It is rather ironical that many of us who hold HL (as we fondly referred to him) near and dear should have been away –out of the country when he decided to embark on his final journey-his last battle. Neville was in the US, Gomin on some mountain top in Sikkim and I in Bangkok with my friend JB. Well, it may be that the battle hardened soldier preferred to face his last battle single handed as expected of the committed intellectual. He was certainly an intellectual of a rare order –a rare lotus that had blossomed out of that black-coated murky mire bequeathed to us by our colonial masters. In writing of him I have no wish to use that cliché-legal luminary- since those luminaries as far as I know illuminate that murky world for nothing else other than for their own benefit- for treasure hunting. HL as far as I know never prided himself in that role. As pointed out by Gomin, law was too small a world for him -‘he treated it as time went by as a dead letter’. How else could an intellectual treat this ‘white man’s gift’ loaded on us with all the good intentions to relieve himself of his burden!

I am sure he would have embarked on that last journey-last battle with courage, dignity and joy becoming of the intellectual that he was.

Amidst the grief and sadness with which I received the sad news I could not help feeling a sense of satisfaction- the sense of satisfaction one gets from having done one’s duty in time. When I wrote a lengthy review of his essays compiled by Prof. GH Peiris I knew he was facing a terminal illness. HL had been very keen that I review it. I took it as an opportunity to express my admiration for this great soul which had been growing in me over the last few years. If I remember right I ended that review with these sentiments.’ Sir, you have served your country as a true son of Mother Lanka. That should give you the greatest happiness. What more does one expect out of this short sojourn here?"

My first personal contact with Hl was when my friend Gomin asked me to join them on an ‘expedition’ to a cave dwelling in a far off hide out in the Hatton area (which he has referred to in his article). For me it was not so much a visit to a cave dwelling as a journey into the interior sanctum, into the recess of a heart and a mind which had remained an enigma to me. I saw it as an opportunity to resolve that enigma that had baffled me. After a couple of drinks I plucked up courage to ‘interrogate him’. How is it that you in spite of the background you had inherited, in spite of your Christian upbringing, in spite of your education in a Christian school, turned out to be ‘ a Sinhala Chauvinist’ with which you are being vilified these days.’ His answer was prompt which indicated that he himself had given thought to the enigma that was worrying me. ‘Do you remember the time of the second world war, when most Colombo schools were closed and some had to be taken to outstations?.There was a branch of Nalanda Vidyalaya at my home town Minuwangoda, which I was forced to attend. I was there for three years or so. It was then that I entered a new world which had been closed to me. I realized that it is where I really belonged. And ever since, that world has not left me. That is how I have ended up as ‘a Sinhala Methodist chauvinist’. I knew you were going to interrogate me ‘HL ended up with his usual hearty chuckle. I felt that my stay in that freezing cave had been amply rewarded.

It was during the ‘Tsunami Affair’ that I came into close contact with HL and was able to get a closer view of the Man. It was he who master minded that entire case, working out the modus operandi that had to be followed. The zeal and the enthusiasm displayed by him made me think of one carrying out a commandment .Probably the issue weighed so heavily on him it became a highly personal one going beyond politics: he saw it as an attempt to desecrate something which he had held inviolable and sacred – the unity and the sovereignty of our motherland. In the process Gomin was the band master and I the liaison officer, the mouth-piece of those monolingual miserables -the JVP boys who were the only ones prepared to face death threats from Prabhakaran. The erstwhile Deshapremis of today were for sharing the funds with Prabhakaran. I distinctly remember the episode following the delivery of the verdict. The monolingual miserables had to be enlightened as to what had happened. Listening to HL explaining it in his ‘broken Sinhala’ reminded me of the scene in ‘A village in the Jungle’, where Silindu was made to listen to the death sentence passed on him not realizing what all that meant. Sixty years after Independence have things changed? Is the plight of the monolingual miserables any better than that of Silindu?

The next time I had to work as liaison officer was in the North East demerger case, once again master-minded by HL, Gomin and SL. There too it was the monolingual miserables who were prepared to risk their lives and face death threats of Prabhakaran. The JVP member from the East whose role was vital had to be brought to Colombo and kept in the custody of Wimal Weerawansa . Manel, the devoted wife of HL was naturally very apprehensive of what was happening and extremely concerned about the risks her husband was facing.

I think it is worth recollecting these events today when there is every possibility of forgetting them in our present euphoric mood. HL was the main actor, the centre figure round which those episodes were enacted.

As Gomin had stated HL’s demise is a national tragedy when a forthcoming constitutional exercise is high on the country’s agenda.

Let us resolve with firm commitment to follow the path that HL has shown us. Let no power on earth dissuade us from taking that path which alone would prevent the disintegration of this country and maintain its sovereignty and dignity as envisaged by HL .That would be the only way we could honour the memory of this great patriot.