Notching up one victory in the cause of justice
Journalists were made fall guys by Ikram Mohamed the outgoing President of the Bar Association in the last leg of his campaign. He said that "certain journalists were attempting to hijack the Bar Association elections.''

There is a Lincolnesque moral to the story. It is a simple one: "You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time -- but you cannot fool all the people all the time. '' These are the most memorable few words uttered in history, on the subject of public accountability.

Mohamed went on to lose the Bar Association elections, for which he used the state media. Talk about "journalists'' being made use of to subvert the Bar Association agenda.

It's no time to gloat over a victory; there is never a time to gloat over a victory. But facts that could not be set out in the same manner before the BASL elections can be set out now before the public. One of this is that the overwhelming majority of the lawyers in this country resent the trivialisation of their profession.

For Mohamed, issues such as the ouster of the Wellawaya Magistrate were subservient to his own personal agenda, which was transparently one of toadying upto the judiciary. The Wellawaya Magistrate took action against a Superintendent of Police who had caused a fatality in a traffic accident. But the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) sacked the Magistrate. The issue went under the international spotlight when the Asian Human Rights Commission campaigned for the exoneration of the Magistrate (and an investigation into the circumstances of his removal) when all he had done was to discharge the functions of his duty. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) also pointed to one very salient fact. Which was that the JSC has no appellate function with regard to litigants. In other words, if you fail in court, you cannot appeal to the JSC. But this is exactly what the Superintendent of Police did, and was rewarded for doing.

But, in the final analysis, Mohamed seemed to be in a larger conspiracy to cover up the miscarriage of justice. In this he seemed to have only one motive: this was to further his career as a lawyer, because the judiciary had come under scrutiny in this case - - and at an international level at that.

Save the judiciary, and Mohamed figured he would probably come in for favourable treatment from the bench in future litigation on behalf of clients. When the newspapers brought this flagrant tampering with judicial process under the spotlight, Mohamed sought to throttle the newspapers.

In retrospect, what he used are typical Chicago gangland tactics -- under the veneer of respectability offered by the black coat. Or, it’s something similar to what happens in Russia, where a business mafia operates with the gangland flair for running illegal operations. Drug running and money laundering are all in a day's work for these outfits - - and so is intimidating the few journalists and Magistrates who are prepared to challenge the social menace they perpetrate. It's the kudu Naufel and Ambeypitiya thing, played to a science, of course in varying degree of venom.

Mohamed's first line of attack was to say ''journalists should be hauled before courts for contempt.'' Miscalculation number one. He grossly overrated the power of the black coat over that of the Fourth Estate. He was subject to serious attack on this score by civil society, and he was reminded of his callow attempt to intimidate the press when he showed up in person at the BMICH for a seminar on the rule of Law and Role of Judiciary held hours after the Ambeypitiya killing

. One speaker reminded him of the modern jurisprudence with regard to contempt matters, and Mohamed looked sheepish. The speaker also said that the press had not done enough to challenge instances of miscarriage of justice, probably because the press was not aware of the modern laws of contempt which allowed room for the function of the newspapers as a watchdog over judicial process. "But how can the press act, when the President of the Bar Association is breathing down their neck not to?'' he charged, and Mohamed looked even more sheepish -- - until he finally took hold of his umbrella and left the hall in a huff.

In the main, Mohammed was blind to the fact that his game was up. There was evidence piling up day after day that the independence of the Judiciary and Rule of Law in this country was under threat from decisions such as Wellawaya (by the JSC), by cases such as the murder of Gerard Perara, a totally innocent man who was tortured by police in a case of mistaken identity, (and eventually assassinated when he won a fundamental rights case on this score) and that of Emmanuel Fernando who was given a harsh sentence for alleged contempt when he came before court to argue his own case. All of these cases were taken up internationally by organisations such as the Asian Human Rights Commission -- the AHRC definitely deserving special mention here for its brilliantly tenacious role in championing the cause of wronged litigants in this country in which the country's own Bar Association was conniving with the perpetrators.

This country's opposition woke up years later, when its own Member of Parliament, darling Minister and comrade-in-arms SBD was lugged in Welkada jail. When the ex-Prime Minister Mr. R. Wickremesinghe was asked by me, a scribe enjoying the twilight breeze, about his stand on the press freedom at a Commonwealth Press Union Gala held on the now-Tsunami hit beach, the PM deadpanned "for a free press, there should be independence of the judiciary.''

He was then asked: "What has your government done about the case of the Chief Justice for instance.''"He is only one man,'' replied the PM, who was still in office then - - at the height of his powers."Then tell me why your own party tried to impeach him, but only when in opposition?''.

That last query was greeted by a memorable Prime Ministerial silence. But on his way out, the Prime Minister did say something albeit half in jest about journalists these days being rather "coky.''.

The Prime Minister surely must know what a last laugh is. SBD must be telling him that every day from Welikada. On the other hand, the PM's story looked at in retrospect, is one in which he got the issues nicely juxtaposed, but without the slightest sense of direction.

He said "for a free press there must be an independent judiciary.''
After Ikram Mohamed's defeat last week - it's clear that things in this country have happened the other way around. For an independent judiciary, it's the press that has fought the good fight. An un-cowed press has ensured (although hand in hand with some very upright and rambunctiously fighting lawyers) at least a glimmer of hope for a free-judiciary, not the other way around. If there is any need for a testimony of this role of the press, search in the words of Ikram Mohamed who intoned last week: "the press has an agenda in this election.''

Absolutely right -- the press did have one, which was to defeat the forces of dark unreason, duplicity, and callow connivance. Small wonder Mohammed went in high dudgeon against the press. The lawyers went in high dudgeon too, but not against the press. They gave him a suitable reply.

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