Sanath Jayasuriya was voted the Man of the Year by readers of Midweek Mirror. He was supposed to have got nearly 75% of the total votes cast. He has been elected the Man of the Year by another Magazine. Last year the Conservative Indian newspaper Hindu nominated the person who was supposed to have solved the energy crisis in the world, as the greatest hoax perpetrated on the people of India. A youth from Tamil Nadu was supposed to have discovered a wild plant, the juice extracted from it mixed with water, would produce fuel that would run any internal combustion engine. Mr. Karunanidhi the Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu sporting dark glasses was the chief guest at the ceremony attended by Ministers of the Tamil Nadu Government with hordes of scientists. The papers were prophesying the possibility of exporting fuel to the rest of the world and competing with the Arabs. The village lad, the inventor, put the liquid into a Bajaj scooter and off he went with the Chief Minister. Everyone applauded. In December this lad was named the greatest hoaxer of the year 1996. It would be then interesting to find out whether there was a Sri Lankan who would earn this dubious distinction.
The most unfortunate thing is that the person who earns this dubious distinction is a person who perpetrated this hoax on the gullible public of this country, as a witness before a Commission. She is none other than Rohini Hathurusinghe. The Special Presidential Commission appointed by the President to inquire into the death of General Kobbekaduwa permitted Rohini Hathurusinghe to give evidence before the Commission and permitted the evidence to be televised and shown over the national television.
After the preliminary investigation carried out by the CID, a confidential report was submitted to the Commissioners alluding to the fact that Rohni Hathurusinghe’s evidence could be true or could not be corroborated.
One of the most important features of the evidence of Rohini Hathurusinghe was that she saw her husband watching a video recording of the murder of Denzil Kobbekaduwa. She gave a vivid description of the manner in which the bomb was fixed to the jeep and how her husband shot at the General killing him. The investigators of the CID found that this was a figment of her imagination and that she could not have seen any video as there was no electricity available at the place where she is alleged to have seen the video. Though there was overwhelming evidence that she was lying, and the story she told the investigators was later found to be an absolute fable, yet the Commission permitted the evidence of Rohini Hathurusinghe to be led. At that time two other commissioners, highly respected judges, resigned presumably for allowing the evidence to be led in public.
As expected, those who expected political mileage from Rohini Hathurusinghe’s evidence found that the evidence had a devastating effect on the people. Denzil Kobbekaduwa was their hero. Immediately after the evidence, the President said that she knew about what had transpired at the Commission long before it was revealed before the Commission. Brigadier Wimalarantna’s statue was destroyed. There was anger and disillusion amongst the people when they heard that the UNP was responsible for the death of the most beloved General.
Brigadier Ananda Weerasekera, who had supposedly conspired to kill General Kobbekaduwa challenged the Commission to prove any one of those allegations made by Rohini Hathurusinghe to be true. He said if proved he would commit suicide in public. Rohini Hathurusinghe became pregnant. Defence showed that she was an inveterate liar. She filed an affidavit in Court and accused even the Chairman of the Commission, and said that the officials under the guidance of the Chairman Tissa Bandaranaike got her to falsely implicate the members of the UNP and some Senior Army Officers with the murder of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. Then she appeared at a Press Conference and made various innuendoes about the father of her unborn baby. This was the second hoax she perpetrated on the people of this country.
Rohini Hathurusinghe was only one example of the number of witnesses who gave evidence or who were made to give evidence before the Commissions with the prime motive of implicating the political opponents of the Government. The promises and other pledges made to the people could not be fulfilled by the government and voters became increasingly vocal.The electronic media were allowed to record the proceedings of commissions and telecast over the national TV. A gullible public watched these proceedings with gaping mouths and believed every single word that was said. But after the revelations of Rohini Hathurusinghe, it soon turned out to be an anti climax. Most people totally and incontrovertibly rejected the evidence led before Commissions as Rohini Hathurusinghe personified to what depths the officials of the Commission could stoop in order to falsely accuse the political opponents of the Government. The appointment of the Special Presidential Commission to inquire into the assassination of General Kobbekaduwa and Lalith Athulathmudali eventually became a nadir of the proud and long history of the Judiciary of this country
The Lalith Athulathmudali Commission started its proceedings on the basis that the LTTE or Ragunathan was not the killer of Lalith Athulathmudali. Instead of probing to find out the truth or otherwise of the overwhelming evidence that was available to them that Ragunathan was the killer, they completely debunked this theory. It was in the interest of the Government to show that Ragunathan was killed and his body dumped at the scene of the offence, to show that the real killer escaped. It was a pet theory that was available at that time that Lalith Athulathmudali was killed by R. Premadasa because Premadasa found that Lalith would be a formidable political opponent. But later with the advent of various witnesses the Commission seems to have shifted the theory from Premadasa to Sirisena Cooray. They called many witnesses, one amongst them was one, Subash Udayakumar Abeysekera. It has been suggested at the commission that Subash Udayakumar Abeysekera was procured for the Commission by opponents of Mr. Sirisena Cooray, namely, Mr. Hudson Samarasinghe, former Member of Parliament who succeeded Athulathmudali to Parliament, and Mr. Ratnasiri Rajapaksa, former Mayor of Colombo and one Rohana Chandra, an active supporter of the DUNF. It was also revealed in evidence that Subash Udayakumar Abeysekera had worked under Mrs. Hema Premadasa as a coconut plucker.
