{"id":63053,"date":"2017-02-03T19:10:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=63053"},"modified":"2017-02-03T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T19:02:53","slug":"the-amazing-grace-of-judge-christy-weeramantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/02\/03\/the-amazing-grace-of-judge-christy-weeramantry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amazing Grace of\u00a0 Judge Christy Weeramantry"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

By a set of fortuitous circumstances Judge C. G. Weeramantry,\u00a0 his bubbly wife Rosemary and children had become\u00a0 a part of our little circle in Melbourne ever since he was appointed to a chair in law at the Monash University in the seventies. Like all migrants we invariably gravitated to little circles of our own trying to recreate and relive that part of the culture and society we left behind. Withdrawing into little identity islands of our own culture, surrounded by alien waves lashing us daily, was a prime\u00a0 necessity to create a sense of togetherness and security. Being with our own kind rekindled\u00a0 our\u00a0 faith in\u00a0 our\u00a0 selves when we were trying find our feet in a foreign land. So bumping into a fellow-Sri Lankan in Melbourne in the seventies was like Robinson Crusoe discovering Man Friday. Creating a little bit\u00a0 of Sri Lanka and living\u00a0 in it became one of the great achievements of the expatriates. And discovering ourselves in the company of Judge Weeramantry was more than a status symbol. It was like rediscovering Sri Lanka all over again.<\/p>\n

In time, particularly in the critical times of post-1983, he became a tower of strength to the community which will be discussed later. And everyone who met him felt his comforting, calming, almost priestly presence. He rose in stature by being the unwavering moral man who,\u00a0 in the\u00a0 Kiplingnesque sense, never lost his\u00a0 head when\u00a0 everyone else was losing theirs. He carried within him an unshakeable religiosity that influenced his thoughts and actions. His soothing quietude and natural piety\u201d (Wordsworth) was endearing, almost hypnotic, and I used to tease him saying that in his previous birth he must\u00a0 have been a Buddhist monk meditating in the forest on the eternal laws of samsara (dharma) and the higher values of life that went\u00a0 with it. That is one aspect that was unmissable\u00a0 in Judge Weeramantry\u2019s life : his amazing\u00a0 grace which, incidentally, was one of his favourites hymns\u00a0 he played on the\u00a0 piano for all of us at parties that sometimes went on till break of\u00a0 dawn in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Judge Weeramantry could be in it without being of it \u2013 again another quality of his religiosity. He would, for instance, come\u00a0 to parties carrying a whole bundle\u00a0 of papers and\u00a0 while we were belting\u00a0 out Ka-pal-la, bee-pal-la, jolly kara-pal-la<\/em>\u201d at the top of our\u00a0 voices, gathered round the pianist, (who else but his gifted wife, Rosemary!), he\u00a0 would\u00a0 slip into a secluded room and write the next chapter of his latest book, or correct exam papers of his law students at Monash University. There was a fine balance in all his\u00a0 actions as there was in\u00a0 his judgements. Above all, he was a glutton for work.<\/p>\n

He was an indefatigable explorer of paths to peace. He had an inexhaustible and indomitable will to go with it. Combined together he\u00a0 produced volume\u00a0 after volume\u00a0 dealing\u00a0 critically with the many challenges that threaten modern civilisation and mankind. His dissenting judgment at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declaring the use of nuclear weapons illegal in any circumstances\u201d is a landmark judgment embraced by the global peace movement. It also confirms his moral courage and concern for\u00a0 the future of humanity. It is inconceivable that learned judges who huff and\u00a0 puff about human\u00a0 rights violations in small countries\u00a0 should take the side of Big Powers armed with nuclear weapons \u2013 the most\u00a0 destructive force that can\u00a0 wipe out\u00a0 the\u00a0 human rights of all mankind in one\u00a0 flash. The ICJ was divided evenly on this\u00a0 issue with seven judges for and seven judges against it. The decisive vote of Court President, Mohammed Bedjaoui, tilted the\u00a0 judgment in favour\u00a0 of the Big\u00a0 Powers. Judge Weeramantry was the\u00a0 leading judge\u00a0 of the ICJ who stood up for mankind and their right to live in a world without WMDs. His\u00a0 dissenting judgment was a big blow to the Big Powers who expected the judges to legalise their WMDs,\u00a0 while dictating human\u00a0 rights to the smaller nations. It takes enormous courage to be a dissenting judge under these international pressures in\u00a0 the highest court of\u00a0 the world while the majority was bending over backwards\u00a0 to appease the criminal cravings and ambitions of the Big\u00a0 Powers.<\/p>\n

