BY NEVILLE DE SILVA

It was the Golden Jubilee of LAWASIA. For four days in August this august body consisting of some of Asia’s legal glitterati met at the BMICH to celebrate the anniversary. It was indeed a memorable occasion.

But the opening was somewhat marred by faux pas. Overawed perhaps by the importance of the occasion and perhaps the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena, the chairman of LAWASIA 2016 performed a rather unusual role of soothsayer. He forecast that Sirisena would be Sri Lanka’s future Nelson Mandela.

Addressing President Sirisena in his opening speech Jayasuriya said this. “It is my belief that history will judge you to be the Nelson Mandela of modern Sri Lanka-the citizen who united our country and its people and created one nation and one people.”

Perhaps, he should have avoided referring to a Mandela in the making before a professional audience drawn from continental Asia in which there were doubtless persons aware of the ‘Mandela phenomenon’, would have warmed the cockles of Sirisena’s heart but it was far from the truth.

It was surely unfair by that great South African who was not only a central figure in the shaping of his post- apartheid country but strongly influenced many African nations and those strongly opposed to the neo-colonialism emerging in the global north.

If Upul Jayasuriya who was a high profile figure in the Bar ( Association) before he moved to the Board ( of Investment that is) wanted to he could have done so less extravagantly by drawing attention to some of the achievements of the Sirisena government and relevant to the conference. But the thought that Sri Lanka’s history would one day record the transformation of Maithri into Mandela does seem rather extreme.

When reference was made to Sirisena as a “citizen who united our country and its people and created one nation and one people” I was reminded of the words of Samuel Coleridge about the willing suspension of disbelief.

Surely it is hard for even a foreign