{"id":48179,"date":"2015-09-26T04:38:45","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T11:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=48179"},"modified":"2015-09-26T04:38:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T11:38:45","slug":"a-liar-liar-pants-on-fire-asipatha-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/09\/26\/a-liar-liar-pants-on-fire-asipatha-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"A liar, liar, pants on fire! – Asipatha cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Nation<\/a> <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Maybe that the likes of Ajith Perera can run away with the idea that the UNP is God\u2019s gift to mankind, but do spare us the sanctimonious hectoring about how his party is going to course-correct Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Appearing in a recent talk show, Perera said his government has begun to address the issue of impunity, and the assaults on the independence of the judiciary, that prevented the UN from accepting internal judicial processes to hold Sri Lankan forces personnel to account for so-called \u2018war crimes.\u2019<\/p>\n

What do you think is better? Is it Ajith Perera\u2019s self-induced amnesia, or his simple idiocy? His government is the embodiment of impunity on a hitherto unknown scale, as its leaders have sought to kick 46 lakhs of people on their backsides and totally disregard their democratic rights.<\/p>\n

We could come to that later, but all that can be said to him now is, nice try, Mr. Ignoramus. He probably does not know the meaning of the words self-righteous humbug, but he could look up the dictionary for the meaning.<\/p>\n

He should be no doubt aware that his President and Prime Minister are jointly responsible for the most heinous daylight robbery of the democratic right of adult franchise of the Sri Lankan people since the grant of independence, and perhaps since even before that when the British supposedly ran a textbook democracy for their colonial outpost.<\/p>\n

The extent of that impunity is such that the President was able to get rid of the sitting Chief Justice with the stroke of a pen. He was also able to get away with threatening the democratic opposition and steamrollering a 16 seat party over a 95 seat Alliance as the Opposition, treating the electors with overbearing, cynical contempt.<\/p>\n

The impunity the President enjoys for introducing defeated candidates through the National List is such that he is able to make some of these brigands and shameless losers, senior Cabinet Ministers in his so-called \u2018government.\u2019<\/p>\n

Perera refers to the Rathupaswela incident, as an example of impunity during the Rajapaksa administration, and he further refers to the murder of Lasantha Wickremetunge and the assaults on journalists such as Poddala Jayantha as further examples of the crass contempt for judicial process.<\/p>\n

If that is so, Perera\u2019s political \u2018bosses\u2019 are guilty tenfold of fostering a climate of impunity during their own time as key figures in previous administrations. Journalist Sivaram was abducted and murdered during Kumaratunga\u2019s presidency. It would be absurd to even mention the degree of impunity that would have obtained when torture chambers such as Batalanda operated during the present Prime Minister\u2019s previous incarnation in power as a born-again democrat.<\/p>\n

It is absolutely, hilariously rich for garrulous humbugs such as Ajith Perera to talk about impunity during the rule of the Rajapaksas, when he is part of an illegal government, and when for all practical purposes the 50,000 vote majority \u2018general election victory\u2019 that he gloats over was stolen as a result of his shamelessly scheming president\u2019s undemocratic skuduggery.<\/p>\n

It was illegal tinkering accomplished with stunning, hitherto unseen levels of impunity.
\nNow, when we all know that it is not the so-called impunity enjoyed by Security forces personnel, and others during the Rajapaksa administration, nor the so-called war crimes of forces personnel under the same administration that made the UN system prefer the UNP government, the humbug of glib talkers such as Ajith Perera appears far more grating and abominable.<\/p>\n

Yes, the movers and shakers in the UN system think that the Sri Lankan judiciary under the stewardship of the UNP can do a better job of trying war crimes, only because the UN system hates the Rajapaksa Administration, as the UN\u2019s adjuncts are run by those powers that bear a grudge against the Rajapaksas for finishing off the Tamil Tigers.<\/p>\n

Perera has the unmitigated gall to talk about impunity when it seems to be obvious that his bosses broke the till at the Central Bank and siphoned off billions \u2014 with what? With clear intent to pilfer, and absolute stunning and unprecedented impunity.<\/p>\n

Moreover, this garrulous talking head knows that nobody in the UN system spoke a word about the commission of war crimes or about impunity or about human rights when the LTTE murdered hundreds of women and children in towns and cities in the South, in the most brutal and barbaric manner.<\/p>\n

The people are too cowed to do anything about it now, but as in all politics, all damaging consequences would be felt much later. Ranil Wickremasinghe would know about actions of perfidy, and their much belated consequences. It was months, no years, after the ceasefire agreement was signed when he was Premier, that the Sri Lankan forces lost hundreds of security forces personnel who were working for military intelligence, due to the advantage of free movement that the LTTE used to good effect to accost and murder them, a result of the ceasefire agreement. The current consequences of Ajith Perera\u2019s President\u2019s assault on democracy would be such that Sri Lanka which boasted of a working democracy despite its limitations, is now a banana republic run by a cabal of petty tyrants. But the impunity and the absolute contempt for law that has been fostered would completely demolish democratic institutions and usher in chaos, or perhaps coups and other calamities in the future. The entire edifice has come down, and there is now no modicum of democratic rule \u2013 not even a thin carapace of it left in this country. But it seems that the \u2018international community\u2019 trusts the UNP more than the previous administration to administer justice. Some justice one might say \u2014 some trust!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Nation Maybe that the likes of Ajith Perera can run away with the idea that the UNP is God\u2019s gift to mankind, but do spare us the sanctimonious hectoring about how his party is going to course-correct Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign policy. Appearing in a recent talk show, Perera said his government has begun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48179","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=48179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}