Everything was therefore, designed to hook in Mr. Cooray with the murder of Athulathmudali and exonerate R. Premadasa who was supposed to be the original motivator. The Commission after sitting for nearly two years could not find a single shred of evidence to prove this theory. But the opponents of Mr. Cooray were quite happy with the daily reporting of the Commission which appeared in the daily papers. The witnesses made various insinuations against Mr. Cooray, but those insinuations had nothing to do with the murder of Lalith Athulathmudali.
The Government was happy that Mr. Cooray was not in the country. Though most of the UNPers did not think that Cooray was a force to be reckoned with the Government thought otherwise. The Government knew quite correctly the immense ability and organizational ability of Sirisena Cooray.
In the meantime Mrs, Sirimani Athulathmudali, who had requested this Commission and had provided the office premises from her Ministry, was firmly convinced that her husband was not killed by the LTTE.
One of her personal secretaries, called Sharmila Perera produced a fax they had received from London stating that the LTTE was not involved. A few days later there were two bombs that devastated passengers in a train and the LTTE dutifully announced to the world that they had nothing to do with the killing of innocent passengers.
Every one has forgotten that when Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali was the Minister of National Security, the LTTE killed the innocent Sinhalese peasants at the Dollar and Kent farms and videographed the killings and showed it to the world as atrocities committed by the Sinhala Army against the innocent Tamil civilians whilst denying officially their involvement with the killings.
In the meantime Sirimani Athulathmudali and the DUNF were said to be secretly negotiating with the UNP to join forces. Therefore, it would be difficult for her to join hands with the killers of her husband. The UNP therefore had to keep Sirisena Cooray away.
Then Mrs. Srimani Athulathmudali was removed from the Cabinet, and to the amazement and shock of all supporters of DUNF, the Commission found that it was R. Premadasa who was involved in the killing of Lalith Athulathmudali and General Kobbekaduwa. This would have indeed shocked not only Mrs. Athulathmudali, but Hudson Samarasinghe, Ratnasiri Rajapaksa and others who were waiting for the Commission to bring home a verdict of guilt on Sirisena Cooray and exonerate R. Premadasa.
Now if the report of the Commission is to accepted, Mrs Athulathmudali would have to join the UNP where Mr. Sajith Premadasa , the son of the killer of her late husband has become a very important member of the UNP. Mrs. Hema Premadasa still very popular with most members of the UNP and even members of the government like Mr. Mangala Samaraweera. Mrs. Athulathmudali immediately rejected the finding of the Commission that Lalith was killed by R. Premadasa. The government had achieved what it needed. With the findings Mrs. Athluathmudali was left in no woman’s land. Sirisena Cooray, was found guilty of contempt of the Commission for not attending the Commissions sittings according to the extracts published in the Daily News which were released by the Presidential Secretariat.
It is very from the Special Presidential Commissions Act that a Commission can only recommend to the Supreme Court, that Mr. Cooray has committed contempt of the Commission. The Supreme Court will then have to decide whether to issue a rule against Mr. Cooray for the alleged contempt he committed by not attending the Commission or not. The Commissioners did not report the findings against Mr. Cooray to the Supreme Court, but took the most unprecedented step of finding Mr. Cooray guilty of contempt.
I have advocated through this column that any Government who sincerely wishes to uphold the rule of law should abolish the Special Presidential Commissions Act, the brainchild of the late J.R. Jayewardene. But before they do so, it would be necessary to use the same Act to probe into the manner in which these two Commissions probed into the death of General Kobbekaduwa and Lalith Athulathmudali.
This is the only way I believe the people could repose their confidence in the Judiciary and any institution, which conducts inquiries based on the rule of Law.
“The general public have come to repose absolute faith in the judiciary. They see in it, justifiably, an institution that can rein in, if not eliminate, the rapacity, nepotism and corruption, especially at high places which have come to be associated with governance. The judiciary should continue to merit the exalted position it occupies in the minds and hearts of the people as the ‘saviours of democracy.’
“It cannot be gainsaid that the one necessary condition for this is its independence. Independent in the sense free from the executive, meaning bureaucracy and politicians, interference and influence of every type. With the proliferation of commissions and tribunals, the Government finds it easy to find plum posts for judges. The judiciary’s reputation is at stake here. Only by self-denial can the judges save their dignity”
– R. K. Prasad-The Hindu
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