C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

Which Sarath came first? Legal eagle or the military egg? The law bird showed early signs of political interest from the Bench. He wanted the price of petrol reduced! But the egg gave auto-confessions that he will be a political misfit. Now both of them, Sarath Fonseka and Sarath Silva, appear on stage jointly wearing pure white national dresses. They depict two human bodies free of Loba-Dwesha-Moha, practicing Seela-Samadhi and Pragna. In laymanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s terms, the former wants to end corruption and usher democracy. The latter is so upset that Mahinda Rajapaksa has violated the oath he took before him (Sarath).

Yet, I cannot ask the question, are the two SarathsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ saints? Because I know they cannot be saints. But are they genuine and honest? I suspect when people become too moralistic. The Republican in USA behaved like kings of morality. But one by one they got caught in the most unimaginable kinds of sex crimes! The term virgin is used to represent purity or un-spoilt like in a virgin forest. It has a physical and spiritual a side. Goddess Pattini is a symbol of this duality. Inside any human being resides the saint and the devil. This was why the late professor W.S. Karunaratne said on UNP election platforms in the late 1960s that there should be an external (material-societal) as well as an internal (spiritual-individual) revolution for a society to progressƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚to come out of poverty and misery. In 1977 we heard from a man wearing a white national dress about his Dharmista Samajayak that he was going to usher in Sri Lanka. He even issued a postal stamp with a Dharma Chakra used also by the great king Ashoka. Now in 2010 we have not one but two, wearing white dresses.

The big Sarath is already in trouble with questions raised about his son-in-lawƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s business deals. There is also a list circulating with names identified about some dark deeds done in the dark. When names of persons are mentioned it can no longer be gossip or rumors, but serious complaints. Sarath cannot say ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-silence is goldenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ or ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-innocent until proven guilty.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ He has to get on to the French modeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚guilty until proven innocent. One thing is now so clear. After the election, an investigation must be held to protect women in the army from sexual abuse by the army bosses. Army bosses must not be allowed to run a big harem or abuse innocent village boys and girls who become soldiers. I thought this happens only in the USA. On Fredrica Janz and her newspaper we do not know who is telling the truthƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Fredrica or JVP or the big Sarath. If stories about pouring oil on wifeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s head, egg hopper on servantƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ear or cutting the barberƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ear were true, empowering big Sarath will be like eating curd using a razor blade. TNA separatist foxes are already following closely behind him thinking that they finally found the big goat they were waiting for thirty years.

My focus here is on the little Sarath, the lawyer. I studied law because I disliked lawyers and after further studies in Canada and USA I became sick of corrupt lawyers and the system they created. Lawyer is not the noble professional that Gandhi once praised as essential to society like its barbers. Yes, there are honest and sincere lawyers with integrity, but they are so few and far between. USA has a funny system of people electing judges by vote and for the federal judiciary political affiliations are more important than the professional integrity of the list of nominees. Recently, the senior judge of a federal district court close to my home went to jail with hard labor for touching and squeezing the thighs of several of his female secretaries sitting next to him on the bench. These judges are all powerful with tenure for life. Their black long coats cover their sins and crimes!

Little Sarath is perhaps the only Supreme Court CJ in the world against whom fellow lawyers petitioned to some international judicial agency, complaining that he was not qualified and not suitable for the job. However, after he retired Mahinda Rajapaksa should have offered him an appropriate ambassador position as respect for the SCCJ position. This is a weakness that MahindaR has. I do not know if this omission is a factor or not in SarathƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s new behavior as a retired SCCJ. They are not supposed to go into active politics immediately after their retirement, because politics is a dirty game played by dirty men.

Cases are won by lawyers because a judge cannot erase valid facts proven by lawyers. H.L. de Silva, S.L. Gunasekera and Gomin Dayasiri won the famous cases against the Tamil terrorists or their agents of the GOSL. However, the mistake made by Sarath was that he thought he can act like another political arm of the state. When FDR (American president) tried to implement welfare measures during the economic depression in the 1930s, the USSC obstructed them as unconstitutional and FDR even planned to appoint new SC judges. Nehru faced the same problem with the Indian SC. Most of the early Constitutional Amendments nullified those SC decisions. If Sarath had such background knowledge perhaps he would not have got into a conflict with the executive branch. When JRJ, son of a SC judge was playing havoc with SC judges where was this Sarath?

Two statements made by Sarath demonstrate either his dishonesty or his lack of knowledge in non-law affairs which even a GCE (A.L) student would know. He is so upset about the non-implementation of the 17-A. This was so important that he decided to get on to political stage! How can a person of his level say or think that 17-A was a solution to the problems created by the JRJ death trap that CBK identified as the bahubootha vyawasthava? This b.v. together with the changes made to the islandƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s election law gave Sri Lanka a representative system of crooks, criminals, uneducated and stupid people selected by the political party bosses in Colombo. Very few good people remained. Just look at the parliament? It is a disgrace to decency and democracy.

Now our little Sarath thinks these MP crooks are qualified to nominate an honest set of men to the CC under the 17-A. There was a time in the past he was taking about a new constitution, the resurrection of village councils etc. etc. It is immoral for people like him to behave in this dishonest manner for selfish reasons. Why cannot he say that the country needs a new constitution similar to the one we had from 1948-1972?

The other statement by Sarath relates to the merger of NP and EP. How can Sarath who took part in protecting the Somavathiya support now the idea of a mythical Tamil homeland? The merger is an acceptance of a Tamil homeland in the East by India under the 13-A. What kind of research or thinking convinced Sarath to change his mind now? Can Sarath explain how merger will help the Tamil people who suffered for 60 or 30 years to become prosperous? Can he use evidence of the other seven PCƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s which are white elephants full of corrupt second tier of politicians?

The two Saraths have lot of explaining to do. They must tell people whether they accept or reject the idea of a mythical Tamil homeland in the East. They must say how they are going to change the b.v. of JRJ. They must say whether they will junk the present election system. If they failed to explain people will not believe that they are on a crusade against corruption and their sand castle will collapse. They have already done serious damage to the island by pumping oxygen to the defunct, militarily defeated, Tamil separatist dreams. How many soldiers will have to die again for the actions of the two saraths?

The two Saraths should read the book ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Destructive emotions: how can we overcome them?ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ edited by Daniel Goleman in 2004. It will be excellent retirement reading for one or for both.