LIPID profile – Liberal, Inclusivist, Pluralist, Iconoclast, Democrat; the more likeable side of an ambitious paradox of a politico: realist with a dream, a player of realpolitik who was the joker in the pack
- The late honourable Mangala Samaraweera was anything but mangy – if not always as honourable as his hagiographies now make him out be, posthumously
I did not take very well to Mangala Samaraweera when I first met him in 1995. There I was, hell-bent as I thought I was then, on talking about telecom policy and terrorist politics. While all he wanted to know was the name of a gadfly columnist whose pseudonym irked him a little and whose weekly column irritated him a lot more.
“…I couldn’t give up the real name of the gremlin in Chandrika’s machine even had I been privy to the secret.
He was not pleased. “Tchach!”…
A joie de vivre! A ‘just do it or get out of my way’ look and feel…
I was dismayed when a satirical frontispiece rejoicing in the succinct moniker of ‘In A Nutshell’ rejected my nom de plume (‘Mangler Summer-Reviewer’) for him…
…Dog days
The late honourable Mangala Samaraweera was anything but mangy – if not always as honourable as his hagiographies now make him out be, posthumously.
For instance, he was not free of the taint of caste-ism in local by-elections while aspiring to a greater mantle in the more cosmopolitan milieu of national elections and international relations…
Intermezzo
If you’ve persevered this far and are perhaps wondering when the trenchant analysis will begin, you’d be advised to give the rest of this piece a miss…
…
…Let us take stock
First, might I invite you to sample some of the more moving sentiments shared on social media in the immediate aftermath of that telecom titan’s demise?…
…
The caravan moves on
Of course, there were cynical dogs who barked at the passing caravan of praise on fleeting social media’s soon-to-be forgotten circus…
One last thing
…
So what’s ‘LIPID’ about Mangler other than his Summery Review of a countenance?
L – Liberal. In politics, it helped him bridge many divides…
…
(Journalist | Editor-at-Large of LMD and former Chief Sub Editor of The Sunday Leader | Writer WFH)