Rioters, rotten fish and ass

Wednesday 9th December, 2020

A committee that probed the recent Mahara Prison riot, which left a dozen inmates dead and scores of others injured besides causing extensive damage to the correctional facility, has submitted its interim report to Minister of Justice Ali Sabry. The Opposition has expressed displeasure at the composition of the probe committee and demanded that an independent commission be appointed to conduct an impartial investigation into the tragic incident. The process of probing the prison violence must be kept transparent.

Prompt action is taken against the violent lawbreakers who riot in prisons, and rightly so. But the lawmakers who go on the rampage in Parliament go scot free. The law is said to apply equally to everyone, and much is spoken in Parliament about the need to uphold the rule of law, but the MPs are free to trade blows and damage parliament property.

Following a minister’s claim that the Mahara Prison rioters had been under the influence of a drug commonly known as ‘reverse’, the Opposition made an interesting pun; it said the SLPP MPs also looked addicted to that drug because the government was lurching in reverse, doing exactly the obverse of what it had pledged to do. Punning apart, it may be recalled that SJB MP Ranjan Ramanayake claimed, in the last Parliament, that some MPs including ministers were drug addicts. Curiously, his allegation went uninvestigated.

Now that a minister has said the drug called ‘reverse’ drove the Mahara Prison inmates to unleash violence, one wonders whether the MPs of the Joint Opposition (which has evolved into the SLPP) in the last Parliament were also ‘reverse’ addicts, given their violent behaviour inside the House during the 52-day government, in 2018. They were so aggressive that the Speaker had to be removed to safety. Chairs and projectiles were hurled at the parliament police personnel as well. The violent MPs damaged furniture and microphones and threw chilli powder at their opponents. A complaint was lodged with the police against them, and an investigation got underway. But no action has been taken against anyone.

The lawbreakers who resorted to violence and damaged public property in the Mahara Prison have been identified and are to be prosecuted, we are told. They must be severely dealt with. True, prisons are terribly overcrowded and lack even basic facilities, but these appalling conditions cannot be claimed in extenuation of the serious offences the rioters have committed. Similarly, action must be taken against the so-called lawmakers who resorted to violence and caused damage to Parliament. In fact, they should have been arraigned under the Offences against Public Property Act.

The SJB, which held a vigil near the Presidential Secretariat, on Monday, seeking justice for those affected by the Mahara Prison violence, ought to demand that charges be preferred against those responsible for the 2018 Parliament riot; some of the culprits are in the present Parliament. The Opposition let out howls of protest when a murder suspect held on remand in prison, and a convicted murderer, both elected on the SLPP ticket at the last general election, were sworn in as MPs; it claimed that the presence of lawbreakers among lawmakers tarnished the image of the national legislature. Strangely, it has not called for action against those who plunged the House into chaos, damaged public property and even threatened the Speaker.

One may recall that a mob of lawyers rioted in the Colombo High Court when the judgment in the White Flag case against former Army Commander and presidential candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka was delivered in November 2011. They smashed up court furniture and threatened a female judge with bodily harm while abusing her in raw filth; the police, fearing for her safety, whisked her away. One can take exception to judgments, which can also be challenged legally, but nobody must be allowed to misbehave, much less go postal and threaten judges inside courthouses or elsewhere. But the lawyers responsible for that punishable offence got away with it. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, which never misses an opportunity to pontificate on the virtues of the rule of law, legal egalitarianism, etc., did not call for action against its members who ran amok.

A fish is said to rot from the head down. When lawmakers and lawyers violate the law with impunity, it is not surprising that lawbreakers, who may be considered the tail of the putrid fish, riot in prisons. This being the situation, one cannot but agree with Mr. Bumble, who has famously said (in Oliver Twist) the law is an ass, albeit in a different context.