Is it Justice at a price or no justice?

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Our Lobby Correspondent

What is redeeming about the House by the Diyawanna is that it hardly lives up to expectations- and judging by the previous weeks' repeated performances by our representatives who gave precedence to hurling abuse over substance, this week was devoid mercifully of sparks flying.

It was UNP's legal luminary K.N. Choksy who opened the debate on the votes on the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ministry.

In doing so he also pointed out there was a misconception regarding the UNP's stand on devolution of power.

Stressing that power sharing was more in line with UNP policies, the constitutional expert asserted the responsible role played by the UNP citing the Select Committee and the Liam Fox initiatives.

Speaking next was NDUNLFer Kesaralal Gunasekera. Deviating from the often trodden path, he stressed the necessity to have a vibrant Child Protection Authority.

Quipping that finance was the most decisive factor in the adjudication of justice, he said that poor people who could not afford the price failed to establish their innocence as a result.

"Do you need millions to prove your innocence? If this is so, then there is a serious problem in our legal system. Cases are prolonged and litigants are finally left penniless, spent and drained of resources. Who wants to assert rights and justice at such a high price," he queried.

Proposing the establishment of a judicial administration service was UNP's Henry Jayamaha, who explained how justice delayed amounted to justice denied. It indirectly encouraged criminality and was a denial of justice- the final analysis being that justice was either meant for the super rich or the next generation!

As the somber legal mood continued in the normally uproarious Parliament, Deputy Minister of Plan Implementation Shantha Premaratne cast doubts over the present judicial system, proposing the reintroduction of the death sentence as a crime deterrent.

"We cannot prevent crimes with archaic laws that do not punish offenders adequately. Sometimes it is easier to serve a short prison term . Politicians are often believed to be associated with crimes and if this is proved, there should be severe punishment," he noted.

Giving intricate details about laws delays stemming from police inaction was lawyer turned politician Ariya B.Rekawa, who highlighted many instances when justice was deliberately delayed by a mere withholding of police reports, and analysts reports etc.

"Justice should not only be done, but it must manifestly appear to be done. Or else, people will lose faith" he opined.

In response, Minister G.L. Peiris said after the sweeping law reforms, an abused little girl need not suffer the double humiliation of being hurled before a court to tell her story and relive the agony. Listing his many achievements, the law professor said:

" Our prisons are overcrowded and there were no facilities for recreation or vocational training that would make them useful members of the public again. instead it was more conducive to increase criminality."

Contrary to Friday's seriousness, Thursday's debate was more lively with UNPers gently scorning Housing and Urban Development Minister Indika Gunawardene.

Expressing concern about city's slum dwellers was former deputy housing minister Imtiaz Bakeer Markar who warned that unless given proper facilities these people would take to the streets.

Mr. Bakeer Marker pressed the point that providing alternative housing for slum dwellers did not mean paltry compensation and a low cost house outside the city, which was not the answer.During a debate which was expected to generate much heat, the only spark was PA backbencher H.M. Weerasinghe who zealously defended his stock.

"The UNP's singular achievement was to make this land a killing field. Its policies served only the affluent and the favoured. The UNP ers in the East ran rice mills and film halls and had no time for development work," he quipped.

Premadasa bashing continued with Ratnapura PA Parliamentarian D.M. Seneviratne accusing the UNP of promoting crony capitalists and nurturing selected companies. Adding to the list of sins he said the Gam Udawa was a presidential carnival held at the expense of the nation.

Firing a round of artillery in a high pitched voice was UNP's Suranimala Rajapakse who thundered that an active ministry which served the country in full measure has fallen redundant due to the incumbent minister's favouritism and crony capitalism.

"This ministry once built roads and houses, provided water and other amenities. Today it is a mere extenuation of the Communist Party," he noted, emphasizing that the move was to deprive slum dwellers of their lands and once evicted, to sell lands to multinationals.

Speaking sense in a house where everyone was intent on accusing each other, was Deputy Housing Minister Mahinda Wijesekera who said there were mischievous elements trying to destroy public trust in institutions like the NHDA and UDA by spreading falsehoods.

