SRI LANKA: The banality of the impeachment

November 3, 2012

Under the present circumstances and under the 1978 constitution, when the president does not want the Chief Justice, the president just tells them to get out and go home. The way he does it is called impeachment proceedings. Once the president decides to file such proceedings - he has a two thirds majority in parliament - the victimized person has no real option. His or her fate is sealed and the only options open are to resign and go away, as Chief Justice Nevil Samarakoon, did it or be impeached and thrown away.

Impeachment is an act of might. The rights and wrongs are not weighed in the matter. So-called charges can be cooked up and may be about the most trivial matters. In an article to a Sinhala paper, Gomin Dayasiri, a senior lawyer, stated that in Sri Lanka a judge can be impeached very small reasons. The charge against Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon was about some comment he made at some school prize giving.

Just last week, at Maha Veediya in Galle man’s leg and hand was cut off and he was stabbed and left in the road struggle and die. A video footage about this incident was a circulated in the internet. It was a gruesome sight of extreme barbarism. The act of impeaching of judge is symbolically more or less a similar kind of act of might in Sri Lanka. The knife with which the judge will be stabbed is the two thirds majority that the ruling party has in the parliament.

Thus, looking into the impeachment process with the idea of finding some kind of rationality is falling for a basic fallacy. Under the conditions in Sri Lanka and under the 1978 constitution it is just public stabbing and nothing more.

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