a lawyer, SL acted for people who faced injustice and unfairness. He represented many victims of Tamil Tiger atrocities including armed services personnel. In such cases, he acted free of charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

A brilliant Commercial lawyer; on social and justice issues, SL was a Humanitarian lawyer. His presence in the Court room was a beacon of light. He respected the judiciary, but was never scared to say what he had to. Judges showed respect to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL travelled far and wide in Sri Lanka. He went to remote corners of the north and east and met Sinhalese villagers who were subjected to Tamil Tiger terrorism. SL met villagers who were persecuted by the Tamil Tigers. He frequently travelled to areas such as Aranthalawa, Gonagala, Weli Oya, Padavi-Sri Pura and Janka Pura.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL met with Buddhist men who had their pregnant wives killed by the Tamil Tigers after slit-opening their bellies; he met Buddhist parents whose infants were smashed on floor after grabbing them from their breast feeding mothers; he met Buddhists and Muslims who saw how their priests were cold-bloodedly murdered by the Tamil Tigers inside places of worship.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL met people from all 3 nationalities that encountered crimes inflicted upon them by the Tamil Tigers \u2013 the most brutal and heinous terrorist group ever. SL met victims of suicide bombings, rape, bus and train bombings.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL on his own could not do much for these unfortunate people (Thawalma Foundation, which he was a member has done remarkable work in the threatened villages), he stood tall with them. He intently listened to them and after he returned to Colombo, gave them a voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rural people identified SL as a simple, truthful and a trustworthy man.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, SL had a slip and fall injury in his house. He was in a coma for many months. SL\u2019s wife, Nimal, looked after him like her two eyes. A remarkable lady of unprecedented courage, Nimal told the writer when he visted the sick SL late last year that she would care for SL for the rest of her life; if she had to sell family silver to safeguard this Great Sri Lankan she would gladly do so. Such was the pride and nobility of this family, who did not ask for financial contributions from anyone outside. The meritorious physician and family friend, Dr Anula Wijesundera was there for SL until his demise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why SL is Great?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

SL was fearless, and fought with people in the highest echelons. In most battles – legal or not, SL came out the winner. SL had direct confrontation with the country\u2019s heads of states. As SL did not expect favours from them, SL bravely and courageously fought for his causes. Even his enemies respected him.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL was a man who never called a spade a diamond or clubs. He always called them a spade.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013 SL worked tirelessly hard to work towards the abolishment of the 13th amendment. Being a visionary, SL saw that the 13th amendment is a \u2018White Elephant\u2019 of unimaginable proportion. He feared it will grow into such gigantic size, one day it would \u2018destroy\u2019 the whole of Sri Lanka. SL stressed that Sri Lanka should be brave to abolish the 13th amendment; it will be good for the country \u2013 for all its peoples. He thought the political leadership should be bold enough to explain the evils of the 13th amendment to people especially to minorities and India.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL showed the massive social and economic advantages for the country should the 13th amendment be abolished. Today we allocate Rs 20 billion (or more?) a year, just to maintain the provincial council system. What is the gain to the country in return? \u00a0Absolutely nothing. Provincial councils have become a seed bed for corrupt politics, violence, drug deals and many other social ills.<\/span><\/p>\n

A big way of paying respect and gratitude to SL would be to agree to abolish the 13th amendment. At a time when the country is experiencing unprecedented political change, to march forward, the country must have a serious discourse about abolishing the 13th amendment. Ordinary people should express their state of mind to the government and politicians. It is a good thing to trim down the enormous powers of the Presidency by way of Constitutional change, it is equally good if legislatures \u2013 especially Tamil, could agree to abolish the 13th amendments (provincial councils) \u2013 this will be the best way forward for a unitary Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka flourished as one nation under the pre-1978 Constitution. It is time that we go back to same. All peoples \u2013 Sinhalese, \u00a0Tamils and Muslims would immensely benefitted if Sri Lanka has a strong central government, with Village Councils (Pradeshiya Sabhas) \u00a0looking after \u00a0the people\u2019s needs at grass root levels. Sri Lanka is not India; it is too tiny to be managed by so many layers of governments, such as now. It is one of the most governed states in the world \u2013 thus the huge \u00a0economic drain and other burden on the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though born to a Catholic family SL lived an agnostic. He was a citizen at large – a colossal figure of mother Sri Lanka. The whole nation can be immensely proud that it produced such a unique, gigantic \u00a0figure.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage The writer had worked numerous times with the Great SL Gunasekera, and takes pride identifying himself as a close friend of SL. For over 30 years SL was engaged in the struggle against Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. Many times he was the lone voice against Tamil terrorism, especially in the legal scene. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage","category-sri-lanka-support-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40786","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=40786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}