The Island Editorial

Curtain down on Wele Suda drama

16th October 2015

A notorious drug dealer, Samantha Kumara, better known as Wele Suda, has been sentenced to death. If one goes by media reports one might get the impression that his execution is only a matter of time. But, the reality is otherwise. Judicial executions which have been suspended since the late 1970s will never be carried out in this country.

Ironically, the pious political leaders who are wary of implementing judicial executions turn a blind eye to extrajudicial killings! The J. R. Jayewardene regime which suspended the hanging of criminals who were condemned to death had no qualms about engineering prison riots where dozens of Tamil inmates were massacred in 1983. It also had thousands of youth with alleged links to the JVP abducted, tortured, killed and burnt on tyre-pyres. At least 27 convicts were killed during a prison riot during the Rajapaksa government which also did not want to resume judicial executions!

The incumbent administration which craftily pretended to be mulling over the resumption of judicial hanging and, thereby distracted public attention from its failure to stem the present crime wave, reaffirmed recently at the UNHRC, its commitment to abolishing the capital punishment. Thus, death penalty has become a misnomer; it gets commuted to life imprisonment. Wele Suda, like other drug dealers in jail is likely to live life to the fullest behind bars with prison officers in his pocket.

All the drug dealers, currently in prison, have been described as ‘kingpins’. Among them are Nauffer, who once sponsored a judicial officers’ function and had High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya assassinated, Jesudasan, who had a serving IGP as a guest at his daughter’s birthday bash, Shyam, who used to entertain several prominent politicians at his Ward Place residence and Wele Suda, who has revealed that a number of powerful politicians and high ranking police officers benefited from his largesse. But, all these drug dealers have been mere cogs in the machine. Else, the drug trade would have collapsed, causing a severe shortage of narcotics when they were thrown behind bars. The police continue to seize hauls of drugs in different parts of the country, don’t they?

Thus, it becomes clear that the real drug czars are still at large, carrying out their operations with impunity. Who are they? This is the million, nay billion, dollar question that needs to be answered if the country is to be rid of the scourge of narcotics. These dangerous elements don’t walk like drug dealers; they don’t talk like drug dealers and they are not seen to be acting like drug dealers. Hence, the difficulty in identifying them!

What a song and dance the police and their political masters made when Wele Suda was brought here from Pakistan in January! We were told that he had revealed the names of some key politicians and police officers who had obtained protection money from him. His confession became a campaign slogan of the 100-day government which used it as a bludgeon against its opponents. After it won the Aug. 17 general election and consolidated its power, investigations into his alleged links to politicians lost steam. Now, the Wele Suda circus has come to an end!

The onus is on the government and the police to ensure that politicians and others who benefited from Wele Suda’s drug money and protected him in return are also brought to justice without further delay. These sinister elements will prop up another drug dealer and help him fill the vacuum created by Wele Suda’s exit; they are the kingmakers in the netherworld of drugs and crime. No campaign against narcotics will reach fruition unless these godfathers are traced and punished.