Integrity and Compromise

Remarks of Professor Rajiva Wijesinha at the celebration of the life of Lakshman Kadirgamar, held at the Women’s International Club in aid of the Peter Weerasekera Home

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After those two very scintillating presentations by Sakuntala Kadirgamar and Dayan Jayatilleka, it will be difficult for me to follow, since I cannot claim to understand the personality as much as Saku did or the politics as well as Dayan did. So, let me confine my remarks about a man greatly admired and greatly loved to the last few years of his life when we got comparatively close.

I had first met him much earlier, back in 1973. I had not realized then that he had just come to England when he dropped in when I had my parents in Oxford and stayed for an evening. I saw him on and off after that but suddenly, in 2002, his secretary called me and said that he wanted to reestablish the Board of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, and he had handpicked half a dozen people. Then he spoke to me himself and he explained what he was trying to do. I have to say that that Board which I served on is really the only Board I served on in which one could respect everybody, listen to everybody and understand and appreciate their contribution. He himself had a great mindset, and guided the meetings impeccably.

That was when I really became very close to Dayan. Also, there was Professor Amal Jayawardena, Lecturer in political science at Colombo University, there was a very professional, quiet Foreign Service representative, Mr. Navaratnarajah, there was Professor Savithri Gunasekera, there was Nanda Godage from the Foreign Ministry and we would meet maybe once a month and it was a really scintillating discussion.