Freedom and Justice under political threat

A black-suited Opposition and a white clad black-ribboned government had a field day in parliament, when the country marked the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday carnage.

It was a preview of what could be the trend in parliamentary affairs – with verbal violence and near physical violence being the stuff of the new parliamentary democracy.

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill is not discussed in parliament, as it is being considered in the Supreme Court, on the many petitions filed against it. 

While the Supreme Court seeks to make up its mind on this highly controversial draft legislation, the very court system or the judicial process is facing a major threat, not merely a challenge, with the Presidential Commission Report on political victimisation under the previous government.

We are now facing a situation where former members of the judiciary as members of a Presidential Commission, can call upon parliament, the legislature of the country, to reject, overturn, depose, throw out cases that have been concluded and judgments passed, and cases that are still being heard in courts. Those found guilty or are accused in these cases are to be recognised as innocents, or those not facing any charges.

That is not all; those who have initiated these court procedures by filing cases –– for murder, child kidnapping, illegal handling of weapons, overall fraud relating to the state funds, and even fraud on private funds––are to be found guilty and punished. Under what law?

The process of justice is not, and has not been, one of complete independence and fairplay in this country. There have been many distortions of the judicial process under different political leaders over the years. But over all the public have considered the judiciary as the final source of honesty and fair play, in a society riddled with corruption, manipulation of the law, and the distortions of reality.

Politicians who become leaders of the country by the twists and turns of politics and crooked society have often given pardons to convicts including those on death row. They have never been widely accepted by the public, who have never been asked for their opinion on such acts. Such pardons were based on the rights of the Head of State, just like the release of prisoners for the New Year and some special celebratory occasions.

But how does any Commission, even if presidential, recommend the removal of current legal action against those who have been charged through the procedure for legal action by the Attorney General? How can such a Commission recommend the pardoning of those found guilty by the Supreme Court itself? 

How can such a commission find that those accused of the kidnapping of several youth are free of such charges?

In a mockery to the process of democracy based on justice and fairplay, the commission gives no legal reasons for throwing away earlier legal judgments or terminating legal procedures. These are acts to suit the prevailing political masters as against their predecessors.

Satisfy those who are now in power is what matters to the presidential commission, with so many in power today having many trails of fraud, cheating, swindling, embezzlement and other crooked actions.

What is the judicial process in the country being moved into? 

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission may pose threats to the democratic system, which certainly needs consideration with depth and fairness by the courts and political process. But the recommended actions against alleged political victimization, certainly poses a far larger threat to society, to the very judicial process, with all of its many shortcomings such as the delay in courts, and the profit-centred goals of the legal profession.

This government almost began its work with the pardoning of a murderer, killing several people, in the latter stages of the war against LTTE terror. There was no public call for such a pardon. Such action seems to be the political and strategic thinking of this government, supported by its own Presidential Commission, which is totally against good governance.

This country is aware of the failures of the judiciary and the legal process. We know how the Rajapaksa mishandling or crooked handling of the tsunami funds was covered up by courts, to be later admitted by the responsible justice himself. We see how the judiciary sentences a first time contempt of court accused, to four years of rigorous imprisonment, where the law does not lay down any term of imprisonment – short or long.

We are also aware of President Sirisena suddenly pardoning a murderer Anthony Jayamaha, who killed a foreign girl. 

Such distortions of the law and the judiciary should not be the guiding lines for a legal  process that upholds the principles of Justice and the Rule of Law. The role and task of governance is to learn from the past and avoid repetitions of such flaws, and bring in new legislation to prevent such distortions of the law and justice.

But that warning we saw in the Black vs White display in parliament on the Easter carnage anniversary, and the moves to pardon and free so-called “Political Victims”, is our stepping back into the dark days of pre-democracy in this country. We are moving to even a pre-feudal reign of power. The rule of the unquestioned Majesty. The deadly display of the Rajavasala Balaya.

Do we have the freedom to restore the independence of the judiciary?