{"id":23014,"date":"2013-07-20T15:27:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23014"},"modified":"2013-07-20T19:13:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T23:13:07","slug":"tna-northern-poll-chief-candidate-canagasabapathy-viswalingam-wigneswaran-feels-at-home-in-the-whole-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23014","title":{"rendered":"TNA Northern Poll Chief Candidate Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran Feels at Home in the Whole of Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

Namini Wijedasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Canagasabapathy<\/a>

Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran<\/p><\/div>\n

He might have made a career out of music, had his mother not pushed him to study Law.<\/p>\n

Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran is still an accomplished sitar player. The retired Supreme Court Judge was last week named as the Tamil National Alliance\u2019s Chief Ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council election.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother was the one important cause for me to take up Law because that was such a passion on her part,\u201d smiled Justice Wigneswaran, at his residence in Cambridge Terrace, Colombo 7. \u201cBut there is another interesting story.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While he was waiting for the results of an important school examination, his mother, Athynayaki, visited a Buddhist priest in Kolonnawa who was renowned for his astrological predictions. She showed him her son\u2019s chart and asked him whether the boy would pass his test.<\/p>\n

The priest had asked, \u201cMey apey lamayekda?\u201d (Is he one of our children?).<\/p>\n

The Sinhala Only Act of 1956 had just been passed. Justice Wigneswaran thinks the respected prelate might have wondered whether, under the circumstances, a Tamil child could ever reach the heights he foresaw in the chart. His mother had replied that this was her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will become a Judge of the Supreme Court,\u201d the priest said, examining the chart. \u201cI don\u2019t need all that,\u201d she had shot back. \u201cI just want to know whether he will pass his exam!\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest had said, \u201cApo pass karai, pass karai.\u201d (Yes, he will pass).<\/p>\n

Both predictions came true. The boy not only aced his school exams, he finished his Bachelor of Arts (London), LLB (Ceylon), Proctors and Advocates exams at Law College. But nobody had read in the tea leaves that he would one day enter politics.<\/p>\n

Today, even after agreeing to contest the election\u2014for which a date has still not been set\u2014Justice Wigneswaran maintains that he isn\u2019t really doing politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cA journalist from London asked me about self-determination and all the rest of it,\u201d he related, referring to a telephone interview he had just concluded. \u201cI said, look, these are for the politicians. I\u2019m not a politician. I\u2019m interested in bringing some relief for the people who are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, this (Chief Minister post) is not a political office,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is an office by which I could serve the people. At this particular time, it is necessary for a person who is able to discuss matters with the Government, with India, with foreign countries, to be there to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is why he was chosen, he explained: \u201cWe can\u2019t be getting into rhetoric, clich\u00e9s and various things which have no meaning. People want relief. We have to give them that relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were seated in his small sitting room which holds proof of his deep religious faith. On a low glass cabinet is a statue of Lord Ganesha with fresh, red hibiscus flowers on either shoulder. Next to it are family photographs, including a black and white image of his late wife. And above a door is a photograph of Guru Swami Premananda.<\/p>\n

Each of the fiery speeches he has made since retiring from the Supreme Court in 2004 begins with this Sanskrit invocation: \u201cGurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Guru devo Maheshwaraha Guru sakshat Parabrahma tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a verse of homage to the Trinity of Hindu Gods\u2014Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the protector; and Maheshwara, the destroyer. \u201cYou are my preceptor,\u201d it states, \u201cAnd I revere you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Justice Wigneswaran asserts that he takes a rational view of religion. He recently released a book that attempts to explain Hinduism in a logical manner. \u201cThere are no dogmatic principles involved,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy philosophy is also, in that sense, a rational, non-dogmatic attitude towards life.\u201d<\/p>\n

