Justitia in tears

Thursday 28th October, 2021

Power befogs governments, and makes them muddle along, impervious to reason. When intoxicated with power, politicians think they cannot be wrong and resort to ill-conceived actions, and box themselves into a corner, in the process. This, we have witnessed under all governments with steamroller majorities.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is no stranger to controversy. This time around, he has triggered an avalanche of criticism by appointing General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, of all people, as the head of a 13-member Presidential Task Force (PTF) to ‘make a study of the implementation of the concept, One country; One law, and prepare a draft Act for the said purpose’. The PTF is also required to study the draft Acts and amendments prepared by the Ministry of Justice and submit a proposal, we are told.

The other members of the PTF are Prof. Dayananda Banda, Prof. Shanthinandana Wijesinghe, Prof. Sumedha Siriwardana, N.G. Sujeewa Panditharathna, Attorney-at-Law Iresh Senevirathne, Attorney-at-Law Sanjaya Marambe, Eranda Navarathna, Pani Wewala, Moulavi Mohamed, Mohamed Inthikab, Kaleel Rahuman and Azeez Nizardeen. Why hasn’t anyone been appointed to represent the Tamils? There should be members to look after the interests of all communities including the Veddas. The need for an outfit tasked with such a serious task to be inclusive cannot be overemphasised.

It defies comprehension why the President has handpicked as the head of the PTF a person who was granted a presidential pardon while serving a sentence for contempt of court, which in other words means causing an affront to the dignity of the judiciary. How come the President thinks a person sentenced to jail for violating the law is fit to carry out his one-country-one-law project?

Opinion may be divided on what led Gnanasara Thera to commit contempt of court, in 2016, and languish in prison. He has been hailed in some quarters for taking up the cudgels on behalf of some military intelligence personnel, but by no stretch of the imagination could this be cited in extenuation of the offence of disrupting court proceedings. If everyone starts doing so, courts will not be able to function. However, it will be remiss of anyone who is flaying Gnanasara Thera to turn a blind eye to a far worse incident that took place in the Colombo High Court about a decade ago. When the judgment in the White Flag case was delivered on 18 Nov. 2011, a group of lawyers and outsiders went berserk, smashing court furniture and threatening judges; the police had to rush in to protect them. Nobody was prosecuted for that ugly scene, which the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, and all those who are fighting for the independence of the judiciary chose to ignore. However, two wrongs do not make a right.

The idea behind the one-country-one-law programme is to ensure that the law of the land applies to everyone equally. So, a person who has shown disrespect for the law and the judiciary and been jailed for that is ipso facto disqualified from heading the PTF in question. This, however, is not the only reason why the President’s wisdom of making the controversial appointment stands questioned.

Hasn’t anyone in the government read the report put out by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Easter Sunday attacks? The PCoI has, in Chapter 22 titled, Contributory Factors, recommended that the Attorney General consider whether criminal proceedings can be instituted against Ven. Gnanasara Thera. It has also recommended that the BBS be proscribed because its actions pose a threat to religious harmony. Observing that ‘some of Gnanasara Thera’s actions and utterances have contributed to Muslim youth taking to extremism and joining Zahran’, the PCoI says: “It was in evidence that Zahran used the speeches and actions of the Thero to rally support for his cause. In the final video made by Zahran spelling out the reasons for the attacks, reference is made to the actions of the Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero … The actions of Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero resulted in reciprocal radicalization of Muslim youth.”

Is it that the President has not taken the PCoI findings and recommendations seriously? However, some recommendations have already been carried out. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and ex-IGP Pujith Jayasundera.

Why weren’t the PCoI recommendations taken into consideration when the aforesaid controversial appointment was made? An explanation is called for.