{"id":55058,"date":"2012-09-25T09:11:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T09:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=55058"},"modified":"2012-10-14T13:15:20","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T13:15:20","slug":"19th-amendment-impunity-for-vip-brats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/19th-amendment-impunity-for-vip-brats\/","title":{"rendered":"19th Amendment: Impunity For VIP Brats?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne&amp;x=13&amp;y=8\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a>\u00a0&#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44732\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/expatriate-tamils-and-the-dimensions-of-culpability\/malinda\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-44732\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-44732\" title=\"Malinda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time was assaulted.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s assume, as has been alleged, that Major <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Chandana+Pradeep&amp;x=11&amp;y=8\">Chandana Pradeep<\/a><\/span> was not on duty at that moment.\u00a0 Let\u2019s assume that he was engaged in some illegal activity.\u00a0 Let us assume that even though he was an Army Intelligence Officer who could have been carrying out duty-work in off-duty time due to an important development related to the particular brief, he was not doing anything of the sort.<\/p>\n<p>If all of this or even some of it is true then Major Chandana Pradeep, regardless of his invaluable contribution to the cause of wiping out terrorism, should be charged on account of his transgressions.\u00a0 Nothing wrong with that.\u00a0 Discipline in discipline.\u00a0 Exceptional performance is not akin to a credit balance that allows one to use a debit card for transgression.<\/p>\n<p>All this is fine. Above board.\u00a0 Punishable crimes invite inquiry and punishment.\u00a0 You cross the line and you are stopped.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it goes in the Army.<\/p>\n<p>Punishment of transgression, however, is not the preserve of the Army.\u00a0 It is not only the security forces that have rules and regulations. Every institution has them.\u00a0 And above all of it is the general law of the country.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_55059\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/19th-amendment-impunity-for-vip-brats\/chandana-pradeep-army-major-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-55059\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-55059\" class=\"size-full wp-image-55059\" title=\"Chandana-Pradeep-Army-Major\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chandana-Pradeep-Army-Major1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-55059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The injured Major Chandana Pradeep<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The said Army Major was assaulted. That was news.\u00a0 He said he can\u2019t identify some of his assailants. That too was news and news that invited a lot of commentary. Why did he change his story and who or what was behind the change of position?\u00a0 Indeed even the Magistrate hearing the case asked this question.\u00a0 The Magistrate wanted the footage from CCTV cameras to be examined by the Police.\u00a0 He even instructed the Police to determine whether a charge will be filed against the Major for having lied.\u00a0 That too was news.<\/p>\n<p>The main two suspects, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malaka+Silva&amp;x=8&amp;y=2\">Malaka Silva<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rehan+Wijeratne&amp;x=12&amp;y=6\">Rehan Wijeratne<\/a><\/span>, were enlarged on bail.\u00a0 News.\u00a0 They\u2019re not talked about now.\u00a0 They\u2019ve gone off the news radar apparently.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u2018news\u2019, i.e. not the fact that they are out of jail but the fact that they\u2019ve gone off the radar.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the Major was doing or not doing at the JAIC Hilton that night, he was assaulted.\u00a0 This was not some kind of attempt to execute a \u2018citizens\u2019 arrest\u2019 or a Good Samaritan act to stop some heinous crime being committed.\u00a0 The assailants had no business to throw their weight around in the way they did.\u00a0 Even if Malaka and Rehan did not throw punches (and they haven\u2019t been cleared of that; the CCTV footage will establish guilt or innocence), they were present and if they didn\u2019t do it, then it was their friends, bodyguards or goons who assaulted the Major.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine such minions operating on their own initiative.\u00a0 They can be charged, therefore, at best, on grounds of being accessories after the fact of felony.<\/p>\n<p>The Major is in the news.\u00a0 That\u2019s deflection.\u00a0 That\u2019s sweeping issue under the carpet.\u00a0 That is wrong.\u00a0 If it is not, then the constitution must be amended.\u00a0 We can have a 19<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment to the effect that Ministerial Brats (or \u2018Privileged Brats\u2019) have the license to do as they please, including indulge in any act of thuggery.\u00a0 Something like vehicle permits for MPs.\u00a0 The Legal Draftsman can put it down in appropriate language, but we can call it the Double-O Amendment or the Tiger Amendment, because just like James Bond, 007, had the license to kill, so did the LTTE.\u00a0 Neither was constitutional, but it is best to do things \u2018within the law\u2019.\u00a0 Then it can be monitored and\/or regulated.\u00a0 Like alcohol and tobacco.\u00a0 Like certain drugs such as cannabis in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>For now, though, the news is that Malaka and Rehan are not newsworthy.\u00a0 That says a lot about the media.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Editorial\u2019 of\u00a0www.nation.lk<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nation.lk\/\">The Nation<\/a>\u2018 and his articles can be found at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.malindawords.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":55059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938],"tags":[5076,5074,5075],"class_list":["post-55058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular","tag-army-major-was-assaulted-cctv-cameras","tag-major-chandana-pradeep-was-not-on-duty-at-that-moment","tag-malaka-silva-and-rehan-wijeratne"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>19th Amendment: Impunity For VIP Brats? 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