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

A Judge is no saint. Underneath the black cloak is a human being of flesh and blood, a subjective mind filled with prejudices, perceptions, feelings and passion, struggling to project image of a fountain of logical objectivity.”

Law is an instrument of social control in the hands of a ruling class [suddage neethiya?] used to subjugate the toiling masses.”

One must go to courts with clean hands. A gazette notification has no magic power to purify and elevate an entity hitherto run like a public brothel into a shrine of world (representative) democracy, despite the gift of many virginity robes by the international king makers (IKMs).”

Chief Justice Sripavan’s baggage

Meetotamulla garbage disaster was a GIGO created by defective politicians. Likewise, current governing crisis of 19-A is a result of dishonest actions lead by three yahapalana lawyers, Abraham Sumanthiran, JayampathyW and RanilW, who thought law was an ass. The strange fact is that even the ex-chief justice K. Sripavan treated law as an ass by omission, perhaps due to selfish reasons. When the 19-A bill was before the SC in 2015, senior lawyer Gomin Dayasiri, asked Sripavan, if it was constitutional for the parliament to plan to ensure its tenure for four and half years (which in effect will be 5 years with time for an election). Sripavan evaded giving an answer, either way, and omitted to mention this questioning in the judgement.  A question like this is not like a challenge made by Nagananda Kodituwakku on MPs selling their vehicle permits.

By allowing the legislative branch to make its life secure for five years, the checks and balances scheme in the 1978 JRJ bahubootha thing was violated, which meant a need for a referendum. Reducing the president’s term from 6 to 5 years is different. Any modification towards enhancing people’s sovereignty such as a return to two-term limit are not against the spirit of the constitution. But removing a meaningful check on the legislative branch (by the executive president with power to dissolve it), if not after one year as in the past, but for example, at least after two years, when the president is convinced privately or publicly, that body is on a nationally suicidal path must have people’s consent.  By evading to tackle this issue then, the former chief justice Sripavan is directly responsible for the 33 (2)c versus 70 (1) crisis now before SC. He failed to fulfil his bahubootha constitutional duty.

Savitri vs. Gevindu

Two essays in the Island newspaper, (D. Laksiri Mendis (11/26/2018), and Nigel Hatch (11/25) tried to deal with this crisis from within the four corners of the law (legal perspective). On the other hand, the retired law prof. Savitri Goonesekere’s (The Island 11/25) essay on the topic began with an approach that law must be found (and interpreted) within case law and law books, ended as a legal to non-law (extra-legal data) friend of the court brief. NGO master Jehan Perera (Colombo Telegraph, Nov.26) was more direct in this regard complaining about a presidential arbitrariness. An evaluation if the president acted unfairly, requires judges to look at facts not in the statute applying an objective test. But a reasonable test can never be free from subjective elements creeping in. The use of extra-legal data in the interpretation of law started for the first time with the landmark American case of Brown Vs. Board of education in 1954. In that unanimous decision USSC overturned the separate-but-equal decision given in 1896. Utilizing sociological, non-law data, the court ruled that segregated schools are inherently unequal.

Adding non-law data to her supposedly ‘law only’ essay, prof. Savitri even talks about the convicted prisoner monk Gnanasara [BBS leader Ven Galabodaatte Gnanasara].” This means the November 23^rd incident at the parliament where TNA’s Abraham Sumanthiran threatened UNP’s Kiriella for stupidly asking the speaker to have a second voting with each MP stay stand and vote so that the country could see the unfolding drama (and a humiliated Kiriella looking for his master RanilW’s moral support in vain), could become extra-legal evidence of a 19-A coup. Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha’s disclosure (LankaWeb, 27/11/18) about how he was shouted down in the parliament when he proposed a new section 23 A to the 19^th Amendment (to change the electoral law promised as 20^th Amendment) also must be relevant to show how dysfunctional was this supreme law-making body. At the 19-A chaotic debate environment in the parliament, Rajiva says, Dinesh Gunawardena was the only MP who tried to prevent the process soon degenerating into a farce.

Recently, in cases challenging American president Trump’s orders on Muslim immigrant ban, courts used his political speeches as facts relevant to the hearings. If so, why cannot SLCS consider public declarations by politicians as relevant evidence? For example, Sajith Premadasa said (Divaina, Nov. 29, 2018) president Sirisena asked him 10 times and Karu Jayasuriya 13 times (data still not out on how many times from Nalin Bandara) to accept the PM’s job, before it was finally offered to MahindaR. Is this revelation not relevant as evidence of good faith of a president to settle a possible constitutional crisis in a least disturbing manner? A court compelled to examine whether the president acted arbitrarily cannot ignore facts knocking at its front door.

