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• President to ignore Supreme Court request ‘to appoint an acting IGP’
  

The instant IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon learned at the Bambalapitiya Police Station, where he had arrived to supervise security arrangements for an event to be attended by the President, that the Supreme Court had temperorily stripped him of his post and denied him the trappings of office, he had immediately left the scene.

The Supreme Court order, issued in respect of a fundamental rights petition filed by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and eight others against IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon, restrained him from functioning and exercising any duties as IGP until the final determination of the case on November 11. The Supreme Court had temporarily taken his Sam Brown belt away from him.

The Court requested the President to appoint an acting IGP, in terms of law, for the interim period, as soon as soon as possible.

The three lordships, Justice Yasantha Kodagoda, who delivered the unanimous order, Justice Achala Wengappuli and Justice Mahinda Samayawardena observed, ‘the Constitutionality of the appointment had been made contrary to the applicable provisions of the Constitution’.

The Speaker of the House, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, came under parliamentary fire the same day, when Opposition leader, SJB’s Sajith Premadasa, accused him of violating the constitutional process.

SPEAKER YAPA: ‘I was right’

He charged: ‘The Speaker sent a letter to the President, recommending the appointment of Deshabandu Tennakoon as IGP. He distorted the Constitutional Council ruling by interpreting the two abstaining votes of civil society members as votes against Deshabandu and used his casting vote to recommend Deshabandu as the Constitutional Council decision. It is on the basis of the Speaker’s letter that the President made the appointment. The Speaker has blatantly violated the Constitution.’

In answer, the Speaker replied, he had not taken the decision wrongly but constitutionally after careful consideration. He declared on Friday: ‘It might be wrong for you, it might be wrong for someone else. But we have taken that decision according to our conscience. The decision was taken after looking into everything, and I did not take it at home.’

But on Friday, with the Election Commission having announced the election date as September 21 and August 15 as the date of nominations, ending the endless guessing game which had become the nation’s pastime for the last two months, the focal point of controversy turned on the appointment of an acting IGP to supervise and direct the police in their operations. This had been occasioned by Wednesday’s Supreme Court order which had temporarily restrained IGP Tennakoon from carrying out duties as Police Chief until November 11.

This does not mean there is a vacancy in the IGP post. If the Election Commission Chairman should suddenly take ill, God forbid, a member of the Commission can be appointed to act in his stead until he recovers from his indisposition. It’s only if his absence is prolonged, and is of such uncertain duration, will it be deemed that a vacancy has occurred, necessitating a new appointment of a full-time chairman. The same goes for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

SAJITH: Accuses

In fact, the Supreme Court judges themselves, taking good cognizance of there being no Constitutional bar, requested the President, in their order, to appoint an acting IGP, in terms of law, as soon as possible during the period they had restrained Deshabandu Tennakoon from serving as IGP.

But a team of lawyers, privately advising the President, seem to think otherwise. In a statement issued by the President’s Media Division on Thursday, they question the legal validity of the Supreme Court’s request to appoint an acting IGP. They maintain no vacancy had occurred in the IGP post to necessitate one. Despite Article 120 of the Constitution declaring that the Supreme Court has sole and exclusive jurisdiction to determine any part of the Constitution, they determine that Article 41(c) prevents the President from appointing an IGP, and that to do so would expose the President to future legal claims.

Article 41(c) says the President shall not appoint anyone to an independent Commission, one of which is the Election Commission, unless with the approval of the Council on a recommendation from the President. But does 41(c) apply only to instances where no vacancy has occurred?

The Supreme Court never said, that, as a result of its order, a vacancy had occurred in the post of IGP nor had it requested the President to take steps to fill the vacancy by appointing a new IGP but only suggested that ‘he may, if he so wishes’, appoint an acting IGP ‘in terms of the law’ for the period, it has restrained Deshabandu Tennakoon from serving as IGP. So, what’s all this 41(c) legal hullabaloo?

If the provisions of 41D(2) which relate to acting appointments, will the Constitutional Council refuse a recommendation by the President, made in compliance with a Supreme Court request?

On the question of being exposed to legal challenges, will it not be a good enough defence in any court to show that one was only complying with the Supreme Court’s request, in good faith?

In the event of elections, the Constitution charges the President with the duty of creating the conditions necessary for holding a free and fair election. Doesn’t the necessity arise during the highly charged atmosphere of a presidential election to have, at least, an acting IGP, vested with the fullest authority and its concomitant responsibility to maintain law and order on the streets?

Friday in Parliament, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said on behalf of the Government, that the President has no authority to appoint an acting IGP as the post has not fallen vacant.

True, no one claimed it had. He said, ‘No one can take the IGP by the ear and throw him out’. No one wished to do that.

DESHABANDU: Restrained

Now that the Election Commission has delivered its long-awaited ‘Subha Aranchiya,’ it is time to savour the tingling breeze of the hustings and imbibe the drifting whiffs of change in the air. President Ranil Wickremesinghe was first past the post to place his deposit at the Election Commission’s office as an independent runner in the forthcoming race for the presidency. He pipped the post by being an early bird.

Others who followed suit so far have been Sarath Keerthirathna to relive his brief hour of fame, having contested earlier, and was seen later at the SLPP office making calls; Baththaramulle Seelarathana Thera who turned up at the Election Chief’s office to pay his deposit but soon left, saying, he had forgotten to bring the money; social activist Oshala Herath of Diana Gamage fame; and A.S.P. Liyanage who turned up in a jolly mood and said: “Last time, too, Ranil Wickremesinghe and I contested from the Colombo district, and we both lost our deposits. Now we’re both contesting the presidential elections. Isn’t that lovely?”

