Casting the first stone
The Biblical exhortation "Let him without sin cast the first stone" (John:8.7) comes to mind at this time when many stones are being thrown at Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya. The hullabaloo is all about Deshpriya’s alleged contact with governmental bigwigs about his irrigation engineer son and three batch mates being found seats in a SriLankan Airlines flight bringing home Lankan students from London. The three young men, all on scholarships in the Netherlands, from London, wished to return on a SriLankan flight (there were two last week). Our regular columnist, Rajeewa Jayweera, who has over a long period demonstrated intimate knowledge of the affairs of AirLanka and its successor (for whom he had worked), has said in his column published today that the two flights had 89 and 99 empty seats respectively.
Given that the demand (for seats) was well below the available supply, one may well ask "What’s all this fuss about?" The Colombo Telegraph electronic news channel, under the heading "Deshapriya in hot water" has paid a lot of attention to this matter. Deshapriya, understandably, has rebutted the allegations made against him. The crux of the matter is whether the Elections Commission Chairman has compromised the independence this body is required to maintain, by contacting VIPs to ensure that his son and the son’s friends were on board a returning flight even if they were not full. As the well-known legal maxim goes, Justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done. This is equally true of the independence of the Elections Commission particularly at this time when a poll to elect a new parliament is due and nominations have already closed. There are many matters of contention about which the stakeholders, including politicians and activists, are on either side of the divide.
Colombo Telegraph unequivocally asserts that the train of events it has outlined at length makes the Elections Commission "beholden to the president and his government." Perhaps the commission’s other two members, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole and Mr. Nalin Abeysekera may take exception to the whole commission being lumped into a matter involving only its chairman. Be that as it may, the web report says the president had personally approved the allocation of seats the three young engineers, including Deshapriya Jr. returning from the Netherlands via London. Did such a small matter as a seat allocation need presidential approval and, if so, did the names of all returning passengers go as high as the Head of State and Government for approval?
Jayaweera laments that a straw poll he had taken among his friends saw many seeing the incident as a minor matter with one responded telling him "Honestly, I would not make a big deal of it." Only one person had said it was wrong while one individual (whom the columnist obviously highly respects) provided him a most quotable quote. "He should resign because no one will now believe he can be impartial……even if he is." The quotation from the Bible with which we began this comment, about "casting the first stone" obviously means that only those who are faultless have the right to cast judgment on others. We do not know whether those throwing stones at Deshapriya, always a flamboyant character attracting much media attention, are faultless. Probably not as being human, we are all subject to human frailties. It can be credibly argued that even if Deshapriya had done everything he’s accused of doing, it is a mere technicality of little consequence. Which father, after all, will not take an interest in getting his boy home at this time of pandemic?
Long time ago, former Prime Minister, the late Mr. Dudley Senanayake, publicly related a story of a constituent who had come to him to get his son a job. "Does he have the necessary qualifications?" the premier had questioned. "It because he does not have them that I have come to you," was the reply. Whether the premier helped his constituent or not, we do not know; but it was a good yarn for the PM to spin on a platform. The Colombo Telegraph report says that Deshapriya, on his own admission, in a telephone conversation with its editor, had hand delivered emails from his son to the Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Once this had been done, he had received calls from President’s Advisor Lalith Weeratunga and Gamini Senerath, the Secretary to the Prime Minister to work out the needed logistics. The report, replete with further salacious details, further claims that Deshapriya had also said he had called Rear Admiral (Retd.) Jayanath Colombage, who handles foreign affairs at the president’s office, about his son’s matter.
We do not think a written appeal from an ordinary person would have received such VIP treatment, assuming all that is claimed by Colombo Telegraph is factual. Applying absolute values, which certainly do not prevail in this Island, whether Deshapriya’s intervention has incurred obligations to the high and mighty at this pre-election time, is the big question. Viewpoints will be many but none from anybody entitled to cast the first stone.
