| by Tisaranee Gunasekara
“The first waves of a sea
of fire….”
Ivo Andrić (The Bridge over
the Drina)
( December 8, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Rajapaksas,
those Wonder-Brothers, have wrought another miracle. They have beaten Usain
Bolt, hollow.
The impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake deserves to enter
the annals of world history and the Guinness Book of World Records as the
fastest impeachment proceedings, ever.
The impeachment motion was handed over to the Speaker on 1st
November 2012. The Parliamentary Select Committee was appointed on 15th
November 2012. The PSC commenced impeachment hearings on 23rd
November 2012. The PSC, sans its 4
opposition members, concluded its hearings on 7th December 2012 –
though this fact was not formally announced either in parliament or outside. The
truncated PSC handed over its impeachment report to the Speaker on 8th
December 2012.
The PSC completed the impeachment hearing in 14 days and prepared
its report in less than 24 hours!
Such breathtaking efficiency! Such dizzying speed!
Bravo!
If there is any justice in this world, the seven UPFA members of the
PSC, who did such a stellar job on behalf of their Masters, should receive
top-notch ministries at the upcoming cabinet reshuffle. And they should always
be found innocent, ipso facto, by the
Rajapaksaised-judiciary which the impeachment aims to usher in.
117 Rajapaksa serfs signed the impeachment motion, even though they
were not allowed to read it. 7 Rajapaksa serfs conducted an impeachment
investigation, knowing that they must find the CJ guilty as charged,
irrespective of evidence. The same seven Rajapaksa serfs concluded the
investigation without even informing the parliament and placed their signatures
on a pre-cooked impeachment report, with the pre-decided guilty verdict.
All was done on the orders of the Rajapaksa liege-lords, who took
care to keep themselves officially insulated from the impeachment process,
while ordering their serfs to do the dirty work from behind the scenes. Interestingly,
revealingly, neither Uncle Basil nor Nephew Namal signed the impeachment
motion.
The Rajapaksas could have taught the inquisitors and the
witch-hunters a thing or two, about speedy and unnatural injustice.
A Regime sans Shame or Justice
The final outcome of the impeachment drama was never in doubt. The
Rajapaksas are hell-bent on getting rid of the CJ; therefore the UPFA majority
in the PSC would have found her guilty as charged, with or without evidence.
Still, had the Rajapaksas so wanted, they could have handled the
impeachment process with at least a pinch of restraint and a touch of finesse.
For instance, the PSC Chairman could have agreed to the removal of Ministers
Rajitha Senaratne and Wimal Weerawansa since they could have been replaced by two
other invertebrates. Or the CJ could have been given the five week period she
asked for to prepare her defence, since whatever evidence she came up with
would not have mattered an iota to the final verdict. Or the Opposition’s request
for a pause in the impeachment proceedings during parliamentary vacation could
have been acceded to.
All these concessions could have been made without jeopardising the
Rajapaksa goal of impeaching the CJ. Being nuanced and restrained would not
have prevented the Rajapaksas from achieving their heart’s desire of getting
rid of Shirani Bandaranayake and appointing a completely supine acolyte to that
position. In fact had the Rajapaksas cloaked their inflexible goal with a
nuanced approach, they could have generated a genuine public debate about the
impeachment and gained themselves some badly needed legitimacy in international
eyes.
But the Rajapaksas did the opposite. They used their two-thirds majority
in the PSC with the finesse and the accuracy of a cudgel wielded by a mammoth,
über-strong but ham-handed ogre. Their seven PSC-stooges rejected every single
request made by the CJ and by the opposition members. And by acting in such a
blatantly unfair and unjust manner the Rajapaksas exposed the impeachment for
the travesty it is, to their own discredit.
Did the Siblings think that the CJ would not fight back? Did they
assume that that the legal fraternity would be too divided to rally round the CJ
and that the civil society would maintain its usual somnolence, in the company
of the political opposition? Did they hope to use the likes of Wimal Weerawansa,
Rajitha Senaratne and Dilan Perera to reduce the CJ to a weeping wreck, too
demoralised to fight back? Did they believe that a suitably chastised CJ would
gratefully accept an offer of freedom from persecution and another job – and
fade away into oblivion?
Are the Siblings too inane to realise that their original script
looks extremely out-of-place in the new conjuncture created by the CJ’s determination
to resist and the growing sympathy and support she seems to be gaining from the
legal fraternity, the polity and the civil society? Don’t they understand that
the impeachment travesty will undermine their credibility nationally and
destroy whatever is left of their reputation internationally?
The UPFA majority in the PSC, left to its own devices, would have
delivered the guilty verdict the Rajapaksas wanted in a far more credible way.
But that is not how the Rajapaksas rule. They want things their way. And their
way is the way of the Humanitarian Operation; ensuring zero-civilian casualty not
by taking precautions but by imposing a blanket censorship and labelling every
dead Tamil (man, woman, child or baby) a Tiger.
Under Rajapaksa tutelage the impeachment was transferred from a
constitutional act into a political chainsaw massacre, with blood and gore
galore. And the message it sends is clear: if you stand in the Rajapaksa way
and not only will you be removed, but you will removed in a manner which
maximises your pain, your suffering and your humiliation.
Obviously the Rajapaksa idea of a proper trial is exactly the same
as the Rajapaksa idea of a proper election – a manifestly biased process with
prearranged outcome, characterised by power-abuse and impunity.
Anti-democratic and unjust conduct has become a visceral habit of
the Rajapaksas, something in their political-blood. The Rajapaksas abuse power
blatantly and act with manifest injustice during any election, including the
ones they can win very easily. It is as if they have forgotten that there can
be other, more intelligent and less destructive, ways of achieving their goals.
According to Greek mythology, Zeus sent two gifts to mankind to help
men in the task of governance: aidos – shame - and dike - justice. That the
Rajapaksas lack both qualities is clear from the manner in which the
impeachment process was conducted. (Ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Dilan Perera
treated the CJ with uncouth rudeness because that was what their puppet-masters
expected them to do. Had they been told by the Rajapaksas to treat the CJ with
the deference her position demands and the politeness which is due to every
human being, they would have done so. Their ‘brief’ was the opposite – confound
and demoralise the CJ by subjecting her to verbal abuse).
Rulers who have neither a sense of shame nor a sense of justice can plummet
to the lowest of depths, unhesitatingly and repeatedly. For them everything is
permitted. Such leaders are a disgrace to the country they rule and a danger to
the people whose destinies they control.
 ( December 8, 2012, Co...){kind=link}