හොංකොංවල සිදුවූ නිහඬ විප්ලවය
The second part of the Hong Kong argument, and the practical half: Godber’s flight, the independent commission set up in answer to it, the cleaning of the police, the construction industry and the attorney general’s department. A deputy director of prosecutions fled the country and the senior lawyer who helped him got four years. Today complaints against public servants are almost unheard of.
අධිකරණයේ විනිසුරුවරුන්ට ආචාර ධර්ම පද්ධතියක්
The Bar Association has appointed a former Chief Justice and two retired Supreme Court judges to draft a code of ethics for judges. The editorial welcomes it, but says the judiciary’s indecency flows from the Chief Justice himself, and that the law must be enforced against him if the trend is to be reversed.
නීතිඥ සංගම් නිලවරණ ප්රතිඵලය: අගවිනිසුරුට එරෙහි ව ඉදිරිපත් වූ විශ්වාසභංගයකි
Though only lawyers voted, the Bar Association election was as important as a general election, because the Supreme Court had become the centre of political power. The editorial reads Desmond Fernando’s late entry and victory over the Chief Justice’s trusted ally as a vote of no confidence in Sarath N. Silva.
අධිකරණයේ ගරා වැටීම
A Daily Mirror front-page photograph of the Hyde Park rally held on the 21st for S.B. Dissanayake’s release prompts reflection on where the crisis around the Chief Justice is heading. The Bar Association and every party looked away while the cancer spread, and their opportunism now threatens a complete collapse of the system of justice.
නීතිඥ වෘත්තියේ ගෞරවය හා අධිකරණ ස්වාධීනත්වය
The editorial welcomes the Bar Association’s belated awakening over the case of the Wellawaya magistrate, which it says exposes the Chief Justice’s partisan handling of the judiciary. It notes the record of the police officer involved and how first the JVP and then the Hela Urumaya fell silent about the Chief Justice.
ටෝනි නිදහස ලැබීම
Tony Fernando has been freed after serving the one-year sentence for contempt imposed by a bench headed by the Chief Justice, telling supporters his only offence was reading a constitutional provision in court. Ivan alleges the Chief Justice orchestrated the assault on him in prison. Further sections report Param Cumaraswamy’s Colombo lectures criticising the Bar Association under Ananda Wijesekera, a Dinakara article defending the Chief Justice by Nelson Perera, and new evidence of Tilanga Sumathipala’s links with Dhammika Amarasinghe.
අල්ලස් කොමිසමේ හුස්ම හිරවීම
The President and two of the Bribery Commission’s members oppose Justice Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara’s proposals to change the commission’s membership. The editorial argues that filling independent commissions with retired judges and lawyers has failed and slights other professions, that both government and opposition want to control the commissions, and that the Constitutional Council has not appointed new members as the 17th Amendment requires. Commissioners need courage as well as learning, like Neville Samarakoon.
අල්ලස් දූෂණ, දේශපාලනය හා යුක්තිය පසිඳලීම
At a Transparency International seminar Ivan asked Bribery Commission chairman S. Ananda Coomaraswamy why the commission had cleared Mangala Samaraweera over a Rs. 500,000 credit card from a state body. He contrasts the commission with former commissioner Neelum Gamage, who resisted pressure from President Wijetunga over Wack Silva, and argues that politicians enriched by corruption will never accept an independent commission. A second section criticises the legal community’s belated alarm at Mark Fernando’s early retirement and describes the decay of the judiciary under Sarath N. Silva.
නීති සමාජය ගොලුවීම
After UN rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy visited Tony Fernando in hospital and urged the Bar Association to speak up, Ivan condemns the silence of lawyers, human rights figures and most newspapers, and alleges that the Chief Justice uses an $18.2 million World Bank judicial reform loan to buy silence through consultancies and trips. He faults President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe for tolerating the rot, questions the President’s claims about LTTE arms ships and an assassination plot, and criticises W.J.M. Lokubandara’s handling of the Public Trustee.
Rule of Law and the Judiciary
One of the three pillars of the modern democratic political system is the judiciary. When the legislature consisting of representatives elected by the people enacts policies, the instrument that implements those policies is the executive.