Editorial

In Sri Lanka’s court of public opinion, there is much chatter over convicted murderers being allowed to sit in Parliament, a pro-Government terrorist turned politician indicted of assassinating an elected MP and a string of other pro-Government figures being set free, while an Opposition Parliamentarian has this week been handed down hard labour for four years for contempt of court over unsubstantiated statements in 2017 regarding corruption of judges and lawyers. Apples and oranges this may be, but this chatter is happening.

The judgment convicting the MP cites the well-known British judge of yesteryear, Lord Denning, that, ‘a contempt of court is an offence of a criminal character… a man may be sent to prison for it’. In her Focus on Rights column in this newspaper, our legal columnist says the power to punish for contempt (‘scandalising the court’) is a colonial legacy which has long been discarded by judges in those very countries. Lord Denning himself famously advocated the principle that a Court must desist from the use of contempt powers to uphold its own dignity, which must ‘rest on surer foundations’.

Contempt of Court as a criminal offence has moved on in Britain and much of the Commonwealth over the years with some exceptions, and is nowadays largely confined to the imposition of penalties for not obeying an order of court. In India recently, an uptight Supreme Court took a senior lawyer for Contempt on a tweet. There was a huge blowback from the public and the Court backtracked fining the lawyer a mere Rs. 1 as a fine, with simple imprisonment only if the fine was not paid.

In recent years, there have been efforts at defining the boundaries of Contempt of Court. Unlike in Britain or India, Sri Lanka is yet to enact a Contempt of Court law, which in itself, has been a hotly debated issue. Parliament appointed an All Party Select Committee under the chairmanship of the then Opposition MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Barrister and President’s Counsel Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2003. Despite his committee making some headway, the premature dissolution of that Parliament the next year (2004) put paid to such efforts to codify the law of Contempt, an exercise never to be revived again.

A Bar Association approved draft by its Council (2006) has been languishing in some Government drawer, probably in the Ministry of Justice for years on end. It behoves the incumbent Minister who has announced a string of changes to modernise Sri Lankan laws, to take a look at these initial steps on Contempt laws even though, and unfortunately so, the Government’s message to the Judiciary was to defend itself from unwanted attacks.

Evidently, the Supreme Court has been as much perturbed by recent repetition of sweeping claims by this MP regarding the majority of judges in Sri Lanka being corrupt, as by his original statement in 2017. These allegations are over-broad if not sensationalised. The actor turned politician seemed to have been unable to distinguish between making an allegation and proving it, and knowing that there are times when one has to apply brakes on one’s mouth, even if one is an MP. Saying it as you see it is a bad habit when you have a jaundiced eye, and are aiming to make the headlines. The real world is different from the reel world.

He also had an opportunity to show some remorse which he steadfastly refused to do. There are two strands of opinion on this. Either he was brave and upright, with his hurrah fans seeing this as a way to boost his political career, or he did not know when to back off and ‘tactically retreat’ in the face of odds stacked against him.

USA: Separation of powers saves the day

It was in our issue of November 8 last year that we said that “wild horses may not drag him (the defeated, outgoing President of USA) from the White House in January when he has to make way for his successor”. His Presidency has collapsed like a house of cards with the House of Representatives impeaching him for the second time for his high handed conduct, a schism within his once blindly loyal cabal of high-ranking supporters, and the “mob” as he later called the rabble he instigated to storm the Congress building facing criminal charges.

Those crazy scenes in Washington DC last week televised around the world shattered the image of the US as a country that peacefully changes Governments. The country became a target of ridicule and was mocked for preaching electoral processes to others. But its political institutions quickly rebounded. The foundation on which the country is founded, the ‘Separation of Powers’ ensured normalcy prevailed.

These were events that Sri Lanka is familiar with. Not long ago (2018), a power-drunk Executive President sacked his Prime Minister unconstitutionally and Members of Parliament created pandemonium in the sanctum sanctorum of the Legislature, so much so that some called it a parliament of hell, no different to the drama in Washington. Some of them are ‘Honourable’ Ministers today and the then President escaped an impeachment he otherwise richly deserved. It was the ‘Separation of Powers’, and an independent Supreme Court in Sri Lanka that stabilised the country from a near state of anarchy at the time.

The unceremonious departure of the US President by next week does not, however, bode well for the Government in Sri Lanka. No doubt, protocol will demand the standard congratulatory messages to the incoming US President. As we said on November 8, while the defeated Republicans give priority to doing business on a “what’s in it for us” basis, the incoming Democrats like to preach abroad, the advocacy of human rights and democracy as their North Star of foreign policy however hypocrisy personified it is.

America’s re-entry to UN agencies like the UN Human Rights Council means that a resolution against Sri Lanka that hangs like a Sword of Damocles will get new life for certain. Our front page stories today indicate how the Government intends meeting this challenge. Nevertheless, the new Administration in Washington is expected to restore some sanity to that country and herald a steadying period in a time of global crisis.