Rules of Natural Justice

If details in Rajiva’s essay mentioned above is not an adequate reply to doubt Prof. Savitri’s attempt to use theory of constitutionalism and concept of representative democracy, one should watch the Nov. 19^th Derana 360 interview with Gevindu Kumaratunga. Facts revealed by Gevindu compels one to take the 19-A GIGO episode back to at least the 2002 CFA between RanilW and Erick Solheim of Norway and to the2000-02 Neelan-GL package deals of president Kumaratunga. From Gevindu’s perspective, 19-A could be viewed as a lousy attempt to adjust the bahubootha constitution, a deliberate planting of a germ to create a governmental crisis sooner or later, or a sneaky unsuccessful strategy to ‘cheat’ on the 2015 Supreme Court ruling. Now the 2018 Supreme Court is forced to step in and try to unravel the mess. Would it be able to demonstrate that law is not an ass?  For example, the cheaters like JayampathyW added 33 (2)c as a standing alone clause, so that not only the 2015 SC requirement that the president’s power to dissolve parliament cannot be modified without a referendum (as well as the 2002 Seven Bench decision on the basic structure of the constitutional scheme) has been complied with as a law in the book.  The dishonest trap comes however, by way of omitting to refer to 70 (1) (may power to dissolve) in 33 (2)c (shall power to dissolve) or vice versa.

Savitri’s theory and concept above, are only two pinnacles of a floating iceberg, laden heavily with political garbage hidden below. These ideas (machines) of Savitri cannot function smoothly if sand is thrown on to the grease in between the wheels of constitutional machine.  How can constitutionalism function when, key operators entrusted to run it lie to people repetitively? If the leader of the opposition votes with the PM to save PM’s job in the guise of saving representative democracy, how can constitutionalism survive in such a setup? The entire drama of drafting a new constitution has become an open highway robbery of people’s sovereignty. The entire Sinhala Buddhist side of the equation was denied a seat in any of the committees or secretly-met sub-committees! Can anyone in Sri Lanka talk about a representative democracy under the current electoral scheme which promotes party-leader dictatorship from Colombo, district lists filled with local crooks and uneducated fools? Do these fools know what is rule of law, what is national policy or why there is a library in the parliament?  Key yahapalana operators manipulate the system, proving the assertion that law is nothing, but an instrument used by a ruling few (Colombo black-whites?) to subjugate the toiling masses (milk to Colombo and roughage to villages; suddage neethiya). When MPs behave like monkeys with razor blades in hand, what law and what democracy is there for prof. Savitri to try to sanitize? On the subject extra-legal need for international goodwill, she can learn a lot by watching Chapa Bandara on Youtube.

Did the dissolution of parliament violate the fundamental rights of 122 MPs who voted against it? Does president’s action under 33 (2)c subject to judicial review? How does a president concerned about a threat to his own life as well as an imminent threat to the survival of the country as one piece of real estate in the world perform his constitutional duty in good faith? What is the constitutional remedy available to a president to escape from a yahapalana prison, if parliament has become a den of thieves or a herd of goats lead by a UNP-TNA leadership cabal, with a JVP bent on promoting political chaos?  Obviously, 19-A GIGO pushed the SC into a political jungle of law and facts, which Prof. Savitri could not hide in her legal essay. Laws of natural justice demand a court to study the entire episode with a holistic perspective. Other non-law facts (evidence) become relevant in understanding the circumstances why certain words are used, and why some clauses are planted, purposely or haphazardly. If some clauses are added to circumvent previous SC rulings, is also relevant. Even a matter like some significant clauses were added in the middle of the night when law makers” were all tired and sleepy cannot be ignored under a veil of courts cannot interfere with parliaments internal business. If new additions were made to a bill already sanitized by SC during its final committee stage, where people cannot get a 14-day time period to go to SC to challenge the constitutionality of such new additions, it was downright cheating of peoples’ sovereignty. If parliament crooks use the committee stage to make a one-page bill into a 30-page law, it is criminal.

