Ceylon Today Editorial

Political murders must be probed 

13thOctober 2015 

 

Arrest of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan also known as Pillaiyan last Monday (11), though belated by a decade is undeniably positive progress. People responsible for political assassinations and crimes of all sorts, although it may not be all, are being apprehended.

During the past decade or so these 'alleged criminals' were turned politicians by successive governments and baptized ceremoniously into the mainstream of politics in the country. That act itself is massively detrimental to human values and democracy a government of a country stands for. This was all done in the name of politics and the benefit of the country, although it did not turn out that way in the end. It also a move for politicians to win elections in areas where these 'alleged criminals' once held innocent people at gun point.

Pillaiyan is no Saint to the people of the Eastern Province. He was deemed as a terrorist as much as Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna. People of the North and East shunned them as terrorists, only for them to enter the orthodox politics of the country. During the regime of the late President Premadasa, six hundred policemen in the Eastern Province who surrendered to the LTTE reportedly on the orders of the government were reportedly massacred. All of them are still missing and all fingers were pointed at the then LTTE Leader of East, who happened to be Karuna himself.

These murders were severely criticized by the then Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Opposition. However, in an ironic turn of event, the same Karuna was made a Minister and a Vice President of the SLFP in the Eastern Province. That was the politics practised in the past by Southern Leaders.

Malcolm X had said "To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is."The actions and the crimes that went unnoticed perpetrated by Karuna and Pillaiyan, after they turned coats for their own benefit, did not deviate from those of a criminal. We know it is bad and is not generally accepted to label individuals for the actions they have committed in the past. However, in this case, we are helpless at the hands of the truth that everyone is aware of. The crimes they committed are famous secrets that everyone has heard or known.

All the more, political interference in police investigations must come to a halt immediately. Law and Order and Prison Reforms Minister Tilak Marapana PC earlier said that the government had allowed unreserved freedom to police without political obstructions as it would help curb crime and corruption in the country. And, in more recent events the Constitutional Council has sent the names of the eligible individuals to be appointed in the Independent Police Commission to the President. The Constitutional Council which was re-introduced to Sri Lanka through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is somewhat of a consulting process and not an arbitrary one which was observed in the previous administration. The President is forced to make a choice between the nominations made by the Constitutional Council without having to choose someone out of the Council's recommendations.

At a time when the crime rate of the country is seemingly increasing exponentially, and with regards to child abuse, sexual offences and murder, it is essential that the police must have a free hand to investigate all types of crime, without political interference of any kind. After all, the long hand of law is to enforce law, not to nanny politicos.

There was undeniably a grave breakdown in the law and order of the country over the past decade mainly because of the political interference in police activities. The only solution to mete out proper justice to the crimes that take place in the country is to first of all give full freedom to the police force that can "commit and be confident to uphold and enforce the law of the land, to preserve the public order, prevent crime and terrorism with prejudice to none – equity to all," as said in the mission declaration of the police.

As far as the general public is concerned, the police have failed to stand by their vision and mission.
Writer Lemony Snicket wrote, "Criminals should be punished; not fed pastries." Likewise, it is good that the current Yahapalana Government is taking a firm stand on arresting and apprehending alleged criminals who ran amok in the country. Next step is to prosecute these alleged criminals through an independent legal process and punish them for their crimes. This appointment of the eligible individuals to the Independent Police Commission should not be delayed.

Furthermore, providing provisions to Pre-Trial Procedures through amendments to the Civil Procedure Code is also a matter that should be enacted without delay. The provisions should be provided to resolve the long delays in trial procedures which have already undermined public confidence in the Judicial system and the public is confronted with serious financial problems with this situation.

Crimes that are committed under malicious reasons are not a cultural, political or racial phenomenon, no matter the case. Evil is a human phenomenon. The ball is in the President's court now. Let's see wait till the Independent Police Commission and other proposals see the light of day.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Cause and effect of UNHRC resolution

13th October 2015 

Many, including the ministers of the former regime who were staunch supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, are commending the government for its handling of foreign affairs, especially the issues pertaining to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 

True, compared to what this year’s UNHRC resolution and other actions in respect of Sri Lanka would have been, had the then president Rajapaksa still been in power, the stance taken by the world human rights body and the Western powers towards the country has been somewhat lenient. The apologists of the former regime question as to how the allegations of human rights violations against the security forces could be softened just because of a regime change in Sri Lanka. In fact no allegation has been softened, they have been more specific and detailed instead, but the actions recommended on Sri Lanka seem to be relatively lenient.

Needless to say, as claimed by the leaders of the former regime, the Western powers are selective in taking action against the countries in respect of violations of human rights. The best case in point is the soft stance taken by the Western countries towards the inhuman treatment meted out to the Palestinians by the successive Israeli regimes for the past seven decades. Also it was the US and some other countries,as claimed by the leaders of the former government that supported the government in its anti-terrorist drive against the LTTE despite their pressure at the winning moment to stop the war in the name of human rights, that has apparently led to the present situation. The contention that a resolution on the country being presented in the UNHRC is itself an assault on the reputation and the sovereignty of the country is vividly valid and also that the Western powers are pushing us to take action against some of the soldiers who immensely contributed in defeating the LTTE.

All these are true. But the reality is that they are powerful and we have given them ammunition by being at fault due to some of our actions during and after the war such as the killing of five students in Trincomalee and 17 ACF aid workers in Muttur in 2006 and the killing of demonstrators in Weliweriya in 2013. We promised them without any reciprocity on their part, for instance, in respect of their treatment of Al Qaida suspects, to investigate these incidents and punish the perpetrators, as we were compelled to do so. Unfortunately, the perpetrators seem to be few among the valiant soldiers who liberated the country from the jaws of terrorism.

Therefore we have to find a solution once and for all. There are three options -- to reject all reports and resolutions emanating from Geneva and face what may come, to cooperate with the Special Hybrid Court suggested by the OHCHR report or to do something on our own that would conform to international law. The government has chosen the least harmful last option. One can describe this as
an achievement.

But on the domestic front things continue to be worse. The spiraling cost of living has been eclipsed by the discussions on Geneva and by the antics of some of the politicians for which TV channels have spared a time slot in their daily news bulletin under various captions. The unemployed youth who reposed their trust in the government have begun to be restless with the absence of short-term or long-term programmes to be seen on the ground or on blueprint, in spite of the five million employment pledge by the leaders of the government. People almost lost confidence on the government’s ability to take action against the multi-billion-rupee corrupt transactions that were propagated during the last presidential election by the leaders of the same government. 

It is the habit of the people of this country to take the two major political parties as the malady and the remedy at each major election. At times they swap these roles of the two parties and change the regime. It is high time the government strikes a balance between the international and domestic fronts and reassures the people that it can still be treated as the remedy for their ills.