“Command Responsibility” In Sri Lankan Governance
By Emil van der Poorten –February 19, 2015
Emil van der Poorten
Let me begin this piece with a rhetorical question that should perhaps be the final question asked: why, despite the very loud pronouncements about “newborn media freedom,” “freedom of expression,” “the re-emergence of the rule of law,” “the return of human rights” and a plethora of other motherhood-and-apple-pie slogans, have not those freedoms been exercised by those proclaiming them from the rooftops? Why have they not simply asked Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa some very obvious questions that relate to the plight that this country is in today?
As background to all of this there is one very obvious fact. J. R. Jayewardene declared the republican constitution for which he was responsible as empowering him to do anything except effect gender change. After the passage of the now (in)famous 18th Amendment to the Constitution enacted by the sheep (or is it goats?) of very violent persuasion who inhabit our legislature, it would appear that even that “shortcoming” had ceased to exist!
I have regularly seen, on far less prima facie evidence, for crimes of significantly lesser magnitude, “ordinary” Sri Lankans taken into custody, often without access to lawyers, leave alone bail, and then languishing in one of our “remand facilities” or a cell hidden from public view for an inordinate length of time, sometimes being sent home because no prosecution could be launched for lack of evidence or simply because the “framing” of the accused had only been needed on a short-term basis. In all fairness, much of this, even if of lesser magnitude, existed before the Rajapaksa Regime’s attempted takeover of every aspect of our lives.
Why, when there has been embezzlement of Sri Lanka’s resources on what can truly be described as “an industrial scale” has Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, not so much as been questioned when, time after time, the joining of any set of corruption dots has led clearly and conclusively to him?
I’ve heard the claim being made that there was some form of Presidential Immunity from prosecution for any and all crimes, up to those of a capital nature. However, I’ve also heard that any such immunity did NOT extend beyond the period in which the individual held such office.
Even if the former opinion can be sustained, why has the media of the country refrained from so much as asking Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa ONE SINGLE QUESTION about the mountain of corruption for which he certainly had “command responsibility?”Read More
