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Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
The
ugliest attack in Sri Lanka’s history on the Supreme Court and
the Chief
Justice
( October 27, 2012, Colombo/ Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian)
The Mahinda Rajapaksa regime has
resorted to the ugliest attack in Sri Lankan judicial history on the Supreme
Court and the Chief Justice this week by using the state media as a slander
machine and through employing the state media to introduce deliberately
manufactured slanderous letters to the parliament solely with the purpose of
abusing parliamentary privilege for biased purposes. The government has within
its ranks, schemers of the lowest quality who have little scruple in
manufacturing any lie to suit their purpose and thereafter using others to
introduce and propagate such lies in the highest legislative assembly of the
country, namely Sri Lanka’s parliament. It is evident that people in the state
media will defy every rule in journalistic ethics to do whatever that the
government demand. However the responsibility for such vile attacks lies
entirely on President Rajapaksa himself for allowing such schemes to be carried
out.
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The greatest societal ill that will rise from this kind of abyss is the very high level of criminality in every aspect of social life. There will be loss of respect for anything called moral or ethical in a society like this. The children of such a nation will inherit a culture that is ugly and stinking.
Manufacturing a slander sheet is
an easy affair. Whoever allowed such a slander sheet to be put before the
country’s most august forum clearly showed a high degree of unscrupulousness
and carelessness regarding every form of decorum and public etiquette that is
generally required in the use of materials in the county’s Parliament. This is
one of the worst act of irresponsibility that has defamed the Parliament itself
and the very tradition of parliamentary debate anywhere in the world. Only
fools and criminals would permit the abuse of parliamentary process in this
manner.
The issue in question was an
attempted abduction and an attack by four unidentified persons on the Secretary
of the Judicial Service Commission on 7th of October 2012. So far the police
have filed reports in the courts stating that they are unable to identify the
culprits responsible for this attack. And then the government introduces an
unscrupulous letter in Parliament stating that it was the Chief Justice’s
husband who had organized the attack because he had suspected an illicit
relationship between the Chief Justice and the Secretary of the Judicial Service
Commission. Yet the country’s criminal justice investigators have declared to
the court that they do not know who the attackers are. Irrespective of this,
the government introduces this despicable letter manufactured by one of its
hatchet men to the Parliament. The question then becomes as to what precisely
is the role and importance accorded to criminal investigations in Sri Lanka?
Has this role been usurped by hatchet men who write unscrupulous leaflets?
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
was established on 1802. Up to this date there had never been such dastardly
attacks on the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice. This marks perhaps the
lowest point of Sri Lanka’s political culture when a government in power could
abuse parliamentary privilege in this fashion. And it is worse when the
Government’s slander machine is utilized to attack the Supreme Court and the
Chief Justice.
The strategy behind the
government action is very clear. The Secretary of the Judicial Service
Commission in a press statement had complained that the public media is
carrying on a campaign against the Judicial Service Commission and the
independence of the judiciary. Then the government retaliates with a far worse
abuse of public media in attacking the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice
herself.
In doing this government resorts
to the lowest forms of abuse by taking advantage of the vulnerability of the
Chief Justice being a woman. This is one of the worst sexist attacks that we
have seen in recent times and women movements in Sri Lanka together with every
woman in Sri Lanka and anywhere else in the world should protest against this
ugly abuse in regard to a woman holding a public office. Does this mean that
every time that the government is unhappy with a woman holding public office,
it will resort to this kind of dastardly tactic in order to humiliate and
defame such a person? This is shameful Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. Very shameful.
In functional democracy, people
would have demanded that the President himself and every one held who has
participated in this shameful abuse of power, the abuse of parliamentary
privilege and abuse of women should resign because they simply do not deserve
to hold public office.
This episode only demonstrates
the lowest depth that Sri Lanka has reached at this point of time. No nation
can avoid dire consequences to its societal moral when the government at the
highest level resorts to such lowest level of mean and dastardly conduct.
If the people of Sri Lanka
tolerate this level of immorality on the part of the government then they
should blame themselves for all the societal ills that will rise from a
situation such as the current crisis that the country is facing.
The greatest societal ill that
will rise from this kind of abyss is the very high level of criminality in
every aspect of social life. There will be loss of respect for anything called
moral or ethical in a society like this. The children of such a nation will
inherit a culture that is ugly and stinking.
The Asian Human Rights Commission
is aware that there are many others against whom such gimmicks are being
schemed. One such scheme is to attack the lawyers who appear for just causes
and oppose the government’s abuse of powers in court through the use of
manufactured reports accusing them of all kinds of things, for example saying
that they are being paid by drug loads. We are aware that there was an attempt
to publish such a report in the government’s mouth piece Daily News last week
against Mr. J C Weliamuna and another lawyer against whom the government does
not agree with. It was because a particular news editor was a man who respects
journalistic ethics that the report was not published. However possibly others
who are willing to engage in any kind of abuse may be put in the editorial
chair and publish such reports against those whom the government select to
slander.
The Asian Human Right Commission
is saddened by the attack on the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice. Its
concern is not due to any personal attachment but due to respect for principle
which when undermined, harms the very fabric of society. The Supreme Court
deserves respect. The Chief Justice, whoever it is, deserves respect and the
Parliament deserves not to be abused. History tells us that societies that do
not respect these principles ultimately pay a high price for that disrespect.
