Shaky Strategic Management Dissipates FCID’s Purpose

By Somapala Gunadheera –February 12, 2016

Somapala Gunadheera

Remanding VIPs on reports from the FCID is the hottest topic today. In April, last year, Mr. Basil Rajapaksa (BR) was arrested at the airport on his return from a sojourn abroad and remanded on some charges little known to the people who witnessed the ailing ex-minister carried between hospital and Court in an ambulance, creating deep sympathy in the public mind. A judicial hearing into BR’s alleged crimes has not begun in earnest so far while the sympathy created for the fallen strong man grows day by day.

Even if a Court comes to hold against BR in due course, the emotions created by the unnecessary exposition of his humiliation under arrest and remand may counterbalance the effect of the verdict in the public eye. I say ‘unnecessary’ because a man who was abroad when action was threatened against him, would not certainly have returned on his own, if he had an escapist disposition. That mentality would apply to any VIP under investigation because he should know that running away impliedly amounts to a conviction without trial and that stigma would blast his future for all time.

BR’s case is in direct contrast to a similar case filed against the Secretary to the former President, directly in the High Court where the Learned Judge bailed out the accused soon after the case was filed, despite insinuations made in the unconventional media with a view to getting the accused remanded. The prime purpose of remand is not punishment but ensuring that an accused does not run away from justice. No accused in the FCID cases is likely to run away for the reasons given above and they are too well known to hide themselves in any other part of the civilized world. Even if they did, it would not be a problem to get them back. Why then create a forum for them to secure themselves within a fortress of public sympathy with queues lining up at Welikada to visit them and rallies all over the country for their release? By the time the FCID gets its act together, the accused can build up a fund of public compassion that can make a final verdict against them a dead letter. The negative effect created by this scenario can even lead to public unrest on the ground that the cases are fabricated for vindictive reasons.Read More