Towards dystopia?

Editorial-January 1, 2016, 7:51 am 

Judge Hirunika Premachandra

Every time Police Spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekera trots out a lame excuse for not taking action against UNP MP Hirunika Premachandra over the recent abduction of a man by her security guards, his nose elongates. His predecessor who defended the Rajapaksa government to the hilt in spite of its illegal operations was also affected by the Pinocchio syndrome, as it were.

ASP Gunasekera insists that MP Premachandra’s statements to the media and the victim’s complaints are not admissible and, therefore, the police cannot act thereon to take action against her. He has gone on record as saying that the Attorney General will be consulted on the issue. But, there have been instances where the police went hell for leather to arrest even minors over lesser offences.

A 13-year-old girl was hauled up by the Thebuwana police before the Kalutara Magistrate in September 2010. What was her crime? She had stolen Rs. 5.00—yes, five rupees only—from a kiosk! She was enlarged on bail. She said she had taken the money because she could not think of any other way of dulling hunger pangs. In 2013, another 13-year-old schoolgirl was arrested, arraigned on charges of stealing a few coconuts from her neighbour to pay her school fees and bailed out. The police said the offence she had committed warranted her arrest!

Will the Police Spokesman or the IGP tell us whether the police had consulted the AG before arresting those 13-year-old girls and explain why that kind of high octane performance is sadly lacking on their part in dealing with a 28–year-old female MP? Of the theft of a few coconuts or five rupees and an abduction, which is the more serious offence?

Last month, a man was sentenced to eight months in jail for yawning in a courthouse. If he had taken to politics, amassed enough wealth through legal or illegal means, and become a ruling party MP he would have been able to get away with even criminal offences such as masterminding abductions.

Meanwhile, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has condemned an attack by Kolonnawa Urban Council Chairman Ravindra Udayashantha’s supporters on a group of persons engaged in a peaceful protest against the Meethotamulla garbage dump the other day. When Hambantota Mayor Eraj Fernando, brandishing a small firearm, chased after a group of UNP MPs all hell broke loose with the champions of good governance raking the Rajapaksa government over the coals—and rightly so. (The likes of Fernando were also responsible for bringing down the Rajapaksa government.) But, today, when peaceful protesters are assaulted at the behest of a UC chairman those knights in shining armour bury their heads in sand.

The police who swing into action to arrest schoolchildren over minor offences and lovers on beaches shamelessly waited till the suspect UC chairman surrendered to the police.

The BASL fought quite a battle against the Rajapaksa government and was instrumental in effecting the Jan. 08 regime change. The new administration greatly appreciated its services so much so that its president at that time was rewarded with a plum government job. The BASL should, therefore, go beyond issuing mere media statements and take the bull by the horns. It is duty bound to grant legal aid to the victims of Meethotamulla violence and ensure that justice is done. Floating like a bee and stinging like a butterfly won’t do. Killer hooks like the ones which floored the mighty Rajapaksa government are called for if the incumbent regime is to be tamed for the benefit of the public. Will the BASL rise to the occasion?

It would have been far less demeaning for the police to tell the public the truth about their failure to act impartially and independently as regards the Dematagoda abduction case than to function as a ventriloquist’s dummy in the hands of the powers that be. They ought to admit that they are under tremendous political pressure. Where are those who told us that the establishment of the National Police Commission would enable the police to act independently? Trying to make empty khaki sacks stand upright is an exercise in futility.

Gross injustices and the selective enforcement of the law make us wonder whether the utopia we were promised before the last presidential and parliamentary elections is fast becoming a dystopia like the one we come across in Orwell’s Animal Farm, where crafty pigs proclaim that ‘all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’.