Victor Ivan is a hero here for many reasons. He fought to earn justice for two victims from the oppressed masses while being very vulnerable to a strong but corrupt criminal justice system.
by Helasingha Bandara
It was the 30th of April 2020.The Spring chill had not abated. Cherry blossom was reaching the end of season although the spectacle was still unparalleled. Life, limited by the Corona pandemic to the standing at the window every morning for hours seemed to have added new meaning to existence. Nature and its mesmerising creations appeared to have pronounced beauty especially when juxtaposed with the void created by the pandemic.
“Did you sleep well?” It was the usual greeting of my wife. She said that she accidentally came across a short film at the previous night and thought I would like it. It was entitled “UsaviyaNihandai” with a bracketed translation of “silence in the courts”. To her mind, it had relevance to me as some place names in the documentary were of the area from which I hail. The watching of the documentary woke me up to a bold activism unfolded decades ago while we were ignorantly sleeping miles away in foreign lands. The names of the people and places depicted in the film were familiar to me. For instance, I had personally met P.B. Tennakoon, a lawyer by profession, and RanjithNawarathna, a politician who were characters of the film. It was not uncharacteristic of Tennakoon to have played such a villainous role in this real life drama. Within the fifteen minutes I had spent with him some time ago, I concluded that he was an ill-mannered, uncultured, insensitive, uneducated and unintelligent human animal.
The film is based on a true story about a magistrate raping two female respondents of two different court cases with the help of some lawyers. A certain journalist, while exposing the rapist, initiated a campaign against those who subverted the criminal justice system including the then attorney general and the chief justice. Although the magistrate was found guilty of the four charges levelled against him, he did not receive a sufficient punishment relative to his crimes and the victims did not receive the deserved justice either. The film was proscribed by a Sri Lankan court at the behest of an injunction obtained by the accused magistrate. Later the film received international recognition.
The subsequent search for this particular case and the people involved in the whole saga educated me sufficiently to compound my already perceived views of Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system and indeed the whole governance. It has been over two decades since the case was concluded. The impact of the case has faded from the minds of the older generation and the younger generation may not have any knowledge about this struggle. It becomes a social responsibility to pass this information to younger generations to give them courage to fight against injustice whatever the face it takes and whoever has committed that injustice. With this in mind I decided to dedicate this article to my three heroes.
Hero 1: Shit throwing husband of Kamalawathie
ChandanaPushpaRuwan (Ruwan) was a self-employed goldsmith and a petty criminal. All fifteen or so court cases for which he was indicted at the time were about making gold jewellery of substandard material, except one case in which he was accused of assaulting a magistrate. On one occasion he and his wife W.B.M. Kamalawathie were charged for trying to pawn substandard gold jewellery to a state bank. Lenin Rathnayaka, the magistrate of Mahava and Nikaweratiya courts at the time remanded Ruwan until the next hearing and released his wife. While Ruwan was still in custody the Magistrate lured Kamalawathie with the help of JinadasaLekamge and P.B. Tennakoon, both lawyers serving in those courts and raped her on four occasions. Kamalawathie eventually informed Ruwan about what happened. Ruwan was powerless against an all-powerful magistrate particularly while in remand custody. He thought of the best course of action under the circumstances to tarnish the name of the rapist. He went to the next hearing at Nikaweratiya court armed with two bags of human excretion and a bottle he believed to be filled with liquid gas. When the opportune moment came he hit across the face of the magistrate with one bag and threw the other at the face of P.B Tennakoon. Then he hit the magistrate on the head with the bottle and overpowered two police officers who attempted to subdue him. When everybody ran off the court he smashed all furniture in the court. Finally, two prison guards who were known to him convinced him to surrender to the armed forces personnel who had surrounded the court premises.
He showed the people of the criminal justice system that despite the power that they wield against particularly the poor masses they are still susceptible to the wrath of people once their human dignity is violated. He taught the ordinary people that they must stand on their own feet when the necessity for action rises. He set an example that life is important but not at all cost. His courage, determination and valour against the injustice caused upon him is unheard of when compared with the magnitude of power of the adversary that he was faced with.
Hero 2: Victor Ivan
Victor Ivan was the 7th accused of the JVP rebellion of 1971.During his imprisonment of seven or so years he abandoned the JVP doctrine and embraced a nonviolent path. He managed to convert his punishment into a blessing in disguise by educating himself to a very high standard. He put into practice the skills and the knowledge he developed while being a prisoner by writing a significant number of books and being the editor of the Ravaya newspaper.
“Nadu yannowenasenno”, the cliché can be loosely translated to, seeking justice through the justice system, is self-destructive. The cliché becomes absolutely meaningful when the struggle is against the very system. Victor is one such person who went against the very solid foundation of the criminal justice system, being well aware of the dangers. There were ample grounds for the system to distort his activism using his former connection to the JVP. Who can be bold enough to take such risks other than a handful of people like Victor Ivan?
The rapist magistrate had been dismissed from an earlier employment for finance misappropriation. He had been cunningly clever to manoeuvre a weaker system to be employed as a magistrate who later abused his position in the most vile sense of the phrase. Starting from him, Victor carried forward his struggle to the attorney general followed by the chief justice. When neither the attorney general, nor the chief justice was able to take serious note of the case he was bold enough to go beyond them to the Judiciary commission. Finally, the accused magistrate was found guilty of all charges but he was merely sent on compulsory leave with half of his salary being intact. Victor Ivan did not receive justice, neither the rape victims until this day. It could be unjust if we do not pay tribute here to the invaluable contribution of KalyanandaThiranagama to the case of the rape victims.
Victor Ivan is a hero here for many reasons. He fought to earn justice for two victims from the oppressed masses while being very vulnerable to a strong but corrupt criminal justice system. He wasted his own resources on his involvement in those cases. He used his knowledge and skills to investigate the cases, found the truth and proved to the world who the guilty party was. Such people are rare in our society. In an era in which almost everybody is an acharya, mahacharya or a visharadha, Victor Ivan’s contribution being an author of 20 or so books, being a journalist and being an activist for social justice deserves to be credited with an honorary Doctorate.
Hero 3. Prasanna Vithanage
The Sinhalese film industry was hitting rock bottom in their artistic value, when Prasanna was bold enough to touch a subject that he was well aware to be controversial to say the least. With reading habits of our society at a low ebb, he was mindful that such an important message could create the desired impact only through the medium of cinema or other social media. Prasanna has produced this film to raise awareness among all sections of the society and to complement the challenge that Victor Ivan and Kalyananda had initiated while being aware of the dangers posed by the potential adversary. He is a hero of our times.
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