Midweek Politics: Game On!

By Dharisha Bastians -November 8, 2012 

Dharisha Bastians

“The Chief Justice of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is making a stand: which side you take will define who we are as Sri Lankans,” announced Shaveen Bandaranayake, son of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, on his Facebook page, the same day that an impeachment motion against her was handed over to the Speaker of Parliament at an auspiciously chosen time.
Since then, with the publicity his impassioned plea received, Shaveen’s social network page has turned activist, gathering opinion from across the spectrum about the manifest threats to Sri Lanka’s judicial system.

“I may come and I may go. Others will come and others will go. It is immaterial who comes and goes. All that matters is that the judiciary remains for many generations to come and that it remains independent,” Shaveen posted on 3 November, quoting his mother.

As a senior judicial officer, Shirani Bandaranayake has no public voice and sources close to the Chief Justice say all her personal calls are taken by her secretary, even as an avalanche of support from all quarters has begun to come her way.

As the head of the country’s court system, she has no legal redress or any mechanism through which she can answer her detractors or appeal her case if she is found guilty. Her only child is trying to fill that gap, by advocating on her behalf. Whether his actions will help or hinder her case, remains to be seen.

It is certainly a world of contradictions. On Tuesday, thousands of miles away American citizens went to the polls to elect the next leader of the free world in what is a traditionally stunning display of democracy at work. Here at home, on the same day, the Sri Lankan Government took the process to impeach the Head of the Judiciary, one step further by tabling the motion in the 225-member Parliament, a move which critics say strikes a death blow to judicial independence and democracy.                Read More