Four are in the stalls, with eight more to be stalled before the gates shut on August 15th. From then onwards—for thirty seven days and nights—inspiring resplendent dawns will be painted by politicians followed by wild allegations hurled from the gutter by their opponents, which will allow the people to separate the wheat from the chaff and choose their own favourite runner in the Presidential race which starts on September 21st morn.

It’s an event the people have long waited for, always doubting whether it will happen at all. But it has come, and they will enjoy casting their vote for their chosen candidate, and, by denying the vote to their most hated ones, will greatly relish throwing them out by their ears.

Goodbye Joe, hello KamalaSo, the curtain finally falls on 81-year-old Biden’s relentless bid to seek reelection as President. Despite a growing litany of embarrassing gaffes, including a messed up, incoherent performance in the recently broadcast debate with Trump, he had stubbornly withstood demands by an influential section from his own Democratic Party to step down gracefully, before his blundering quest to seek a second term of office became a laughing stock.Another two recent examples of his mental unfitness were when he mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Zelensky as ‘President Putin’, and referred to Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’. They sufficed to convince the Democrat hierarchy, including powerful Democratic Party influencer, Nany Pelosi, that he had to go. BIDEN: Withdraws His critics warned that even if he were to win the election, he would be under a constant death watch for the next four years, with the increasing dangerous prospect of the shallow, fake, giggling Vice President Kamala Harris, constitutionally thrust—as US President—with the awesome annihilating power to trigger a nuclear war. KAMALA: Biden’s choice Only divine intervention—for the sake of world peace—sent through Covid to briefly lay him down, made him finally realise the time had come to call it quits. As his last act before withdrawing from the presidential race, he endorsed Kamala Harris as his chosen successor to carry his torch. Many Democrats were divided between being compelled to say, goodbye Joe, hello Kamala or hold a ‘mini’ primary at the forthcoming Democrat National Convention and leave the 2000 odd delegates to choose a new candidate to present to the nation as a viable alternative to unchallengeable Trump. Trump, whose miraculous escape from an assassination bid with the bullet scraping his ear but missing his brain by a few milimetres, had been turned overnight into a national hero for showing nerves of steel in the midst of alarms. The iconic photograph, revealing a blood smeared cheek with a look of grim determination, won for him the world’s and America’s nonpartisan admiration in the greatest measure. He seemed to be on a destined course to win the White House. As he told an adulating crowd shortly after the shooting, ‘They accuse me of being against Democracy. But, hey, I took a bullet for democracy.’ Indeed, he seemed unstoppable. A few days later at the Republican Convention, he was unanimously elected as the Republican nominee for the presidential race. Two days later Biden was struck down with Covid. It couldn’t have struck at a worse time for him. Despite being isolated at his home in Delaware, Biden stubbornly resisted calls for him to step down. But last Sunday, Biden caved in, after realising, no doubt, that Covid had driven the last nail into his coffined second-term hopes. Such was his mental state as perceived by voters, a post snidely observed: ‘If you are shocked that Biden is dropping out of the race, imagine how Biden will feel when he finds out’. ICONIC: TIME cover TRUMP: Sheer grit The Democrats heaved a sigh of relief when they heard last Sunday’s breaking news of Biden’s shock withdrawal. Consoling praise began to flow, with Obama hailing Biden, ‘as a patriot of the highest order’ but stopped short of approving Biden’s endorsement of Kamala Harris,  leaving, perhaps, the door ajar for wife, Michelle, to vie for the Democratic Party nomination, if she so opts. But on Friday, it emerged, he, too, had joined the gathering herd. Meanwhile, Trump was keeping his vitriolic reactions on hold, simply saying ‘she will be easier to beat’, while pro-Democrat CNN was reporting that many senior Democrats were rallying around Harris, and gushing of how she had raised 81 million dollars within 24 hours of Biden’s endorsement. How ironical, isn’t it that Democrat politicians who, including Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, had condemned Biden as ‘mentally unfit’, should have no qualm in following the ‘mentally unfit’ Biden’s endorsement of Harris and jump on the Kamala wave, in the belief it will ride them to power again? If they honestly think that the overtly fake and insipid, giggling wishy-washy Kamala can charm America out of its pants with her put-on horse laugh, they are no better than Lankan politicians who also think that if MPs from rival parties, no matter how corrupt or how blotched their copy books are, climb aboard their political platform, it will earn them the seal of public approval, enough to win the presidential race. Alas, for the mighty US of A, run by a motley of politicians with a Third World mentality.

Freed Hirunika tells her kids: ‘Mummy is coming home now’Firebrand politician Hirunika appeared chic and composed in a white T-shirt and long skirt to hear a High Court judge release her on bail pending her appeal in the Appeal Court.As she stepped out to taste freedom’s sweet air after being denied her liberty for 25 days out of a sentence of three years for briefly denying another his, to resolve a marital issue by attempting to make him return to his wife 8 years ago, she told the media: ‘I was sent to jail as an example to show that the law is equal to all.  So I remained inside like all the rest and I have no complaints. I shared the two lavatories along with the others, and, as bats sleep suspended in caves, adapted to my environment. I am a person like that.’ OVER THE MOON: Hirunika released on bail And then, thanking all her supporters who had held bodhi poojas at temples, and prayed for her in kovils and churches, she sees her three children, brought by her husband to welcome her back, and her motherly instinct takes over and, excusing herself from reporters, saying she hasn’t seen them for 25 days, she goes to them saying. ‘Mummy is coming home’, and hugged all three in a fond embrace only a mother can give. Apart from a travel ban imposed as a condition of bail, the courts imposed no other. If, as Ranjan Ramanayake says he is forbidden to talk of politics as a condition for his free pardon, the courts had banned her from engaging in active politics, it would have been for her a sentence worse than death.