{"id":116347,"date":"2021-07-21T06:39:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T13:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116347"},"modified":"2021-07-21T06:39:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T13:39:43","slug":"forsaking-justice-and-law-enforcement-emperors-without-clothing-leading-a-country-without-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/21\/forsaking-justice-and-law-enforcement-emperors-without-clothing-leading-a-country-without-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Forsaking Justice and Law enforcement; Emperors without clothing leading a country without clothing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent,\nand dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love\nwith publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but\nin love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the\ngreatness of the cause<\/em><\/a> – Martin\nLuther King, Jr.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing an essay\ntitled A country without values or\nprinciples about the situation in Colombia in January\n2019, Carlos Alberto Palacio\nAcosta, Director of Revista Colombiana\nde Psiquiatr\u00eda, wrote that quote, Analysing\nthe root of the problem brings us face-to-face with individuals who lack the\nmost basic values: loyalty, solidarity, honesty and empathy, to name but a few.\nThe social distortion that led us to live for decades in a mafia culture\u201d that\nupheld and introduced concepts such as the end justifies the means\u201d, money\nrepresents success as both a goal and symbol of power\u201d, power is achieved by\nwalking over people\u201d and survival of the fittest\u201d,  unquote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Alberto Palacio Acosta wrote about Colombia. He\ncould very well have written about Sri Lanka as all of what he wrote about\nappears to ring a bell in Sri Lanka as well. In a country where an Executive\nPresident pardons convicted rapists and murderers without at least adhering to\nConstitutional provisions, where such a pardoned rapist is appointed in one\ninstance as a Justice of the Peace and where in a another instance a murderer\nis appointed to a top government position, where perpetrators of major financial\nscams roam the world without any accountability, where the buck for major\ncrimes such as a bombing of churches on Easter day and killing hundreds of\nworshippers does not stop with those constitutionally responsible, where no one\nis held accountable for a pogrom organised by a government against its own\nminority community, where bribery & corruption cascades from the highest\nlevels to the lowest, and flows on as a way of life, who would be able to\ndiscern which country Carlos Alberto Palacio Acosta was writing about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, very little concern or objection has\nbeen expressed by political, religious and civils society leaders to the\npardoning of criminals facing death sentences, indicating possibly that the\nleaders as well as the people are all walking around without clothes and\nadmiring each other\u2019s invisible clothing while the nakedness of broader\nsociety\u2019s values is as stark as the nakedness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first occasion when Parliamentarians and\nothers were silent when Presidents pardoned convicted rapists and murderers serving\ndeath sentences, and without following constitutional requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is anecdotal information that the latest recipient\nof a presidential pardon, Duminda Silva, had been targeted by high level law\nenforcement officials as well as some in the Justice system, in collusion with\nsome politicians, and that his conviction had been stage managed to lead to an\ninevitable conviction. There have been several social media YouTube clips that\nhave been doing the rounds showing the involvement of a leading politician of\nthe Yahapalanaya era, a senior police official and a judge of the highest court\nallegedly targeting Duminda Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this were true, it shows that sections of the two\nbastions of the country, its law enforcement, and justice system, has no values\nand they are stark naked as well. In this climate of hopelessness, where\nrituals and hypocrisy have superseded values and principles, one is reminded of\na quotation by Mahatma Gandhi extolling  people to quote keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts\nbecome your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviour.\nKeep your behaviour positive because your behaviour becomes your habits. Keep\nyour habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values\npositive because your values become your destiny\u201d<\/a>, unquote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While what Mahatma Gandhi said is very much\nwhat all founders of religions would have said, it is not easy for the ordinary\ncommon man and woman to be as positive when confronted with dishonesty, deceit,\ninhumanity, discrimination and the misuse of power by those in power to degrade\nand dehumanise ordinary folk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pardoning criminals without providing reasons\nfor such pardons and not adhering to constitutional requirements in granting\nsuch pardons does not encourage positivity. Pardoning only those who have\ninfluence, money and perhaps even incriminating knowledge that could be\nembarrassing to high level politicians, law enforcement officials and members\nof the Judiciary, is nothing but a prostitution of values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miscarriage of justice does occur and it is\nlikely that innocent people without the right connections, money and\/or valuable\ninformation as bargaining tools, have also been convicted of crimes they never\ncommitted. There needs to be a mechanism for such people to seek justice\nas  they have no recourse to seeking a\npardon from the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pardoning convicted criminals without reason\nemboldens the recipients of pardons while it demeans the grantor of the pardons,\nthe Executive President of the country, the highest elected official of the\ncountry. This leads to a loss in confidence in the Executive President and the\nPresidency itself, and a further erosion of societal values and\nprinciples.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if people are to overcome this sense\nof despair, they need to think positive and act positive, and be more proactive\nin guarding what makes a human being a human, a value system and a set of\nprinciples enunciated by all religious leaders. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A proliferation of rituals and mindless\nadherence to rituals, is not an indication that the society is adhering to any\nvalues and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that rituals have become the\ninvisible clothing for the Emperors and the people and the pretence to cover\ntheir nakedness of individual and societal values. Amongst all religions,\nrituals practiced in the name of Buddhism have become political propaganda\ndemonstrations with the State taking a leading role in setting an example to\nthe general populace. These rituals have become tools to safeguard the\ninstitutions and not Buddhism as professed by those promoting more and more\nritualistic practices. Yet, very few religious and civil society leaders extol\nanything different, and their inaction perpetuates the mindless rituals in the\nname of Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this climate of despair and hopelessness,\none is reminded of the positivity spoken and practiced by a true Angel of\ndisadvantaged people, Mother Theresa, who said quote\u201d If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish,\nulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some\nfalse friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank\npeople will try to cheat, you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building,\nsomeone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and\nhappiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today,\nwill often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best\nyou have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em>\nunquote.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the Sri\nLankan society wake up to the fact that they are in very shallow waters when it\ncomes to values and principles? Which direction will the country\u2019s political,\nreligious and civil society leaders head now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause – Martin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}