Genesis of 19-A

The best option available for the SC now is to pave way for a general election so that the treatment of law as an ass by the 19-A authors is remedied using judicial discretion. Otherwise, the harm done to the country as whole is irreparable than the harm allegedly caused to 122 MPs. By this action the court can show to the country that law is not an ass, but lawyers. In Bush vs. Gore (Dec.12, 2000), USSC prevented a constitutional crisis in America by giving a ‘political decision’. One of the judges, Antonin Scalia, later admitted that the decision was flawed, but the nation was saved. The following is a political and historical account to demonstrate that taking the 19-A dispute out of the hands of rival lawyers could be reasonably justified based on non-law data. The 12 petitions are not based on a good faith belief in democracy (or like what had happened in England centuries ago in a fight between the king and the commoners), but an attempt to use courts to prevent the exposure of abuse of democracy (constitutionalism and representative democracy per prof. Savitri) by party leaders of UNP, TNA and JVP.  The historical account below will show the petitioners come to court with blood in their hands.

PM cannot be an office peon

RanilW was brought into politics in 1977 by JRJ because he was his nephew. He had no prior exposure to politics or social services. His name was adversely mentioned in the Batalanda Commission report (March 1998) and again in the commission report (November 2003) on the police raid of the army’s secret long-range reconnaissance patrol hideout in Millenium City, Athurugiriya on Jan 2, 2002. The latter was characterized as a betrayal of a nation fighting a brutal terrorist war. RPremadasa under JRJ used to say that his office peon had more power than him as PM. When RanilW became PM, he wanted to change this perception by unilateral action. Thus, he signed the infamous Cease Fire Agreement (Feb. 2002) without any prior discussion with President Kumaratunga. This was the first example of RanilW trying to become an executive PM, de facto, not de jure (sand on grease). Prior to his firing by president K, RanilW tried to get president’s powers transferred to PM by law. That 19-A was before a seven-judge bench of SC in 2002. The court decided that any fundamental change in the 1978 constitutional framework must be approved by a referendum.

Scottish war correspondent Paul Harris identified this CFA as the world’s greatest giveaway, and he was deported by the government for his impartial and objective reporting of Tamil terrorist operations (LankaWeb, Dec. 10,2013).

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/12/10/crimes-and-sins-of-the-englishman-paul-harris/).

Apparently, the CFA was drafted jointly by Erick Solheim and Prabakaran in the Wanni and signed first by RanilW in Colombo. It allowed a de facto Tamil Eelam in North and East with free access to any place in the rest of the island to Eelam agents.

A devil dance for power between Chandrika akka and Ranil malli

Growing up together in Colombo, Ranil called Chandrika affectionately, older sister and Ranil was a younger brother to Chandrika. But, the most important historical incident after this was the firing of RanilW and dissolution of parliament by President Kumaratunga in November 2003. See the quotation below:

President KUMARATUNGA: I was forced into it by a total breakdown of cohabitation in government. The Prime Minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) was determined to harass me and chase me out. He has only one obsession: he wants to be the President. And he does not seem to care what happens to the country in the process. We came to an impossible impasse. The only way to resolve it was to ask the people for a mandate. —TIME’s Alex Perry at President’s House in Colombo, March 29, 2004”

Source: HLD Mahindapala, LankaWeb, November 10, 2018

There was a time president K’s house dog was the only friend (security guard?) she had when the cabinet met regularly at her official residence. Whenever minister Ravi K had heated arguments with her (abusing/harassing her?), the dog got agitated and was ready to jump on Ravi in any second!

What more a court is needed today than this historical evidence to understand the agony that president Sirisena had to face in a yahapalana prison? Unlike president K above, president S gave clear and convincing reasons publicly as to why he had no option other than to fire RanilW, both for his own personal safety as well as the survival of the country intact.

Ranil’s ill-fated 19-A vs. derailed package deals of Chandrika

Ranil tried 19-A without a legal 19-A in signing the nefarious CFA and got himself fired while visiting America promoting CFA. Chandrika, on the other hand wanted to eliminate the JRJ bahubootha constitution by replacing it lock stock and barrel and more. With Neelan Thiruchelavam, G L Peiris and the hardcore Marxist Jayampathy W behind her plan was for a union of regions, an executive PM, a blueprint for a mono-ethnic N-E two province Tamil homeland, potential Malayanadu for up-country Indian Tamils plus a Muslim Oluvil province. After drafts in 1995, 1996, 1997 and much love and hate, because of Chandrika’s design to stay in power under her new constitution Ranil managed to get the final draft in 2000 burnt inside the parliament. These theatrics are important in understanding the so-called constitutionalism operating now in 2018, because international king makers (IKMs) brought (bought) Chandrika and Ranil as reincarnated new force to implement the 1995-2000 package deal with a vengeance.

