The Judicial Mind And Judicial Matters In Sri Lanka
Rajan Philips
What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. You might cynically apply this old aphorism to the judicial mind and judicial matters in Sri Lanka. Increasingly, the grey matter of intelligence, erudition, wisdom and independence is becoming too scarce in Sri Lanka’s judicial mind, and what can you do when you hear of judicial matters such as the now customary cavalier appointments to the Supreme Court, except shrug and sigh: Never mind! But for lawyer and popular commentator Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, and co-authors, Jayantha de Almeida Guneratne and Gehan Gunatilleke, shrugging off judicial matters and saying “never mind” has never been an option. So they have brought out a new monograph entitled “The Judicial Mind in Sri Lanka; Responding to the Protection of Minority Rights”, in the midst of questionable and controversial presidential appointments to the superior courts. The book’s focus is narrower and sharper in that it is limited to a critical analysis of court rulings involving minority rights. Yet, the book and its timing bring into broad relief the hugely troubled terrain of the Sri Lankan judiciary. At the same time, by chronicling and critiquing over forty individual court rulings in different areas of the law and in judicially significant historical periods, the book brings to light the surprisingly broad scope of judicial complicity in the undermining of minority rights by the legislature and the executive.
Attack Of The Mutants: ICES (Colombo) And Other Accidents
Darshanie Ratnawalli
Where the mainstream academics are not very alert, discerning or prolific, the lunatic fringe will soon grow like a cancer and outweigh them in respectability. This happened in Sri Lanka to an unbelievable degree across a wide swath of social sciences including history, linguistics and anthropology. The mainstream was not vigilant enough in watching out for the mutant. Maybe there were just too many mutants. Mutants backed by other mutants, who fronted for yet bigger mutants.
In the 1990s, which was much more the day of the mutants than the 2010s can ever be, International Centre for Ethnic Studies (Colombo) engaged on a project to promote the official languages provisions in the 13th and 16thamendments to the constitution. They organized workshops in collaboration with the Department of Official Languages, made some films and last but not least, commissioned a study[i] by Mr. Theva Rajan, who now enjoys the distinction of being one of the two elected members allocated to New Zealand in the Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Elam. ICES (Colombo) published Mr. Theva Rajan’s study (text) with a foreword by ‘Editor, ICES (Colombo)’, a ghost title[ii].
