Lifting the Liberal Veil
Lakmali Hemachandra
“You can’t be neutral on a moving train, events are already moving in certain deadly directions, and to be neutral means to accept that.”- Howard Zinn
Mohan Pieris, the de facto to Chief Justice as some would mock him, dismissed the Nimalaruban case last week. Surprisingly it has enraged most of us, because anyone who has been closely watching the Supreme Court and the law for the last five years should know that it was always going to be that. It could not have ended in anything other than a callous dismissal of the fundamental rights petition filed by Nimalaruban’s parents claiming that their son was tortured to death by the police. Yet, it has surprised quite a lot who now complain that de fact CJ is blatantly violating the law of the country, that Nimalaruban is denied justice and that reasoning for the dismissal is painfully bias. Asian Human Rights Commission is challenging the CJ’s claim that Nimalaruban was a terrorist and everyone is furious at the CJ’s arrogant declaration that terrorists are not entitled to human rights. Surely, this cannot come as a surprise to the masses of the country? Surely we knew that the law, under the de facto or the de jure chief justice, was bias. The law is classist, sexist, and racist and although it espouses objectivity the law always, always takes a side and this time that side happens to be that of a rich, Sinhala Buddhist, male or what we also call the President of the country.
Anybody who has gone to the courts complex in Hulsdroft would confess to the extreme bureaucracy, the unbearable arrogance and the blatant injustice of the law of this country and the charges of a good lawyer who can win you the case tells us the story of fairness and justice in this country. The more you can pay for the lawyer, the more understanding and amiable the judge higher your chances will be of accessing justice. On the other hand if you end up in the court house of a mean spirited judge with a lawyer that has a record of lost cases for an affordable fee then it is better to avoid that valuable recourse to justice. An analytical investigation into the working of the law is quite unnecessary to understand that there are millions who face the same fate of Nimalaruban, may be not in death, may be not from torture, but in less violent, everyday acts of injustice that we never talk about. Read More