The moral\u00a0 essence of Judge Weeramantry is enshrined in his dissenting judgment. There is no other\u00a0 legal force\u00a0 in the international arena that can\u00a0 stand up for the powerless defying the Big Powers. His\u00a0 dissenting\u00a0 judgment is his everlasting\u00a0 contribution\u00a0 to the future of mankind. Considering\u00a0 the potential to wipe out\u00a0 humanity with WMDs stored in the\u00a0 silos\u00a0 of Big Powers and considering the unforgiveable scale of crimes committed\u00a0 at Hiroshima\u00a0 and\u00a0 Nagasaki, what moral right did the judges of the ICJ have to legalise nuclear weapons? The Court President, Mohammed Bedjaoui, stated categorically : Nuclear weapons, the ultimate evil, destabilize humanitarian law, which is the law of the lesser evil. The existence of nuclear weapons is therefore a challenge to the very existence of humanitarian law, not to mention their long-term effects of damage to the human environment, in respect to which the right to life can be exercised.\u201d Having\u00a0 said that he cast his decisive vote to legalise the use of nuclear weapons. After such knowledge, what forgiveness?\u201d (T. S. Eliot –\u00a0 Gerontion <\/em>)<\/p>\n

In some of his conversations with me Judge Weeramantry expressed his utter dismay about his fellow judges who were ignorant of some of the fundamentals of the global culture. One judge, for instance, had thought that Buddhism was some voodoo cult! Though the ICJ was supposed to be a universal court of justice for all mankind it was primarily dominated, like all other UN organisations, by Western, or Western-oriented legal eagles whose limited knowledge on the diverse global culture was\u00a0 deplorable. He was, perhaps, the\u00a0 pre-eminent polymath with a 20-20 vision in the land of blind.\u00a0 In his biography he was critical about international justice system in\u00a0 which the Western lawyers dominated every department of the international law. The best of specialists in international law came from Western\u00a0 universities and legal agencies, the prosecutors came from Western legal systems, the majority of judges too were drawn from Western or pro-Western countries. Since the West dominates the international judicial system what chances have the rest in seeking justice at the ICJ?<\/p>\n

If\u00a0 the majority of\u00a0 the learned\u00a0 judges\u00a0 of\u00a0 the ICJ lacked the moral conscience\u00a0 to ban the most\u00a0 destructive\u00a0 weapons\u00a0 facing humanity \u2013 particularly with nervous and unpredictable\u00a0 leaders like Kim\u00a0 Jong-Un\u00a0 and Donald Trump\u00a0 having\u00a0 the\u00a0 keys\u00a0 to launch WMDs at will \u2013 what faith can we have in the high-sounding instrumentalities\u00a0 of peace and human rights, all of which are financed, directed and run according to a prepared Western agenda ? WMDs are the anti-thesis of human rights. It is in\u00a0 this context that\u00a0 the minority vote of Judge Weeramantry speaks louder\u00a0 than\u00a0 the majority vote of misguided\u00a0 missiles in the\u00a0 ICJ. Though he\u00a0 lost\u00a0 it was great day for\u00a0 humanity who had no one to speak on their behalf\u00a0 in the\u00a0 highest\u00a0 court of the world. The anti-nuclear\u00a0 movement\u00a0 has found in him an enlightened moral leader who could, hopefully, pave the way for\u00a0 a world\u00a0 without WMDs some time\u00a0 in the\u00a0 distant future.<\/p>\n

