A true patriot

At recent commemorations of Vesak and War Heroes, apparently no one spoke about the late Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the true patriot who played such a major role in both. His name is indelibly written in history as the person responsible for the United Nations declaring Vesak Poya an international holiday.

During the war, he was the first to erase the image of the LTTE being freedom fighters, by visiting world capitals, exposing their true terrorist nature and cutting off the all important financial support. Surely, this was the beginning of the LTTE’s downfall. In the end, he paid with his life. An ungrateful government kept his statue in its packing case for nine long years.

This giant of a man’s patriotic fervour was aptly revealed in the speech he delivered at the unveiling of his portrait at the Oxford Union. He said that only the icing on the cake was done at Oxford; the cake was baked in his beloved Sri Lanka!

Asoka Weerakoon Kandy