| by K.
Ratnayake
( December 12,
2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A parliamentary select committee has
rubberstamped an impeachment motion against Sri Lankan Chief Justice Shirani
Bandaranayake, presenting a report last Saturday saying she was guilty of three
charges. Parliamentary speaker Chamal Rajapakse, a brother of President Mahinda
Rajapakse, announced that a debate on the report would be conducted on January
8, with the government preparing to remove Bandaranayake.
 |
The rift between the government and the top judiciary reflects the hostility of sections of the capitalist elite over the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a clique headed by Rajapakse and his cronies. There is also concern in these circles that the government’s constitutional violations, together with its anti-Western rhetoric, could harm their business interests.
The president
and his ruling coalition instigated the impeachment motion against
Bandaranayake after she headed a Supreme Court bench that declared the
government’s Divineguma Development Bill was unconstitutional unless approved
by nine provincial councils. The bill transferred some economic powers
previously devolved to provincial councils to Economic Development Minister
Basil Rajapakse, another of the president’s brothers.
The
anti-democratic and politically-motivated nature of the impeachment process was
clear from the outset. The motion was signed by ruling coalition MPs without
even knowing the 14 charges contained in it. Seven out of the eleven members on
the committee selected by the speaker were from the ruling coalition. Its
inquiry was held in camera, with reporting of its proceedings banned.
Bandaranayake
asserted that all charges were false but initially participated in the inquiry,
while declaring it was unconstitutional and had no legal basis. On the third
day of the hearing, last Thursday, she and her lawyers walked out of the
inquiry after the committee chairman, minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa,
refused to provide the procedure for the inquiry, the list of witnesses and
documents related to charges. Bandaranayake informed the speaker she was “ready
to face an independent tribunal.”
After
participating in the committee, thus giving it legitimacy, the four opposition
MPs from the United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) withdrew last Friday after Yapa refused similar
requests and rejected a call to postpone the inquiry by one month. The
opposition members withdrew not because they uphold democratic rights. They
feared criticism over their continued participation in the committee.
Despite the
walkouts, President Rajapakse asked the committee’s government members to “go
ahead” and prepare the report. On the same day, the government’s members called
16 witnesses, including political appointees such as Central Bank governor
Ajith Nivard Cabrral and the president’s secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, and
compiled a report within several hours.
This report
declared the chief justice guilty on three of five charges investigated and
recommended her impeachment. The committee did not inquire into nine other
charges, claiming a lack of time, even though the committee had the right to
ask for an extension past its original one-month deadline.
Bandaranayake
and the opposition members have rejected the report.
Underscoring the
fact that the impeachment is a political witch-hunt, a “senior government
politician” presented a “compromise formula” to Bandaranayake’s lawyer last
Thursday, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper reported the terms of
the deal as follows: “She would have to tender her resignation. In return she
would be appointed to ‘an important’ position and charges of corruption against
her husband, Pradeep Kariyawasam, would be dropped.” The Colombo Telegraph
reported that the “senior politician” was none other than President Rajapakse.
Rajapakse made
this overture to deflect growing criticism in the country and internationally.
International Commission of Jurists Asia Pacific Director Sam Zarifi, said in a
statement: “Any process for removal must comply with all of the guarantees of
due process and fair trial afforded under international law, notably the right
to an independent and impartial hearing.”
Senior lawyers
and the Sri Lanka Bar Association have filed petitions in higher courts
requesting orders to prohibit the parliamentary select committee and declare it
has no legal validity. One petition was filed by Chandra Jayaratne, a former
president of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), an indication of big
business concerns over the impeachment.
The rift between
the government and the top judiciary reflects the hostility of sections of the
capitalist elite over the concentration of economic and political power in the
hands of a clique headed by Rajapakse and his cronies. There is also concern in
these circles that the government’s constitutional violations, together with
its anti-Western rhetoric, could harm their business interests.
The CCC issued a
statement last Friday saying it “strongly believes that mutual respect and
trust between the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, and the Rule of Law
are essential prerequisites that are crucial for rapid economic development and
for the achievement of development targets.”
A Supreme Court
bench has issued notices to the speaker and select committee members, asking
them to appear before a court. Speaker Rajapakse declared the notices were “a
nullity and entail no legal consequences.” The court has ignored his ruling,
reissuing summonses for a hearing on December 14.
Siding with the
government, opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe urged the speaker to
ignore the court ruling, declaring that the legislature was supreme.
The 1978
constitution gave sweeping powers to the president, including over parliament
and the judiciary. An increasingly politicised judiciary has been used to
undermine democratic rights and further strengthen the president’s hands.
Bandaranayake herself headed the Supreme Court bench that approved the
Rajapakse government’s 18th amendment to the constitution in 2010 that removed
the two-term limit on the presidency and allowed the president to appoint
members to key, supposedly independent, government commissions.
The government’s
moves against the judiciary are part of a push to concentrate even greater
power in the hands of ruling cabal. Basil Rajapakse recently told Reuters that
the family-centred cabal was “a people’s dynasty” by “the people’s choice.” He
commented: “More rather than less concentration of decision making would help
investments in a country.”
While portraying
its blatant anti-democratic methods as “the people’s choice,” the government is
preparing further attacks on basic democratic rights in order to enforce the
demands of international capital, under the impact of shrinking export markets
and the deepening global economic downturn.
The government
has promised the International Monetary Fund to reduce the fiscal deficit to
5.8 percent by next year, which will require further cuts to government
spending and subsidies, hitting the working class and poor. Despite boasting of
economic “successes,” deputy finance minister Sarath Amunugama recently said
the government could not finance the 500 billion-rupee budget deficit for next
year without printing money and obtaining foreign loans at high interest rates.
In the name of
“defending democratic rights and the independence of judiciary”, the
pseudo-left groups, the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) and the United Socialist
Party (USP), have lined up with sections of big business, the legal fraternity
and opposition parties. In an Irida Lakbima column, NSSP leader Wickramabahu
Karunaratne declared that protests against the impeachment had “brought about a
unity without class differences” and insisted that dictatorial rule could be
stopped only through “such a democratic fighting movement.”
These fake
“lefts” are sowing the most dangerous illusions in elements within the
corporate elite who will inevitably side with the government against any
movement of the working class. Workers can fight against the Rajapakse emerging
police-state rule only by organising independently of every capitalist group,
and rallying the rural poor and youth, in the struggle for a workers’ and
peasants’ government to implement socialist policies.
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