De-Escalate Impeachment Crisis
By Jehan Perera -November 18, 2012
Jehan Perera
The process of impeaching Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake has commenced in earnest. The Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate and pass judgment on her has been appointed with a 7-4 government majority and consists of very senior government and opposition members. It has been very prompt in serving the charges against her. The Chief Justice was given one week to answer the 14 charges which she appealed against. According to news reports, this appeal filed by her lawyers was denied, and she was asked to appear in person and request for more time. Usually government administrative procedures offer those who are charged and have to answer the charges a period of 6 weeks. But this is not an ordinary case, and so the wheels of justice are moving extraordinarily fast.
Sri Lanka has a government that has shown it can dispose of obstacles to its path without delay. Once the government has decided on a course of action there is little or nothing that it will permit to stand in its way. Whether it was the elimination of the LTTE or the cleaning up of Colombo to be one of the most livable cities in Asia, the government has not permitted opposition to stand in its way. In eliminating the LTTE the government chose to ignore those sections of the international community who urged a negotiated settlement. The plight of slum dwellers has not stopped the government’s beautification of Colombo.
The improvements taking place in Sri Lanka compare favourably with other post-war countries such as Nepal or the Philippines. But now an albatross hangs around its neck in the form of international allegations of war crimes that are not going away. In an interdependent and interconnected world, every action has its reaction, and these cannot be confined to national boundaries. The recently published internal report of the UN on the end phase of the country’s war will add to the international demands for further investigations into what actually happened in Sri Lanka’s war.
On the other hand, this quality of doing what has to be done, or what is deemed to have to be done, has earned the government much praise within the country. It was not that the government leadership was unaware of the possible consequences of defying the international community in its bid to end the terror of the LTTE. The government has experts in all forms of law, including international law and local and international relations. The government would have consulted them prior to deciding to eliminate the LTTE and its leadership at high human cost and dare the consequences. The fact that the government was able to take this decision has served it well in subsequent elections, particularly going by the electoral verdicts in most parts of the country.
