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to the Editor |
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Return of Joe
Sim: Road to peace is fun But to me and
many of my friends, the dark clouds of pessimism and hopelessness
were swiftly blown away by the news prominently flashed by the media
that Joe Sim is back in Sri Lanka. His arrival spells hope to a
nation in despair. President Ranasinghe
Premadasa, arguably the most efficient leader we have had in recent
times, made two significant mistakes -- getting rid of the IPKF
and hounding out Joe Sim. If the IPKF
were allowed to fight the LTTE, history would have been different. If Joe Sim
were allowed to carry on with his daring business ventures he would
have, in a matter of a few years, transformed our fragile economy
and made this island the Monte Carlo of the Indian Ocean. The only argument
that can be levelled against the return of Joe Sim is that he will
promote gambling which can be a social evil. But surely, gambling
is not new to our country. The Gaming Ordinance, the Betting on
Horse Racing Law, the Lotteries Ordinance and even the Cheetu Ordinance
were pre-independence statutes not to promote gambling but to control
gambling which our people had taken to in a big way. Nobody can
raise a finger against gambling today. There are lottery ticket
sales points and well-advertised offices of turf accountants in
every nook and corner of the island. Of course, we have been unwittingly
made parties to the worst form of gambling - politics! Today, politicians
apart from resorting to unlawful and immoral acts, spend millions
to win elections. After winning, they rake in the spoils a thousand-fold.
They are veritably playing roulette with the nation while a hapless
public looks on. The return of Joe with a massive investment proposal
has certainly added credibility to the government's economic policies.
Joe Sim is
too shrewd a businessman to gamble with millions in a financial
desert. Obviously,
he has learnt a lot from his first stay in the island or he has
been well instructed how Sri Lankans can be fooled. It needs to
be emphasized that this nation has been starved of entertainment. The cinema
has deteriorated and TV programmes have become stale. Many of us
can still remember how members of the working class irrespective
of ethnicity, caste or creed met at the Dominion, the White Horse
or Brown's Bar in the Fort. Horse racing in Colombo, Galle, Nuwara
Eliya and Talduwa permitted thousands to meet and intermingle. The
musical extravaganzas, the Holiday on Ice, the Harlem Black Birds
of that unforgettable impresario Donovan Andree certainly kept the
minds of the youth away from mischief. The government,
the opposition and the whole of Sri Lanka should view the return
of Joe Sim as a blessing in disguise. Joe Sim will be able to play
a significant role in the peace process. He should be
given all the encouragement to open theme parks with star-class
hotels, casinos, horse racing, massage parlours, live porn shows
etc. not only in Colombo but in places such as Jaffna, Mullaitivu,
Vavuniya, Mannar, Valachchenai and China Bay. These will
become the happy meeting places for the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim
youth. When they know that life can be full of fun, they will soon
forget the war. The entire nation will clamour for the recognition
of Joe as a distinguished citizen. We don't kill
fish, they just die "A people
bred under the influence of tenets (Buddhist), forbidding the taking
of life, have developed some of the most cruel and exquisite forms
of torture known to history in reference to the lower animals...
A long list of such instances might be given, as well as Illustrations
of the hypocrisy which makes Buddhist fishermen say: 'We do not
kill the fish, we take them out of the water and they die of themselves!'
" Road cricket
a nuisance In Egoda Uyana,
Moratuwa, I saw some boys playing cricket on the yellow lines. They
had placed their 'wicket' in such a way that the edge of the yellow
line became the batting crease. Playing on public roads is a punishable
offence. Was Nihal the
best guardian of judges and lawyers? We can still
recall phase one and two. Phase one was
his secretaryship of the Ministry of Justice from 1970 to 1977.
This was a memorable time for us. Lawyers and law students feared
for the future of the legal profession, the independence of the
judiciary and the continued existence of the professional organization
of the legal profession (the Bar Association in Sri Lanka). Occasionally,
we welcomed a refreshing breeze from international human rights
organisations such as Amnesty International, which criticised some
of his actions. The most memorable was the Blom-Cooper Report published
by Amnesty International in 1975. One serious criticism it made
was that after the main insurgency trial concluded and sentences
had been imposed, the convicted persons were deprived of their normal
right to remission for good conduct under the Prisons Ordinance.
Mr. Jayawickrama did so by using his powers as Secertary, Ministry
of Justice under the Emergency Regulations. Mr. Jayawickrama
sought to undermine the Bar Association in Sri Lanka when he got
the Solicitor General and two important officials of the Justice
Ministry to resign from the association. He also summoned a meeting
of state counsel who were members of the Attorney General's Department
to persuade them to resign from the association and form their own
organisation. This enterprise of Mr. Jayawickrama found him and
Mr. Desmond Fernando on opposite sides (strangely enough today Desmond
Fernando is the nominee of the International Bar Association and
most members of the Cabinet for the office of UN Special Rapporteur).
Mr. Fernando was the then Secretary of the Bar Association. The
late Dr. H.W. Jayewardene was its President. Mr. Jayawickrama with
all his political influence failed to break up the Sri Lanka Bar
Association because the then President and the Secretary who were
in office were able to preserve the organisation. Another feature
of Mr. Jayawickrama's secretaryship was his involvement in the work
of the Attorney General's Department. For example, he pressed the
Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions to use
the Emergency Regulations to detain Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali. This
was to deprive Mr. Athulathmudali of the right to bail. The allegations
against Mr. Athulathmudali had nothing whatsoever to do with national
security. The Attorney General ultimately decided that there was
no case against Mr. Athulathmudali. A dramatic
event was his sitting at the bar table (which is reserved for Queen's
Counsel) and being asked by the Chief Justice to give up his seat
to a senior Queen's Counsel. However, it appears that here he was
acting on the instructions of the then Minister of Justice Felix
R. Dias Bandaranaike. Phase two was
his own trial before the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry.
This inquiry began in January 1979 and concluded in July 1979. He
was found guilty of a number of charges and not guilty of others.
The commission recommended that he be deprived of his civic rights.
An interesting document is reproduced at page 136 of the report
on the findings. That is Mr Jayawickrama's request to the Minister
of Justice to be appointed a Supreme Court Judge. After the change
of government in 1977 he handed his application to Dr. H.W. Jayewardene
QC who in turn forwarded it to the new secretary to the Ministry
of Justice. The report
also states that according to Mr. Jayawickrama it was only he who
gave a correct version of the facts and that the versions given
inter alia by Chief Justice Victor Tennekoon, Attorney General Siva
Pasupathy and Public Prosecutions Director Ranjit Abeysuriya were
not in accordance with the facts. The commission states: "We
have carefully analysed the evidence and have found no support for
the respondent's allegations against these high officials." Phase three,
over to you Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando. 'Letters
to the Editor' should be brief and to the point.
Address them to: 'Letters to the Editor, The Sunday Times, P.O.Box 1136, Colombo. Or e-mail to steditor@wijeya.lk or stfeat@wijeya.lk Please note that letters cannot be acknowledged or returned. |
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