Another volte-face

Saturday 13th March, 2021

The government apparently specialises in making U-turns. It refused to consider burial as an option as regards the disposal of the remains of pandemic victims. It, in its wisdom, let the issue of mandatory cremations become internationalised before agreeing to permit burials. Likewise, it got into hot water by refusing to allow the Attorney General (AG) to have access to all documents related to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) final report on the Easter Sunday carnage. It remained impervious to reason and drew heavy flak for its obduracy. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in what can be described as a strongly-worded letter, called upon the government to send the entire report to the state prosecutor.

The government has made another dramatic volte-face; the whole PCoI report was sent to the AG yesterday. Why couldn’t it dispatch the report and all documents related to it to the AG immediately after they were submitted to the President on 01 Feb. 2021? Some SLPP grandees claimed that the documents at issue contained classified information about national security, and the government decision against sending them to the AG was based on a PCoI recommendation; they gave a twist to the penultimate paragraph in the PCoI covering letter to the President, in the report. The Commission has said: “We draw Your Excellency’s attention to the fact that the documents marked ‘X’ have classified information obtained through intelligence agencies of the State. Furthermore, evidence pertaining to national security including intelligence and information was obtained through witnesses testifying in camera. We would, with due respect, recommend that these matters be considered before deciding to make them public.” (Emphasis added.) No mention is made of the AG in this paragraph. But in its Chapter 30 (Conclusions), the report (on page 421) says specifically: “The CoI recommends that Your Excellency the President transmits a complete set of the Report to the Attorney General to consider institution of criminal proceedings against persons alleged to have committed the said offences.” (Emphasis added.) Nobody should blame the PCoI members.

It is not possible that the Presidential Secretariat officials and the President’s legal advisors did not read the above-quoted part of the PCoI conclusions. Instead of acting on it, they apparently sought to make use of the aforesaid section in the covering letter in a bid to justify their claim that the report in its entirety could not be sent to the AG. Something similar happened immediately after the last presidential election. Nobody advised President Gotabaya Rajapaksa properly on the constitutional provisions that prevented him from holding ministerial portfolios. At his inauguration ceremony, in Anuradhapura, on 18 Nov. 2019, he called himself the Minister of Defence, among other things, while addressing the nation. The sobering reality dawned on him subsequently, and he did not appoint himself a minister until the enactment of the 20th Amendment, which did away with the constitutional restrictions at issue.

Now, the question is why the government tried to prevent the AG from having access to the entire PCoI report. Did it seek to conceal anything therein, as its political opponents claim? The only way it can clear doubts and suspicions in the minds of people is to make the whole report public. As for the classified information about national security the PCoI report is said to contain, SJB MP and former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka hit a bull’s eye in Parliament, the other day, while others were getting Maggie’s drawers. He said the Easter Sunday attacks had happened due to a massive national security failure, which everyone was aware of, and therefore the argument that information related thereto should not be made public was specious. On the other hand, during the yahapalana government, the then President Maithripala Sirisena would invite even ordinary MPs loyal to him to the National Security Council meetings, which were few and far between.

The PCoI, we repeat, has not said that the documents containing what it considers sensitive information about national security should not be made public. It has only asked the President to decide whether to do so, after taking into account what it calls ‘classified information obtained through intelligence agencies of the State’. The ball is now in the President’s court. We believe that he should seriously consider making the entire report public. Besides the AG, the lawmakers, the media, the aggrieved parties and the general public have a right to see the whole picture.