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Kadir
in Oxford's hall of fame On Friday, Lord Christopher Patten, former Chairman of the Conservative Party, Governor of Hong Kong and Commissioner for External Relations of the European Union and now Chancellor of the University did the honours before a distinguished audience. Mr. Kadirgamar was President of the Oxford Union in 1958, and is the 14th office-bearer of the Union to have his portrait, done by a young Sri Lankan artist Mohan Senadheera, hanging in the Debating Society. He is only the second Sri Lankan after the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. Other Union office-bearers whose busts or potraits are displayed at the Union include British Prime Ministers William Gladstone, Herbert Asquith, Lord Salisbury, Harold McMillan, Edward Heath, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Roy Jenkins and Michael Heseltine. The 183-year-old Oxford Union is considered the oldest non-parliamentary debating forum in the English-speaking world. It has often been referred to as the "playground of power". The first man of "colour" to hold office in the Oxford Union was S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who became Secretary and Treasurer in 1923-24. The first "coloured" President of the Oxford Union was D.F. Karaka from India, who later became a distinguished journalist. Lalith Athulathmudali (1957) and Hilaly Noordeen (1983) were other Sri Lankans to become President of the Union. Among the congratulatory letters Mr. Kadirgamar received were those from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Deputy Singapore Prime Minister S. Jayakumar, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshid Khan, Indian leader of the Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Jaswant Singh, former Indian External Affairs Minister Yaswant Sinha, Sri Lankan Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, Sri Lankan Chief Justice Sarath Silva, UN World Intellectual Property Organisation Director General Kamil Idris and Lord Naseby, Joint Chairman of the All Party Sri Lanka Group in the British House of Commons and House of Lords. One of the letters he received was from Peter Jay, who later became the Editor of the Economist and Britain's Ambassador to the United States. This is what he wrote; "It was 26th February, 1959 - I enclose your order paper in proof of my words - that on the occasion of the visit M. Pierre Mendes France, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, Balliol, President, called upon Mr. Peter Jay, Christ Church, to propose the motion " This House is alarmed by recent events in France ", the events in question being as you will recall, the arrival in power of General Charles de Gaulle. Also on the order paper were Jeremy Lever, now and for many years an ornament of the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust which has done so much to keep the financial wolf from the Union's doors, Mr. Major, your countryman Lalith Athulathmudali, who like you served in very high office before his tragic death, and Conrad Russel, who as Earl Russell served with such independence of mind in the House of Lords until his recent death. By your generous invitation to me to speak on this occasion you helped to launch my own, not so much glittering career as, random walk through life, for which I have remained ever since most grateful. "At the risk of embarassing you further, I would add one personal note. Your dignity and integrity through all the vicissitudes of Union politics impressed me hugely all those years ago when we were young and eager. It led to me going through the adult world telling those I met that the nicest and most decent man I ever met came from Sri Lanka and was the President of the Oxford Union. His name was Lakshman Kadirgamar". President Chandrika Kumaratunga also sent her Foreign Minister a letter from Colombo where she says, "it is no doubt a tribute to your intellect and flawless eloquence and your ability to understand, study and find solutions to difficult problems". Striking a personal note she says refers to her own father's portrait hanging at Oxford, and says that her Foreign Minister has "done your motherland proud". |
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