His dissenting\u00a0 judgment was in\u00a0 keeping\u00a0 with\u00a0 his\u00a0 religious\u00a0 beliefs which elevate the sanctity of human life \u2013 the greatest and the glorious manifestation that illuminates an infinitesimal corner of the immeasurable universe. Besides, it reflected his innate tendency to stand up for the highest values. It was also\u00a0 an affirmation of\u00a0 his moral conviction\u00a0 that no one\u00a0 should bow\u00a0 down to foreigners of the West simply because they have the power, wealth and the institutions of international law\u00a0 under their thumb. He had nothing but disdain for those who cringe\u00a0 before\u00a0 their superiors\u00a0 or those who were fawning before foreigners for a fistful of dollars. He dealt with these two aspects\u00a0 in his book A Call For National Reawakening. <\/em>In it he expressed his dismay at the direction\u00a0 in which the nation was heading.<\/p>\n

His list of national weaknesses is worth repeating as a reminder to the citizens as well as the powers that pompously pontificate to us so glibly. He wrote: Here are some of\u00a0 our national weaknesses which we take for granted and tend to gloss over. I shall enumerate some of them, expanding on them in the next chapter : i) Inability to run our institutions without factionalism ; (ii) Envy of success of others; (iii) Lack of respect for law and order; (iv) Lack of a sense of discipline; v) Widespread bribery and corruption; (vi) Lack of transparency in public decision-making, appointment, contract, disbursements; (vii) Multiple division of society; (viii) Using politics as a road to personal advancement; ix) Making extravagant election promises; x) Over indulgence in political rhetoric; xi) Sweeping past wrong doings under the carpet; xii) Waste of resources\u00a0 on political tamashas; xiii) Cringing before superiors; xiv) Fawning\u00a0 on foreigners; xv) Flaunting of wealth, possession and power; xvi) Lack of concern for the environment; xvii) Outsourcing\u00a0 crime through contract killers. (pp. 15 \u2013 16).<\/p>\n

A noticeable national weakness is the tendency at many levels of society to show excessive deference to foreigners, particularly from the west\u201d (p.49). His judgements were drawn from his rich experiences that span the colonial and the\u00a0 post-colonial periods. He wrote nostalgically :\u00a0 \u201dWe all have memories of the days of friendship and happiness before these communal problems erupted and have a longing for\u00a0 the restoration of that\u00a0 happy society.\u201d (p.102). Then he goes down memory lane and recalls : One of my earliest childhood memories was that my father\u2019s friend from his student days in England was Mr. G. G. Ponnambalam, a regular\u00a0 visitor to our home who used to take me with him n horse back when I was five or six.(p.99).<\/p>\n

He was most saddened by the communal violence that consolidated divisive politics. He refused to accept that the break-up of the nation in any form as the solution to communal harmony. In his chapter on Ensuring A Single Sovereign Sri Lankan State<\/em> he stated quite categorically : The fourth essential \u2013 and this is perhaps the most important \u2013 is the acceptance by all of the basic principle that any solution whatsoever must\u00a0 be in the context of a single Sri Lankan sovereign state.\u201d (p.101). It was on this\u00a0 principle that he came forward to give leadership\u00a0 to the patriotic Sri Lankan community faced with the aggressive anti-Sri Lankan lobby, led by Prof. C. J. Eliezer, in Melbourne. When the 1983\u201d explosion dominated prime time TV the Tamil propagandists, as usual, played up, quite effectively, the role of being victims of the majority Sinhalese persecuting\u00a0 the minority Tamils. It was a political ploy manipulated by them to win the sympathy of the shocked Western audiences.<\/p>\n

