Join The ‘Black Friday’ Protest – 11 January – Citizens’ And Trade Union Collective
By Colombo Telegraph -January 10, 2013
“We strongly protest the government’s action in organising mobs against the peaceful protest march called by the Lawyers’ Collective in demanding that the illegal impeachment motion be withdrawn from parliamentary debate.” says Anton Marcus, the Convenor of the ‘Citizens’ and Trade Union Collective for Judicial Independence’.
Issuing a statement Anton Marcus says;”The government thus proved it would not only violate the Constitution of this country, but would also use any sort of thuggery to violate the Constitution for its advantage. A possible chaotic situation due to this intervention by the government we believe was averted, as the Lawyers’ Collective could not be so provoked and also because the police discharged their duties with restraint and with responsibility rarely seen before.It is therefore very clear the government would proceed as decided by them, even using thuggery and force. In such context, we as Citizens’ and Trade Union Collective join the Lawyers’ Collective in declaring tomorrow 11th January, as a “Black Friday” to mark the most bleakest day in our recent history.”
“We thus call upon all citizens to make tomorrow a black day by wearing black, carrying only black parasols/umbrellas, raising black flags where possible, carrying black flags in vehicles and 3 wheelers, etc.” Citizens’ and Trade Union Collective for Judicial Independence further says.
Part II- Judiciary At War Against The Constitution
By Jude Fernando -January 9, 2013
The is the Part II of three-part series takes a broad look at the tensions between the judiciary and the legislature by the author. – CT
“Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny,” Paul said. “They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The Constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can crush the highest and the lowest, removing all dignity and individuality. It has an unstable balance point and no limitations.”(Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah)
All constitutions and laws are social, economic, political and cultural compromises between a framing party and a ratifying party; their tenets depend on the balance of power between these two groups at one particular moment in history. As Altman notes, any constitution embodies “ideological struggles among social factions in which competing conceptions of justice, goodness, and social and political life get compromised, truncated, vitiated, and adjusted.” Consequently, any constitution shapes and disciplines how both society and judges think about natural justice. The social, economic, political and cultural inertia generated by a constitution can become so malignant that it eventually harms the individual and collective interests in a way that is beyond what its framers and ratifiers could have foreseen.
Perhaps the best definition of natural justice is found in Karl Marx’s n the Critique of the Gotha Programme, where he claims the ultimate principle of “justice”, the principle that would be actualized in an ideal community, is: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” Such a community would be the actualization of “freedom” understood as the living of a “good” life, a life creating and appropriating beauty and truth within relations of mutual recognition of each other as equals. Justice Marx, is the participation of everyone to the best of their ability in the provision to everyone of what each “needs” to live a life of “freedom.”
