by Saman Indrajith
The implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into political victimization (PCOI) would have a huge effect on the independence of the judiciary and its function in search of justice, says the Lawyers’ Forum for the People.
“This is a real danger to democracy and the country’s democratic institutions and processes”, Co-Convener of the Forum, Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera told a news conference at the Dr. NM Perera Center last week.
“The recommendations, if implemented, will inflict irrevocable damage on the judiciary and impact adversely on democracy. Politicians can come and go. They appoint commissions as a means to their political ends, but the judiciary is not so. The Judiciary is not there to serve the politicians to achieve their political goals but to serve all people alike”, he noted.
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Serious questions have been raised about the manner in which the Commissioners who constituted the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on political victimization (PCoI) have compromised the independence with which they were expected to discharge their quasi-judicial role. The Commission was appointed by President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa to inquire into and report on acts of political victimization of public officials, corporation employees, police officers and members of the armed services.
According to opposition sources, it is clear that the PCI, chaired by Upali Abeyratne, former Supreme Court Judge who has been a controversial figure had acted on the dictates of the Rajapaksa regime. The other members were Chandra Jayatilleke, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal, who himself courted controversy during his period as Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission and Chandra Fernando, a former Inspector General of Police who was actively involved in the last Presidential an
Geneva, Rajapaksa Regime & Myanmar Shadows The darkness of night is the close companion of dictators. ~ (Hafez,
Divan) (Quoted in Kim Ghattas,
Black Wave, London, 2020, p.31)
Within a period of just over one year the Rajapaksa regime, headed by two septuagenarian siblings with different professional traits – one, a military man, and the other, a crass politician, but both beholden to a Sinhala Buddhist supremacist ideology that is shredding Sri Lankan society into pieces, has driven the country into a cauldron of crises, from public health and economy to ecology and human rights and to cultural confrontations and social tensions. Of the two, it was the elder and patriarch of the clan, Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) who, with understandable reluctance nominated the junior, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa (NGR) as candidate for the presidency in 2019 and made him win the contest, without realizing the danger that sooner or later NGR would sideline Prime Minister MR and take control of
Ambassador Malraj de Silva presented Letters of Credence to Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the Qasr Al Watan Presidential Palace, Sri Lankan Embassy in Abu Dhabi said.
The presentation of credentials was followed by a courtesy call on Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum during which the Ambassador conveyed greetings from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the People of Sri Lanka to President of UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, all the other rulers and the People of the United Arab Emirates.