Washington in a dancing mood hearing Kadir?
WASHINGTON D.C: In Washington, you cannot escape politics. You almost figure out here that the buildings themselves have been erected to intimidate.

So, a Foreign Minister from a Third World country might in theory be intimidated. But, you find Lakshman Kadirgamar almost intimidates these Americans. At the Brookings Institute, the Chairperson says Kadirgamar played cricket for Balliol College Oxford, as if that was his most acceptable qualification. It's not easy to get away with such chutzpah in Washington these days,particularly when even a VIP's car is scrutinized in every cavity for security reasons.

So between Balliol College and Brookings, Kadirgamar has almost abundantly fulfilled his destiny. You could see that incumbency is beginning to settle on him heavily. For a man whom the Tamil community loves to hate and the Sinhala community loves to love, Kadirgamar looks now almost to be hopelessly restricted by such definitions. He seems to be in an awful hurry to break out of the old mould. He says "the Tigers would like to have me in the negotiations,' having said earlier that he will step down from the talks if they do not want him.

Says a known and hardboiled Tamil in Washington that he came out to Brookings just to see this man who has generated so much controversy for a very long time now. Lakshman Kadirgamar has taken out a whole chapter in the contemporary history books for himself -- but is he also about to change them?

One never knows. The Diaspora here -- the Sinhala Diaspora if ever there is such a thing -- is slightly jilted by their icon's recent turnarounds. But they don't seem to be doused enough to ditch him altogether, and they say 'well, we never expected he will say that LTTE is the sole representative of the Tamil people, but we are glad he is working for peace.''

It seems then that incumbency has hit Kadirgamar almost like a ton of bricks. With the Sinhala community he is now almost like a lover who has been caught out being unfaithful, but is yet being given extra time in his relationship because he is still the screen-hero, the idol, everybody's favourite pinup. But among the Tamil community and particularly the Diaspora he continues to be the villain except to them he is beginning to sound funny now.

To them, he is like a Mafia Don who is suddenly singing the praises of the Magistrates and of law enforcement. But even to them he is the one weather vane - - the real gauge of how committed the new Sri Lankan government is to the peace process. After all, if Kadirgamar can say that the LTTE should be happy that he said they are 'the sole representative of the Tamil people,'' then the Sri Lankan government must be having a really bad attack of peace and appease -- or so the Diaspora here seems to think.

The thing with Sri Lanka is that be it for the Diaspora or for the Americans, it is a country that continues to surprise them. In the Longworth building the offices of the US Congress, a Congressman's Assistant welcomes the Minister with a slightly over-friendly "Hey Mr. Minister.'' But within minutes, you could see the man's makeover: he is impressed to the point of being intimidated. The Minister speaks better English than the Americans, period.

But being as he is from the Third World, the Americans treat him as if he is a delicate object that has descended upon them from another planet, a consummate rarity. Twenty minutes into any discussion, they feel any country cannot possibly go wrong with a man like this in the team. They may even be wrong, but they do not know that….

All that can be said is that in this absolute bastion of gung-ho Western liberal values -- in this city of concrete and staring monuments of granite - Sri Lanka via Kadirgamar offers a message of continuity, of traditionalism. Strangely this is not the message that Kadirgamar is himself imparting.

He seems to say that there is something revolutionary going on back home, with the disciplined and determined boys of the JVP within the folds of his administration that he loves so much to talk about. But to the Americans this is more an affirmation of the fact that if Kadrigamar likes the JVP, then Sri Lanka must be going down the proper approved democratic Western liberal route.

Some are ecstatic. When Kadirgamar tells US business that he assures the country will be stable and will have the attractions for investment, they turn to him and say "no, it’s we who will come and invest no matter what happens in your country.'' He has softened them up so much, they are almost jumping out of heir business suits.

If anybody is determined to be unkind, they might say that he is after all operating out of the Ritz Carlton in Washington. This is the same Hotel that Ranil Wickremesinghe was in, when he heard that three of his Ministries have been taken over by the President.

This is a city that is therefore a world away from the realities of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the down and dirty ways of Sri Lankan politics. In that way it may be a place that even imparts a false illusion of hope but that's not the matter. The JVP, says Kadirgamar, is going through its education. When he was in Beijing with the Chinese leaders, he talked to them fondly about the JVP's boys.

They asked him "what books do they read.'' Kadirgamar laughed and said he doesn't know but perhaps they read Marx --- and added that it’s not the books that matter but the fact that they are on a speed learning curve. The JVP, I tell him, should perhaps then first visit Shanghai - a city many say is now ritzier and glitzier than New York. In the end the message that Kadirgamar imparts is that his country may behave like a funny case-study of democracy gone mad, but in reality it is no Banana Republic.

Everybody here sure does hope so. They remember that Ranil Wickremesinghe called Sri Lanka a beacon of hope before he ended up in a heap. But one cannot help feeling, seeing all this avowed commitment to Western liberal values that Sri Lanka will perhaps survive because their governments always unerringly hitch their wagon to the greatest villain about the place - the United States of America.

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