How would Justice Wigneswaran balance this with the more inflexible\u2014indeed, dogmatic\u2014positions held by sections of the Tamil Diaspora?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a difficult task,\u201d he admitted. \u201cMy point is, look, you keep your views to yourself but I would like to do some service to the people who are suffering. So let me do my work. You go on talking what you want to talk. I\u2019m not concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would like me also to take up their cause and all the rest of it,\u201d he agreed. \u201cThese don\u2019t concern me\u2014whether it is self-determination, separation, that or this. That is a long-term plan. I am talking about short-term plans, about what we should do for these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civilians in the North have lost loved ones, Justice Wigneswaran said. They don\u2019t know the whereabouts of others, their properties are occupied and they have no jobs. People from the South cultivate lands forcibly held by the army and the produce is sold to the owners of these lands. There are a large number of widows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot to be done for them,\u201d he stressed. \u201cAnd I would be calling upon the Government to help us in this matter because it is actually their duty to do these things. If they are not doing them and if they want the Provincial Council to look into it, the Government must help us. Revenue from the Provincial Councils also goes to the Government. They must give us our dues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Wigneswaran has his roots in the North he now hopes to represent. His parents were born in Manipay. As for him, he was born in Hulftsdorp\u2014\u201cright opposite the Supreme Court\u201d\u2014on 23 October 1939. He has two sisters, one of whom is deceased. His grandfather is a cousin of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Sir Ponnamabalam Arunachalam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two brothers were extraordinary men and I certainly have great regard for them,\u201d he said, when asked which Tamil leaders he admires.<\/p>\n

Justice Wigneswaran\u2019s father, Mr. Canagasabapathy, was a public official who served in several districts. This meant his son spent the first nine years of his life in Kurunegala, where he attended Christchurch College, and Anuradhapura, where he was a student of Holy Family Convent.<\/p>\n

At the age of 11, Justice Wigneswaran joined Royal College, Colombo to complete his school education. He was a senior prefect and cadet. He was a boxer and an athlete, a leader of English and Tamil debating teams as well as editor of the school magazine.<\/p>\n

He led Law Students\u2019 Union in 1962 at Law College. Its president the previous year had been Vasudeva Nanayakkara, whose daughter would go on to marry one of Justice Wigneswaran\u2019s sons. His other son is married to senior politician Keseralal Gunasekera\u2019s niece.<\/p>\n

The fact that his children are wed to Sinhalese has been used by opponents to question his ability to win the Tamil vote in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

But it is not something Justice Wigneswaran makes excuses for. \u201cWhen my parents were living and when we were young,\u201d he recounted, \u201cwe never had any of these ideas except of a unified Sri Lanka. Ceylon was a unified country. We had no problems at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very annoyed when the Sinhala only Act came in 1956,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is true. I started learning Sinhalese in 1955 from a very learned man, Hema Ellawala, who became Vice Chancellor of Sri Jayawardenepura University. When I heard about this Act, I revolted. I said I won\u2019t study Sinhala hereafter. That is why my Sinhala is imperfect. I didn\u2019t have the mind to study the language.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut all the same, we have never felt alien to this country nor have the Sinhalese felt alien to us,\u201d he added. \u201cThat is why my two sons are married to Sinhalese. We don\u2019t feel anything alien with regard to any aspect of life here. I feel completely at ease in the whole of Sri Lanka, with friends in all nine provinces.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is no wonder, then, that Justice Wigneswaran thinks Professor Savitri Goonesekere\u2014a Sinhalese\u2014would suit the position of Northern Province Governor very well. He is vehemently opposed to the presence of military in the area and does not believe an ex-army officer should remain as Governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are around 60,000 widows there for whom we are trying to do something,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt would be ideal to have a person who is sympathetic towards them.\u201d On the contrary, the incumbent Governor, Maj Gen (Retd) G.A. Chandrasiri, \u201cacts like an army fellow even now\u201d.<\/p>\n

As we speak, the phone rings off the hook. An aide takes most of the calls but Justice Wigneswaran interrupts the interview to answer one, in particular. It was a Sinhalese counsel who said Magistrates Courts lawyers in Colombo wanted to work for his election campaign in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

These are early days yet. But race already looks wildly interesting.
\n
\nCOURTESY:SUNDAY TIMES<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Namini Wijedasa He might have made a career out of music, had his mother not pushed him to study Law. Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran is still an accomplished sitar player. The retired Supreme Court Judge was last week named as the Tamil National Alliance\u2019s Chief Ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council election. \u201cMy mother …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘TNA Northern Poll Chief Candidate Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran Feels at Home in the Whole of Sri Lanka’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23029,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions\/23029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}