The Tamil lobbyists, at all levels, excelled in dramatizing the theme of victimology to nail the Sinhala-Buddhist majority in the eyes of the world. To them 1983\u201d was a blessing in disguise. It gave them the visual and marketable images of Paradise Burning\u201d to demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists as the evil force that discriminated against the Tamils of the\u00a0 North \u2013 the most\u00a0 privileged community in Sri Lanka. Prof. Eliezer, who was a lay preacher in the Uniting Church, did not\u00a0 hesitate to\u00a0 grab this opportunity to campaign for a separate state. He was an established figure leading\u00a0 the\u00a0 anti-Sri Lankan propaganda campaigns.<\/p>\n

Non-Tamil Sri Lankans, however, were paralysed not knowing how to counter the sudden wave of sympathy that was sweeping\u00a0 the Western world in the immediate aftermath of 1983\u201d. Prof.\u00a0 Weeramantry stepped into this vacuum to give leadership to the rudderless Sri Lankans. He formed a multi-ethnic front, the\u00a0 Overseas Sri Lankans\u00a0 Organisation for National Unity (OSLONU) which presented the\u00a0 alternative narrative. His stature, his vast knowledge of the law and history, his commanding personality, his persuasive presentations were invaluable assets in combatting anti-national propaganda. Our confidence was strengthened by the fact\u00a0 that a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka was willing to walk with us in the streets of Melbourne, carrying placards.<\/p>\n

For his part, Prof. Eliezer manoeuvred, in\u00a0 overt and covert tactics, to pursue separatist politics as a Mosessian commandment. He was committed to keep the divided expatriate community apart. Prof. Weeramantry, on the\u00a0 contrary, was stretching every nerve to bring unity and\u00a0 harmony. He even led a delegation of Sri Lankans to meet the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, hoping to get the blessings of the Church for communal\u00a0 harmony. The Archbishop agreed to hold a prayer meeting of all communities for peace and amity. Prof. Eliezer boycotted it at the\u00a0 last minute and stuck stubbornly to his divisive politics. In a move to reach out to the Tamils, Prof. Weeramantry reserved a place for\u00a0 the Tamils in OSLONU at the presidential level and\u00a0 invited them to join the other Sri Lankans in setting an example for communal harmony. But Tamil separatist politics forced them to abandon peaceful co-existence and\u00a0 communal harmony.<\/p>\n

Finally, he achieved his dream when he brought undergraduates from the northern, eastern and southern universities under one\u00a0 roof at the Subodhi Institute at Piliyandala. In this experiment he discovered that the undergraduates who were at first reluctant to even smile with each other were crying and hugging each other when the time came\u00a0 for parting at the end of a fortnight\u2019s communal living. He was quite elated that his\u00a0 experiment had succeeded. He saw great possibilities in it for\u00a0 the future of communal harmony.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 his legal career he rose way above the chrematistic, coconut-cracking, black-coated pettifoggers at Hulftsdorp. He went through all the stages that a lawyer could go through. He was a lawyer, a dedicated scholar of the law, a judge, a teacher of\u00a0 the law, ending up finally as the Vice-President of the ICJ. We have had eminent Sri Lankans shining in various realms\u00a0 of international law and institutions. Shirley Amerasinghe presided over the UN law-making body of the sea. Jayantha Dhanapala headed the UN Atomic Energy Commission probing deep\u00a0 into the center of atomic particles. Nandasiri Jasentuliyana soared high into outer space to write the future laws of the new world opening up in the Milky Way. Judge Weeramantry occupied the highest seat of all in the ICJ \u2013 the highest court\u00a0 in the world.<\/p>\n

His career path to that seat was foretold by one of\u00a0 his lawyer friends when he was appointed as the youngest judge of the Supreme Court. He was told that he\u00a0 would go abroad, be a teacher of the law and at the age of sixty or so he would\u00a0 win the Nobel Prize if he was a scientist. But as lawyer the equivalent\u00a0 of\u00a0 the Nobel Prize was a seat in the ICJ. However, there were many obstacles in his path to Hague. In the first round, Harry Jayewardene, the brother of President Jayewardene, who promised to help him, undercut him and presented\u00a0 himself as the rival to Prof. Weeramantry. The Foreign Ministry went round the world capitals canvassing for Harry Jayewardene. But he lost. His CV was limited\u00a0 to one line : an article\u00a0 in the Daily News<\/em>. Judge Weeramantry\u2019s impressive CV ran into pages with Ph D\u2019s from international universities.<\/p>\n