Ranil’s election campaign by IKMs

The elimination of UNP leadership (RPremadasa, Ranjan Wijeratna, LAthulathmudali, GaminiDissa etc.) by Prabakaran paved way for Ranil to become the leader of the party and he craftly managed to stay on top despite many attempts to derail him. He has the most undemocratic party constitution guaranteeing his party chairmanship. In 2005 presidential election MahindaR defeated him with a razor thing margin. H.L. Seneviratna of the Work of Kings fame in USA, described that election as a fight between an economist (RW) versus a nationalist (MR). America and other white European countries supported RW, but the Sinhala Buddhist votes went to MR as a result of the awakening of them by the late Ven. Gangodawila Soma (Soma dowry).

Common candidate # 1- IKMs plan to trick Sinhala Buddhists

The loss of 2005 presidential bid made RW a delusional man angry with Sinhala Buddhists. This was why he did everything possible to sabotage the war effort by MR and GR. His anti-country behavior led a faction of UNP to leave him and join the MR government to help win the war. Due to his anti-war and pro-Eelam stand RW realized that he would not be able to win any presidential bid. Therefore, after May 2009 war victory western countries (America, UK and EU) drag him into a new approach. The new strategy was that Ranil would support a puppet candidate, hoping to operate behind the scene as PM. American ambassador Robert Blake tricked Sarath Fonseka, thinking that Sinhala Buddhists will vote for him as a war hero, but when SF was getting the support of Tamils in the North (how come Tamils voting for a man who killed their hero Prabakaran), the plan boomeranged. If SF won in 2010, the usual American CIA norm in such an event would be to bribe some generals in the army and make SF a puppet or a prisoner and deploy RanilW to run the show.

PM ‘Sir’

MR and GR did not succumb to intimidation by IKMs to smuggle Prabakaran out of Nandikadal trap in April 2009. Similarly, they failed to topple MR regime in 2010 election, mainly because their common candidate was a hero in war but a bull-in-a-China shop in politics. Therefore, they did serious strategic planning for a second attempt. This attempt is directly linked to the current 19-A debacle. Some unwise and unfair acts of MR paved way for them to catch the best fish available in the political market (jungle). Of all the words and acts of MaithripalaS, the best Sinhala Buddhist quality that elicited the humble nature of this farmer’s son was his public gesture of asking RanilW if he could continue to address RW as Sir.” People will never know if in return Ranil addressed President S as Sir,” the Sinhala version of an official H.E. being only an automated politically correct usage.

Common candidate # 2

The second attempt with a common candidate was supposed to be a better deal for RanilW than a direct election defeat facing MR. He got amply rewarded from this low risk adventure, reminiscent of the saying that one breaks a honey comb expecting at least to lick the hand.  With the full backing of IKMs (500 million dollars from USA alone) a multi-pronged strategy was floated. Again, key issue was how to divide the Sinhala Buddhist vote. The plan included:

1. April 2013à Singapore agreement (Tamil diaspora, Mangala Samaraweera, TNA’s Sumanthiran, Jayampathy W, Colombo Law Dean+ IKM agents), 13-A plus path
2. Monk Maduluwave Sobhitha pathà NGOs for a just society
3. JHU Patali Ranawaka, monk Athureliye Ratana pathà
4. Chandrika-MaithripalaS pathà SLFP faction

Front # 1

The hidden other side of prof. Savitri’s concern for meeting international obligation comes under 1 above. A conspiracy exceeding a mere 19-A was the goal here. If white IKMs entertained a long-term geopolitical aim of having a foothold in the island with Trincomalee harbor in the bag, Singapore secret agreement decided to take the 13-A plus path to achieve it. In addition to getting real estate and ports the way Sudan was broken into two to get access to new state South Sudan’s oil and gas fields, a republic of regions in Sri Lanka via 13-A plus has another advantage of disintegrating the 2600-year old Sinhala Buddhist civilization in the island. Mrs. Rosy Senanayaka and Mrs. Chandrika want the Sinhala Buddhist foundation demolished. Ironically, after 1551, the Catholic Cardinal in 2018 rejected this opinion as lunatic. Still, some Tamil Catholic priests and Christian Fundamentalists such as UNP MP Eran Wickramaratna may be behind Rosy and co. who hates Buddha statutes.  Under the Singapore line, Geneva HRC was used to pass a 20 item Resolution # 30/1, sponsored jointly by USA and Mangala Samaraweera. Another ardent Marxist Lal Wijenayaka had the job of sanitizing Geneva requirements, and 18 out of his 19-member caravan were known pro 13-A plus agents. 19-A was within the requirements of the Geneva conspiracy. JVP’s 20-A and the federal constitution plan to be submitted to parliament in November 2018. President S’s decision to sack PM and parliament derailed the ultimate aim of the Singapore conspiracy to balkanize Sri Lanka despite the enactment of several other laws relating to war crimes.”

