Shirani: A Symbol Of Resistance Against State Oppression
Dharisha Bastians
“Democracy demands an opposition party” – Ben Manski, American Lawyer and political activist
The events of 23 November when Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake made her very first appearance before the Parliamentary Select Committee were not lost on the ruling administration. Round one had presented a clear winner and elicited mass sympathy for the lady who had fallen foul of the powers that be.
So when the time came for the country’s most senior judge to answer the summons of the Legislative Committee in the second round, necessary arrangements were presumably put in place. The build-up to Tuesday, 4 December was palpable. A poster campaign was orchestrated throughout the capital Colombo. The well-designed posters screamed “Shame Madam” and featured the scales of justice with Sri Lanka on one side and an apartment complex on the other. A budget three-wheeler parade sporting the same placard on their roofs made their way to Temple Trees, many of them stopping to ask Policemen clearing the road for the demonstration where they were to go next. Even as the black coats mobilise support for the beleaguered Chief Justice, the Government is on its own hectic campaign to discredit her.
Golden Key in the mix
On 13 November, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa held a one-on-one meeting with representatives of the Golden Key depositors in Parliament. At the meeting, during which other senior administration officials were present, Minister Rajapaksa promised that the depositors would be paid in full by April 2013. But there was a condition attached. Some reports about the meeting indicate that the conditions included a requirement that some of the depositors give evidence about the conflict of interest in the Chief Justice presiding over the Golden Key case before the Supreme Court. Golden Key depositors have been losing hope for their deposits for several years now. Undoubtedly, the promise of settlement was a tough carrot to refuse. That’s how the depositors became the first face of the anti-CJ movement in Colombo when they smashed their own share of coconuts and demanded she step down.
So when Tuesday dawned, lawyers and activists said they were not surprised when buses full of people were unloaded outside the gates of the Superior Courts Complex at Hulftsdorp and furnished with placards and posters. Senior lawyers at the courts premises said they had been asked to hoot at the Chief Justice when she passed by. The trouble was, very few of them could identify her. In fact, many of the anti-CJ protestors had no idea why they were outside the courts complex at all, fuelling speculation about the organised nature of the demonstration. It was reminiscent of the ‘spontaneous’ protests against the US-led resolution at theUNHRC in March this year, when hundreds of home-guards from remote provinces were transported to Colombo, gathered outside the Civil Defence Force headquarters in Bambalapitiya and marched to different diplomatic missions in Colombo seen as supportive of the resolution against Sri Lanka.
So when Tuesday dawned, lawyers and activists said they were not surprised when buses full of people were unloaded outside the gates of the Superior Courts Complex at Hulftsdorp and furnished with placards and posters. Senior lawyers at the courts premises said they had been asked to hoot at the Chief Justice when she passed by. The trouble was, very few of them could identify her. In fact, many of the anti-CJ protestors had no idea why they were outside the courts complex at all, fuelling speculation about the organised nature of the demonstration. It was reminiscent of the ‘spontaneous’ protests against the US-led resolution at theUNHRC in March this year, when hundreds of home-guards from remote provinces were transported to Colombo, gathered outside the Civil Defence Force headquarters in Bambalapitiya and marched to different diplomatic missions in Colombo seen as supportive of the resolution against Sri Lanka.