The Biblical exhortation "Let him without sin cast the first stone" (John:8.7) comes to mind at this time when many stones are being thrown at Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya. The hullabaloo is all about Deshpriya’s alleged contact with governmental bigwigs about his irrigation engineer son and three batch mates being found seats in a SriLankan Airlines flight bringing home Lankan students from London. The three young men, all on scholarships in the Netherlands, from London, wished to return on a SriLankan flight (there were two last week). Our regular columnist, Rajeewa Jayweera, who has over a long period demonstrated intimate knowledge of the affairs of AirLanka and its successor (for whom he had worked), has said in his column published today that the two flights had 89 and 99 empty seats respectively.
Given that the demand (for seats) was well below the available supply, one may well ask "What’s all this fuss about?" The Colombo Telegraph electronic news channel, under the heading "Deshapriya in hot water" has paid a lot of attention to this matter. Deshapriya, understandably, has rebutted the allegations made against him. The crux of the matter is whether the Elections Commission Chairman has compromised the independence this body is required to maintain, by contacting VIPs to ensure that his son and the son’s friends were on board a returning flight even if they were not full. As the well-known legal maxim goes, Justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done. This is equally true of the independence of the Elections Commission particularly at this time when a poll to elect a new parliament is due and nominations have already closed. There are many matters of contention about which the stakeholders, including politicians and activists, are on either side of the divide.
Colombo Telegraph unequivocally asserts that the train of events it has outlined at length makes the Elections Commission "beholden to the president and his government." Perhaps the commission’s other two members, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole and Mr. Nalin Abeysekera may take exception to the whole commission being lumped into a matter involving only its chairman. Be that as it may, the web report says the president had personally approved the allocation of seats the three young engineers, including Deshapriya Jr. returning from the Netherlands via London. Did such a small matter as a seat allocation need presidential approval and, if so, did the names of all returning passengers go as high as the Head of State and Government for approval?
Jayaweera laments that a straw poll he had taken among his friends saw many seeing the incident as a minor matter with one responded telling him "Honestly, I would not make a big deal of it." Only one person had said it was wrong while one individual (whom the columnist obviously highly respects) provided him a most quotable quote. "He should resign because no one will now believe he can be impartial……even if he is." The quotation from the Bible with which we began this comment, about "casting the first stone" obviously means that only those who are faultless have the right to cast judgment on others. We do not know whether those throwing stones at Deshapriya, always a flamboyant character attracting much media attention, are faultless. Probably not as being human, we are all subject to human frailties. It can be credibly argued that even if Deshapriya had done everything he’s accused of doing, it is a mere technicality of little consequence. Which father, after all, will not take an interest in getting his boy home at this time of pandemic?
Long time ago, former Prime Minister, the late Mr. Dudley Senanayake, publicly related a story of a constituent who had come to him to get his son a job. "Does he have the necessary qualifications?" the premier had questioned. "It because he does not have them that I have come to you," was the reply. Whether the premier helped his constituent or not, we do not know; but it was a good yarn for the PM to spin on a platform. The Colombo Telegraph report says that Deshapriya, on his own admission, in a telephone conversation with its editor, had hand delivered emails from his son to the Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Once this had been done, he had received calls from President’s Advisor Lalith Weeratunga and Gamini Senerath, the Secretary to the Prime Minister to work out the needed logistics. The report, replete with further salacious details, further claims that Deshapriya had also said he had called Rear Admiral (Retd.) Jayanath Colombage, who handles foreign affairs at the president’s office, about his son’s matter.
We do not think a written appeal from an ordinary person would have received such VIP treatment, assuming all that is claimed by Colombo Telegraph is factual. Applying absolute values, which certainly do not prevail in this Island, whether Deshapriya’s intervention has incurred obligations to the high and mighty at this pre-election time, is the big question. Viewpoints will be many but none from anybody entitled to cast the first stone.
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