In the second\u00a0 round, it was Asia\u2019s turn but the Jayewardene government\u00a0 had pledged its support to the Pakistani candidate. Zia al-Huq was the head\u00a0 of\u00a0 Pakistan. There\u00a0 was no way that Prof. Weeramantry could win the backing of the Sri Lankan government. There were only a few days left for\u00a0 the closing\u00a0 of\u00a0 applications. By this time the Jayewardene\u2019s were no longer in power. President Ranasinghe Premadasa was in command. But Jayewardene\u2019s commitment to support to Zia\u2019s nominee was in force. Then, as predicted, even world\u00a0 events turned dramatically in favour of Prof. Weeramantry. Zia went\u00a0 up in helicopter which exploded and killed him\u00a0 instantly. The new government of Pakistan said that they were not\u00a0 interested in\u00a0 Zia\u2019s nominee. And so the doors\u00a0 opened for\u00a0 Judge Weeramantry to win his Nobel Peace prize\u201d.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 all respects his was a legendary career. In the words\u00a0 of Lakshman Kadiragamar, his achievements abroad were merely the icing\u00a0 on the cake. It was baked wholly in Sri Lanka which, he said, broadened his perspectives with its blend of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural tolerance. Though a staunch Catholic he was proud of the Sinhala-Buddhist culture in which he grew up. He even wrote lines\u00a0 picked from\u00a0 the Mahavamsa<\/em> into the texts of\u00a0 international law in\u00a0 his\u00a0 judgment on the Danube contested by Hungary and Slovakia. The following\u00a0 extract reveals the extent to which\u00a0 he was influenced\u00a0 by Buddhism. He wrote : The\u00a0 teachings of Buddhism go even further, for they require a compassion for all living things even to the extent of recognising the rights of animals to freedom form fear. The sermon of the Arahat Mahinda to King Devanampiyatissa at the time when Buddhism was brought to this country spoke in terms of these rights. The concept of freedom from fear is an advanced human rights concept. Yet more than 2000 years ago the king was told “Remember that these animals are also as much inhabitants of this island as you are”. The king was also told that he was only a trustee of this land, and not the owner of it. Trusteeship is one of the basic principles of modern environmental law. Yet, it was anticipated over two thousand years ago. This basic concept of environmental law is thus deeply ingrained in our traditions having been incorporated in the very first sermon that was preached at the time when Buddhism was brought into this country.\u201d (Sustainable Development : Ancient\u00a0 concept\u00a0 recently developed). <\/em><\/p>\n

If there is one\u00a0 single\u00a0 strand that dominated his\u00a0 thinking it was religion. He believed in the\u00a0 brotherhood\u00a0 of mankind and, in keeping with this philosophy, he\u00a0 titled his three-volumed biography Towards a One World. <\/em>His faith in\u00a0 humanity was as great as his faith in religion. He saw in all religions the common\u00a0 principles that bind humanity together. He viewed the UN Charter, particularly its commandments\u201d on human\u00a0 rights, as a secular translation of the humane principles enshrined\u00a0 in all religions. Not surprisingly, the last text he wrote, lying\u00a0 on his back at the hospital, was titled, Praying the Hail Mary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He was, by any known standards, a great son of Sri Lanka who never forgot to pay his dues to his homeland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala By a set of fortuitous circumstances Judge C. G. Weeramantry,\u00a0 his bubbly wife Rosemary and children had become\u00a0 a part of our little circle in Melbourne ever since he was appointed to a chair in law at the Monash University in the seventies. Like all migrants we invariably gravitated to little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63053","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=63053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}