Refuting the charge that the ministry was politicised, he said that all these were unnecessary when performance was the issue.

"If the UNP built so many houses as you claim, met ambitious targets like 1.5 million houses, we need not build anymore houses but only provide infrastructure facilites. But we need to build still, " he insisted, stressing that the question of slum houses was secondary to the acute problem of urban housing.

Join me on a road to prosperity

*Hon. Speaker, we have a Government that is unable to manage the economy, unable to manage the war and unable to present a Budget. This is a Government on a saline drip. How long it will last is open to question.

*The agricultural base of this country is completely destroyed. Trade is in tatters. People have stopped trading altogether. A big financial crisis is looming.

*What President Kumaratunga has done is to take the nation into a debt trap and death trap. The whole armed forces have been deployed in the "Jayasikurui Operation", which was to be the final resounding victory of Sapumal and the President. Instead it turned out to be a death trap.

*You are reducing the Budget deficit by sacrificing our future economic growth. While the defence expenditure is going up, while the interest payments have increased, you are making reductions at the expense of public investment, social sector development and economic progress.

What is the end result? You will have weak economic infrastructure.

*The only achievement you have is shifting the burden of raising revenue from the rich to the poor. The GST, what is now called the "Gona Saha Tanakola" Tax was to be originally a Value Added Tax replacing the other Sales Taxes and the Levies. But you have imposed it together with the Defence Levy and the Excise Duty. It was never meant to be so.

*While you are imposing all these burdens on the people, you are building up your own crony capitalism. In the 1994 Budget we withdrew the tax holidays and brought instead a concessionary rate of tax of 15 percent. In l995, in the first Budget of the President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the tax holidays were reintroduced. The duty free cars scheme was abolished by President Wijetunge. In 1995 you started by giving companies employing 100 people and above an entitlement to one duty free car and in 1996 you gave companies investing Rs.50 million or more one duty free car. After the tax holidays were introduced you started broadening it. You expanded the scope.

*The cronies are making money. Look at the twenty plantation companies. There are twenty plantation companies that have been privatized. Of the twenty plantation companies which had 84,000 hectares of tea, 60,000 hectares of tea are owned by fourteen companies, which are in turn owned by six companies. Each of them is having two or three companies. This is the highest concentration of land ownership since the advent of Vijaya in Sri Lanka.

*Then comes the third type of cronies, those who are making money out of defence tenders. They are making millions and billions of rupees. There are those who are making it officially and those who are making it unofficially.

*Agricultural production has dropped. Construction is non-existent. Trade has fallen. The small trader is finding it more and more difficult to survive. We say the country has not been affected by the South East Asian crisis. We could not have been affected for the simple reason that investors fled this country earlier.

* This Government is on its last lap, its last leg. Before they go they are going to devastate the country. It is this devastated nation that I have to take over and that I have to re-build anew. I am ready to take this challenge.

*Our main task will be to revive this economy, to make the private sector, both big and small, competitive.

*There will be far-reaching changes in higher education where institutions of higher education like universities will be encouraged to restructure itself to supply the demand of the labour market, for higher level of management, for higher level of technology.

*Our emphasis will be on private sector capacity building to enhance their managerial and entrepreneurial capacity.

*You have destroyed agriculture.We have to use more capital and go in for high value agriculture which will give us a high profit margin. We have to take a holistic approach when looking at agriculture, environment and our water resources. All those are interlinked. We have to save our environment, we have to safeguard our water resources and develop our agriculture. We are looking at sustainable development.

*We are going to have a level playing field. There will not be exclusiveness for friends. We will reward ambition and initiative, not friendship.

*We are going to modify the GST so that it will not become a burden. We will revise the tax system in this country, spread the tax burden more evenly and we will have a transparent system.

*We are going to create employment in the country and a special effort is being made to create graduate employment.

*So it is my duty to tell you what we are going to do and Sir, I can assure you that prosperity is prosperity for all. Join me in this. Your leader has misled you, your leader has led you to disasters. Join me and we will take this country to prosperity.

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