By Vishwamithra –

“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” ~Aristotle

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and the National People’s Power (NPP) were not voted into power to desecrate the sacred soil of justice. Their primary duty and responsibility was, is and will be upholding the rule of law without any discrimination towards any sect, men, women and children. Theirs is an onerous assignment and an unforgiving mission. Should they choose, willy nilly, to deviate from that path, the rage and wrath of the people would be unstoppable and it should be so. Both AKD and the NPP should not only abstain from veering away from the promised premise of their manifesto and rhetoric, they should not even appear to do so. Consequences of such crude and unsophisticated adoption of undemocratic and arbitrary stance would generate an angry cascade of public fury and outrage.

Such an unpleasant circumstance is seemingly taking ahold of the current government machinery; if such a cycle of governing malpractice should occur, the blame and responsibility should be squarely and fairly on the shoulders of the governing parties.       

Lasantha Wickrematunge who was killed in 2009, months before the Presidential Elections, was a fearless writer. His columns may have angered the then Rajapaksa regime; it may have injured the elongated egos of corrupt politicians and the parliamentarians who kept quiet about the whole episode may not know the full truth; or they may have chosen to look the other way because the finger was pointing towards their Master’s way. Not only did the Rajapaksas and their slavish supporters rush to defend and protect the Masters from this massive scandal, the blatant fashion Lasantha was killed and the unspoken suffering it created amongst Lasantha’s relatives cannot be overstated.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was not merely a man or a journalist whose investigative brand of journalism at the time was unique and hard-hitting; he brought a marque of writing skills to the average man’s drawing and reading rooms. The keen followers of Lasantha’s columns were eagerly waiting for each Sunday to dawn, so that they could read the Sunday Leader. Lasantha Wickrematunge was not a mere run-of-the-mill journalist. Ha had become an idea. Those who plotted and planned to kill and were eventually successful in killing, did not get rid of the person Lasantha. Their intention was to kill the idea that was building around him. But they failed to achieve that purpose.

The immediate aftermath of Lasantha’s killing, however, had its intended consequences. Lasantha’s wife, Sonali Samarasinghe fled to the United States. The other investigative journalists began their own self-censorship and criticism of the Rajapaksa regime and of its main actors and actresses started slowing down, not totally halted, but certain yet unobserved deceleration occurred. A fear-psychosis gripped the profession and the Rajapaksas and their henchmen and women continued with their gruesome kind of governance and boot-licking. But the Rajapaksas did not realize that all partying had to come to end one day. And that day arrived with some self-driven youngsters who gathered on the Galleface Green in March 2022. It was not Lasantha’s killing that motivated these youngsters. It was the economic collapse, long lines for petrol, diesel and cooking gas, spiraling, unaffordable prices of household goods, downturn of agricultural industry with Gotabaya’s moronic decision on paddy subsidies and overnight fertilizer conversion to organic kind, coupled with growing corruption at all levels of the government machinery that created a political crisis of unprecedented proportion.

Yet subject of Lasantha’s murder at the hands of the then Mahinda Rajapaksa regime did not go away. On the contrary, Aragalaya-22 raised the issue repeatedly and the clarion call for ‘good governance’, a phrase that was repeatedly exploited but never practiced by the Maithri/Ranil government, continued its haunting echo.

That is all history now. We have a new government; a new group of motivated political leaders in power. Both AKD and the National People’s Power (NPP) used, among others, Lasantha’s assassination on their election platform. They pledged that Lasantha’s killers would be brought before the Temple of Justice at the foot of which all are equal and all are answerable.

That is precisely why the current regime led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake cannot escape from that basic premise of ‘good governance’ slogan. What made Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe ask the courts not to proceed with the charges against three of the key suspects of the case, outsiders like us might never know. Such confidentiality might stay inside the conclaves of the AG’s Department. But Attorney General is a servant of the public. He may not be directly answerable to the masses; yet he needs to give his reasons to his Minster of Justice who is answerable to the masses. Minister of Justice is in the ‘Executive’ branch of government and thereby President Dissanayake must come out and state the actual realities that surround the decision to drop the charges against the said  three suspects. Was he consulted by the AG? Was he consulted by the Minster of Justice? Was he aware of these decisions before they were made or was he also a mere part of all of us who were informed after the decision was made and executed?

What could be more damaging to the good name of AKD and his government is not that they had made an error in judgment; what is most injurious to the country’s ‘rule of law’ status is whether there was any cover-up of the erroneous judgment that was made by the Attorney General, the main law officer in the land. If there were one issue on which more than a dozen columns have already been written, it is the issue of investigation into Lasantha’s killing. Free journalism which is part and parcel of democracy cannot be a victim of this process. It should not happen and it should never be allowed to happen.

Some friends of mine who had held very high posts in the previous governments but decided to vote for AKD first and then the NPP at the parliamentary elections later are now questioning the bona fide of the NPP government and its head, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Purity and authenticity are absolute, not relative, so to speak, and should never be allowed to be questioned. Any politician, who lets his or her genuineness be questioned, does it at his or her own peril. Both AKD and the NPP took a very extreme stance on the issues of corruption and law and order. Having been involved in brazen practices of abuse of power and financial deals, the Rajapaksas and the Wickremesinghes have been rejected without condition. Such unqualified verdicts by the electorate must be followed by purity and honesty and consummate adherence to law and order. There is no middle ground.

Lasantha Wickrematunga is no more in the land of the living; but the idea of Lasantha must continue to live amongst us. That idea must be nourished, nurtured and parented by all who are still living. It is  not too late for a more detailed account of Attorney General’s decision to let charges be dropped against the three key suspects of the case to be issued by either the Presidential Secretariat or the Ministry of Justice. The Temple of Justice must not allowed to be desecrated by fake Purohits.

*The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com