{"id":209744,"date":"2020-04-22T20:08:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T14:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=209744"},"modified":"2020-04-26T23:42:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T18:12:43","slug":"in-exceptional-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/in-exceptional-times\/","title":{"rendered":"In Exceptional Times\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><b>By <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sarath+de+Alwis\">Sarath de Alwis<\/a> \u2013<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_201439\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Sarath-de-Alwis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201439\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-201439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Sarath-de-Alwis-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Sarath-de-Alwis-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Sarath-de-Alwis-45x45.jpg 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-201439\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarath de Alwis<\/p><\/div>\n<p><i>\u201cThere was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.\u201c<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0~\u00a0<\/span><\/i>George Orwell in \u2018<i>Nineteen eighty-four\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><b><i><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Blaise Pascal, The French Mathematician and philosopher famously identified what was wrong with us humans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of humanity&#8217;s problems stem from man&#8217;s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,&#8221; he wrote in the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He did not know how accurate he would be in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century when we are in lockdown mode with our smart phones and personal computers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I write this missive on a Wednesday morning. Then I ask myself \u2018does it matter which day of the week it is?\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It can be any day. No matter what I call it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>All days are blurred days. This is the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>third blurred day of the week which in normal times would be a Wednesday. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the first blurred day of the week (that is Monday if you insist on sequential continuity) three senior attorneys at law and presidents counsel participated in the \u2018Face the Nation\u2019 program of Sirasa TV where the discussion centered on two issues- the date of the next parliamentary election and the use of the public purse in the absence of a functional parliament. The participants were M.A.Sumanthiran PC, U.R de Silva PC and Razik Zarook PC.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_iKOwuai9b4\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Two interesting ideas emerged. Exceptional circumstances required exceptional remedies. The second was the doctrine of necessity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Opposition stalwart Sumanthiran preferred to be textually precise and preferred to stick to the letter of the law.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The conundrum was not a complex labyrinth.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The President will not revoke his proclamation dissolving parliament. He will not reconvene the old parliament.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Therefore, a new parliament must be elected. The pandemic must be contained before an election. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Everybody agreed that these were exceptional times.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I watched the discussion. Presidents Counsel Razik Zarook referred to the doctrine of necessity with unmistakable authority. He made a passing reference to Justice Thurgood Marshall but did not cite a specific ruling.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The mention of Thurgood Marshall worked on my adrenaline. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As Blaise Pascal accurately predicted, I could no longer wait quietly in my room.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>I googled to learn more about the doctrine of necessity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>My reward was gratifying and immediate. Doctrine of necessity is usually invoked to settle matters pertaining to Bankruptcies. How appropriate I thought.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Those who have watched Clint Eastwood films \u201cGood Bad and Ugly\u201d and his other master piece \u2018For a few dollars more\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>would remember the implacable whisper \u201cNecessity is the law when and where it exist\u2019 delivered by the hero villain holding the barrel of the gun against the chest of the shivering owner of the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>tavern or the hapless sheriff of the town. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The poly math Francis Bacon cites another example of the plea of necessity. It points to the miserable logic of seeking exceptional remedies in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>The poly math Francis Bacon in his science of jurisprudence refers to the case of Rex vs. Dudley and Stephens (1864). The brief facts of the case are wickedly simple. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dudley, Stephens and Brooks all able-bodied English Seamen along with a boy of 18 years of age were compelled to put into a small boat after a shipwreck on the high seas. There was no food or water for seven days. On the 8th day, Dudley and Stephens killed the boy and fed the flesh and blood to survive them.<\/p>\n<p>On the 12<sup>th<\/sup> day, they were rescued by passing<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>ship. They were prosecuted for the murder of the boy. The accused pleaded that they acted out of necessity for preservation of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>The privy Council held that the accused were guilty of murder, as there were plenty of chances of getting rescued, and no man would die for starvation for seven days.<\/p>\n<p>There can be instances where necessity overrides the rule. You may demolish some one\u2019s house if it can prevent a great fire engulfing the entire village.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But that doesn\u2019t absolve the culprit whose negligence or intransigence set the fire in the first place.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The captain of the Titanic interpreted necessity as he deemed necessary. In lockdown mode, my<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>mind wonders far and wide about human behavior in adversity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">How the bold endure<\/span> <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>We do not know how long we will have to remain in total lockdown mode. It may be that we will observe some relaxed form where vigilance is high and social distancing mandatory.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As Arundhati Roy the Novelist and Essayist points out, the mandarins managing the pandemic are fond of speaking in terms of fighting a war. They don\u2019t even use war as a metaphor, they use it literally.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If it was a war, nobody would be short of bunker busters. But here we are short of testing kits, ventilators and face masks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But then again as it has recently occurred in some place called Bandaranayake Mawatha, where the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>microbe has stealthily made its way in to an urban slum or shanty town, what is the bunker buster, we can use against an institutional repository of human<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>misery amidst urban modernity ? <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Early in the process, we were assured that the lockdown was for our common good. That we must be united to fight the common enemy which now had a name- &#8211; Covid-19.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The parliament stands dissolved. Governance is by presidential decree. We do not know the date of the next elections.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The question arises, where are we? We seem to be in some sort of a twilight zone midway between democratic compromise and hardheaded autocratic arbitration.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Covid-19 is an invisible enemy. That makes the lockdown, necessary and compulsory.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are at war\u201d is the great call for social solidarity. But the essentials of the Hobbesian edict in his \u2018Leviathan\u2019 that explores the structure of society and the form of government is solidly carved in stone. A few governing the many.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Let us face it. What is a lock down? It is a compulsory regimen we follow because we must. We surrender a good part of our free will and movement.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A few people tell all others what to do. Since it is to contain the virus and survive the pestilence, its logic we absorb passively and meekly. To protest tomorrow we must survive today. It is the same way that Socrates absorbed his lot in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But if the few people who are in control of containment use the leverage they possess<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>to tell us or hint at<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>whom to vote for in the pending election, are we different from the cabin boy who was devoured by the two senior ship mates whose plea of necessity<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>was rejected by the privy council ?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The pandemic has suspended politics. Politicians have not suspended the pandemic.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>People are stuck in their homes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One luxury in our democracy is the next election. We can punish politicians for their mistakes by commission and omission.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The lockdown is all about power and social order.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In our predicament some arbitrariness is unavoidable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But how much of arbitrariness?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I am scared. I am bewildered. There is a sly soundless contest between democratic accommodation and cold-blooded autocratic \u201csitzfleisch\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is a German word. It is about one\u2019s capacity to sit out a crisis. It can be either positive or negative. Either way, like it or not, it calls for endurance.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":209747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In Exceptional Times\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/in-exceptional-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Exceptional Times\u00a0 - 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