Fronts # 2 & 3

American ambassador Michell Sisson’s visit to Nagaviharaya, Kotte was the best evidence of IKM’s innocent-looking intervention in regime change in Sri Lanka. She did not go Malvatta or Asgiriya, because most probably CIA reporting identified the former firebrand monk, the most vulnerable target to be tapped. Ven. Maduluvawe Sobhita did not and could not fathom the gravity of his actions. Abolishing the Executive presidency was used as a bait to get his support for a regime change. Behind regime change was the NGO-backed conspiracy to balkanize Sri Lanka. The monk was so blind-folded that he did not know the yahapalana crooks signed two conflicting agreements with two different monks. The Maduluwave faction signed the promise to abolish EP position. The Rathana faction signed a promise to reduce powers of EP which could be done without a referendum. There is no doubt the NGOs with Ven. M knew this cheating. But Ven. M came to know about it only in April or so after the Jan. 8 election, when Gevindu Kumaratunga pointed it out to him at a Derana 360 debate.  JHU jumping into the yahapalana wagon was a result of MahindaR refusing to listen to JHU concerns. MR became an interfaith, multi-ethnic promoter forgetting the Ven. Soma dowry that gave him a razon thin victory over Ranil-based IKM power in 2005.

Front # 4

Sri Lankan political leaders were never that unselfish so as to treat the country first, and family second. This is why front # 4 became so successful. From DSS’ decision to make Dudley PM, PMs and Ps in Sri Lanka has had a bad reputation in this regard. Even JRJ, with a son not suitable to politics, planted his nephew RanilW, instead. MaithripalaS helped MR when he was a victim of Mrs. Chandrika who wanted Anura to replace her, but MR treated MS so unfairly that Mrs. Chandrika found MS has the ideal new Sarath Fonseka to topple MR. Sinhala Buddhist votes could be divided using MS. This was what really happened. 200,000 of Sinhala Buddhist votes went to MS at the 2015 election.

A human dilemma

MS was so grateful to Ranil and UNP for making him the P. It was true that Ranil would not have become a PM if not for MS. But, for Ranil and for IKMs it was a risky geopolitical investment opening the doors and windows to balkanize the country. MS did not understand that he had become a cat’s paw in an IKMs long-range plan. Shaking hand with the queen without her gloves, PM David Cameron opening his (MS’) car door, such things carried MS to a romantic world of politics never experienced by a farmer’s son.

He found he was into a marriage not because of his beauty or character, but because of the sheer geopolitical dowry he brought to RanilW. Ranil and Co., a cabal of Royal men, started the game. They robbed the Central Bank twice (only one was investigated so far) and then followed a very undemocratic way unmaking the country. Parliament became a total joke.  As we hear now from often vindictive public utterances by UNP MPs, MS had been a helpless bystander in this suicidal game. When he realized the marriage was sham and even his own life was in danger, he had to take a belated decision to fire his butterfly husband.

Human courage

Within a human live a potential saint as well as a devil. When one catalogues the harm done to the country by the RanilW cabal, MS has done a heroic act of saving Sri Lanka. This act on Oct 26, 2018 is as significant as the ending of the war on May 19, 2009, because everything done to save this island intact by the sacrifices made by Sinhala village poverty-stricken boys and girls (there were some Tamil and Muslim heroes too) began to slip away one by one by a systematic operation of a conspiracy floated after Jan 8, 2015. At that time in 2014, the country did not get the course correction expected from MR, and the outcome of the election was good wakeup call for MR. But it reminds what R G Senanayaka said after the April 1956 general election. He even won two seats, Kelaniya and Dambadeniya. He said people wanted to give a medicine to cure UNP patient’s diarrhea, but the patient died. Today when one observes MP Wasantha Senanayaka’s confused state of mind, how can the SLSC conclude that that the 123 MPs petitioning it are fighting for the preservation of democracy in Sri Lanka? Some want time to get their pension right. Some other want to get the new federal constitution passed. Some old crowds want to continue enjoying numerous perks bestowed upon them to get their vote. If Keheliya Rabukwella is correct, 109 of them are dead scared of the release of the Bond Scam Report. The Supreme Court cannot think of any higher law other than the stability of the country, because without a country, there will be no law and no SC. Dissolution of Parliament is the solution.